by Sacchiel 15 Replies latest jw friends
Is there any truth that people under the age of eighteen cannot be held under a legal contract (which is what the WT views baptism as, a legally binding document to the Society)? The result would be that individual cannot be disfellowshiped since that person was underage and above all, never even signed a document. Is this applicable in the US at least?
Sorry if this has already been discussed.
That's fasinating considering the Borg sent my mom a letter after my df' and i was only 12 years old!!!! What joke this org. is. rocky220
How do you get df-ed at 12...?
Sure is and you can go to the brothers and tell them "I was a kid my dipping was invalid" and they will make an announcement that "XXX is no longer a JW" Same as if you DA'ed or got DF'ed so whats the point?
Particularly disturbing is that the Watchtower Society encourages children raised as Jehovah?s Witnesses to be baptised in their teenage years whilst still minors. Even a pre-teenage child can get baptised and for the remainder of their life be subject to the principle of being disfellowshipped.
Watchtower 1992 March 1 p.27
?In the summer of 1946, I was baptized at the international convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Although I was only six years of age, I was determined to fulfill my dedication to Jehovah. That summer I served as a pioneer for the first time.?
Baptism as a Jehovah?s Witness is a binding verbal contract with the Watchtower Society and as such baptising minors is wrong both legally and scripturally. Never is the baptism of a minor mentioned in the bible. Jesus was not baptised until he was 30 and Jews felt a person became an adult at 30. When Cornelius and his family were baptised it does not state that any non adults were baptised and there is no scriptural evidence of any children or teenagers ever being baptised.
It is common upon entering their teens or twenties that a child?s knowledge and ideas change dramatically and for this reason the law also protects the rights of minors. A minor is usually not permitted by law to enter contracts, drink, vote, join the army or marry. These options start becoming available to people generally between the ages of 16 to 21. This is because their brains have not fully developed. The March 2005 National Geographic (Australian Edition) contained an article ?What?s in your mind?. It states;
?The last area of the brain to reach maturity is the prefrontal cortex, where the so-called executive brain resides ? where we make social judgements, weigh alternatives, plan for the future, and hold our behaviour in check.
? The executive brain doesn?t hit adult levels until the age of 25 ,? says Jay Giedd of the national Institute of Mental Health, on of the lead scientists on the neuroimaging studies. ?At puberty, you have adult passions, sex drive, energy, and emotion, but the reining in doesn?t happen until much later.? It is no wonder, perhaps, that teenagers seem to lack good judgement or the ability to restrain impulse. ?We can vote at 18,? says Giedd, ?and drive a car. But you can?t rent a car until you?re 25.?
When a person baptised as a minor chooses they no longer wish to be known as a Jehovah?s Witness they are regularly disfellowshipped. Once this happens that teenager may not associate freely with family or friends for the remainder of their life! Even a person that is still a child they can be disfellowshipped.
Pay Attention to Yourself and to All the Flock p.98
?When a baptized minor becomes involved in wrongdoing that threatens the cleanness of the congregation, the assigned committee should meet with such individual just as they would with any other member of the congregation.?
to kudra: no, I got df'd at 20. but i never signed anything and was not active [fade-out] for three years!!!
This really boils my kettle! I think it should be an illegal practice, this is a very dangerous situation for a juveniles to find themselves in, they are cut off from all their freinds and family and basically treated like they are garbage, I bet many have committed suicide over this. This may have also caused quite a few to endanger themselves by getting involved with drugs and lewd behavior.
The IRS should investigate this corporation and they should lose their tax exempt status(I can only hope), they provide no charitable benefit to society whatsoever and they endanger many lives not only because of the BS Blood issue, but also the phsycological trauma caused through DF'ing.
IC (of the I hope I live to see their demise, class)
Those children who never got baptised yet were raised around the organization all their life fair not much better than those who decided to leave after baptism. They are still marked as bad associates and many of their life time friends will no longer talk to them or return their phone calls. In many cases their own parents will treat them as if they are disfellowshiped even though they were never baptised.
OC
This was discussed before, and it seems to me that the legal type arguement that was settled on was that if a minor was baptised, it would be legally binding if he/she carried an acting in accordance w the baptism upon reaching adulthood. Sort of like a confirmation. Also, that the courts would not get involved in this kind religious matter.
S
Ps, if a baptised minor got dffed, since the national courts refuse to get involved, perhaps the minor could get help from some friends (apostates, hehe) and put together an appeal to the un human rights commision, or un children's agency, or something like that. I'm sure that, since the wt is all buddy buddy w the un now, that thye would be happy to follow un recommendations
Tennnnn-HUT! Perhaps the wider world can begin to see that all religion is out-of-date and medieval in it's crudity and nonsensical nature. Spirituality is not religion BTW as it has no dogmas, creeds, nor hare-brained rituals. NOTE: The saying is "hare" brained NOT "hair" brained. The point to the insult is that one has the brains of a hare ( a wild rabbit) not like a hair. As you were private.
