OHH YESS-
too young for marriage, too young to reject DA TROOF, but old enough to die refusing blood for a book publishing cult...
HB
More WT Propaganda: 10 Year Old Children Should Get Baptized!
by Oubliette 44 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
JustHuman14
The sickening part is that, a 10 year old who got commited to the worst cult around, in that young age, might get disfellowshiped in 3-4 years time. Can you imagine a 13 year old kid being shunned and feeling the impact of WT's policy for the disfellowshiped ones??
-
Vidiot
Someone here (can't remember who) suggested a couple months back that the push to get 'em baptized younger and younger might be so that they could DF 'em in their late teens/early twenties to prevent their relatives from listening to them if they tried discussing TTATT ('cause a lot of rank-and-filers use the fact that a young XJW family member is unbaptized as a kind of loophole to keep in semi-regular contact)...
...a kind of preemptive apostacy gag.
It makes a disturbing kind of sense.
-
BU2B
Remember when they went on and on about the pre-frontal cortex, the decision making part of the brain does not fully develop until your 20s. They said this to discourge early marriage.. Why would the same reasoning not apply to baptism? Also the one they have the pretext of following J.C. got baptized at 30.. I thought we were supposed to imitate him, correct?
-
blondie
I have seen accounts in the publications of 6-year-olds getting baptized and read in a Chicago paper about ten years ago about a 6-year-old getting baptized.
-
LoisLane looking for Superman
At our District Convention, our friend's child was getting baptized that day. XXXXy was only 10 years old. He had been wearing little boy suits and out in the ministry since about 4 or 5 with his own book bag. He loved his parents dearly, and was a good kid.
When XXXXy turned 16, XXXXy did not want to be a JW anymore. He wanted to go to University, but first, he did not want to dress differently, than the other boys in his high school. That was our first noticeable change in his behavior. They had moved away so we only saw them yearly.
His father was the Presiding Overseer, now called COBE. His son went and lived with his grandparents who gave him more freedom, as in they were not JW's. His really, kind hearted Dad, wanted to step down. His Circuit Overseer, said, he still holds the respect of the congo , and surrounding area, so it would not be necessary.
When XXXXy graduated high school, he moved 3,000 miles away from where he had been spawned. Never yet to swim back to where he came from.
LoisLane
-
Giordano
Our brains are not fully developed until our mid 20's. That's one reason the Military in every country wants to recruit young people hence the name infantry. Even 18 to 21 year olds have impaired judgement when it comes to their mortality...in short they are risk takers.
The Prefrontal Cortex where decisions are made, where consequences are understood is almost non existence in toddlers, it does start to kick in year by year until in our teen years more then that kicks in and pleasure recepters start influancing and confusing teens.
The JW's, not the most educated religious group around, probably has little understanding of the brain and why baptizing children early is dangerous on so many levels.
The WTBTS once again is comfortable operating on ignorance by putting children and their familes in an untenable situation should a child make a mistake of any sort that would indicate that an emerging mind has decided to go in another direction.
Even the Amish know better In most communities, teens begin rumspringa, “running around,” at the age of 16. At that time, many of the Ordnung rules are relaxed. The idea is that the kids have a chance to experience the outside world before they commit to the Amish church. Usually around age 18, kids will choose to be baptized into the church.
"During rumspringa, Amish teens may purchase cell phones, obtain drivers’ licenses, own cars, and keep generator-operated electronics in their rooms. The boys are more likely to dress English than the girls. They may experiment with cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and sex. Often, kids will join the church when they decide to marry.
-
Oubliette
I'm happy to see a renewed interest in this thread of mine from last year.
This is one of the most insidious evils of the WTBTS, cotractually obligating minors to make an life-long commitment with potentially devastating consequences which they are not mature enough to understand.
If these "agreements" were reviewable under common contract laws under most countries, they would be void and unenforceable on their face. Under the laws of most countries, contracts with a minor are unenforceable from the standpoint of the other party. The minor can simply change their mind.
The brutal irony here in JW-land, is that the minor cannot change their mind and yet the WTBTS can capriciously change their policies, doctrines, teaching,--hell: they can change whatever they want with absolutely no repercussions. This is another area where the baptismal "contract" differs from the laws in most lands.
Generally, in any contract, if one party fails to fulfill their part of the agreement, the other party is no longer bound to fulfill theirs. But once again, in JW-land, the rules of commons-sense and fair-play are completely ignored in favor of the WTBTS. It's a promise for a promise: I keep mine, you must keep yours; you break yours, I do not have to keep mine.
Anyone that enters into this "contract" with Jehovah in association with the WTBTS has made a really bad deal. No matter what happens, you are bound forever by the terms of that agreement and the WTBTS never, ever has to do anything or keep any of their promises.
Can you say, "One sided"? I know you can!
-
NewYork44M
I recall some situations where very young teenagers get disfellowshipped. I cannot imagine anything worse.
-
FatFreek 2005
KateWild: "There is even a cartoon on JW.org with kids getting baptised." Kate -- please source that one. I tried to find it but couldn't. That's a massive site.
Blondie, that's a great list of things young ones are simply not allowed -- because they're too young.
For what it's worth, there are two examples from various Watchtower yearbooks where children were as young as six years old. Disfellowshipping has been reported here on this forum on a youngster of 12 or 13 years old.
Len