by free2beme 26 Replies latest jw friends
"so and so is baptised, what's preventing you?"
I got that, so many times, it was unbelievable. In the end I replied by making up some excuse about my unbelieving father wanting me to wait until I was legally an adult. (This was a Bullshit excuse, I barely saw the man, but they weren't to know that)
I think they encouraged the young people to get baptized to pad the numbers at the end of the year. Adults are hard to convince and take years, a kid you can push into it in one day.
I was 14, and did it only because other ones my age were doing it, and I felt that I had to do it too, or risk being talked about more negatively than I already was. I also (mistakenly) thought that I would be given more respect if I was baptized (HAH- once you are given a label, it doesn't matter what you do, even if you never did anything in the first place) Definitely no heartfelt emotion involved!
It's kinda funny, they were always warning us JW kids of peer pressure and following the kids in the world, when in actuality they were telling us to be selective in which peer pressure to cave in to, and which peer pressure we should withstand.
In my case, I got baptized because I was guilted into doing so, and because I got sick of people constantly asking me when I was going to get baptized. Sad thing though, I was one of the oldest to get baptized in my congregation (I was 14) while the majority of them got baptized between 10-13. I have one friend though who got baptized when he was 18.
I think they encouraged the young people to get baptized to pad the numbers at the end of the year. Adults are hard to convince and take years, a kid you can push into it in one day.
That is so true. I knew someone else in my old congregation that was pushed by his mom to get baptized when he was 13. The thing is, the person who was studying with him told the elders that he wasn't ready for baptism yet, but the elders gave him the go ahead to get baptized anyways.
Here's one that did it to make her parents happy and proud.
What a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!
DY
I wanted to please my mom who was going through a hard time with my dad.
Also it was 1973, with 1975 right around the corner, I was afriad that mom's devotion was enough to get me into the new ystem.
I wayyy too young.
