Were your parents a different religion before JDubism? (page 2)

lovelylil

I was raised Roman Catholic. I left at 12 deciding not to be confirmed into it. My family is still 99% Roman Catholic and staunch ones too!

Check this out Crumpet. http://jwfacts.com/experiences/crumpet.htm I found it moving and hope others do too. It shows the disfellowshipping system makes parents turn their backs on their children when they need it most. Tell me if you want anything changed.

Jim_TX

"Do you know what turned your folks off Baptists and on to JWs - was there a particular belief they preferred?"

I don't know if it was a particular 'belief' perse... well... maybe... my family was 'strange'.

When I was small, I was part of a large famly. 7 kiddos, 2 parents. My dad - at that time - was very sick - and not working. We had very little. The Baptist Church that we attended would send the little ones home with an envelope for 'pledging' money in... we had none to give.

If I recall correctly, the church 'elders' (or whoever they are) came over and insisted that my parents put something on the envelope to 'pledge'. My dad got tired of their shennagans and said, "OK. Here is what I pledge". ... and wrote a big '0' (zero) on the envelope. This didn't sit too well with the church people.

Anyway - I think that like so many people that get involved with the JWs - my folks were at a 'low point' in their lives when the JWs came door-knocking.

I think my mom accepted - more than my dad. He just sat back and made comments like 'that makes sense' - but was usually too tired to attend the brain-washing sessions... er... uh... I mean 'meetings'.

They also liked that the JWs didn't insist on 'pledging' monies - but had a 'contribution box' type system.

Anyway... in 1963, my whole family was involved in a car accident where my dad and one of my sisters were killed. The local JWs - in the Hill Country - flocked around and 'love-bombed' my mom, and that pretty much clinched the deal (her bcoming a JW).

Oh... back then, I think that the JWs were more sincere than they might be nowadays... misled, misguided - too.

My mom also was looking forward to that big 'A' - and the resurrection that would occur afterwards, where she could be reunited with her husband and daughter. She was soooo looking forward to it that she didn't want any of us to grow up and leave home. I did when I was 21. I was instantly shunned and barely spoken to as a result.

The rest? My other siblings... all 5 of them stayed at home - except later - one brother finally left and got married to a JW gal. He was instantly shunned, too.

The others continued living at home - well into their 50's. My oldest sister passed away in 1996 (or so) from cancer. Never married. Never dated. Never kissed.

My mom passed away in about 2003 (or so). Cancer. Never re-married.

One other sister passed away this past spring - she was about 53. Never kissed. Never dated. Never married.

Only two remain 'at home'. They're still hanging onto that 'hope'. The big 'A' - the resurrection. The 'happily ever after' that follows.

One comment that my sister made at my mom's funeral that I thought sad, when she was talking to a friend... "Well... we all thought the new system would be here by now...".

Regards,

Jim TX

jschwehm

Hi:

My dad and his family were Catholic. By the time I came along I do not think my Dad was really practicing his faith all that much. My Mom was a very devout Missouri Synod Lutheran. She taught Sunday School and I even attended a Lutheran School for one year.

Then my grandmother (maternal) died unexpectedly. My mother became very depressed and according to my non-JW relatives suicidal. Not long after this, my mother's best friend from high school showed up and had converted to the JWs. My Mom bought it hook, line, and sinker.

Then my Dad and his parents and one of my Dad's sisters became JWs. They were all nominally Catholic. My Lutheran relatives wanted none of it.

I left the JWs in 1996 and went back to the Lutheran Church. Then in 2003 my wife and I entered the Catholic Church.

Jeff S.

www.catholicxjw.com

kazar

My mother was Methodist, 'though non-practicing. She rarely went to church and never told us her beliefs. My father was raised Catholic but hated all religion. I am the only one in my family who converted to Jehovah's Witnesses out of four siblings. I converted at 17. I had lost all illusion in Catholicism at age 12, primarily because of their belief in a fiery hell so when the Witnesses came along with their message of paradise and no hellfire I was hooked. My father ranted constantly about the Witnesses being frauds but my mother never said a word.

Crumpet

Check this out Crumpet. http://jwfacts.com/experiences/crumpet.htm I found it moving and hope others do too. It shows the disfellowshipping system makes parents turn their backs on their children when they need it most. Tell me if you want anything changed.

JWFACTS! I forgot all about that! Wow - you put everything so well. I just wondered should be change the names - as I wouldnt want to hurt my cousins if they came looking for me on the internet?

Good Girl or Bad Girl?

((((((((((Crumpet)))))))))))) I read your experience on jwfacts' page and it's heartbreaking! You have been through so much, and yet you are such a positive-spirited, up-beat presence on this forum! You are wonderful!

My parents converted to JW's after they were married and my older sister was a baby. I don't think my dad was raised religiously at all, maybe they were part of a group nominally. My mom's mom went to church (Methodist, I think) but never made the kids go. My mom's dad was raised Catholic but was disowned by his family for not making his wife convert.

Anyway, my mom as a teenager was interested in religion and went to church on her own. I guess she was always searching because after she and Dad got married JW's knocked on her door and she had Bible questions for them that they answered. Dad was opposed at first but came around. I would definitely describe my mom as a sentimental person, vulnerable, searching for something. So she was typecast for the JW's.

Wordly Andre

Both of my parents were Catholic, they joined before I and my sister were born. I can't say what made them do it, I think it was the time leading up to 1975 I heard they got a bunch new members including my parents. Dave-T who was your mom praying to? doesn't sound like god to me, I know god wouldn't have sent JW to her, ha ha ha

delilah

Hi there Crumpet...My parents were both raised as Anglicans. They became Jdubs when I was about 10 or so. My mom became enraged at a god who could take children to be in heaven with him, in such horrible ways. Her sibling died from a disease contracted at a young age. The Anglican minister had no other answer than God needed another angel.

At that time the witnesses came calling, and offered her a"better" explanation.The rest is history, as they say.

MidwichCuckoo

Good Old Church Of England.

Were your parents a different religion before JDubism?

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