I remember when I was a kid my dad would take us to Eisenhower park to watch the displays or we'd go to Coney Island to see it. Sometimes we'd go to Battery Park to watch the Grucci's do the Macy's fireworks show for the 4th.
It wasn't until coming to Pannsylvania, that I heard about the 4th being associated with a 'no-no' if you want to be a Christian. Funny thing about that is some of the women in my congregation went to the celebration with their beach chairs to watch. Women that were in "the truth" for 30 years or more. They told me that God didn't mind if you just watched it. And then there's the music. The talks I attended at our Kingdom Hall condemned the whole 4th of July because it commemorated death and destruction which goes against the teachings of Jesus and God.
I wondered about this alot and have to the conclusion that this kind of thinking is the same as those who are traumatized survivors of Nazi Germany. Many Jews that I met in NYC when I lived there said they hated Mercedes Benz's and BMW motorcycles because people they knew were run down by them.
Who killed those people? The cars & motorcycles or the people who drove them? What about the folks the did the killing for the wars? Are we to blame for what they did? Are we to blame for the music they wrote?
I still wonder what the story is. The music is pleasant to listen to. Many people have no idea what the tunes were originally written for. Some do know but does that make listening to it, bad? Y'all will have to answer that question for yourselves.
As for the fireworks display? The women from my congregation proved to me that it's harmless to watch or even blow some off yourself as long as you are careful (have a fire extinguisher around, far from homes, woods, or traffic, etc.). They used an analogy to show that it can't be bad.
What if you drive by and see the fireworks display from your car by accident? Are you condemned for all time or what?
So what if you watch or participate. "What possibly could be the harm?" is what someone posted on this thread already. Exactly my viewpoint.
This is why I'm not a JW anymore. Too restrictive. It's like wearing a turtleneck that's three sizes too small. Besides that, the apostle Paul and the others only went to the synagogue once a week on the sabbath just like god commanded and not three times like Jehovah's Witnesses do each and every week of the year except if the weather gets out of hand. They, the apostles didn't run away from theatre's and celebrations and such...
