by hillary_step 62 Replies latest jw friends
Born September 1945
Parents baptized March 1950
I was baptized May 1955, aged 9
Married December 1962, aged 17
Husband became an elder in 1973
Four kids, still married to same man
Left (after a two year gradual plan) July 1997
Not DF'd or DA'd
All my kids are out.....none of us DF'd or DA'd
Total years in? 42!! Egads!!
Marilyn (a.k.a. Mulan)
LoneWolf you and I are the same age. I was born on Oct. 17, same as Prisca, (probably Christ's birthday as well. Hey, one chance in 31 according to the WT.) Born in it - third generation. One of my mother's aunt's was a member of Rutherford's elite.
I was babtized at the age of 10 at my own volition, no pressure involved. Started fading in 1963 with my wife right after we got married. Fully out by 1970.
Lone Wolf, I really liked your refections threads.
Hillary,
OK, fess up and tell us your story. I know you just left recently but that is about all I know.
Thanks, larc.
Last I heard, Hillary's still in. He's trying to ease out in a way that he can keep his family. Am I right Hill, or am I mixing you up with someone else?
LoneWolf
Born May 1947. Baptized at an International ass. in Nurnberg Germany on August 15, 1969. The ass. lasted 8 days.
I totally quit my addiction in 1999. turn 1999 around.
Religion is opium for the people
Karl Marx
Raised in Troof - Baptised Dec 1992 (age 16)
Angharad,
Didn't take you long to figure things out, did it? Took some of us 2 to 3 times that long. Clever girl!
Cheers,
Ozzie
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous
Owe that to Simon Ozzie, I'd still be in if he hadn't looked into things.
Just in tune with Priscas post,In all honesty I think the actual baptism as a JW has little relevance to anyone but the Societys lawyers who use it against you if you protest at cruel treatment ,as baptism is seen as accepting club dictates.
It is the mental indoctrination process that traps you in there mind set and this usually occurs well before baptism,the questions you go through before you get baptized which are supposed to prepare you and teach you are about more about what they forget to tell you about the religion than anything,even so, some people never get baptized but are trapped by this mindset and need deprograming,I know a JW study so screwed up by guilt that he would not be able to reach the requirements of the 'Truth' he hung himself before he got baptized.
I did not get baptized until I was 19,but the constant fear of destuction at Armageddon,the affect on my goals and education,all sorts of things the religion profoudedly affected me from a very tender age.
My mom started studying in Jan. 1962 when I was a month past my fourth birthday. She embraced the truth whole-heartedly and was baptized that summer. I would probably not need both hands to count the number of meetings she has missed since then.
I was baptized Mar. 17, 1974... just in time for '75 (whew! Barely made it!!)
I would have to agree with the others on the power of early indoctrination. My mother started studying when I was 11. Before the year was over I had asked to be baptized - and that was before my mother asked. (my grandmother and 4 of her children were already baptized). My baptism was refused - told me I was too young.
I then went away from the family into a foster home (very complicated story). I was in foster care for 3 years and during that time I continued to obey the rules of the JWs even though I only met 2 other adult JWs in that time and went to no meetings. At school I sat in the hall and refused to salute the flag or celebrate holidays. The other JW kids would not talk to me. They never saw me at a meeting and refused to believe me when I said I was a JW so they shunned me -- hahah even then and I was doing all the same things as they were.
When I went back to live with my mother at 16 I was at a meeting the first night - out in service on the weekend and baptized within a year. That is how powerful the indocrination was for me as a young child.
Took me until 35 to leave and 45 to wake up and see the truth - the real one
