An honest question for those who were "born-in"

by stuckinarut2 27 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Finkelstein

  Did this make you feel confident, or proud - or perhaps arrogant?

  All of those and more.
  

  Add in a measure fear and anxiety by the fear mongering messages the WTS made and it made for a difficult up bringing.

  As a JWS child you are made to be an outsider of the social world in which we live, who apparently knows something the outsiders dont know, that's where the arrogance comes in.

  You cant expect to be told all of your childhood that the world is going to be destroyed soon to not have a compelling psychological effect onto children.

  Fear is fear, death is death, even a child can comprehend what these mean.
  
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  sparrowdown

  Sad but true. Since JW children are not loved just for being born and being themselves the only thing born-ins have is their specialness at being second third fourth generation JW.

  Coz inherited specialness is sooo special. The bible says so.
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  Vidiot

  I never felt particularly "priveleged".

  (Maybe a little relieved, on account of not having to give stuff up upon becoming a JW.)
• 

  Londo111

  I felt lucky (even though I couldn't use that word).

  But as a JW I never felt confident, I felt doomed most of the time. While there's a certain institutional arrogance that comes from being in a cult, it was never an individual arrogance.

  I accepted but struggled with the doctrine that over 99.9% of the world's population was about to be eternally destroyed.
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  stuckinarut2

  I have to add to this.

  I could not reconcile how as Witnesses, we would be so sad when a natural disaster struck killing multitudes of people.

  In my mind, I thought, "its sad, BUT if Armageddon came tomorrow, they would all be killed by Jehovah anyway!... and we would not be able to be sad about that! So this way they get a resurrection - right??"

  Cue head explosion....
  
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  NewYork44M

  I was born in - and considered a "true believer." That being said, I had many questions throughout my life - however, at the time I did not realize these were questions. In retrospect, my questions should have woken me up - but did not.

  One takeaway as someone "raised in the truth:" I was always highly embarrassed by my religion. I cannot think of a time in all my life that I was not embarrassed by being a JW. That is actually quite sad. My embarrassment created guilt that I struggled with.
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  tiki

  You got a high...thinking you were especially blessed...and it does breed arrogance...but my arrogance was eclipsed by embarrasment at being part of a weird religion. As a kid I pretended I wasn't a dub....grew up and there didn't seem to be other choices....stupid me....I was beaten down by the guilt and fear.
• 

  Diogenesister

  *not born in but so young when my "foster mum "converted I don't remember before. I was ostensibly raised by my dad but he was a mentally ill alcoholic who was always at work in london ( media type were boozing was de rigueur in the 70s). My dad's friend/neighbour simply took over. I know many would say I'm far from born in but with no mother and an absent father my only jw carer was very much in loco parentis.
  I think im an interesting case in that i thought i passionately believed, but on reflection my attitudes have always been far from typical for a jw.

  How did you feel to have been "privileged to have been born into the only true faith - The Truth"?o

  I thought that it couldn't just be down to luck. I leaned towards most of the world catching up, and that by the time I was big enough to do vs on my own most of the work would be done (LoLconvenient for me!) and every one converted.

  Did this make you feel confident, or proud - or perhaps arrogant?

  I sort of thought I had had a pretty hard time (see above) so God was kinda giving me a break LoL! I suppose that is a kind of arrogance, since most of the world's kids are way worse off.I was a very emotional kid who loved everyone, as I grew older I thought less and less of myself and thought myself utterly blood guilty...doomed to die. This by the time I was 12 I suppose.
  

  How did you reconcile the fact that 99% of the earth's population was not born "into the Truth"?

  I simply didn't believe God would kill the non believers, I had an excuse for everyone. I thought Watchtower mistaken in this, so I suppose that was dissonence.....or I just never fully understood the religion, deep down, some would say although my foster mum was an educated liberal ups convert, so perhaps she didn't either. She certainlyvrefused to shun her DF daughter and her husband had a big, bushy, untidy beard. He was never your average witness, either. As a baptised brother they did nag him, as it got into the 80s, to get it cut. He refused. Since he was the strong, silent, intelligent type no one had the balls to mess with him in the cong and since he never had aspirations, as guys with genuinely responsible, important jobs often don't, they left him alone in the end.
  

  As a child, did you ever question these things?

  I never questioned that the basic concept was the truth. However the judgementalism...no way, I didn't agree with that. Looking back I remember being shocked my friend thought it was bad to be gay!! I guess I must have known even then it was gUmpf . Or the world had influenced me more than I knew.