Can anyone tell me any narrative of having successfully avoided Baptism while being raised JW?

by SonoftheTrinity 24 Replies latest jw experiences

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  OneEyedJoe

  I managed to avoid getting baptized until I was 19. Had I been able to put it off a couple more years, when my doubts started to surface, I probably would have avoided it altogether. Unfortunately, there was an aggressive, utrazealous elder in my congregation who wouldn't let that happen.

  My story is almost exactly the same, save the ultrazealous elder was my father. I made it to 19. After about 14 people just sorta assumed I was baptized, so it didn't really come up. What did it for me was my brother telling me at one point that he only got dunked because his friends were doing it, and that he felt like he'd done it for the wrong reasons. I resolved then and there that I'd only get baptized because I was sure about the religion and "loved jehovah."

  Whenever someone pressured me to do it, I always came back with "This is a very important descision, and I don't want to do it for the wrong reasons. The more I'm pressured to do it, the more I instintively push back." Sometimes I would add something about them causing me to delay my baptism by pressuring me to do it. That always ended that, and I never got pushed by the same person twice, with the exception of my father.

  I eventually broke my promise to myself and got baptized for the wrong reasons - I was heartbroken over a GF that had just broken up with me (she presumably assumed that I was already baptized) and my father knew just the right thing to say to take advantage of that, and somehow I was convinced it was all god calling me to the cult.

  So, basically, if you can keep the kid from getting baptized because all their friends are doing it, then all you probably have to watch out for is when they're in an emotionally vulnerable situation. People only do things (this especially applies to joining a cult) if they think it's going to solve some problem for them. In my case, I essentially thought god was going to give me a girlfriend if I got baptized. Most kids don't want to be left out. Many just want the guilt-trips to end and don't realize that it's only the beginning of the guilt.
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  DesirousOfChange

  Our kids had friends at the KHall whose father was not a JW. The father required his kids to all go to college 4 years before they got baptized. After graduating, they were free to make their own choices about religion, career, etc. Two out of the three kids never got baptized and are not active JWs. The other is baptized (married a JW) and is a Jehovah's Bystander (vs Witness).

  You could also use the line that it is impossible to serve two masters, thus while the kids are in college they could not be "whole souled" to God.

  Doc
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  OneEyedJoe

  Not to distract from the topic, but you guys who weren't interested in getting baptized -- weren't you worried about being destroyed at Armageddon?

  I had fully bought into the hype that Jehovah was loving and just. I knew that my hesitation/skepticism was justified, so I figured that he'd let me be a part of the ressurection of the unrighteous, even if I had to be killed to do it. Really, though, I figured that being a good person that believed in him as much as I could would warrant getting me through. I knew all the doctrine, so if armageddon really started i'd immediately believe 100% so I figured god wasn't enough of a dick to let something as trivial as an outward display stand in the way of letting me in to paradise.

  In short - if I didn't make it then he was no god that I wanted to serve anyway.
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  sowhatnow

  if the stepchildren were to bring it up, you might want to point out that jesus christ a perfect man did not get baptised till he was a a mature adult at age 30

  if your not ready for marraige, your not ready to get dunked either. it takes years to learn enough facts about anything, God doesnt want people making choices based on what someone else thinks should happen in thier lives, or pressure from adults.

  no one should bring baptism up to anyone, the person who wants to get baptised should bring it up themselves.
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  Crazyguy

  I was about 20 when I got dunked. Was never a spiritual person and never felt it. I thought it was the truth but the final motivation was girls. No elders or anyone else ever pressured me but I was pretty cocky back then so maybe that had something to so with it.
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  kaik

  My father did, he decided after 1975 BS and studying for years with my JW aunt to stay catholic and eventually moved to his mom, my grandmother who cared of him until he died (yeah, she survived him by several years), without ever divorcing.
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  EndofMysteries

  Follow Jesus example, he didn't until he was 30.
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  tim hooper

  I had a pal who was brought up as a witness, married a JW girl in a KH, ( I actually drove their wedding car!) attended all the meetings and even went out knocking doors, but he was never baptised. I don't think the elders actually knew that he wasn't baptised because he'd come from the other side of the country. In his own head he believed it was the truth, but reasoned that if he played around, which he did, he couldn't be disfellowshipped and therefore wouldn't die at armageddon.

  Eventually he concluded that it wasn't the truth, played around even more, told the elders he wasn't baptised and they just threw their hands in the air and promptly forgot all about it. I know he could have been DA'd later but as he stopped associating I assume the reasoning was that it was all just too much hassle.
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  Caedes

  I was raised by JWs and managed to avoid getting baptised. I avoided it because I would argue about what they were telling me, since they couldn't answer questions that would stop all conversation on the subject. I seem to recall pointing out that it took Jesus until he was thirty. Probably though they knew there was no point forcing me to do something when it was plainly obvious I didn't believe.

  I wasn't concerned about armageddon since I already thought it was a fairy tale.
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  JWdaughter

  I was DA'd. I like the more subtle ways to avoid it "taken it up in prayer" is good! How about, "When I am the age of Jesus, we will see if I am ready then"