Where did these unoffical beliefs/standards come from?

by highdose 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  highdose

  i've been doing some reasoning about all the JW teachings i've been taught as i grew up. One of them was the belief that if you were baptised young that it would be a protection for you. i questioned this at the time as i thought that instead it would make you prey to opposition from satan at a young age. but i accepted the belief, got baptised and brushed it off as somthing i didn't understand, probably cos i wasn't smart enough.

  come to think of it there were alot of things i brushed off, " because i wasn't smart enough"

  come to think of it now, i realise that so called "protection" was all about getting the young ones hooked into the threat that if they left the org they would loose everything (family, freinds) at a young age, thereby trying to prevent them from leaving later on. looking back on the time of my being baptised i thought i was mature enough to make that choice, but now as a mature woman i realise i sooo wasn't. i was barely in my teens, i see the pictures of myself on baptisum day and i see a little girl.

  sorry for the rambling but my point/question is this. offically the org does not encourage ones to get baptised young, nor have i heard the idea that its for their protection used in any of the publications, but still the belief of that seems to be very deep rooted with the JW's. so my question is, where did beliefs like this come from? dos anyone know? i'm puzzled....?
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  Albert Einstein

  Highdose, thats not a belief, its just a trick to get kids involved in this destructive cult when they are powerless to question such decision. If JWs were not baptizing kids, 90% of them would not join as adults.

  Albert
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  ptrehearn152

  i am really sorry for what i'm about to say and i don't mean to be disrespectful to anyone who has been a jw but it seems to me that jw's and the watchtower wan't to baptise the younger people because they, at that age, don't feel at that age to have the questioning right, and as individual thinking on this religion is discouraged (with regard to bible studies) i guess it's reasonably easy to get someone to think the way they do and to put the fear of god into them (literally) and as time goes by you become hooked because you simply refuse to look at any other way of thinking or translating whats in the bible/holy scriptures.
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  WTWizard

  They do want everyone baptized as soon as possible. By showcasing examples, they encourage parents to make sure their children get baptized by the age of 6. Often, they will make them feel that otherwise, they might not make it through Armageddon and into the New Dark Ages. And, every day beyond that point that they delay, they get hounded. By the time they are around 14, the hounding becomes unbearable and they start getting mocked as holding out on the witlesses.
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  Narkissos

  I haven't heard this "protection" talk personally, but it seems quite understandable to me as one of the popular superstitions thriving in the fringe of the official belief system. After all, any kind of long-term "commitment" can be construed as a way of protecting oneself against oneself (calling the second "oneself" "devil" or "temptation" is part of the trick).

  Actually I've heard the opposite (not that it is incompatible). When I asked to be baptised at 13, some elders warned me about baptism meaning more responsibility and potentially heavier judgement. I sincerely tried to think about it but could not fit this concept within the WT doctrinal framework: eventually you either get everlasting life or your don't, and the only criterion for judgement seems to be how you act on your knowledge -- iow, accountability depends on knowledge, and there was not really much logical room left to make it depend on commitment. Not knowing might provide grounds for leniency; I could not figure how knowing and not committing might. But apparently this idea is still quite widespread among JWs (although I don't remember it has ever been taught officially).
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  kitten whiskers

  I heard the "protection" talk many, many times!

  It was hearalded (sp?) at conventions, mostly on the circuit level. There was comendation for the youngest baptismal candidate at the district convention, but the protection talks were mostly delivered at circuit assemblies. It was heavily preached upon.

  In my memory, I know that there were also Watchtower articles on this subject. They were study articles to be used at the Sunday meetings.

  It was stressed that it was an important step for those in school, esp. prior to entering high school where pressure would be felt to attend games, dances, pep rallies...being baptised would give a person a good and quick excuse to avoid such things that result in immorality. Your baptism would keep you focused and accountable to Jehovah.

  As to where you can find these Watchtower articles...I can't remember. I was baptized in January 1989 at age 16...I would assume you would it find it in Watchtowers and Kingdom Ministry articles 1986-1988.
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  bluecanary

  Sometime around 10 years ago I remember them pushing baptism for kids. I believe it was in print, though I couldn't tell you where (possibly a KM?). I definitely remmeber hearing it from the platform. They said that a lot of some parents were discouraging their kids from getting baptized for fear they would mess up and be disfellowshipped. The analogy given was that driving a car has the potential to be dangerous, but we don't stop our kids from getting licensed and learning to drive.

  A ridiculous analogy, because at least in the USA, kids can't drive until 16 or 17 years of age. Even then, some parents won't let their kids drive until they're older. I got baptized at 12. Learning to drive responsibly is nothing like making a vow to live according to a set of rules when (a) you're not old enough to understand those rules even if you've memorized them and (b) the rules are subject to change at any time.
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  Narkissos

  I should have reminded "my" JW time was from 1972 to 1986.

  There appears to have been a rise of unofficial / semi-official beliefs since (also thinking of the speculations about the relationship between dying before Armaggedon and/or being baptised or not with the prospect of resurrection, which were not much heard of back then). Which certainly reflects the growing rate of defection among children of JWs.
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  diamondiiz

  Individual "JW"s have their own set of unofficial beliefs and this may be one of them. When one believes that all will die except "JW"s you imagine your kids need to be baptised at some point. When you hear that so many nations were wiped out entirely with their little ones and you hear that perants can only bring their kids to the other side of Armageddon only to certain degree some perants may reason that their kids need to be baptized since the obviously believe that WT$ is the truth. WT$ has implied a lot of BS and followers ate it up and contributed to growth of WT$ speculation to the point of many viewing these speculations are facts taught by the WT$, but the organization never discouraged these ideas but in fact has incouraged by using such fanatical examples in their demonstrations at CA and DAs. End of the world in 1975 would probably fall in that category as well, WT$ never said directly the end would be in 1975 but a very possibility existed and we know how people inerpreted that and sold homes and pioneered and later WT$ used these dumb nuts as fine examples of loyalty to Jehovah when in fact they should have reproved these for doing ecerything for a set date that these individuals assumed was 100%. So is baptism of kids by individual perants. More perants belief a certain idea the more likely the entire congregation will under a certain influence.
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  allelsefails

  I don't know where it came from. I went to the Convention yesterday and saw the baptism. An interesting thing - Half the ones baptized were 9-13 yrs old the other half were 50-60+ yrs. Not a single "young adult" or even "pre-middle age adult". I think they realize that if you don't get baptized at 16 or earlier you probably won't get baptized at all. They need to push it earlier and earlier. It hasn't done any good still losing 2/3 of those born as witnesses.