news item...9 yr old baptised

by returnvisit 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  blondie

  Part of the reason parents are anxious that their children get baptized (and other jws) is that the WTS teaches that the mark for survival is baptism as a jw...otherwise children are protected under their parents mark of baptism. The problem is that the WTS does not give an age of accountability, but only hints at it. So some parents being told this want their child to have that mark just in case they are old enough to be personally accountable and especially when the WTS says the end could come tomorrow.

  Look up Ezekiel 9:4-6 for the mark of survival

  and

  "accountability" on the WT-CD
• 

  steve2

  For a religious organization that prides itself on being "reason" based and not into superstitious beliefs, it accords a lot of seemingly "magical" power to the act of being pushed under water. In and out and your status changes. Magic! Woo-hoo!

  Aliens would consider it a very strange behaviour to be dunked under water by another human. To become really washed clean, shouldn't you stay in longer and take a bar of soap? The things people believe and do in the name of "truth".
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  OneEyedJoe

  It would be worthwhile doing some research to test whether people's baptized status (yes=baptized;no=not baptized) is more likely to influence decisions to subsequently leave or stay in the organization.

  You could argue that, once baptized, the consequences of leaving change (i.e., you can now be disfellowshipped if you break any of the organization's rules), but it may well be that an individual's baptized status doesn't influence decisions to leave. That is, just as many ultimately leave who are baptized as are not such as those who study, go to meetings, go out in field service but who never take that step.)

  I suspect that the push to get kids baptized before they know better is more about retention of those around them. If they get baptized and later DA or get DFd for being appostate or whatever, there's organizationally enforced shunning to protect the org's other assets (i.e. the r/f jws that might otherwise talk to them) but if they never get baptized and leave the cult without ever being baptized, there's less justification to keep people from communicating with them (especially for family). If there is communication between cult members and ex members (even if they're not baptized) it increases the odds that someone will see that a rewarding, happy life is possible outside the org.

  In short, I think the shunning policies are more about preventing active JWs from learning TTATT than they are about punishing those who leave.
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  westiebilly11

  9 years old..baptized?....tantamount to female genital mutilation...both actions are overriding individual choice...both actions are types of abuse...how can a nine year old fully comprehend the commitment of a decision....a contract no less....it matters because if/when the child leaves by choice they will then suffer shunning etc etc etc.....
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  JustVisting

  Not old enough to get in the hotel pool by herself but old enough to get in the baptism pool, makes sense to me.
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  undercover

  Inconsistency in JW logic:

  When dub kids become teenagers, they're pressured to get baptized. Not as adults, not in high school, but before they get their driver's license. When you listen to the speaker at the dedication talk, he will invariably tell the audience that this is the single most important decision a person will make in their life. And on that odd occasion when some little precocious brat gets baptized, everyone just carries on as if it were Jesus himself...oh wait... he was 30. Nevermind.

  But when that same 13 year old that was pressured to get baptized decides to get married at age 18, every JW adult in the county tells them they're too young to make that kind of decision.

  So, which is it? You're mature enough at 13 to make the most important decision of your life, or you're not. If you were praised for making the right decision at 13, shouldn't you be trusted to make an informed decision 5 years more mature and wiser?
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  L3G

  A better direct link to the story:

  http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/320400/hold-your-breath

  Thanks for the post.
• 

  neverendingjourney

  So, which is it? You're mature enough at 13 to make the most important decision of your life, or you're not. If you were praised for making the right decision at 13, shouldn't you be trusted to make an informed decision 5 years more mature and wiser?

  Dave Chappelle agrees:

  How old is 15 really?
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  alexandre

  a child as such do not know the meaning of this! it is equal the catholic church!
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  nonjwspouse

  Alex, the Catholic Church does not hold a child to the baptisim with emotional threats, it is a universal baptisim. The child must go through confirmation, as an older teen or adult, to become fully in the catholic Church, and even then they are not threatened with loosing thier family and friends, marked as a sinner, etc., if they choose to practice another faith.