Baptised 52 years today!

by Phoebe 44 Replies latest jw friends

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  Phoebe

  January 29th - my baptism date. Can you remember how you felt at your baptism?

  I got baptised because my dad kept frightening me. He said I was old enough to make my own decisions (13!!!) and if Armageddon came tomorrow I would definitely die because I wasn't baptised.

  I was also very self conscious and the idea of being in a swimsuit in front of loads of people petrified me. So when two older girls I knew were getting baptised (they were 16) I decided to just go and get it over with. At least I wouldn't be doing it alone and it would keep my dad quiet.

  When I stood up to answer the questions, I knew I wasn't sure it was something I wanted to do. I felt nothing. I just wanted it to be over.

  Two months later I was pioneering in the school holidays and I did that every school holiday until I was 16 and became a reg. pioneer.

  The congregation overseer said 'I was storing treasures in heaven' and I thought I was.

  It took me until May 2017 to finally get rid of the brain washing thanks to a lot of exJW videos, a psychologist, my lovely husband, Ray Franz's book and this wonderful forum. Team effort, huh? Just shows what it takes to break the spell the WT has over. you.

  So what led you to your baptism?
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  stan livedeath

  i was 14. i attended meetings with my mum. she was baptised before.

  my dad had been having a study--and said he was getting baptised at the local assembly. i knew some of the kids my age in the congregation were getting baptised as well. so i thought it would be cool if i was too--to be with dad .

  one of the kids getting dipped told me i would be asked 2 questions--and i had to shout out--no.

  this was 56 years ago.
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  sir82

  Baptized at 17 (raised "in the truth").

  Got baptized because I felt that it was expected of me. I realized age 17 was kind of "pushing it" - wait much longer and people start giving you the side-eye.

  Being a JW was the only life I knew, or could even conceive of. If I wanted to remain in the only world I knew, I needed to get baptized.

  No special "relationship with Jehovah", no burst of "theocratic" energy - it was just the next step, like registering for a class or filling out a questionnaire.
  
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  tiki

  I was 16....Montreal 1966. Wish I'd never done it. My parents didn't force me one way or the other.... They didn't go to the convention...sent me with the crazy cong svt and their 2 kids who hated me. Bad all around but I was a naive kid....
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  Giordano

  Age sixteen.......I sucked in my stomach to look better........ and that should tell you everything you need to know about my spirituality!
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  eyeuse2badub

  Baptized in 1959 at age 12. I got baptized because I was such a "spiritual giant" and I was "needed" in the congregation!

  just saying!
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  fastJehu

  Baptized in 1975 at age 15.

  Why? In autumn 1975 I wanted to survive Armageddon and then play with pandas and tigers. And I wanted my parents to be proud of me.

  The worst is not that Armageddon has not occurred, but that today the WT denies having promoted the year 1975.

  Damn liars and hypocrites.
  
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  Nathan Natas

  I also was 14.

  I am also a guy, which means I am genetically incapable of remembering any date that is not my birthday.

  I was an obedient kid and when I was TOLD that it was time for me to give the next billllllion years to Watc-ovah... or wasr that "Mom-hovah"? Anyway, I did what I was told to do.

  In my innermost secret heart-of-my-hearts, I had hoped that there would be some kind of "spiritual experience" associated with baptism, but I was not inclined to hallucinate. ...even NOW, 55 years later! ...I know -- I tried -- nuthin'!

  Thus did Nathan - that's ME - first WITNESS the cold, unblinking, uncaring eye of the cosmos.

  Fortunately for me, oaths and contracts entered into with imaginary beings are UNENFORCEABLE, so I'm off the hook!

  I really do wish I wasn't such a compliant youth, but it would take a panel of psychiatrists to explain how I was conditioned to be a phool.
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  blondie

  I can remember the date, same date as the moon landing. I was baptized in Lake Michigan and it was freezing cold even in July; it smelled like dead fish. No family since it was a Friday 200 miles away and my mother could not get off work (yes, she missed days at the assembly). I can remember driving back to our hotel looking up at the moon thinking of the men walking on it. Not the assembly program.
  
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  OneEyedJoe

  I remember how I felt quite clearly. It felt a lot like I was doing it at gun point, and jehovah was the one with his finger on the trigger. Of course my father's constant reminders that I needed to do it added some weight to it, and he's the one that planted the seed of the idea that god was withholding happiness from me because I wasn't baptized.

  The man that gave the talk prior to the baptism forgot to say "Amen" after the prayer, and since no one knew he was done until he just carried on talking normally (though I can't describe it, I suspect everyone here can relate to being able to tell by the tone of a man's voice that he's praying) so no one getting baptized said it either. I imagined that meant that it wasn't official, which quite suited me.