For those that were raised in the Truth, why did YOUR PARENTS become JW's?

by BonaFide 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  PrimateDave

  My mother's parents and my father's mother studied back in the '50s.

  My mother's parents were relatively well off financially, so I don't know what emotional motivation caused them to become Witnesses. My mother really took to it and made it "her own" so to speak. She pioneered and moved to South Carolina to help out where the need was greater, and there she met my father.

  My father's mother faced severe problems trying to raise a family without much help from my grandfather. If my father ever wrote the story, I'm sure it would make for an interesting read. From what I understand, studying with the Witnesses saved my grandmother's life because she was at the end of her ability to cope. Being a Witness gave her something to live for, and she made great efforts to attend meetings and go out in service despite severe opposition from my grandfather. This probably had a great impact on my father.

  My parents are still faithful and active, and I expect they will be in for life. I do not have any bad feelings towards them for having raised me in this religion. I don't believe there is any such a thing as a perfect life, so I try not to piss and moan about "what could have been."

  Dave
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  Heaven

  My Mom's father was disillusioned with the Catholic religion and decided to become a JW. My Mom told me that he had witnessed the priests rowing over to Nun's Island at night (Montreal/Quebec) and then a few years after that, there was a discovery of a bunch of tiny coffins when they started digging to build the Montreal subway. They were the Nuns' aborted babies. This is the story I remember my Mom telling me. My Mom's 2 brothers became JWs.

  My Mom wasn't a JW when us kids were born but she was studying with the Witnesses and used to get the books to study with us kids. My father was not raised a JW -- his parents were Catholic and Protestant and then I think became Baptists or at least attended a Baptist Church for a while. When we were little, my father did not like my Mom going to the Hall so she had to stop going to the meetings.

  My Mom tried to get us as teenagers to study on Sundays with the Witnesses. They used to come to our house. I was the only one that complied. But I saw discrepancies right off ... I didn't agree with their interpretations and, of course, the subjugation of women was something I was incapable of accepting and doing to myself. None of their children joined but after we left home to go to school, my parents decided to become baptized a few years later. I believe my mother decided to get baptized because she thought this was how you receive eternal life and my father did because he was on a path of self-destruction after retiring. Of course, they continuously tried to recruit us kids and began withdrawing from family get togethers.

  My Mom is gone now but my Dad is still a Ministerial Servant.
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  PrimateDave

  I just wanted to clarify my first statement in my previous post, just in case. It could be construed as though my mother's parents studied with my father's mother, but that didn't happen. They lived in different parts of the country and didn't meet until sometime in the '70s.

  Dave
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  yknot

  My mom happen to talk to a nice, modest and wholesome looking girl at the college bookstore.

  My mom accepted a study.She was reeled in with by the core three and never bothered to understand the rest of the WTS spiel except that the end was near, WTS chosen channel, and harvest was being gathered. She was dunked before I was born.

  She remarried a generational JW when I was two and my life of strict religious isolation began shorthly thereafter.

  BF at least you have a point of reference being a non-JW for 6 years! My first 7 years were filled with so much inculcation that I zealously lived, breathed, ate and slept everything WTS. What denomination was your family before your momma committed herself to the troof?