Things JW's say: "If I wasn't raised in, I would never have come in." (page 2)

sass_my_frass

I used to say it a lot, to people who would then not talk to me, heh.

It's a combination of all three.

DHL

I don't remember any active JW saying that.

But if that had ever happened, I would have thought: "What a lame excuse for not making a change right now!"

I actually had this conversation when I was a teenager with one of my jw friends. I said I didn't know how I would have reacted if I was a non jw and a jw came to my door. How would I know...I might have turned them away. She said not to think like that....I'd drive myself crazy.

Coffee

jwfacts

I used to say that, and I have others say it too. For me it was an indication of a lack of faith, yet sadly I took many years to realise what I meant and even more years to pluck up the courage to leave.

Seeker4

My father died when I was less than two years old. My mother remarried to a much younger man (she was knocked up as they say), whose mother was a nominal JW. That was all the connection that was needed. My parents and the rest of the family started studying, they were baptized in March of 1963 and I was baptized almost exactly six months later.

Looking back, I honestly believe I would never have had anything to do with the Witnesses if my father hadn't died and our circumstances changed.

Oh well...

S4

under_believer

I suppose it wasn't fair of me to throw the question out and not answer it myself. I never, ever, ever would have become a Witness if my parents hadn't raised me in it.
For starters, there are logistics problems. I instantly turn away anybody I don't know who calls on my house unsolicited, calls me on the phone unsolicited, or for that matter even tries to start a conversation with me in public.
Secondly, the kind of escapism necessary to look at those pictures of paradise and a) believe they are a real possibility and b) actually want to live there is completely outside of my thought process. Anybody who says they know all the answers is automatically held in deep suspicion by me.
Thirdly, even assuming the first two problems could be surmounted, once I realized how they take all of those prophecies and say it's talking about them personally? Come ON... Do they even know how that looks?
And lastly, I am a bit of a hedonist. I love sex, food, alcohol, travel, playing with children, playing with adults, gardening, etc... all the stuff that is either sinful or should be enjoyed in a "balanced" manner, balanced with repetetive study, meeting attendance, door to door work. That would have been a really tough sell with me.
Only, I WAS raised in it, and now I'm in a trap of sorts. Bugger.

greendawn

It means that they are disappointed with the JWs though they can never know for sure how they would react if they never had been JWs and then got approached by the dubs. Many people without insider knowledge got fooled.

morwen

I remember as a young teenager wondering if I was not raised as a JW,if I would have ever "come in" on my own.

I had doubts about that because looking at everything "worldly" people got to do having fun,I was left to go.......... preaching as much as possible-every weekend,5 meetings a week,making sure to study for all those 5 meetings,prepare and give talks,family study,personal study, which means you go to school or work for 5 days a week then your suppose to go preaching on Sat. morning & afternoon then on Sunday go to the friggin public talk/WT study.So you have MAYBE slim parts of Sat and Sun. to do what you like but even then your suppose to be preparing for the next weeks meetings and service.And if you were to snag a bit of fun/free time,you were to feel gulity about it!!

And your still NEVER DOING ENOUGH!!! But then the thought of the narrow path being hard but it leads to life would kick in(now I'd like to kick myself in the @$$ for being so stupid)

Fun was evil,parties were evil,sex was evil,girls were evil,even fun thoughts were evil,everything besides the WTS was evil, Grrrrrrrrrr! I'd like to think I would have never been in this crazy cult had I not been born into it.I'm just happy to have made it out when I did, thanks to my great "thinking for himself" husband who spent many hours talking and reasoning with me,wished it would have been sooner but oh well.I'm FREEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Free I tell you!!!

I hope to teach my children,and my children's children about the hard lesson I've learned and never to repeat it.

Morwen

Good Girl or Bad Girl?

Wishful thinking?
A tacit admission that either the message is unpalateable for the average person, or the preaching methods are inefficient?
A statement that they don't really believe it's the truth, but they're stuck now?

It's a combination of these three things, definitely, like others have said.

For me, it was the wishful thinking more than anything else. I felt like I didn't get to experience anything that normal people get to experience. Usually I could convince myself that Jehovah didn't want me to experience these things and that it was the narrow path, like morwen said.

I remember wishing in high school that I could have had the opportunity to experience life first before learning the "Truth." I guess I didn't realize until right now that it kind of indicates my "wayward" thinking started quite a while ago. Notice I thought that being "worldly" was experiencing life. I remember thinking it was unfair for my parents to expect so much of me as a child, when they had converted in their early 20's, after having "cohabitated" with one another prior to their marriage. But they expected perfection from their children.

Good Girl

Soledad

I used to say that all the time. Also there were so many different scenarious where I found myself thinking "if I weren't a JW I would do........."

Things JW's say: "If I wasn't raised in, I would never have come in."