Movie Time!


I was eight years old in the summer of 1977 and my world was rocked. I remember standing in the longest line I had ever seen at a Florida movie theater struggling to control my excitement. We were on a family vacation and my father had taken me to see the movie I had anticipated all year - Star Wars! It wasn’t "A New Hope" back then. It was just Star Wars, and it was glorious. It’s all I could think about for months. My friends and I played in that imaginary galaxy for years to come. That place far, far away and all of its spin-offs are still my comfort food.
But, that same year there was a movie that tested my faith.
In October 1977, Oh God! was released. My eight-year-old brain was rattled by the title alone. It was blasphemous! Plus, John Denver was in it. At the time, there were a lot of rumors circulating among Jehovah’s Witnesses that John Denver hated us. I remember one very clearly. 
He allegedly made an announcement before one of his concerts that if there were any Jehovah’s Witnesses, they should leave now. Then, he played the national anthem to make sure they would get out. 
I have no idea where that got started or why we picked on John Denver that way. I doubt it was true but we believed it and we hated him. (I heard almost the same story about Clint Black 20 years later. I think JWs must pick a popular star to be their public antagonist.)
Back to my Oh God! conundrum. Here was a movie with a blasphemous title starring the most blasphemous man around! There was no way I would ever see it, right? 
One night, my parents told me they were taking me to see Oh God! and I was terrified. I could not figure out why my parents would choose to see this terrible movie that was produced by Satan himself. Fortunately, before my tiny mind exploded, they admitted we were actually going to see Star Wars again. We laughed and it was all a funny joke. It turns out that I inherited my love of playing tricks on people from my parents. 
The other night, while talking to my wife, I realized I still had never seen Oh God! It’s one of many movies I skipped because they were too worldly for a JW to see. But, now that I’m out of the organization, it’s time to catch-up.
I watched it for the first time a few weeks ago and, I have to say, I understand why people liked it back then. I like the message that we're all here to take care of each other. It was pretty progressive for the time it was released. 
I need to do a deeper examination of things I’ve missed out on. There are dozens of classic movies I haven’t seen because they were rated R or had thematic elements that JWs are offended by. Being picky about entertainment is drilled into JWs. It is viewed as a small test of faith. 
Entertainment choice is part of the artificial boundaries that a high-control religion uses to keep you in line. They want to control the information you take in while making you feel like it’s your decision. If you obey them in little things, they’ll trust you with bigger things… and you’ll miss out on so much.

There are so many movies to catch up on. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a whole lot of Harry Potter stuff to do. 

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