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Summary
- Yes: Jehovah’s Witnesses watch films and television, read, listen to music and play games.
- Their organization does not review or ban particular films, books or songs, so each Witness decides by Bible principles (Hebrews 5:14; Galatians 6:5).
- Family heads may forbid certain entertainment in their own household.
- Witnesses stay away from entertainment that promotes spiritism, sexual immorality or violence, and they point to Psalm 11:5 and Galatians 5:19–21.
- Their Bible course asks three questions of any entertainment: what it contains, when it takes time from worship, and who it brings them close to.
- Christian caution is old: Tertullian’s The Shows urged early Christians to shun the public games, and the Catholic Catechism asks for “moderation and discipline” with the mass media (paragraph 2496).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (2013 revision), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society: Psalm 11:5; Proverbs 13:20; Ecclesiastes 8:15; Ephesians 5:15, 16; Philippians 4:8; 1 Timothy 1:11; Hebrews 5:14. https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/nwt/books/
- “Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Ban Certain Movies, Books, or Songs?” jw.org. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/do-jehovahs-witnesses-ban-certain-entertainment/
- “Choose Entertainment That Pleases Jehovah,” lesson 53, Enjoy Life Forever! (2021). https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/enjoy-life-forever/section-4/lesson-53/
- “How to Choose Good Entertainment,” How to Remain in God’s Love. https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/in-gods-love/choose-good-entertainment/
- “Good Entertainment—Where Can I Find It?” Young People Ask, Awake!, November 2011. https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/g201111/find-good-entertainment/
- Tertullian, The Shows (De Spectaculis), chapters 1, 10, 12 and 19, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0303.htm
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2496. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8M.HTM
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