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. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

JWs, ExJWs, and Suicide

Image
This is going to be a longer post than usual because this is a subject that needs a lot of attention. I am very concerned about the lack of psychological support for people coming out of high-control religions. The adjustment process of finally thinking for yourself can be very disorienting. It is intimidating, invigorating, frustrating, and fascinating to have total freedom for the first time in your life. Unfortunately, it can be so overwhelming that some have chosen to take their own lives. I know about this problem from personal experience. I have known nine people that have committed suicide. I know of more but these are nine people I knew personally. It should not be possible to know nine suicide victims. Other than being my friends and family, the only common denominator between them was their association with the Jehovah’s Witness religion.  I have started to meet ExJWs from all over the world. As we get to know each other, the subject of suicide seems to come up re
Read more

Am I An Apostate?

Image
When someone consciously leaves the Jehovah’s Witness religion, they are called an apostate by the organization. This derogatory term is used to describe someone that has rebelled against God. Even questioning the organization can earn someone the label of an apostate.  To the average JW, apostates are the worst people on the planet. They are described in JW literature as “mentally diseased”. Satan is called the original apostate and those that chose to leave the religion are called his children. They are seen as a threat and a danger to one’s spirituality. This is how they are described in one JW reference work: “I n the Christian Greek Scriptures it is used primarily with regard to religious defection; a withdrawal or abandonment of the true cause, worship, and service of God, and hence an abandonment of what one has previously professed and a total desertion of principles or faith ." I wasn’t sure how I felt about being called an apostate by members of my forme
Read more

Political Unrest

Image
Politics has been the toughest nut for me to crack so far. Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught to remain neutral to all politics in the world. No matter what the situation, country or problem, we were not allowed to get involved or even have an opinion. I walked through the world with blinders on and thought that someday God would step in and solve all mankind’s problems. Of course, he would have to destroy 99.9% of humanity to do it but, I somehow felt that was a small price to pay. Now that I’m no longer subject to “magical thinking”, I realize that there are real issues that must be dealt with by humans. I have to find a way to get involved and form opinions I’ve never had before. Needless to say, today’s political climate is probably the worst time to learn about this subject. It is confusing and frustrating for everyone, much less someone that has never paid attention to this area before. I am fiscally conservative but, I feel that everyone should be allowed to live life as
Read more