Jehovah’s Witness: When it comes to pagan practices, how do you interpret 1...
...Corinthians 8? In the past, I have had this debate about paganism with Jehovah’s Witnesses. My viewpoint is the one advocated by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 8: What Jehovah cares about is our motive when we perform an action. For example, putting up an artificial Christmas tree is only pagan if I have plans for my family to prostate themselves before the mistletoe in worship.
But JWs will argue that the motives of one’s heart are irrelevant. They will point out the example of the Israelites who worshipped a Golden Calf. JWs will say that Jehovah didn’t condone their behavior just because they were “trying” to perform a pure act of worship.
Back in the 1990s, when I was in university, I had a very literalist Muslim friend (from Indonesia). In retrospect, she reminds me of current Jehovah’s Witnesses. Here’s why: For a joke, I told her that her peanut butter had “swine juices” in it. She checked the ingredients (looking up lard in her dictionary) and then forced herself to vomit and she threw away all products with lard.
I told her that Allah probably judges the heart-motives more than her actions. But she didn’t believe me.
Anyway, my son has a Jehovah’s Witness friend who gets really sad if he accidently eats some Halloween candy. But he doesn’t rush to the commode to puke it up. Why don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses consistently do that? I mean, around late October, you must all have inadvertently eaten some of that pagan candy. And yet you did not try to vomit. Why is that?
...Corinthians 8? In the past, I have had this debate about paganism with Jehovah’s Witnesses. My viewpoint is the one advocated by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 8: What Jehovah cares about is our motive when we perform an action. For example, putting up an artificial Christmas tree is only pagan if I have plans for my family to prostate themselves before the mistletoe in worship.
But JWs will argue that the motives of one’s heart are irrelevant. They will point out the example of the Israelites who worshipped a Golden Calf. JWs will say that Jehovah didn’t condone their behavior just because they were “trying” to perform a pure act of worship.
Back in the 1990s, when I was in university, I had a very literalist Muslim friend (from Indonesia). In retrospect, she reminds me of current Jehovah’s Witnesses. Here’s why: For a joke, I told her that her peanut butter had “swine juices” in it. She checked the ingredients (looking up lard in her dictionary) and then forced herself to vomit and she threw away all products with lard.
I told her that Allah probably judges the heart-motives more than her actions. But she didn’t believe me.
Anyway, my son has a Jehovah’s Witness friend who gets really sad if he accidently eats some Halloween candy. But he doesn’t rush to the commode to puke it up. Why don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses consistently do that? I mean, around late October, you must all have inadvertently eaten some of that pagan candy. And yet you did not try to vomit. Why is that?