This really disturbs me... doubting teens still join JWs

Aussie Oz

I find this very disturbing and personally so as i have teenagers being groomed for the Watchtower society that do not believe everything and get up to mischief...

I am really bothered by the number of people on here who can recount the doubts and 'worldly' behaviors of their teens and yet still got sucked in to the JWs.

While i am pleased with my children not being as dumb as i was, I mean, i feel like i must have been a sandwich short of a picnic when young. I seriously never questioned anything. Aside from discovering Playboy magazine i never did anything wrong.

Even though they are more switched on than me, it's not going to be enough i fear.

oz

FreeAtLast1914

Aussie, I feel your pain. All my brothers and sisters are still inside the WT. They are raising their kids to be the same. And, like you, I never has a solitary doubt growing up in this religion. But this generation is different. These kids are aware of so many things that I never was. They are exposed to so many more things than I ever was.

They understand what it means to be an individual, what it means to think outside the box. They are flat-out more advanced early on than our generation.

All of this gives me hope that some of them will make the choice I have: to ask questions, to seek truth, to eventually realize their religion is a cult, and then to get the hell out.

My fingers are crossed.

Mad Sweeney

I don't think doubts are enough, Oz. I grew up in the Borg and had doubts my whole life but didn't do anything to get out until my life was half over. Most of my life I figured the Dubs were between 80 and 90% correct and because of how they demonized anyone and everyone non-JW, I also believed that nobody else was even close to that level of "truth." The Borg was perceived as the best a human organization can do in this system.

In my experience, I was only ready to chuck the entire thing after I learned that not only were they wrong about some things, they are wrong about almost everything AND they oppress their members via mind control techniques. It was the combination of being personally offended and KNOWING that my life was NOT at risk of eternal damnation for leaving that allowed me to go.

For a teen, the lack of freedom is a drag but as long as they believe both that the Borg control is harmless and that it is for their own eternal good, they will stick with the group.

Are your kids into the Internet? Maybe some time when they are visiting and it's a rainy day (so you're inside) or maybe before bedtime, you can watch some youtube vids together. It doesn't have to be anti-Dub or 100% educational. Check out some music videos or funny clips along with the important ones that can be found with simple searches:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA

Also search for Stanley Milgram, Mind Control, and stuff on thinking clearly based on evidence rather than on tradition, authority, or revelation.

Good luck.

sammielee24

I don't think it's being 'sucked in'. It's conditioning, expectation, guilt and fear. Those are powerful forces for anyone, let alone a teen who hasn't a real clue on what the impact like baptism into a cult, will due to their lives in the future. Even if a person has doubts, they can often be swayed by overriding feelings of fear and 'what if'. ....because those people still don't understand the ramification of baptism. If I had any advice for my own teen who was in the cult, it would be - do not get baptized. It changes everything. sammieswife

dinah

It's not being "sucked in". For those born into this religion, it's all they know. It's all they are allowed the know. When you hear from infancy all about Armageddon and how everyone who doesn't "worship Jehovah" will die................it tends to be hard to shake that belief.

I think it's more a case of them just doing what their parents, and those in the congregation they grew up around expects of them.

Their "teaching" techniques (gag) just reinforce the guilt and fear that the organization instills in them. Couple that with the world being painted as a terrible scary place that is doomed to destruction, it's no wonder some kids can't find their way out.

keyser soze

It helps to remember that teens are very impressionable. If they can be influenced by the JWs, they can be influenced by others as well. Your children are fortunate to have something many of us who were born-in didn't: a father who doesn't believe the bs they are being fed.