The Christian Vanguard

One of my co-workers is a Jehovah's Witness. I overheard in conversation, while I was clocking in, that she doesn't celebrate birthdays. I asked her why not. She said that in the Bible, the only time birthdays were celebrated was to celebrate the birth of pagan kings. So they think it is pagan in origin, and they want to avoid paganism. This kind of reasoning isn't unique to Jehovah's Witnesses. Many Christians don't celebrate Christmas or Halloween for similar reasons.  I asked her if she thought celebrating anniversaries were wrong. She did not. Birthdays are anniversaries of our birth, and the Bible does seem to celebrate the anniversaries of things, like Passover, so there is nothing intrinsically wrong with celebrating a birthday. She seemed to cede a bit, and told me that every year "around" her birthday, her dad made it a point to get her ice cream. And that's cool. It's an act of love. Just because some acts of love were done by pagans...

My mother lives right next to a Kingdom Hall, a meeting place for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. She’s been real interested in them and what they believe lately, which is a bit suspicious, seeing how she’s an agnostic. But I suppose its good because now her and I have a lot more discussions about God, the Christian lifestyle, and comparative religion. One of the things I really emphasize with her is that the JWs rejection of the full deity of Christ is false.

I was sharing my faith on Cal State Long Beach a few days ago and I had a conversation with a Muslim fellow about the Trinity. The objection he raised to me is a common one that the Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Unitarian sects raise against the Trinity, which is, if Jesus is God, to whom was he praying to?