We don't baptize our children as infants, we let them decide

jambon1

I always found that one particularly laughable.

The JW's would always look for plaudits because they don't christen/baptize infants. As if they are free thinking pioneers of christianity who let their children come to their own conclusions.

No, they don't baptize their children.

Yet,

They would be happy to make a life & death medical choice for them before they are even old enough to think for themselves.
They are happy to have their children 'fight the fine fight' on their parents behalf all the way through primary/high school. Being stigmatized as different or odd by all their peers.
They remove just about every aspect of a normal upbringing & replace it with boredom, fear & guilt.
Instead of 'letting the children decide for themselves' they make all the decisions when it comes to matters of entertainment, appropriate friends etc. Literally striking the fear of god into them if they choose for themselves something that is not 'approved.'
Bombarding their minds with thoughts of how inherantly bad/evil they are if they ever feel the urge to do something as natural as masturbate.

Yea, JW parents. You got the lot.

Sure, you don't baptize your infants. You control them for nearly 2 decades until you **** them up good & proper.

cult classic

Jambon

You got that right. I would have rather been baptized as a baby and left the hell alone for the rest of my childhood. It is absolutely criminal what JW parents do to their kids.

They don't baptize infants. But at least the religions that do baptize infants do not impose busting up the family and death threats if you later decide to so much as look at another religion. And the witlesses do pressure people into getting baptized early--how many others have seen "experiences" where a child got baptized at age 6 paraded as examples for others? From this, I conclude that they want children getting baptized at age 6. And, then they are going to be subjected to all the rules under death threats and busting up the family. In theory, they could be disfellowshipped before they even turn 7!

And, even if they manage to remain unbaptized, they are forced to attend boasting sessions that regularly intrude on study time. The weekday boasting session ends at 9:15--and then there are the hounder meetings, extra milling around, and the drive home. Children often don't get to bed until 10 PM or later, on the most popular test day of the week. And they are prevented from properly studying for those tests because they have to prepare for the fxxxing boasting session instead. And field circus intrudes--they even want children out in field circus after school! When are those children going to find time to study and do homework, that doesn't get taken away with the "Find some other time! This is God's time!" excuse.

Amazing

In the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, and Episcopal denominations, when a baptized child reaches the teen years, they can choose to undergo the Confirmation process, which 'confirms' their baptism and commitment to Christ. Some do it at an earlier age, and some a later age. I was 11 years old when I made my Catholic confirmation.

I became a JW at age 19. Catholics did not shun me or treat me badly ... most of them simply did not want to hear what I had to say about the JWs ... good for them. One sibling shunned me for a couple of years, but that wore off and we resumed contact. And when I left the JWs 25 years later, my friends and family greeted me with open arms, and did not need a permission slip of reinstatement from the Church. In fact, I was never excommunicated (it's rare for a Catholic to be excommunicated, which only means they do not take communion) and was always welcome in the Church. I have been out of the JWs now for 17 years. It's among the best decisions I ever made ... except for marrying my wife.

sabastious

They encourage children to get baptized. I would rather them baptize them at infancy because then they can't hold it over your head as a "decision of sound judgement."

-Sab

keyser soze

No, they only indoctrinate you from infancy and put so much pressure on you do decide on your own to get baptized by the time you hit puberty.

BluesBrother

How old is old enough?

Wt 92 10/1 p22

"Likewise today, many young ones have dedicated their lives to serve Jehovah. Akifusa, a 15-year-old, said that a part on the Service Meeting helped him to make his decision to get baptized. Ayumi got baptized when she was ten years old. She wanted to serve Jehovah because she really came to love him. Now she is 13 and just had the experience of seeing her Bible student, who has also come to love Jehovah, get baptized at the age of 12. Ayumi’s younger brother Hikaru was also baptized at the age of ten. “Some said I was too young,” he recalls, “but Jehovah knew how I felt. I was determined to get baptized once I decided to dedicate my life to serve him with all I had.”
Parental example is also a factor, as can be seen from the experience of one young sister. Her father prohibited her mother from studying the Bible with her and her brother and sister. He would beat them and burn their books. But because of the mother’s endurance and faith, the children could see the importance of serving Jehovah God. This young girl was baptized at age 13, and her younger brother and sister have followed her example."

TJ Curioso

Here were I live (Portugal), childrens with 9, 10 years are baptized.

just n from bethel

Along this same line of thought - does anyone remember that old door-to-door tactic that JWs are encouraged to use when they encounter a youth? Something along the lines of ...

'Do your parents allow you to choose your own religious reading material' ?

Pretty hypocritical,huh?

JWs that tell members to go to homes and ask young people to think about a religion different from their family's - However at the same time JWs absolutely forbid their young ones to look into any other belief system.

Nickolas

To sab's point, the "choice" made by adolescents to be baptised has become the reason they have become shunned in later years. Had they not made their "choice" they would not be shunned, even if they as adults had adopted an immoral lifestyle. Fact is that these kids never made a choice at all. Choice means deciding between two or more alternatives. These children were not exposed to alternatives until they were old enough to realise that different world views are out there and free for examination by those not shackled by the chains of unquestioning faith in a man made organisation. To answer your question, BB, "old enough" was established by Jesus of Nazareth who, although according to NT accounts was a scriptural whizkid, didn't get baptised until he was 30. That's the example set by the man Christians follow, so then why don't they?

Infant baptism was/is a consequence of the religious belief/superstition that those not cleansed of Original Sin (tm) before death would be damned (the Roman Catholic church taught that unbaptised infants ended up in the netherhell of Limbo - no longer taught but there must have been tens or hundreds of thousands of parents who lost infants and who were tortured by this particularly despicable doctrine) while child baptisms practiced by the Jehovah's Witnesses are an attempt to lock in individuals' dedication to the WT brand of faith before they have the mental capacity to choose for themselves. It is child abuse.

We don't baptize our children as infants, we let them decide - UTTER BULL****