Would it be offensive to send a birthday card/gift to a Jehovah's Witness?

Question

I heard Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays. So would it offend them or be forbidden to send them a card or gift?

Answer 1

Having been a JW for 33+ years, each JW is a little different when it comes to this topic. My mom use to just flat out tell the person in no uncertain terms how offensive it was. When I got older, I just accepted it with thanks then explained why it was not appropriate or reciprocated in a polite manner.

Your best bet is to not send one. If you are close, and want to express your love/appreciation, acknowledge them on some non holiday time of year.

Answer 2

A Jehovah's Witness might take offense if he believed that a person was intentionally mocking his beliefs, but otherwise he would likely use the opportunity to explain those beliefs.

Regarding birthday celebrations, bible students are encouraged to consider:
: 0% of faithful biblical Jews celebrated birthdays
: 0% of first century Christians celebrated birthdays
: 100% of birthdays celebrated in the bible were by debauched enemies of God (See Mark 6:17-29; Gen 40:19-22)

Bible historians (M'Clintock, Strong, and others) have noted that faithful Jews of the bible did not celebrate birthdays, and that ancient pagan birthday celebrations were at least partially intended to honor the patron gods of the particular day.

By comparison with such paganisms, the bible does not even tell us the birthdates of Jesus or ANY of his apostles!


Since such celebrations are not required in true worship, and can easily become a distraction, so Jehovah's Witnesses focus their attention elsewhere. In particular, they are focussed on the preaching work which *IS* a requirement for Christians:

(Luke 10:1-17) [Jesus] the Lord designated seventy others and sent them forth by twos in advance of him into every city and place to which he himself was going to come. 2 Then he began to say to them: “The harvest, indeed, is great, but the workers are few. Therefore beg the Master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20050101a/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_11.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20001215/article_01.htm

Answer 3

Yes and No.


You see, occasionally well-meaning family members, coworkers, and other associates will do something nice for a JW's birthday with pure motives. They just want to get them something 4 their birthday because it's the socially acceptable thing 2 do.

However, if a Witness has repeatedly made it clear that he/she does not wish to receive anything on his/her birthday, anything going against those wishes would be considered offensive.

Also, some ppl do give gifts in the hopes of proving acceptance as a form of compromise - "If you don't celebrate birthdays, why did you take that gift I gave you last year? You just refuse it when it's convenient"

Your best bet would be to wait for some other time and send a random card of acknowledgment. Can't go wrong with that.

Answer 4

I worked with a couple Jehovah's witnesses and they do not celebrate birthdays, their kids birthdays, christmas, pretty much any holiday. They didn't even take part in the work Christmas party.

Answer 5

You might offend them, yes.
I tried to send a card to my friend after she turned JW, and she wasn't offended, but she did ask me to not do it anymore.

They have a different idea about giving gifts. Their philosophy is that anytime is good to give gifts, as long as Jesus is loved more than anything else, and you give the gift with that love in mind.

Answer 6

You can send them a card, but they do not celebrate birthdays. Some may be offended. I personally wouldn't think much of it.

Answer 7

I get B-day cards from my non-witness relatives and I just toss them in the trash, no big deal. Close family respect my beliefs and do not. Forbidden is a hard word...no one is going to be struck down by lightening for reading a b-day card...however, just so you understand our thinking let me add a few thoughts.

We don't celebrate birthdays, this is true. If you look into Scripture you will find two mentions of birthday celebrations, they are both being conducted by pagan rulers of people who were enemies of the True God. These 'parties' were full of excessive drinking, immoral sexual activities, and other affronts to God's moral code. On both occasions innocent men were killed at the whim of one of the celebrants. One of course as already mentioned was John the Baptist, the other was the cook celebrating the Pharaoh's Birthday(Gen:40)

As such we find it easy to avoid such celebrations keeping in mind the words at...

Eph. 5:10, 11: “Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord; and quit sharing with them in the unfruitful works that belong to the darkness, but, rather, even be reproving them.”

2 Cor. 6:14-18: “What fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Be´lial? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? . . . ‘“Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,” says Jehovah, “and quit touching the unclean thing”’; ‘“and I will take you in, . . . and you will be sons and daughters to me,” says Jehovah the Almighty.

Many people criticize us, saying we don't give gifts, and nothing could be further from the truth. We give gifts year round to our families and friends. However our giving comes from the heart, and not out of obligation due to a date on a calendar.

Answer 8

They might not actually be offended, but they would probably prefer not to receive a b'day card. So I think it would be more respectful to not send it, since you know they don't believe in celebrating b'days.

Answer 9

I have a friend who is JW and while she does not find it offensive she does say that things like this *bug* her more than anything when others know she is JW.
It's like me getting religious cards for Christmas. It *bugs* but doesn't offend me.

Answer 10

Yes, when I was in school one of the cheerleader was a JW and the other girls didn't know it and they decorated her locker up for her birthday and this girl flipped out, she was screaming and crying and ripped all the decorations off her locker, she made quite the scene over it.