Baptism at 10 years of age! March 2017 broadcast

stuckinarut2

(I wanted to put this in the child abuse section of the forum!)

We have seen that during the March 2017 broadcast, M Stephen Lett has openly praised children who get baptised as young as 10!

So lets summarize why it is wrong to push CHILD baptism (not far off "Infant Baptism" that JWs condemn other churches for)

Too young to drive a car
Too young to open a bank account
Too young to marry
Too young to decide their own education or career
Too young to cross a big road on their own
Too young to get a job
Too young to smoke
Too young to drink alcohol
Too young to travel on their own on a holiday
Too young and naïve and gullible to trust all adults
Too young to buy a house
Too young to vote
Too young to choose their own medical procedures
Too young to have sex
Too young to play with matches
Too young to fill a car with fuel
Too young to use power tools
Too young to live alone

Shall we go on??

Please feel free to add to the list!

So here the society is actively using witness peer pressure to "encourage" all young children to get baptised. The results of which have FAR reaching implications if they ever change their minds as they grow.

A child can not fully understand the importance of such a step, nor its effects on their lives. Heck, a child cant even understand the doctrines or history of the organization that they are committing to at that age!

Seriously GB, you should be ashamed of yourselves for scraping the barrel like this all in the name of trying to make the numbers seem like they are growing! If witnesses didn't have kids (which was actively discouraged remember), then there would be no growth, as most comes from born-ins!

sir82

Too young, too young, too young....

But apparently old enough to be actively shunned by every member of the congregation if he "steps out of line" and can't convince 3 old men that he is "repentant".

I'd wager that most if not all 10-year-olds don't have the faintest idea of what "repentance" even is. Certainly not the WT concept of "repentance".

Funchback

I got baptized at 14 just so I could make it to the New System, which was right around the corner.

Let's add to your list of Too young...:

...to play the lottery
...to understand life saving medical procedures involving blood
...pay taxes
...to be on the Governing Body
...to know any better

Awakenednow

To sign a legal contract... what happened to Jesus was baptized at 30 and following him as a model closely?

It's for control (guilt complex incorporated into a naive personality) and numbers game. This way they have boasting rights to annual baptism numbers that to me probably reflect a high percentage of kids; and If unable to count the kids would show a very ineffective ministry in general. What kind of lack of morale in the rank and file would result? They'd have to fall back on the preaching work is over line but the challenge there is the flock is looking for eminent destruction of the world and a 100 more years from now.... and another and another. This doctrine is falling apart fast and unrealistic and unsustainable. At a certain point it will all tip and no longer containable.

Just sayin' 😋

Spoletta

I'm not so sure it's peer pressure as much as parent pressure. After all, how many other 10 year old baptized kids would there be in a regular congregation?

On the other hand, it's kind of a feather in their cap for parents of young baptized publishers("Look how spiritual our family is!").

ambersun

what happened to Jesus was baptized at 30 and following him as a model closely?

Exactly what I was thinking Awakenednow!

Even in those crazy years leading up to 1975 when we youngsters were being told that Armageddon would come before we had a chance to finish college, and families were selling their homes in order to devote the remaining years in this system to pioneering, it was still very rare to see a child get baptised, and if it happened it was frowned upon by older members of the congregation for that very reason that they were too young to know what they were doing. Mid teens seemed to be considered quite young enough for such a huge commitment.

How long will it be before we see a video of Sophia and Caleb getting baptised I wonder?

DesirousOfChange

It's all about control. Some JWs will even tell you that it's better that they can use the fact that they are dunked and could be DFd to tell peers that they cannot do [this or that]. These JWs will tell you that it is a PROTECTION for them to be baptized at an early age as it will motivate them not to do something for which they might be DFd.

SICK!

steve2

I thought Caleb ans Sophie were already baptized - or thst, at least Sophie was.

ToesUp

They just stated at the ARC. Witnesses do not get baptized until they are adults or almost adults. I guess 10 is an adult for Jw''s.

NewYork44M

I watched the March broadcast and was struck as to how powerful it was. I can visualize myself as a youth and seeing this broadcast as extremely motivating. They clearly hit all the buttons. An old fart like myself can see through the hype, but I am not sure that the 18 yo me would see through the crap. For that reason, I found the video very disturbing.

You got to hand it to them - they know how to manipulate.

Baptism at 10 years of age! March 2017 broadcast

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