Getting baptized because it was "the right thing to do"

by sabastious 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  sabastious

  Back when I was about 14 I was approached by an elder that I considered a friend. In hindsight it is obvious that he was "assigned to me" to encourage baptism. He told me that he got baptized because it was the "right thing to do." He admitted that he did it for the wrong reasons but it worked out in the end (he didn't really explain why).

  Have any of you had similar experiences of being pressured to get baptized. I remember it being relentless; from my recolection the unbaptized publishers were expected to be working towards baptism and if you were not there was something very wrong. They never explained what that "wrong" was.

  I have always been an idealist and especially when I was an adolescent. I told myself that when I got baptized it would not be for men it would be for God. I have been called a hopeless romatic a few times in my life :)

  I was very open about my aversion to baptism. The pressure put a bad taste in my mouth and I didn't feel comfortable doing it because "it was the right thing to do." What made it so right?

  I got a wide range of opinions from the members of my congregation from "if Armageddon comes and you're not baptized then you will be executed" to more of a Nike slogan type of advice of "just do it."

  Such an odd and confusing childhood it is for a JW.

  -Sab
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  3Mozzies

  I wasn't pressured but I was told by my bible study conductor at the time: "3Mozzies, you will never know the feeling of protection from Jehovah unless you are baptised" . . . (I was young at the time, I fell for it)

  What a crock, the stuff that happened to me years later as a baptised JW proved that either; Jehovah forgot to protect me or he didn't exists. I think we all know which it was . . .

  Currently I'm helping a young unbaptised publisher from my (ex)KH not to get baptised, I have been planting so many seeds in his brain, I think it's going to grow a fern. He is being pressured to get baptised, so I am working as hard as possible to help him. It really looks like it is working.

  3Mozzies
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  MrFreeze

  Some of the worst actions in the history of humankind were done because people were tricked into thinking it was the right thing to do.

  Not saying that getting baptised is comparable to some things that come to my mind but the point still stands.
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  VampireDCLXV

  When I was a teen, I didn't buy into the "right thing to do ('cuz everybody else is doing it)" bullcrap at all. I just couldn't. Too bad i got suckered into it a decade later...

  V665
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  finallysomepride

  I was baptised in 1982, for "god's protection at armageddon" under pressure from my uncle/elder whom I was living with the time, and was told it was the "right thing to do" by my friends. Afterwards I felt no different than b4, no god's protection, no holy spirit, all I got was a bit of a smim in the pool LOL, by the end of 1982 i had stopped going d2d permanently & started my slow exit from the borg.

  I always thought baptism was a personal decision never to be pressured into it by others, well that's what they used to tell us from the stage, how wrong was I?
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  stapler99

  I was never baptized. I've heard from others too that they felt no different afterwards. I never got baptized because I never felt like I understood the doctrines properly and how they came from the Bible. I blamed myself for this. I felt like I should be doing more personal study and Bible reading, but always procrastinated. What lesson does this teach me - that conscientiousness is a bad character trait? I also believed, based on Watchtower literature, that a decision to get baptized should be motivated by a deep love for Jehovah, which I did not have. Guess I was just too intellectually honest to get baptized.

  I didn't have a lot of spoken pressure but it was always on my mind. It was something unspoken, which made me uncomfortable and afraid when the subject might come up between me and my parents. I postponed baptism long through my teens until I left for good.
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  Joliette

  I never got baptized, but I became an upbaptized publisher. I got my 'publisher privileges' taken away because I confessed to the elders that I slept with an ex-boyfriend, and they told me that its best that I start over again. I've had studies on and off since then, but by the end of 2009, after talking to a co-worker and doing research, I concluded that I was not in the truth.

  Thank goodness I never did!
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  LongHairGal

  SABASTIOUS:

  As far as I was concerned, they pushed baptism on everybody because "Armageddon" was right around the corner. They made it sound as if you had a sword hanging over your head unless you got baptized.

  I wasn't a born-in. I came in as a young adult and 'studied'. I think it was a high-pressure guilt-trip to get baptized.
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  sabastious

  As far as I was concerned, they pushed baptism on everybody because "Armageddon" was right around the corner. They made it sound as if you had a sword hanging over your head unless you got baptized.

  Also if you are baptized it officially makes you a member of the JWs and you are expected to donate. Follow the money.

  -Sab