Oh boy did I feel the pressure!! Just turned 14 when I was baptized! Pleased my folks immensely, as they had plans for me to later enter bethel service or missionary service. What a disappointment I was when I hit 18! Anyway that period of my life is long over as I pursued things I really wanted to accomplish in my life ,once I left the Borg.
Did you get a little pressured to get baptized young?
by outofthebox 39 Replies latest jw friends
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free2think
Yep, but it was subtle pressure, nothing overt. I was 15 when i finally got dunked.
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zack
Absolutely. Got baptized at 14. I wanted to be on God's side when he decided to smite all the wicked non-baptized people on the whole planet. They might as well have held a gun to my head---- at least that would have been more honest.
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Honez
A gun is not being held to anyones head*
The pressure expressed by parents is shown through just as when a parent wants you to do well at school or wants you to pursue anything that they want for you in life but the decision is always left in your hands you are not forced.
and a rebutle to that of the suggestion that parents or elders pressure their children:
When i was about 10 i sat at a meeting so inspired by the words of an elder that i could feel the spirit in the room and i knew right there and then that i wanted to dedicate my life to god through baptisim
i sat my questions they said it was fine but that i was too young to be baptised, and suspected it was my parents that were pressuring me to want to but it was all me, i wanted to please and serve the heavenly father... i was denied that priveledge, i shed tears but the exact thing that was not put on me was pressure it was my own desire to do what would make my god happy.
there is nothing like the feeling what you get from doing the right thing by god.
so much scepticism i am currently not practicing but i can admit i am not in a good spiritual standing at the moment but what i can testify to is that nothing will give you more joy and happiness than serving god.
to put it simple elders and parents are just the middlemen, at the end of the day its god u have to reach out to, rather than focus on the imperfections of men that we all are regretably endowed with.
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nvrgnbk
Pressure?
Only from the womb till I actually did it at 14.
It wasn't overt.
My mind was subtly manipulated, starting in the womb, by cult programming and by parents that were also thoroughly indoctrinated since childhood.
To not dedicate my life to Jehovah was simply not an option to even be considered.
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mrsjones5
to put it simple elders and parents are just the middlemen,
I thought if you're a Christian the only middleman you needed to get to God was Jesus...am I wrong?
Josie
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zack
The effect of the choice given me at the age of fourteen was the same as the effect of a gun being put to my head. We were talking about our own personal experiences, right?
So when I, as a child, was repeatedly told that God would smite me and the crows would eat the eyes out of my still warm flesh as the Almighty's angels sang in praise of the
slaughter IF I did not get baptized (because baptism was the mark of survival, the mark that the angels would recognize, the ink on the forehead!), this was not about serving God, it was
not about loving God, it was not about even being loving to me---- it was a threat, a coercion. Sure, JW's tell you it is your own personal choice---- kind of when a gunmen holds a gun to
the head of bank teller and demands the money--- the teller has choice, right?
Think about it. And welcome to the forum.
God and the Watchtower are way seperate, my friend.
Enjoy!
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kifoy
As somebody already has mentioned, the pressure was not very overt. But it was not that subtle ether.
I saw that my friends of the same age, were much more respected after being baptized. (And I was constantly compared with my more enthusiastic friends).
My mother cried when I was 12-13 and still had not become a publisher, and asked me why I would not take a stand.
As long as I was not baptized, the pioneers would "count hours" on me when between districts.
I felt I was worth nothing as long as I was unbaptized.
So, no pressure at all...
My parents still can't see that it really was pressure that got me baptized.
When I eventualy got baptized at the age of 15, it all turned around.
I felt respected for the first time in my life.
I was happy, and felt I had dne the right thing... for some months.
Then started the pressure to begin (aux) pioneering.
"When will you become a pioneer?", one pioneer brother asked me when I was about 18.
I think I answered that I didn't know. If I had said that I didn't want to, I guess I would have had to answer even more questions.
That pressure eventually got me to DA.
So, no pressure at all...
kifoy -
sosad
i believe that the difference between pressure to be part of this cult by getting baptised and pressure to do well at school or other pursuits has to be thought about by anyone who considers that the jw are the TRUTH
an emotional desire to please GOD should not be confused with "joining the team" of jws. Once you join the dubs, you accept that this org can control your family connections, or employment, your friends and your family ties. They become GOD - just look at the questions. You are dedicated to them.
SO yes - many of us loved GOD before "the dunking"- but the significance of getting baptised a jw was that you were now a part of that org and under their control . As a twelve year old, I did not understand this fully becasue I did not reasearch this organization fully. I was 12 for heavens sake.
How many of us would sign anything, join anything or give time/money to anything without really understanding it all? when I was three I had a goal to be a missionary and go to Gilead - that is all I was taught, all I knew, and everyone that I loved was so excited about it all whenever I said it.
We don't allow children to enter into contracts that are legally binding without their parents or someone in authority acting as their advisor. And it is recognized that they are children, acting on the influence and advise of another.
The legalities of a jw life are many and varied. Most adults getting dunked do NOT understand what they are agreeing too.
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Honez
The reason parents cry in some cases and put pressure upon their children is because they are scared for them because the world is a scary place to which their is no hope.
I did not go and join the "cult" as you call it because jehovahs witnesses forced me or blinded me, i was baptized out of love for god because i was inspired by his word!
and jehoavahs witnesses are the only religion that follow the BIBLE and all its entirety the best of human understanding, not just bits as other religions do.
you see people can say they said this or you said that but no one is perfect and the true instructor is the bible, i do not let Men govern my thoughts the bible is my guide.
choose to believe witnesses or not but the real truth lies within in the bible.
The best thing is not to pick at peoples imperfection but to look to the cause and message behind it.
im not attending meetings at the moment or doing much ito that degree but the thing is that i know whats best for me ive had an insight to many religions and none fit as well as jehovahs witnesses and their relativity to god, they are the closest to god that anyone could endevour to become.