The answer to that is the Governing Body itself, until now. Ever since 1952, and possibly earlier, the Watchtower has roundly condemned this practice due to its ‘pagan roots’ in ‘false religion’. The 15 May 1952 Watchtower (page 319), has this to say on the matter
Jehovah God and Christ Jesus are not honored by having pagan customs of toasting switched to them, or to humans
In 1968, in an answer to Questions from Readers, the 1 Jan Watchtower states
If a Christian is going to make a request for divine blessing on another, then an appropriate way to do that is through heartfelt prayer to God, not by following traditions based on pagan worship that Jehovah abhors
This condemnation continues in the 15 Apr 1994 Watchtower when, discussing
toasting, it states
Customs and traditions abound all over the earth. If a mature Christian knew that a particular one was directly based on false religion, obviously he would avoid it.
In 2014 the book ‘Keep Yourselves in God’s Love’ page
154 ‘Celebrations that Displease God’ it states that toasting is ‘unacceptable
to Christians’
Even as late as 2017 in the book ‘How to Remain in God’s
Love’ chapter 13, page 181, when talking of toasting it asks “What
other kinds of celebrations should Christians avoid?”
It is clear from all these that, according to the Governing
Body, the custom of toasting is of pagan origins in false religion and is not
acceptable to Christians. So, what has changed?
In the update Stephen Lett talks of living by ‘Bible principles’ and not by a list of rules. He uses the analogy
of how, when we were young, our parents had a rule that we were not to cross
the road without holding their hand.
As we grew older this rule no longer applied even though the danger was still there. He makes the valid point that it would
seem ‘odd’ for a ‘healthy’ 30 year old man to still cross the street holding
his mother’s hand. In the same way, ‘mature Christians’ don’t
need a rule for ‘every situation’. i would consider that there are many ’30 year
old’ healthy Jehovah’s Witnesses who are still holding the organisation’s hand
as they cross the road of life.
He comes up with three, very valid bible principles we can
all live by; would Jehovah be offended, how would our actions affect others in
the congregation, and how is this symbol or custom viewed in our culture or
community. Very laudable indeed.
Stephen goes on to highlight an article in the 22 Dec 1976
(49 years ago!) Awake magazine (page 12) where it gives the good advice
So the Christian needs to be primarily concerned about what? Not what a certain symbol or design possibly meant thousands of years ago or how it might be thought of on the other side of the world, but what it means now to most people where he lives
He backs this up with another article in the 8 Jan 2000 (25
years ago!) Awake magazine (page 26) which makes a similar statement
Customs have been profoundly influenced by religion. Many, in fact, arose from old superstitions and non-Biblical religious ideas…some of these customs may have had false religious origins yet…Over the years, however, the religious associations have faded, and today these practices and customs have no religious significance…So, what should a Christian primarily be concerned about? Although there may be reason to examine the origin of a particular custom, in some cases it is more important to consider what the custom means to the people at the time and place where one now lives
It would appear that even in 1976 and 2000 the Governing Body were aware that such customs were not a problem to the ‘mature’ Christian. An article in the 22 Sep 2003 Awake magazine regarding the pinata custom, not quoted by Stephen, states this,
A main concern is, not what the practice meant hundreds of years ago, but how it is viewed today in your area
Awake magazine articles often catch out the Governing Body as they try to paint how 'normal' Jehovah's Witnesses are in their actions. But, what they speak of often does not match the truth about what they actually teach.
Stephen acknowledges that Christians have avoided the practice of toasting because it ‘may’ have had origins in false religion (they have often been quite certain about this!), but ‘nowadays’ clinking glasses no longer has this association and is just viewed as a ‘friendly custom’.
He then goes on to say (in a phrase that is becoming more
often used when the Governing Body announces ‘new light’), after ‘prayerful
consideration’, the Governing Body has ’concluded’ there is no
need to make a rule. This is the exact same phrase used to allow Jehovah’s
Witnesses to grow beards and ladies to wear trousers, when out on the work, from
a few months ago.
If it took ’prayerful consideration’ why
did this not happen decades ago when the custom had long lost its pagan
associations and where was the ‘prayerful consideration’ when this
rule was instigated? Note, too, that it was not from Jehovah, but ‘concluded’
simply by the Governing Body. Has Jehovah gone quiet or simply is it
that He’s not concerned with such trivial matters?
Stephen puts the onus now on the ‘bible trained
consciences’ of the individual to decide what is right, using the
stated Bible principles to make ‘good decisions’. It begs the
question as to how ‘bible trained’ are the consciences of the
individual Jehovah’s Witness considering how long they have lived under the
rule-making of the Governing Body and can they be trusted to make these ‘good
decisions’?
Stephen sums up by saying what a blessing it is that Jehovah
has supplied these Bible principles for them to follow, but didn’t he provide
these principles a long time ago, certainly since 1976! What has
taken the GB so long?
It was the same with the beards issue; they claim that in
the 1960s having a beard was a sign of rebellion but today it’s
not. But beards have been banned in the organisation since Judge
Rutherford’s time in the 1920s and the 1960s were sixty years ago! The
wheels of Jehovah’s chariot turn slowly!
It seems that the Governing Body is trying to bring the organisation
kicking and screaming into the 20th Century (yes, the 20th),
possibly to try and stem the loss of its members in the Western world and to up
its credentials to world governments who are increasingly coming down hard on
them. What can we expect in the future? Maybe Mother’s day, Father’s
day, birthdays, time will tell.
Why are these seemingly inconsequential ideas
important? They are just more evidence as to the Governing Body’s inability to
speak the truth, if they can’t do it in these simple things how can we trust
them to speak of the truth in important things?
On a different note, I always find Stephen Lett very creepy in the way he speaks and gestures and the opening lines in the video of this update he delivers do nothing to change my feelings on this.
His closing words are delivered as if
by some tele-evangelist, with elaborate fist thumping gestures
From the World headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses this is Jehovah’s Witness broadcasting
They seem to be edging towards being part of the world more
and more each day!
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