I agree 100%
I was baptized at 16 to basically make my parents shut up. In my congregation if you were any older then 17 or 18 and wasn't baptized that meant that there was something wrong with you.
I remember kids as young as 9 getting baptized!
i believe we were taught that jesus was around thirty years old when he was baptized.
now i was always told that the bible mentioned specific things like times and dates for a reason .as a guide for us to follow.
so by telling us his age this would seem to be very important for us .
I agree 100%
I was baptized at 16 to basically make my parents shut up. In my congregation if you were any older then 17 or 18 and wasn't baptized that meant that there was something wrong with you.
I remember kids as young as 9 getting baptized!
i guess i shouldn't be surprised at this, but my dub sister told me this morning that at the meeting last night, they had a "local needs" about whether or not "christian" parents should enroll their kids in any summer camps, or recreational activities that colleges and universities offer each year.
the list of activities the kids can do are numerous and to me, they are an excellent source that could really help develop a child's talents, expose them to the wonders of science, art, engineering, etc., develop skills that would obviously be of benefit to them both now and in later life, and give them a chance to meet new friends from other schools in the area.
anyway, while not out and out forbidding it, these activities are being very much frowned upon.
They were discouraging us from anything that would take us away from summer pioneering years and years ago. Can't they think of anything new to say?
Oh I forgot . .the "new" light. . . silly me.
hello again from sunny north carolina!!!.
our state lotto started today, and i won 15 dollars, and only bought 1 $1 card.
so whoop whoop for gambling.. i was in miami florida last week for the photoshop world conference, but i also got to tour the everglades, where i took some beautiful pictures.
This has been a real "eye opening" for me.
Parts of this made me want to cry . .seeing their reasoning on how they handled my molester. He was my brother-in-law and a MS at the time. His priviledges in the hall were revoked.
My sister (not his wife) told me recently that he was up for MS again but because I was underage at the time of the molestation, that he couldn't be appointed again. But notes made from The Flock book states that if he were to be appointed again that his molestation record should be destroyed.
Now I am wondering if what my sister told me is true.
hello, i am new in this forum.
i have been trying to find a lot of things since i have a lot of jw around me and always wanted to find evidences to prove them wrong.
i hope to find myself good and find enough information in this site to be able to talk with them.
Welcome!
Finding evidence to prove your JW friends wrong doesn't seem to be too hard to do since there is so much of it.
i think back at some of the simpler things we couldn't do or have because we were a witness.
i hardly know my father's (worldly) side of the family.
didn't know my grandfather, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins.
I just wished for once I could have been like everyone else . .celebrating Halloween . . Christmas . .my birthday.
I also missed out on hanging out with some good friends from school because they were "worldy".
I also wish I had the chance to date a few people before being pretty much forced to marry the first guy I ever went out with. I often wonder where I would be today if I had that choice.
I wanted to go to the prom and also go to college. My dream was to become a nurse.
so for you what made you leave?.
what helped you stay out?.
did you have support from friends or anyone (online included .
What made me leave? I got married way too young (19) to a "brother" that I hardly knew. Of course there wasn't much of chance to get to really know who he was deep down because we were never allowed to be alone. I felt a great amount of pressure to marry him since we were dating and dating is "only for marriage". I married him exactly 11 months after I met him. I was miserable in that marriage and I felt it was unfair that I had no way out just because I made a mistake and got married. I felt the only way for me to get out was to have an affair and thats exactly what I did. I did not however count on him forgiving me.
What helped me stay out? I will admit that I miss my family terribly, but having the FREEDOM to think for myself and make my own decisions was such a breath of fresh air for me. I wasn't willing to give that up.
Do I have support of friends? I actually work with a disfellowshipped girl. (she got disfellowshipped for falling in love with a worldy guy and she left her husband). She has been my support when I need someone. Her family does not shun her (my family shuns me) so I feel she is extremely lucky in that regard. Also having on-line support helps sooo much. The people on this site REALLY know what you went through.
what i mean is now that you are out of the wt; do you ever think back at something you innocently said or did when you still believed or you were little that now feels like a sign that you would someday get out of the bullsh*t?
for me, growing up in the jw's, i feel there were signs of my "goat hairs" even way back then.
** even as a child, every saturday morning i would spend at least 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out what to say to get out of going to field service .
I ALWAYS hated field service. . on Saturday mornings I would fake a stomach ache or something like that (staying in the bathroom for 1/2 hour just to "prove" I was sick). I was embarassed to be a Witness . .never wanted anyone at school to know. In elementary school I would make up stories about celebrating Christmas or my birthday just to try and fit in.
I remember thinking all the time "if ALL the religions out there . .why did my parents pick THIS one?"
I never studied . .only fake studied . .highlighting every other sentence seemed to work well.
As an early teen I would tell my parents I was going to the mall and I would really meet a worldy boy out somewhere (never did have sex before marriage though).
I remember once at the bookstudy the conductor made a comment that some people haven't fallen into serious sin yet because they haven't been given the "opportunity". . I felt like he was talking to me.
in my latest post in my story, i recounted how my dad and another elder made attendance at high school sports events a no-no.
in retrospect, i don't recall anything in print that made attendance at local sporting events a shepherding offense.
maybe my memory is faulty.. did your boe make rules like this?.
Man, I was just remined what a sucky childhood I had.
Never could have any fun . .no organized sports, no dances, no worldly friends, no smoking, no sex (lol).
i need some input on how to proceed with a scheduled meeting with elders i haven't seen in 18mo.
i have not attended a meeting in over 2yrs.
they sent a letter requesting my presents at 8:00 pm tonight.
Good luck with tonight.
This too shall pass!
It amazes me how they are never there when you need them, but they sure show up when they think they can catch you at doing something wrong.
hello, my name is bonnie, i will start by how i came "into the truth".
my husband and i lived in dallas, tex in '72, of course we were not married at the time of our being contacted by a work friend of his, though they still befriended us and our families became close.
soon, we were married and quickly thereafter, we were invited to the kingdom hall.
Hi Bonnie . .welcome.
I was horrified to read your story . . the spouse . . the ex-friend . .and the "railroading" at the KH.
Like everyone else said . .there really is a lack of love. When I was in, there were cliques and such and if you were not part of the "special group" you were practically invisible.
Growing up my family was not in the "in crowd" mostly because of my dads explosive temper, our lack of money, and his drinking problem and I remember groups of young teens getting together and each others houses for movie nights and my sister and I never being invited. Was that loving on their parents side in invite all the teens from the hall except me and my sister??? I don't think so. It hurt, and 20 years later I still recall the feeling.
Looking forward to more of your postings.