To those who were ‘born in’

by poopsiecakes 18 Replies latest jw friends

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  poopsiecakes

  While you were a witness, did you ever play the ‘what if’ game? I would occasionally sit with my friends and we’d bandy the ideas around…if we weren’t born in would we be interested if someone knocked at our door…would we want to go to college…would we be promiscuous…

  It was interesting to hear the responses and I think about that now. One thing I always knew was that if someone knocked at my door a) chances are I wouldn’t answer and b) although I would be polite, I would not have any interest whatsoever. I told my dad once that I didn’t understand this human spiritual need that I would hear about because I never felt it. Needless to say, he didn’t understand that at all…
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  miseryloveselders

  Good question. When I see other religious types, I've often thought of them as strange. Growing up in this, I can't tell whether or not thats due to looking at them as part of Babylon the Great my entire life, or if it's because I'm more secular in nature and hence view zealots with suspicion. Lately I'm leaning toward the latter. The picture of Fred Franz with the red flannel and holding a bible in one hand comes to mind. If he approached me, I would without even hearing what he has to say, tel him, I'm not interested. When I've talked to some people in my Hall, and worked with them in FS, sometimes I cringe at how they present themselves and their message. They scare me to some degree. If one of them knocked on my door, I'd probably tell them mark me on the DNC list.
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  Joshnaz

  Good question. I will only have my answer by watching my son grow up and see what he does. (That's as close to an answer I can get)
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  Twitch

  As a born in kid, I played that game a lot but not with anyone else. They'd rat me out,...
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  TheSilence

  I often asked myself 'what if they had never knocked on the door and talked to my dad', but it was always alone, never a game with others. However, I would speculate that most kids, even a lot of adults, play the what if game... what if we were rich, what if so and so was my mom, what if I had chosen a different college, what if I hadn't screwed things up with that one that got away, what if I had gone to college or chosen a different major, what if I quit my job tomorrow, what if I won the lottery, what if I had a pony, and on and on. I don't think the what if game is something unique to children raised as witnesses.

  Jackie
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  jwfacts

  Yes, I thought about it all the time. I knew that there is no way I would have changed religion because two strangers tried to sell me magazines at my door. It made me wonder why I should be one of the few saved at Armageddon simply because I was lucky enough to have a religion handed to me by my parents.
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  doublelife

  I've thought about this before. I always knew without a doubt that if I wasn't a born-in I wouldn't have been interested. I used to be so thankful to Jehovah that I was born-in because otherwise I would not have came into "the truth" and would have died at armageddon.

  Even in my most die hard dub days, I used to always put the jws in the same category as the mormons. Of coarse, I never told anyone that because I knew it wouldn't go over too well.

  As for going to college, I really don't know if I would have been interested in that. I'm interested in it now but I grew up thinking that it was stupid and a waste of time. If I wasn't a born-in I honestly don't know how that would have affected my attitude towards education.
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  poopsiecakes

  I think it's safe to say that loonies are everywhere, in every religion, and everywhere you find loyalty without question like big corporations or even small companies like the one I work for.

  I was fortunate in that I had some friends who liked to speculate every once in a while - always prefaced by 'isn't it wonderful to be in the truth' to cover our asses. Some of the most interesting conversations I've had of this nature were with elders and 'higher ups' - CO's, bethelites, and even one guy who did research for the writing committee. Looking back and remembering those chats and their take on things from the standpoint of not being a witness anymore is somewhat enlightening. Not everyone follows blindly and some definitely have their own ideas about stuff - they just don't voice it to most people and toe the line when giving talks and stuff. I guess that's cognitive dissonance at it's finest.
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  leec

  I'm not born-in, so maybe my reply isn't that interesting, but this issue of knocking on doors is one I've been thinking about for a long time. Back in the days of Russell and Rutherford it was a normal practice to go around knocking on people's doors - just in general for many different reasons. Traveling salesmen used that as their primary means of doing business. When there was a knock at the door, people would generally answer it.

  100 years later I think it's a very different world. Personally, I never answer the door unless I am expecting someone and then look to see that I recognize the person (or that they're at least from UPS or some other official agency I would want or need to interact with). Other than that though, the entire practice of going around knocking on doors for any reason - canvassing, selling, preaching ... it's outmoded and dying away.

  If JWs are governed by a body who is generally not up on changing times (which seems very much to be the case), then maybe this is a reason for their failure to gain much additional popularity among 'worldy folk.'
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  LittleSister

  Sadly never played the what if game, would have been fun.

  Had I not been born in I think I would have partied a lot more so chances are if someone knocked on my door I would be out, asleep or hung-over. Either way I don't think I would have been converted.