My decision to join this religion was based on lies. I feel my commitment is null and void, based on fraud.
how valid are commitments made while being a jw.
by man in black 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
Band on the Run
You made those commitments relying on performance of certain conditions, such as j hover being God. There was fraud You never would have made the undertaking without fraud. You mistakenly committed to God when slavery to a cult was sneaked into the equation. Jehoover has not performed. Besides k law. Puerto policy abstract slavery prohibit s such commitments.
-
Chaserious
I think it depends on what your world view is once you leave. Based on their set of beliefs, people have all different kind of views toward marriage and the moral obligation one has to stick with one. My wife and I left together, but I never considered the idea that my marriage was in any way less valid than anyone else's. I'm having a little bit of trouble picturing what other kind of commitments you are referring to (if any) besides marriage and baptism, but setting baptism aside, my own opinion is that they are just as valid as any other promises that people might make, JW or not. It's not like people become mentally incompetent when they become jws.
-
smiddy
Correct me if I am wrong,their is no legal binding of any individual who gets baptised into any faith , so their is no penalty for breaking such a vow in a legal sense.So really you could, theoretically, get baptised in a number of different religions ,eg: Mormons.Judaism ,Islam , Hinduism, etc.and you would not be breaking any laws of the land , not in the western world anyway.Of course the religions concerned would not appreciate that , but if their was someone who actually did it , they could not do much about it legally .Re: how valid are commitments made while being a jw.
So I would say not much at all , it`s meaningless
Just my 2 cents worth
smiddy
-
Ucantnome
At the present time I consider my commitments both in baptism and marriage valid.
When I baptised I believed it was between me and God. I think that being baptised into the name of something has to do with belonging to that one along with understanding what the name represents.
I have questioned my baptism on the basis that my view of Christ and baptism itself is different now. At the moment I still think it is valid enough.
As for the organization. They changed the belief that I held.
Marriage. I married a JW. I had faith in the message that we preached and believed that the end was very close. My wife would be one of the survivors of the Great Tribulation. (The girlfiend before wasn't a JW and wasn't interested in becoming one so I stopped seeing her.) She would be heading toward being perfect. Who wouldn't want a perfect wife.
She told me that one night just after we were married she lay awake watching me sleep and couldn't believe we were married. She's a good woman. Not perfect. It's still a valid commitment.
-
Phizzy
I consider the baptism I went through at the tender age of 12 to be "valid" for me, in the sense that I if I were still a believer in God I would live by the vows I made then, in the time when JW's were not expected to be baptising in to an organization, but simply publically declaring their dedication to God.
I made no vow or commitment at the time to the WT.
I do not feel I am in any way a vow breaker now because I do not believe in God, I have simply discovered that I made vows to someone who isn't there, doesn't exist, so I cannot break them.
I vowed on my marriage day that I would be true to Mrs Phizzy, and I am still determined to keep that vow, in my mind that vow was forever, and may I say, it certainly seems like an eternity !
-
jhine
The Watchtower blatently lies to its members and certainly before baptism presents itself very differently from its true nature , so even if someone as an adult makes a vow at baptism which they really mean at the time , the organisation to which they are commiting themselves is in their head different to the one that they are actually being baptised into . I think that this makes any vow null and void when someone realises the true nature of the org.
-
AnneB
IMO, BandOnTheRun hit it when she alluded to contract law.
In any sort of arrangement, legally binding or not, doesn't it just make sense that if you discover trickery, fraud, misrepresentation, outright lies, changed standards that affect the agreement, etc., that you have the right to renegotiate or repudiate the agreement?
The right, not the obligation; however, if you continue on as if the original agreement was still in effect, you're losing ground. Common sense says don't paint yourself into a corner.
"Let your yes mean yes" applies only to what was agreed upon, not to deviations.
AB