All of your answers are very interesting to me. Does anybody have anything else to add?
What do you believe is the main reason people become JWS ?
by Homerovah the Almighty 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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wary
The times in which my father became involved must have been exciting.
Around 1969 talk was of 75 and the ushering in of Gods New world.
He had no interest in religion prior to this and his imagination as a young man was captured.
He wanted all these promises for himself but most of all his children.
The Truth book presented a take on how the bible should be understood and he fell for it.
1914 and its implications for the generation was all the proof you needed.
Hence he was indoctrinated and also sincerely belived, as did thousands of others around that time.
I often wondered if they came to my door as an older person wether or not I would have fallen for it.
wary
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cameo-d
I think many people join because the JWs at the door tell them something "new" that they did not know before ( because they are not familiar with Bible and many have not read it), or because they offer some comfort to them when they have "caught" someone going through a deep turmoil or sadness.
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dinah
My father says it was because he couldn't understand the Bible until the WT explained it to him correctly. "Then it all made perfect sense!"
He still hasn't clicked that, because many of the explanations he accepted back in 1939 the WT now says are incorrect, he had based his descision to join on incorrect explanations of the Bible that didn't make perfect sense at all.
I have tried to point that out, but I might as well be talking to a bowl of Jello.
I had that EXACT conversation with my Mom. About the whole "righteous" thing. I think most had low self-esteem (like my Mom) and just want to be told what to do, and love the guilt aspect because somehow it makes them feel at home.
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Bubblie
I guess I fall into the hippie catagory, since the dubs seemed to be outside the other churches. It was radical enough to believe in God without believing the traditional religious beliefs and no rituals. Hated giving up drugs. Had all ready quit smoking cigs but weed was difficult to leave. Missed it. The things you do for paradise that never came! Remember it is still just around the corner!
Kit
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IP_SEC
cause they want to.
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Scarred for life
I think most had low self-esteem (like my Mom) and just want to be told what to do, and love the guilt aspect because somehow it makes them
feel at home.
This totally fits my Mom also. And really it fits most of her family. I understand them. I just still haven't figured out my father. And maybe I never will. I'd just like to have some level of understanding of how he got so entrenched in this cult for so much of his adult life.
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purplesofa
I don't think all reasons for becoming a JW are from weaknesses.
I was looking for a closer relationship to God, I wanted to understand the bible.
I checked out other religions before becoming a Witness.
What I did not know then, that I do know, is that you don't need religion to be close to God.
purps
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whyizit
Because the Mormons didn't make it there first, on that day of vulnerability.
Instant friends, smarter and better than everyone else, petting koalas and lions in the sunshine, while having a picnic by a stream....what more could you ask for? (Never mind about how they had to clean up billions of piles of bones and rubble with shovels and wheel barrows, after watching their friends and family who were not JWs be eaten by worms and birds.) Glorious!
Of course, they don't tell you how it REALLY is, until you are in too deep. Better not like Lucky Charms cereal, is all I have to say!
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yknot
Born/raised- To make everyone happy, love them, pay attention to them, peer pressure or receive praise
Converts- At a low point in their lives......(lonely, depressed, stressed, confused, etc)