Can any who grew up JW relate to this? (page 3)

Tuesday

I relate, as young as I could remember I didn't want to be a witness. So I wonder why people choose to join. I have a hard time understanding why anyone sincerly believes it as truth since I never could.

MissingLink

I can totally relate. I was just talking about this recently with Mrs.Link. I can understand my mom being suckered. But my dad is really smart. I don't know how he fell for it. This was in 1975 too! He says now he didn't even know about the 1975 prophecy though. Only thing I can figure is that my mom put enough emotional pressure on him that he eventually gave in. He was a rebel at first, but eventually became an elder.

I know a lot of smart people DO get suckered into joining cults. But once you're out it just seems inconceivable. I always thought (even when I was in) if I hadn't been raised a JW and one of them knocked on my door - what are the chances I would listen to them for more than 5 seconds? Not likely. And I would have been condemmed to death because of this.

Samuel Thorsen

Most converts are some kind of christians in the first place. (Look at the statistics, rarely any progress in non-chritians countries.)

Dubs are very good at showing you what YOUR CHURCH is doing wrong, so "we must be right then".

Nowman

Soneone told me this morning...isn't funny that when people have baggage or are experiencing hard times, that this is when they find God? To make sure this is not taken the wrong way, this was said to me regarding a situation with my bro-in-law, and how he found God, and he has changed. I think about my parents finding the JW religion at 17 years of age, growing up Catholic, my step dad being a former drug user and my mom prego with me at 16 and in an abusive relationship?

So, I can relate very much so!

Nikki

raindog

Likewise, I was born into it. I agree with the statements in these posts that they prey on people at a low time in their life or either carrying alot of baggage.

My mom was raised in the JW's by a mentally ill mother. My mom's family was poor and did not have alot of friends, which is why she stuck with the JW's. My dad was raised as a Catholic in a very cold, unloving family. So, when my dad met my mom, it was a case of two lonely, needy, individuals, that needed something or someone to accept them. My mom has been abused by my dad since they were married and yet she sticks with him because "he is all she has got", the same reason she sticks with the JW's. This is the same reasoning she uses to dismiss the lies by the JW'

Awakened at Gilead

Junction Guy said:

Simple---They lie and are damn good at it.

Yeah, I remember a number of times that I would read a scripture that I know would sound convincing, but in the back of my mind knowing that something sounded wrong. But I wanted to convince people anyway.

When I was in my Missionary assignment, I remember studying the require brochure with people, about the paradise earth, and thinking to myself "I don't even believe this myself".

garybuss

Witnessism is sort of a religious Antabuse. Once having taken a dose, whenever the patient gets close to religion, they get sick.

myababes

Being brought up in the org I can relate to what everyone else has said espcialy the thought that I wish I had never even heard of the religion, but mr Myababes came into it of his own accord at the age of 23.

I asked him what made him join as he was at the time successfully in the 3rd year of a physics degree at uni and almost gave it all up. He said basically he was lonely and that it was something to do. he literallly stopped studying a physics and threw himself into studying the JW literature. Of course he was hailed a hero by the congregation and was even on a circuit assembly held up as a fine example of giving up worldly things. He still managed to pass with a 2(1) by the skin of his teeth when the tutors persuaded him to give it a final shot a few months later. thank God for that tutor, though it took him 20 years in the org before he could finally disentangle himself.

Burger Time

I can relate that I always knew I wouldn't be a JW. I just didn't fit. I tried to make a good run of it when I was around 16 or 17 but it just wasn't me. I think everyone knew it so they never gave me much of a hard time.

DJK

Raised in, I can relate.

I was told before I can remember that Santa, the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy were all fake. I expected to be told God was fake, it didn't happen even though I believed he was.

I had heard the reason many had joined the witnesses and I have to agree, weak people with a lot of baggage. Exploitation at its finest.

Can any who grew up JW relate to this?

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