My mom joined when she was a young mother living in an isolated rural area. She was stuck at home for days at a time with three little kids while my dad was at work. One day two very nice ladies stopped by offering a free home bible study. She liked the bible and the adult company. Before long she was sucked in.
What do you believe is the main reason people become JWS ?
by Homerovah the Almighty 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Black Sheep
"Because the Mormons didn't make it there first,..."
I am sure that if they had knocked on my father's door first, I would be an apostate Mormon.
Their doctrines have the same quality of support, and they are more efficient at recruiting.
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Homerovah the Almighty
It appears that most people who were never born into the religion, more than likely entered into it
in their young adulthood and just for the many reasons that you folks have mentioned.
It most likely seems inviting to people to have a free home bible study and of course it has something
to whom and how the invitation was presented at the door. As for my mother she was most likely taken by
by the nice elderly lady, who was quite friendly to her and then the magazines did the rest of the work.
I guess there are a number of reasons why people join the JWS and stay as long as they do.
My father for example has been going steady now for some 57 years now, thats a lot of meetings and allot
Saturday morning service outings...........Sheesh
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zagor
It is something very deep in human psyche and I'm starting to believe that goes way deeper than religion itself; and it comes right form our subconscious and how we are train through life to think about life and springs into many other areas (including religious ideas) and why we love to cling to, or form certain conclusions and then stick to them even when our "evidence" if we can call it that at all is, at best, contradictory even to us but our emotional state being formed by our subconscious chooses to let certain things in and leave other out. We fill the blanks with our fantasies to the point where our imagination takes place of reality.
It was very well described in the book Archetypal Explorations by R.M. Gray.
Fantasy especially intervenes where exact knowledge is lacking; and when fantasy does intervene, it becomes especially difficult to gain exact knowledge. Thus, a vicious circle forms, and the mythical usurps theory-forming; furthermore, the mythic is given fantastic witness in observation. Seeing is believing, but believing is seeing. We see what we believe and prove our beliefs with what we see. (p 1, 1996)
Religious implications are simply us looking for those with similar way of thinking where in a small circle our fantasies become our truths. But like I said, this can be applied to many other social interactions and not only to religion.
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quietlyleaving
JWs actually witnessed to my mom and sister first. They rejected them. Of course that was a signal for me to look into Jehovahs witnesses. A desire to see change and bring about change motivates many JWs imo. This is a postive quality and is one that impels us finally to leave and also to take up a reforming stance.
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LouBelle
The hope of seeing loved ones rise from the dead and living forever - many many people don't want to die.
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Homerovah the Almighty
I guess there is that wanting connection to be close to god , for what ever reason, spirituality, power, guidance from a higher power and so forth.
The JWS are quick to imply to the newly interested ones that the Armageddon is impending soon so its important for all to be in his approval and
the most obvious thing to do to be in his approval is to join the JWS and in short time to be baptized.
Fear does play a role in the process of culling followers.
Reminds me those WT and AW magazines with pictures of buildings falling on to people and flames from the skies
burn people to death. Fear , fear and more fear its no wonder they're a lot of JWS who suffer from depression and other
psychological ailments, pushing people to suicide.
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willyloman
One reason people give themselves over to a religion, even if they have intellectual objections to it, is that they have a hole in their soul that needs filling. When a religion comes along that has all the answers and spells out the steps to take to fill that hole, it's easy to convince yourself that you've found what you're looking for.
These people (and I include myself) get a sense of satisfaction and security once inside the fold and they tend to stay for as long as there's an emotional payoff. At some point, perhaps years later, they may begin to have doubts. By then they may be too invested to leave. But some do.