JWs & Birthdays

[deb1]

Other Eric:

I don’t know that the practice of not celebrating birthdays, at least, is as bad as people make it out to be. Given that the custom of celebrating birthdays in America involves setting aside one child as “special” over something that he cannot reasonably be said to have any control over, this could give rise to a sort of arrogance. Avoiding this practice might teach the child humility and avoiding the birthday parties of other children would teach him both independence from the way everybody else does things (useful for when he becomes a teenager) and provide a lesson on how not to assist in creating the inflated ego of another.

As for the other holidays, I agree that the Watchtower Society’s position does not comport with reality.

I disagree that celebrating Bdays make a child arrogant. Because we have little money for gifts, we go all out for Bdays.

In my home, on your Bday, you get breakfast in bed, the ability to watch whatever you want on tv, the meal of your choice and whatever homemade cake that you want. Far from becoming little tyrants my kids have become very compassionate individuals who love to do things for others. Today is my second son’s 13 bday and my daughers wanted to help make his breakfast and even drew him a card. The bday celebration is not just for the person whose birthday it is but for those who have the enjoyment of making someone feel special for the day. It actually teaches them compassion and the joy of planning something nice for someone else.

 

[deb1]

carol marie:

Well, for starters you needed to be born prior to 1935 because that’s when all the seats in heaven were filled. Now supposedly there are some who were of the 144,000 who “fell away” (left the witnesses) so some of their places have become available… but those are VERY few & far between.

How do you know you know you are one of the chosen ones? They say they just know. But think about it… if it were you, only YOU would get to go to heaven. Everyone else you know & love will be left on the Earth so you would’nt spend eternity with them. I know of one family where the Mom decided that she was to replace one of the 144,000 who fell away… she decided she was of the heavenly class and it was so very sad for her husband & children because they didn’t want her to go to heaven & spend eternity apart from them.

In all my years as a witness, she was the only person in all of the congregations I attended who claimed to be of that heavenly class.

Does that mean that most JW’s think that they are doomed to hell? What would be the point of even trying to be good.

 

[paramedicgirl]

I knew a JW boy a few years ago when I volunteered at the Food Bank. His parents kicked him out at the ripe age of 16 because he wouldn’t follow their doctrine. He used to come to the Food Bank to get by. When he turned 17, I gave him a birthday present, a sweatshirt that I had made ( I sew really well). It was in a gift bag with colourful tissue paper decorating it. You should have seen the smile on his face and the tears in his eyes! No one had ever given him a present like that before, and he was overwhelmed. Oh yeah, he wore the shirt often!

 

[At_His_Feet]

From post #22 Does that mean that most JW’s think that they are doomed to hell? What would be the point of even trying to be good.

deb1- JWs say that there are ultimately two seperate, distinct destinations for redeemed humanity - “earthly” and “heavenly” (*but compare Ephesians 4:4) . *According to them, the “heavenly” is the 144,000 of Revelations chs. 7 and 14. Not surprisingly, they consider that any people living today who are of that 144,000 would be JWs. Since the numbers of JWs exceed 144,000, the rest of them have an “earthly hope”.

They did not always believe this way, by the way. Back in the the days of their founder, CT Russell, they believed that the “great crowd” of Revelation ch 7 also had a “heavenly hope”.

An article that critically analyzes the above views from a Catholic, Biblical standpoint is here:
catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/onehope.html

Enjoyed your comments on birthdays, AHF

 

[Other_Eric]

deb1:

I disagree that celebrating Bdays make a child arrogant. Because we have little money for gifts, we go all out for Bdays.

In my home, on your Bday, you get breakfast in bed, the ability to watch whatever you want on tv, the meal of your choice and whatever homemade cake that you want. Far from becoming little tyrants my kids have become very compassionate individuals who love to do things for others. Today is my second son’s 13 bday and my daughers wanted to help make his breakfast and even drew him a card. The bday celebration is not just for the person whose birthday it is but for those who have the enjoyment of making someone feel special for the day. It actually teaches them compassion and the joy of planning something nice for someone else.

I don’t think that the celebration of a birthday necessarily makes a child arrogant but I certainly believe that it has the potential to. I also don’t think it was a coincidence that Anton LeVay wrote: “the highest of all holidays in the Satanic religion is one’s own birthday.” He certainly recognized the pride manifest in that celebration.

This is not to say, as the JWs do, that the celebration of a birthday is inherently evil. It is to say that it is a day which, when celebrated in the manner that Americans tend to celebrate it, tends to be vulnerable to malignant pride.

 

[jediliz]

In my family on my birthday I get to go to Valentino’s - a local pizza buffet for Lunch on or around my birthday (usually the sunday before). This is something I look foward to every year. In fact, in 1999, my brithday present was my oldest Niece (well, technically, she was born 7 months later, but they announced they were expecting in my birthday card.)

I celebrate my birthday because its a way to Thank GOD for helping my parents give me the gift of life.

 

[Forest-Pine]

Of interest is the fact that in other threads here I have seen JWs say that they do not celebrate such holidays as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. But they instead have a family day ritual that they have every year in many families. Sounds like the exact same idea but just held on a different day. I find it very ironic that they replace one holiday ritual with another, but it is okay because the ritual started with them.

 

[Your_Brother]

paramedicgirl:

I knew a JW boy a few years ago when I volunteered at the Food Bank. His parents kicked him out at the ripe age of 16 because he wouldn’t follow their doctrine. He used to come to the Food Bank to get by. When he turned 17, I gave him a birthday present, a sweatshirt that I had made ( I sew really well). It was in a gift bag with colourful tissue paper decorating it. You should have seen the smile on his face and the tears in his eyes! No one had ever given him a present like that before, and he was overwhelmed. Oh yeah, he wore the shirt often!

We recently had a party thrown for us, it was a going away party. My wife received a beautiful scarf, we drank a bit of wine and celebrated with friends. This was the last party that anybody had thrown for my family in years. It was put on by a dear kind group of Jehovah Wittness, some of the kindest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. We have been blessed to move in a huge home located on the Truckee River in the Sierra’s and will miss our Witness freinds and are joining a new Hall in the area.

A sweatshirt, for example, could have been given as a just because I really like you gift and presents can be given everyday, not just on a birthday. If you look at the orgin of the birthday you will find two horrible references in the Bible regarding birthdays and nothing more said. Imagine reading that one day the apostles and Jesus spent celebrating Jude;s birthday, we don’t read it and Jesus didn’t ask us to do this. In fact the candle blowing out thing has an evil orgin which came out to blow away wicket spirits. Have you ever wondered where the candle blowing thing came from?

Celebrations, gift giving and fellowship is great and I think Jehovah’s people are painted in a wrong image here as non-joyful people, they are the last group that have given me a party and gifts and I really miss being around them now that I moved. I post here to defend them because non of them are posting here and it hurts me to read the attacks on my dear brothers and sisters. Peace and Love, tommy