Something i've never understood, perhaps you could answer for me? (page 2)

Psychotic Parrot

The born in's i can understand, if youv'e been brainwashed since birth then you don't stand much of a chance.

Really? Well i was born in & i got out just fine, & i'm only 22.

leavingwt

Steve Hassan: (I'm paraphrasing):

"Nobody joins a cult. People are recruited into cults. The recruitment process involves deception."

dinah

There is one thing I've noticed. Sometimes the JW crap will skip a generation. If you look at some of the ones who come in as adults you can usually find Witness grandparents or great-grandparents.

serenitynow!

"Really? Well i was born in & i got out just fine, & i'm only 22."

You may be in the minority. I was a born-in and it took me much longer to figure it out.

dgp

Being a non-believer, I would say every post so far has part of the truth. I would mix them all into one and that would be my answer.

I would only add three reasons: falling in love with a witness and not really knowing what you're getting into, and not having the information about what the Watchtower really entails. In my opinion, lack of information about the Watchtower is a huge factor.

I said "three reasons", and here's the third. Maybe you people will be surprised to hear this, after getting so many doors slammed in your face, but some of the worldlies don't feel comfortable avoiding the witnesses or slamming doors, or pretending we're not at home. It feels bad to refuse to take an Awake! or a Watchtower, all the more so because the watered-down versions seem to suggest very Christian ways of living. Some of us do feel that it can't do you any harm if you listen to these nice and decent looking people who speak softly and carry a Bible (not a big stick). So you open your doors and the witness senses why, and you can imagine what happens next.

I can honestly say that very few of the worldlies would ever join if they were told the bad things first.

mindmelda

Have you ever heard anyone say, "Tomorrow, I'm going to go join Jehovah's Witnesses!"

Nope, because it doesn't happen that way. You're lured in one little bit at a time. They find your "weakness" and use that to make you believe that being a Witness will solve the problem.

When you're in, you're in...the only way out is to risk total abandonment by the others in the faith by shunning, and the congregation you are now part of have made sure that you don't have anyone else to rely upon for emotional support. You're encouraged to cut off anyone "worldly" as it's harmful to your newfound faith and they will damage it. Besides, God commands we give up everyone but our brothers and sisters in the faith or we're not worthy of God's love.

When you're in, you start being treated differently, slowly but surely. Instead of constant warmth and encouragement to be a Witness, people doing all sorts of things for you to make you feel loved, you're expected to start doing for the WTS and if you don't, you're a bad bad Witness who is ungrateful for the gift of "the truth".

And that is when you're so far gone that you either just submit and deal with the constant guilt and fear and work hard to feel superior to other people or you might realize you're screwed and just keep trudging along because you don't know how to get out, you believe there's nothing else and that other people must be having a worse life than you because they're not in the WTS because you're told that CONSTANTLY.

I've seen a few people over the years who start coming to meetings and almost get to the point of committment (baptism) and then do a running 180 in the other direction and you never see them again. They're the ones who figure out that that something is rotten in WitnessWorld and get out while the getting is good.

serenitynow!

"They find your "weakness" and use that to make you believe that being a Witness will solve the problem."

That is so true.

dinah

Now that I think about it, I can't remember anyone coming in as an adult and staying very many years. But I do know of a few who joined because of grandparents and are still there (like my Mom).

onemore

In my case, it was everything that Terry said, plus I was young and in need of direction in my life. They sounded confident about what they thought me, gave me a Job, a purpose and the promised of a big reward.

It only lasted for 12-15 years. I saw the man behind the curtain, the veiled dropped and the rest is history. Now I’m moving on with my life, I don’t beat myself for the years that I invested in this Organization…I try to concentrate at the good that I got out of it.

I became a good public speaker, met some wonderful people, had some memorable times, I was surrounded by a relatively decent “social club” which helped to keep me out of trouble while living in a rough neighborhood. I learned to be disciplined because of the ‘theocratic’ schedule of activities. But most importantly (in my case) I was introduced to the bible and its message (I’m not saying that they were right, just that they introduced me to the bible).

leavingwt

onemore -- Welcome to the forum!

Something i've never understood, perhaps you could answer for me?

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