QUESTION FROM A BORN-IN . . .WHAT HAPPENED IN YOUR LIFE THAT MADE YOU WANT TO BECOME A JW? (page 2)

LongHairGal

Hi Rebecca,

I was raised Roman Catholic and had nuns in grammar and high school as well. The reason I became a JW was because I was deceived into believing they had cracked some kind of bible 'code'.

I was interested in end-time prophecy and was led to believe JWs had all the answers. It was never my intention to join a dictatorship. All the negative things about the group were hidden from me by the people who studied with me. I was only told nice things and was led to believe the group was simply 'bible students' who had 'no clergy class'.

It all sounded very peachy to me at the time. Now, I am older and wiser.

RebeccaChi

I used to cringe at the sight of everyone in my congregation being so nice and acting normal around newly interested people. Especially the few sane, major-baggage-free people that came along. I knew that would only last until a short time after they got baptized. Then they would be gossiped about if they were not righteous enough.

Found Sheep

My dad joined when he was out in his luck... raising 2 kids on his own, drinking too much, not much of a job and the JW's took over, helped with us kids, gave him a job...

wasblind

STUPIDITY, not a born in, came to my door , believed what they said, love bombed, and then boom. When the scales finally came off of my eyes and i started asking questions and wouldn't stop asking questions about things that didn't make since to me i was giving a good talking too. when i stated that all through out the Bible it says to ask and seek and that it's ok that there would be no punishment, James 1:5 says: "So if anyone of you is lacking in wisdom, let him keep on asking God. for he gives generously to all and without reproaching and it will be given him. I soon learned that not how they do it in the ORG.

Lozhasleft

It makes me sad to read of kids being sad in the 'truth' cos I inflicted it on my own kids. I thought they really had cracked the Bible and Christianity. The cong was so loving and kind and 'family-like' and I wanted that for my family. I am paying a high price now....

Loz x

steve2

My maternal grandparents joined in the 1920s as Bible Students, my grandmother first and then quickly afterwards, my grandfather. My paternal grandparents joined in the mid 1930s - my paternal grandmother's own mother had studied with the Bible Students after they first arrived in New Zealand in 1908 but never took it any further. My mother told me that her mother joined because she felt so isolated living in a remote rural region of New Zealand after having immigrated from Denmark as a teenager and shortly thereafter met my grandfather on the same farm. I often wonder what would have happened had my grandmother gone to a city after immigrating. Rurally, the Bible Students were once very active in this country. I could never figure out why my paternal grandparents joined: They were an unassuming, private couple who seemed to have sleptwalked their way through the years: Never overly zealous participants but always quietly present at meetings and field work. All my grandparents are now deceased. Of all their children, about only 25% remained active and of the grandchildren, even fewer. I'd like to think the JW active influence is dying out of my extended family. Certainly as time passes that seems more likely. Here's hoping.

mrsjones5

I would ask my father, he wasn't a jw when he married my mother. He was baptised 6 years after he married my mother, three years after I was born. But I think he did it mainly for my mother, maybe he thought it would improve things, they fought every day - usually my mother would start the fight. I should say the fighting hasn't stopped.

As I recalled he wasn't very strong it in when I was young. He used to smoke and I think the habit continued a few years after his baptism, he'd smoke at work never at home. He had quit but started again in the early 80's, maybe cause of stress, he'd just lost his job and started up a business of cleaning house and offices (standard jw stuff).

For a long time he stopped going to the meetings and would only go to the hall for the memorial. Now in his late 60's he gone all hardline with the wt stuff, it hasn't improved him any. He was a sweet Dad before, now he's mean and judgemental like my mother - he's her perfect clone.

garyneal

I remember other kids getting treated better than me because both parents were "in the truth", and another mother with kids (and no husband in the cult) talking to my mom about how hurtful that is to her family. I remember my mom telling my brothers and I that my dad would die soon if he did not come to meetings. All of this . . . . by the ripe age of about 4. I could go on for days, and really should write a book.

Your account sounds similar to a book I read called "The Spanking Room: Child's Eye View of the Jehovah's Witnesses." A pastor at the church I currently attend lent me that book and I asked him about what time frame was that book based. Like what Blondie said, people viewed spanking differently back then than they do now.

Still, though, one of the reasons why my daughter does not attend the meetings with mom is because she says, "She spanks my butt."

I know my wife is nothing of the woman described in that book nor does she really believe in spanking save for last resort. However, that book did open my eyes to some things. One wonders how the kids my daughter's age manage to sit quietly at the hall for two hours. Well, let me at least say that now some of the draw and color in their chairs.

As for me, the reason why I thought of joining was because of their 'unity' in worship and their racial diversity. That along with their accurate answers regarding certain things in history made me think that they were sincere people trying to find real truth. Of course, their propaganda lulled me in too but in all that time I never fully bought into it.

Now I am not a witness nor have I ever been.

WTWizard

First, Jehovah Himself saw to it that my efforts to attract the opposite sex would be sabotaged by His interference. The result was that I was ripe to be harvested into the witless religion, and they promised that they would fix the issue. That, plus having zero references and zero material to counter their doctrines, and that the scumbag that "studied" with me would not take no for an answer, and it was assured that I was going into the cancer at the worst possible time.

What they didn't realize is, if they welsh on their promises, it would make it that much easier for me to welsh on my dedication at a later time.

kazar

I was raised Catholic. At age 13 I became completely disillusioned with Catholicism and left all contact with it. At age 18 I met Jehovahs Witnesses. I was told about the new system of living on earth (which alwasys appealed to me) and it seemed to be much less of an organized religion. I had never read a bible and I was very impressed with their expertise. Not to mention the fact that this new system would be arriving in my time as one of the other sheep. Thus, I swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

QUESTION FROM A BORN-IN . . .WHAT HAPPENED IN YOUR LIFE THAT MADE YOU WANT TO BECOME A JW?

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