There are now 14 videos in the Become Jehovah’s Friend series on jw.org.  Since these are used to train our most vulnerable minds, one does well to examine what is being taught to ensure that one’s children are being taught the truth.  It is important also to evaluate any subtle background message, because these can have a long-term motivational effect on young, trusting minds.
To this end, I’ve just listened to all the videos.  I won’t share my opinions as that is best left to the parents.  But some salient facts are that the central purpose based on the series title is to train a child to become a friend of God.  Since the hope that Jesus shared with humankind was to become children of God, are we in sync with his teaching if we emphasize friendship over sonship?  Do the videos even name Jehovah as our Father?  Or is he only depicted as friend?  I lost count of the number of times he is called “friend” in the videos, but it was easy to track the number of times our children are being taught to think of him as Father.  The answer is zero.
Jesus is also held out as the central figure in Jehovah’s purpose.  The only way to the Father is through him.  Was Jesus presented to our young ones as the Bible depicts him?  One can get an idea of the focus of a teaching program by the number of times key words or names are referenced.
Here are the stats.  Make of them what you will.
Number of Occurrences across all 14 videos.
Jehovah: 51
Bethel: 13
Governing Body: 4
Jesus and/or Christ: 3 (as a teacher)
Satan: 2
Father (referencing Jehovah): 0

Meleti Vivlon

Articles by Meleti Vivlon.
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