I told my mom I didn't believe my baptism was valid and she agrees

by noni1974 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  noni1974

  I think that because I never made a formal prayer like they say your supposed to before getting baptized. I never said yes to the questions they asked at the convention before I got dipped. I just went through the motions. I was doing it because I felt forced to. My mom totally agrees and told me she was sorry if she pushed baptism on me. Neither she nor my dad ever did. They would ask once in a while but it wasn't a force thing from my parents. It was everyone else that made me feel like I had to do it. My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, but mostly it was my little sister. She is 2 and a half years younger than me and she was doing it, so I felt I had to also. I was getting asked all the time when I was going to do it. I was 19 years old at the time so well over the age of getting in the new system on my parents coat tails.

  My mom agrees that my baptism is not valid. However that won't help me because I'm DA ed anyway. She did mention re-baptism someday when I'm ready. LOL Like that will ever happen. I would never get reinstated just to annul my so called baptism then do it again. LOL Keep dreaming mom!!!

  I also told her I lied on my service reports. She said but you had to go out in order to be baptised. I said no you don't you just have to fill out the form saying you did.
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  lesterd

  If your heart is right for dedication, then the other borg details mean nothing, after all its not the borg that will "save" you. Baptizm, if done for the purpose of dedicating ones life to GOD, is valide no matter what religion its done in.
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  cult classic

  Noni that's a surprising admission from your mom. Most JW parents take the position that we knew what we were doing (or should have) and that's that. I remember when I was about to get baptized I was on the phone with my dad. He asked me if I had made a dedication to Jehovah in prayer. I said "uh, yeah" and said a quick prayer telling Jehovah that I dedicate my life to him........ lol.

  It's all soooo stupid.

  Cult Classic
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  mindmelda

  I learned the baptism questions by rote like a parrot. I never could follow some of the doctrine logically, but I could memorize it. That seemed to be good enough when I was 15.

  I don't think of my baptism as valid either. If the Witnesses in general do, they'd have to prove it to me. After all, they're the ones who say we don't baptize children, but do it anyway, as long as the "child" is in their teens, although I have heard of younger occasionally.
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  noni1974

  My mom is some what of a liberal JW. She doesn't shun me at all. She knows where her bread is buttered with her kids and it isn't on the JW side either. Both my brother and sister left Ohio and moved to Florida. I stayed in Ohio until January. Now it looks like I will be moving back. She is over the moon. I'll be in Cleveland again soon!! Yay!!
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  not a captive

  Great conversation--

  I met with my elders once because it bothered me the way kids got pressured like you then DF'd for screwing up--being kids that needed to grow up without being shunned at their most critical moments in the journey.

  When they said early baptism is a protection, I told them that when bugs get on your tomato plants you might start picking the tomatoes when they are a little green still to let them ripen in the safety of your window sill. But if you pick them too green, Some of them might ripen --but some of them just rot.

  It makes me so angry. and it breaks my heart. Because they just throw those kids away.
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  Mad Sweeney

  They're willing to throw any number of people away as long as they can maintain some numerical growth overall, a decent amount of financial income, and what they perceive as a good reputation for Jehovah's name.