With me it never actually was the case.All I remember and still hear is make sure you stay with jehovah....Sometimes you just get tired of the same terd getting shoved down your throat.
Being raised as a witness did you ever get the chance to choose your own personal religion?
by make yourself 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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skywho
no it was this IS the truth and that is all!
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asilentone
no way, we are taught not to touch the unclean thing, babylon the great.
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make yourself
I'm coming to the understanding of maybe thats why so many leave the organization year to year at least of ones who have been raised in
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shopaholic
No, they tell that you do but you don't. When you have doubts, even as a kid, you are told that there is no other way. When my young cousins got baptized, I voiced that I thought they were too young. I was asked why and what other option did they have?
Its very much like 'The Village', ever seen it?
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LucyA
"The Village" creepy movie great twist though. As for choose my own personal religion. I'm sort of in a different position from others my fathers not JW so he encouraged me to look into things and think for myself. So in his case yes I was. My mother is JW (she's pioneering right now) her position is I should believe what she believes.
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ana_dote
Anyone raised a witness knows what we all know: there was never a "choice", regardless of any fake encouragement to look into the "deeper things of God". The only reason I ever got baptized is because they were really pushing and soliciting for the pioneer work and kept asking "what's holding you back??" My reaction was that the only thing holding me back was baptism. I never even actually "studied" anything prior to baptism. I didn't even do the supposed "dedication" prayer thingy until after I was baptised because I didn't even realize that was something you were supposed to do. My father was an MS and yet we never did family studies. I feel like my whole baptism was out of sheer desperation for acceptance and the "glory" that came from having the title of being a pioneer. I was a nothing if I wasn't out in service, so I sought acceptance through that.
If I felt then the way I feel now....or heck, even the way I've felt the last few YEARS....I know I would not have been so hasty about getting baptised.
Anyone inside the organization simply ASSUMES you will conform to the belief that it is the "truth" and push that belief with all the force they can muster. There is no choice. There is simply coersion.
I never had a choice. And if I had ever realized that there WAS a choice and chose to look into it, I'm sure that I would have been shunned and ostracized for my curiosity and pummeled once again into acceptance of the WTBTS way of thinking.
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crazy2try
For me it was about the same as other witnesses raises from Birth. But I remember a odd moment with my dad who was a elder at the time. I was 15 and wanted to get baptized and he did not want me to. He told me I was to young and didn't understand the choice I was making. I convinced him otherwise. It was odd because all growing up, he never said anything to me and my brothers about waiting until we had lived life a bit longer. He is no longer a witness either.
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White Dove
Yes, I had the choice to choose to be a JW. The ballot looked like this:
What religion will you choose to follow when you grow up? Please put an X on the line. You MUST make a choice.
1. ___ Jehovah's Witnesses
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White Dove
Kinda makes me wonder why my mom made me wait so long to be baptized if that's what she wanted for me for the rest of my life. Maybe she didn't want me to mess up in my teen years and get df'd.