I still dont see what the disclaimer has to do with him being "excluded". The video does have images of the occult so I dont see why you have a problem with the disclaimer.
The disclaimer is there for a precise purpose. It is clearly a justification regarding his faith. Why would he put such a disclaimer then? Why didn't he put the same kind of disclaimer before Captain EO or before Ghosts?
Captain EO is a completely diffferent video there isn't anything representative of the occult in the video so why would it need a disclaimer?
There are zombie-like soldiers in Captain EO, so it could be representative of the occult.
"No freedom of personal thought"? :lol: I'm not even going to touch that you continue to believe that I'd you want to.
It has nothing to do with me believing that. Freedom of thought is something that you have when you don't need to ask others what you can do or what you cannot do.
Now, can Jehovah's Witnesses:
-vote for a political party?
-do a military service if they choose to do so or fight for their country if it's attacked by another military force?
-celebrate their birthdays, Christmas, Easter...?
-give blood or accept blood for medical reasons?
-get married with someone who is not a Jehovah's Witness?
-talk to or socialize with people who left the Jehovah's witnesses?
etc.
Now honestly answer those questions.
Okay, I really don't know if Michael left or if he was asked to leave.
I wouldn't see a reason why Michael would leave other than because he was asked to do so. For me the disclaimer before Thriller says it all. It is indeed extremely unusual to see such a disclaimer before a movie. I am personally not aware of any other example.
My point is that there seems to be this beliefs that you can't say Michael really had a faith that can be conceded to one religion because of people would admit that then it would be like saying you're against all other religions.
Read my posts, and you'll see that I am saying exactly the same. Michael Jackson did not follow a religion. He had a strong faith in God and admired people like Jesus, Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and all those who have positively contributed to the humanity. He was a philanthropist, let's not forget that.
I see many comments here and in other forums saying that Michael was a spiritual person but didn't really belong to any religion - as if people are scared of insulting someone of a different religion. In my opinion I don't see how it's so hard to see that he did have a faith and that it was very much the one he was raised in and towards the Christian faith. That doesn't mean you're against any other religion, that you don't respect, that you don't have a interest, that you don't love people of other religions. It just means that you (in my opinion Michael) are happy with your faith and want everyone else to have whatever they want. To me it is more hurtful if people act like Michael did not have a certain faith considering he did talk about it a lot and did express in a very clear way what it was. We always say that we should listen to Michael and no one else, Michael asked us to do that too, but somehow when it comes to religion we should ignore his words so that we don't hurt others, ourselves or whoever can be hurt by the fact that Michael had a religion that maybe I/you/he/she doesn't...
Having a faith is one thing, having a religion is another. MJ did not seem to follow any religion, except Jehovah's Witnesses when he was younger. Now, regarding his faith, it is not that people are afraid to be offended, but it is a fact that MJ was extremely curious and very spiritual. He did have lot of friends with different religions and he did read and talked with them about their respective spirituality. Michael Jackson spent some time in Bahrain, it is practically impossible to be friends with a Sultan, to spend months with him and never talk about religion. Likewise, MJ had Jewish friends such as Rabbi Schmuley, or Uri Geller, ... Indeed, many friends probably disappointed him as far as friendship is concerned, but it doesn't remove the fact that MJ was extremely curious about all the religions, at least the three monotheistic ones.
If people would listen to Michael than it wouldn't even be too much of a discussion if you ask me. We should all do as him, respect all religions, people and faiths... that includes Michael - respect that he did have a faith and it did involved reading the Bible, going to JW/churches, talking about Jesus in a way that surely hints Michael thought Jesus was God and so on.
That's a big cocktail of assumptions there. Michael never said that he believed that Jesus was God and I don't believe he ever thought so, and for a reason. First he was raised as Jehovah's Witness, and JWs don't believe that Jesus was God. Second, even when he was not a JW he was hanging around with a rabbi. I highly doubt that this latter would ever teach him that Jesus was God, as Jews even don't believe that Jesus was a messiah and even less God. And when he was hanging around with his Muslim friends, I also strongly doubt they'd teach him that Jesus was God, as Muslims do believe that Jesus was a messiah, but not God.
But I agree, MJ did respect everyone and probably everyone could identify themselves in MJ.
Immediately AFTER that statement (first bolded, in the quote), he left the Jehovah's Witnesses. They did NOT "disfellowship" him. He left, through personal decision.
Well, there will be always two versions circulating. Some believe that MJ left the JW, some believe that he was requested to leave them. As far as I am concerned, from the news I read back in the 80s he was excommunicated.
But I think he was pushed to leave, which, for me is the same as excommunicating him. The reason was probably because he was also instructed not to talk to his sister La Toya any more, which he refused.