Why can't you say bless you when a Jehovah's Witness sneezes?

Answer 1

The automatic response in some cultures when someone sneezes to say "bless you" may possibly be linked to superstition and is not a response most Witnesses feel comfortable with.

That having been said, Jehovah's Witnesses do not hesistate to express their desire that someone receives God's blessing - not in response some some superstition linked to sneezing, but in reflecting many bible verses. Thus a Witness, may on occassion be heard to say "May God (Jehovah)'s rich blessing be upon you" or "may God bless your efforts" or words to that effect.

FURTHERThe superstition that my fellow Witness is referring to, is an absurd ancient myth that it may be possible to sneeze one's soul out. Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to engage in superstitious activities, annd the custom of saying "bless you" when someone sneezes is one of those superstitions.

Answer 2

First, let me explain why we don't make it a practice to use that expression.

It is actually derived from an ancient superstition that a person who sneezes, might actually sneeze their soul out of their body. So, it became customary to give some sort of blessing to a person who sneezed to, in some way, help the person's soul get back into their body, or wish for them that their soul wasn't sneezed out (kind of like wishing them "good luck" that their soul is still in their body).

JW's have a problem with that on a number of different levels. But, suffice it to say that since this is based on a superstition, we do not practice it. Our religion is free of superstitions, "good luck" practices, and stuff like that. It's for the same reasons that we don't do the whole "knock on wood" or "throwing salt over the shoulder" type things. All these things are traced back to ancient worship of non-christian gods and non-christian religious practices.

How each one of us handles each situation, is really up to the individual JW. We don't have this big list of "dos" and don'ts" in our religion. What we do have is the knowledge of where these things come from, such as the custom of saying "bless you" when someone sneezes. What else we have, is The Bible's principles that are plainly shown to us. Each one of JW's handles these seemingly small matters how he sees fit.

If someone says this expression to me, I just accept that they are carrying out an act that they view as customary. The other person has no idea what my beliefs are, and I'm not going to feel that I have to give them a history lesson on the custom. It's a trivial thing, and I simply go on about my business. The other person's act of saying "bless you" was likely done as a reflex action, without them actually thinking about it anyway.

ANSWERJust offer them a tissue.

UPDATE: Actually, for the most part, it is all about helping Jehovah's Witnesses stay separated from society and thus not become corrupted by it. It is the same as not celebrating holidays, sports, clubs, and other 'worldly' activities. It is very effective. In fact, the idea that saying 'God Bless You' to someone who sneezes did NOT start as described above. It started during the Black Plague. Since one of the first symptoms was sneezing, people would say God Bless you as a prayer (blessing) for your recovery and for your soul if you die.

Think about it, people may have not been able to read back then but they were just as sharp as we are today. They would know that if the soul is our spirit (personality and life force) and we sneeze it out, we are dead. The person wouldn't be standing there anymore continuing to sneeze. It logically couldn't come back. Nothing more superstitious than that. Besides, Jehovah's Witnesses wear wedding rings, yet there is superstitious superstitious and pagan beliefs behind wedding rings. They have a tendency to pick and choose.

I get tired of the made up 'superstitions' our ancestors supposedly believed. We have just made up a series of Myths about what our ancestors believed, that's all. Just look at the 'myth' that people thought the world was flat in Columbus's time. Of course they didn't. Any sea faring man could tell you. Why did they build masts on ships. So they could see over the curvature of the earth a bit farther when sailing.

Ironic claim of the century: "Our religion is free of superstitions..."