Who converts and Why? SURVEY - Please contribute

by Murray Smith 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • miseryloveselders
    miseryloveselders

    I'm a born in, so I can only go off of my observations. As far as those that I've seen convert in my experiences, it was mostly those ones who were a "little off" so to speak. When I say that, I don't necessarily mean crazy, but rather they often were a little left or right of society's norms. I've seen some educated individuals convert, a couple of whom are quite respected in their fields of occupation. With all of them I've noticed however, regardless of the educational background or current economic status, they all carried some moderate to heavy emotional baggage. In times past and even nowadays, when people were having problems or "going through it", they often turned to their churches which they saw as turning to God. With JWs going door to door, and as often as they do, they're bound to show up on the porch of someone who's emotionally vulnerable.

    My own father, was a convert. Let him tell it, he converted just to marry my mother, but that's not entirely the truth. His upbringing was rough, and his siblings, my uncles and aunts, are all pretty jacked up mentally. He's the only one stable, and even thats a matter of opinion. The era he grew up in was hard on black males, not saying its still not effed up, but not as bad as it was during his teenager and young man years. He explored various religions, and from what he's told me, he experienced racism and segregation with various churches back then. Eventually he ended up studying with the Nation of Islam, but he had enough sense to realize that they're crazy, and really nothing more than a "social" religion for those that catch my drift. Besides he didn't need to hang out with other blacks as an organization to hate white people. Another thing was, he said with the JWs, it was the first time that anyone actually made an effort to explain to him whats in the Bible. Also, the racial tensions and segregation that this country was dealing with at the time, wasn't as overt or even non-existant to some degree amongst the Kingdom Halls he'd been to. That's not to say there wasn't some racial problems in congregations, but it was more subtle. It wasn't as overt as what he experienced when white churches would turn him away at the front door as if he as Judas Iscariot reincarnated in the flesh. Last but not least, he met my mother, and from there it's been a wrap. They've been together for 5 decades, and still act like they're dating.

    Speaking on my dad converting partially over my mother, I think quite a few JWs have converted for that reason too. Whether it be the wife, or husband who initially studied and got baptized, somewhere down the road enough "unbelieving mates" have converted, or have shown potential that the WT has printed numerous articles about how the believing mates conduct won over their spouse.

    One last thing, I think it goes without saying that immigrants and foriegn populations are ripe for JWs, much in the same way the Catholic and Protestant churches converted millions through missionary work, when they weren't converting them via violence.

  • Mr. Falcon
    Mr. Falcon

    Who converts and Why?

    Who knows? Why does anyone do anything?

    Boredom and/or fear of dying alone, I guess.

  • Scarlouie
    Scarlouie

    You can blame everything on your parents, my Mom was and is a great person in everyway except for the control this organization has over her. I was not raised "normal", but it has helped make me into the man I am, good and bad. I can see no common personality traits in the JW that I know, other than the same one that most relgeous people have. The need to have answers to quesitons that do not have to be asked. They just can't be comfortable that things just are and you do not have to know all the answers.

  • jam
    jam

    99% of the people that became JW,s in my area in the late 60,s and 70,s

    was due to their marriages on the rocks. We were the 1st generation.

    The wives saw how loving the brothers were with their wives at the KH,

    the next thing we knew we were knocking on doors.

  • Murray Smith
    Murray Smith

    Thanks all! . . . there's some additional "light" being shone here . . . OUTLAW'S experience (thanks) has highlighted nicely the flow-on effect of the absence of parenting factors through successive generations of 'born in' JW's. Perhaps a line for research in it's own right but relevent here also . . . that opens the forum survey up to virtually all really . . . observations as well as personal experience . . . feel free to add.

    Friendly reminder . . . not about blame necessarily . . . but feel free to express.

    Thanks heaps.

    Luvonyall

  • Broken Promises
    Broken Promises

    Outlaw:

    Thank you for insinuating that I am retarded. I assure you that I am nowhere near it.

    I do get your humour, however, if you bothered to comprehend what I wrote, I was asking if you could ever be serious, or are you using humour to cover up a lack of verbal/written skills?

    DPG: Thank you dear friend.

    Murray Smith: Apologies for the hijack of your thread. If you ever come across the Tasman, I'll buy you a beer

  • Broken Promises
    Broken Promises

    With JWs going door to door, and as often as they do, they're bound to show up on the porch of someone who's emotionally vulnerable.

    This was the case when relatives on both sides of my family were initially contacted.

    My maternal grandmother was contacted shortly after her mother had died. She was grieving deeply, and my grandfather bought the set of books (this is in the 20s) in the hope that they might somehow help my grandmother with her grief. She converted shortly after.

    An aunt on my father's side had lost her 4 yr old daughter to measles, and was likewise grieving for her daughter. A married couple of witnesses lived next to her, and witnessed to her. My aunt converted her siblings, one of whom was my father.

    (see Outlaw, it's not that hard to put a few sentences together to tell a short story relevant to the thread).

  • JeffT
    JeffT

    Doesn't apply to me. I had a good relationship with my parents. The fact that they never closed off communication when I converted in 1973, the year I got out of college, was a major factor in my escape.

    Doofdaddy: I got this from a Thai friend, who through her military background had a lot of contact with Germans:

    "Germans are very serious about their humor, in fact, having a sense of humor is no laughing matter to a German."

  • White Dove
    White Dove

    My great-grandparents on both sides of the parental team answered their doors one day (or two days).

    The rest is history.

  • Lozhasleft
    Lozhasleft

    I think I fit the bill Murray Smith - parents split when I was 7 at a time and in a place when/where it was really not acceptable. At 14 I was alone in the big bad world, in lodgings working for a living, and by 16 married trying to make my own 'family'.

    Some 10 years later I was ripe for the plucking when a neighbour friend told me all about the 'truth'.

    Loz x

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