Getting Baptized, did you really want to, or did you feel extreme pressure?

by run dont walk 34 Replies latest jw friends

  • run dont walk
    run dont walk

    I was never baptized, but boy did I feel the pressure ....... what are you waiting for ??? don't you love Jehovah ??? (i was in my late teens and brought up in the borg) I remember watching many baptism's and seeing kids at 10-15 years old getting baptized and thinking, what could they possibly know about life and the pressure/temptations they will face in their late teens/early twenties. I always thought as long as I don't get baptized, I can't get disfellowshiped. the following was a comment by KGB "I was an unbaptized publisher, I got out 2 weeks before baptism" Boy talk about cutting it close, to KGB (I hope you read this thread), what was going through your mind as it got closer ???, (let's say the last month or so, before). What made you change your mind ??? Did you feel pressured at all ??? So what about the rest of you on this forum, did you really want to do it, or did you feel you HAD to, or felt pressured to by the congregation/parents.

  • Aztec
    Aztec

    I was raised a borgite too. I finally gave in when I was 18 due to pressure. I felt really good for about a month and took up regular auxilary pioneering. I became inactive about six months later.

    Oh yeah! That good feeling aka love bombing always lasts.

    ~Aztec

  • shamus
    shamus

    Exteme Pressure!

    I was putting off getting baptised b/c well, let's say, something that boys do.... I couldn't stop doing it... you know.... I thought that I wasn't worthy of getting baptised! I even wrote into the society asking them if I could, and they said no. (privately, of course... )

    Six months later, an article came out about the dreaded affliction and said that if you were trying to stop doing it, you could get baptised. That was it for me.. I was WILLING AND ABLE AND HAPPY TO.

    What an ass. My teen years were really screwed up b/c of it.

    Let me tell you, I was hard-core... until the hypocrisy got to me...

  • KGB
    KGB

    I was not baptised but came very close to it, yes I did feel pushed into it by my JW folks but I was smarter than the liar who was teaching me....

  • DJ
    DJ

    I wasn't baptized either. I believed it since I was 11 but there was always this part that seemed to be missing. I wasn't sure what it was exactly but it stopped me from ever being baptized. It wasn't until I was in my mid thirties that I realized, at yet another study....that anytime I mentioned Jesus and asked questions they always redirected me back to Jehovah as if I had asked something wrong. The looks on their faces when I persued questions about Christ and what his purpose was for me.. was that of pure anger and hate. After this happened several times I started to doubt them big time and began reading the bible on my own. The night that I read Romans from beginning to end I knew that something big time was wrong with whatI had been taught allof my life. That was the beginning of the end of them for me. thinking back on it now, they never ever taught me anything about Jesus except that he was Michael and he was a perfect man and model. grrrr

  • refiners fire
    refiners fire

    Well Brother. This is a question that has been asked before, and its a good one.

    For my own part Dear daddy reasoned with me to convince me I should get baptized. I felt disinclined to baptism. So when that didnt work he tried humiliation, which didnt work either. When He humiliated me I simply felt humiliated and remained disinclined to baptism. so he resorted to intimidation and threats of violence. At that point I decided that i wanted to get baptized after all.

    He was happy. Sister Oldcrone was happy, her stumbling feet set back on the path of salvation and she ceased her "murmuring" about his having a son "of age" in an unbaptized condition, and he was appointed as an elder. Truly, a fit and proper person to feed Christs little sheep.A compassionate shepherd protecting the innocent ones from ravenous wolves.

  • Ron1968
    Ron1968

    There was no doubt that I felt pressured. I tried to put it off, but it was the thing to do as a jw. Either you got baptized or stopped coming to meetings. There were a few exceptions, but not many.

    Ron

  • KGB
    KGB

    run dont walk,

    I went back and read all of your post.

    Let me tell you what happened and what and why I did not get baptized. I had been previously baptized in the Mormon church. while I was attending the borg meetings and going through the book studies and doing all the things that a good little borg dummy would do I seen some things and was told some things that I did not think was right. You see I am disabled and I was told by the elder who was studing with me. Well first he asked me what is one of the things that you want out of being a witness? I told him I wanted a wife as they do not believe in divorce as I had been married four times in the past all failed. He told me that I would not qualify as a proper husband in the truth because I did not make enough money from my disability to support a family. Talk about getting mad the friggin steam started boiling out of my head and I felt myself resorting back to old days when normally I would of just kicked his ass for that as I kicked some ass in my past for less. Anyway I had got a computer and got online, I asked God in prayer that if I was being deceived again as I had from the Mormon then I would be better off dead so I asked him to lead me in the right direction. The first thing I did when I got on line was did a search on JW`s and there history, WOW ! what I learned and thats how I got here....AMEN >>>Whew I was saved by the grace of God. But unlike most others here I still believe in my lOrd and Love him with all my heart and soul. I am angry at the borg but not my God, after all it was him that took me away from them....

  • Country_Woman
    Country_Woman

    I was just very stupid.
    After finishing "the greatest human that ever lived" (not sure if this is the title in English - my book is'nt showing the original title) I though that my mind was made up - and I did not want to start another study each week for several hours. Babtising made an end to all that visits.
    I walked over everything that got me troubled (like the slave - saying when they are wrong, thats there business and not mine) and got babtised.

    That was 5 years ago - and after that I learned a lot (most through Vivamus) now I am inactive for 2,5 year and not visiting for almost 10 months (with a few acceptions like the memorial and a funeral service.
    Feel good the way it is now, and wished I had the knowledge from today that 5 years ago.

    But wisdom is coming with the years - and maybe I am growing old enough to be wise......

  • refiners fire
    refiners fire

    KGB. You felt like I woulda felt with some smug holy twit telling me how to run my life. Imagine. Some elder in a church announces that your not allowed to get married. The nerve of the son of a bitch. The nerve of the church! Imagine surrendering your right to decide such a matter for yourself to ANYONE! Next they would command you to get up fixing the roof shingles at midnight in the pouring rain.

    Staggering

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