Why Do You Think People Become Jehovah’s Witnesses?

minimus

Besides growing up in the religion, why do you think people turn to Jehovah’s Witnesses?

What made you become a Witness??

Besides those born in, i believe most join/ convert because at first, it gives a person a sense of belonging. You are definitely part of something. Part of an organization And have a place in it. Either a publisher, pioneer, and for men. MS, or elder. At first, a person is love bombed and accepted. But then, as you progress and eventually get baptized, you are expected to accept everything they say. Your so called friends will no longer be your friends if you stray from the truth.

RubaDub

I'm a 4th gen born in, but I think many become JW's since they are in a very difficult time in their lives.

They pray and pray and pray, and then someone knocks on the door.

It may be a JW at the door ... a person from the post office delivering a package ... someone offering to put a new roof on their house ... whatever.

That's just how it is rationalized that God sent the person in the darkest time of need.

In a few weeks, the person will be at the KH, delivering packages, or putting new shingles on someone's roof.

just fine

I was born in. But my parents both came from dysfunctional and/or abusive homes. Both had recently experienced trauma and then the Witnesses showed up. They were both naive and terribly damaged.

jp1692

Nobody joins a cult.

You join a self-help group, a religious movement, a political organization.

They change so gradually, by the time you realize you’re entrapped – and almost everybody does – you can’t figure a safe way back out. – Deborah Layton, survivor of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple cult

People join a group because we are social animals and want to belong. The vast majority of groups are benign; many are even positive. The trouble is, the majority of ones that are harmful, destructive cults appear to belong to these categories even though they are not. Cult leaders are masters of deception.

So why did I become a JW?

In my case, I was searching for meaning. Neither of my parents were religious when I was growing up, so they didn't provide me with much in the way of values or ethics. My grandmother, who was a wonderful person, gave me a Bible to read. I liked the wisdom of some of the proverbs and some of Jesus' parables, but other than that most of it frankly seemed like myths.

So I examined a bunch of different religions and found that all of them had some ideas of value, but they also were loaded with a bunch of crap.

Cult Recruiting Tactic #1: I began studying with JWs in my early twenties when two cute young JW women came to the door. Their physical attractiveness got my attention, but I was struck by the fact that they didn't believe in hellfire or the Trinity—two concepts of Christianity that I had come to reject on my own.

Cult Recruiting Tactic #2: Also, the ideas of a world free of injustice, sickness and death appealed to me. I liked that then (and I like it still, although I know now that it's never coming from "Jehovah" or any other made-up "god").

So I agreed to a "Bible Study"with an elder in the congregation. I was very skeptical over the course of the two years I "studied" with him and probably never would have joined, but I had a personal trauma which made me very emotionally vulnerable – Cult Recruiting Tactic #3.

Cult Recruiting Tactic #4: That's when I started attending meetings. The "love-bombing" felt good. By then I was hooked.

Cult Recruiting Tactics #5 – 7: Throughout my time as a JW I had many, many doubts. But the WTBTS (like any good cult) has very effective "Thought Stopping" ways to deal with that:

Keep studying the Bible (and the WT publications) and you'll understand later, or
Pray to Jehovah, or
Doubts are from Satan

Eventually, the evidence was just too overwhelming to my logical mind and sense of justice that this religion was false just like every other one and was in fact of the cult end of the religious spectrum.

By this time, I'd been an elder for over a decade and had a family with children that I was raising in the cult. I tried for six or seven years to find a way to leave with my family intact. It eventually became obvious that my born-in wife would never leave. So I went to "Plan B" and tried to figure out how to leave and maintain a relationship with my two teenage sons.

Unfortunately, I was better at indoctrinating them in the bullshit creeds and beliefs of this destructive religion than I was at forming unbreakable bonds of love with them.

I left the religion eleven years ago, and although I am technically still a JW "in good standing," my two sons continue to shun me simply because I no longer attend meetings at the Kingdom Hall.

I truly, truly hate this fucking religion.

Let's review: It's a cult!

Hairtrigger

I was born into a Catholic family. Believed the Bible was the word of God. Found the CC wasn’t following the Bible and left off going to church by the time I was 20.

A JW at my place of work began telling me truths about theCC and I fell for their BS. But I still hesitated to join them as a lot of what they said didn’t make sense. Stayed away from them but kept in contact with the JW who initiated me into their bs.

Fast forward about 23 years and he gave the the revelation book. I read it and felt it was the Truth Decided to get baptized. In 2008. Seven years later I figured out it was all BS. Walked away. And Guess what. The man who brought me in? He’s walked away too. Took me two years . He was shocked at what he discovered . Now he is free too. That is irony for you!

Finkelstein

There is an generic answer to why people join religions and that to resolve problems they may be having and perhaps some guidance in their lives.

LongHairGal

MINIMUS:

I think you might have asked a similar question before.

But for the sake of all the newbies I’ll say..it’s because I was interested in end-time prophecy back in the ‘70s and somebody led me to believe the JWs cracked some bible code.

They also said they had No clergy class and that everybody was equal. This was how I made the mistake of being sucked into the JW religion. I remedied this error twenty or so years later.

JeffT

None of my family growing up was religious. I was curious about it for a very long time. Through high school and college I explored a number of believe systems.

My senior year in college I was depressed, and adrift in the world. I got into a conversation with a roommate from my freshman year. His mother had been a JW for a long time. He and his sister both joined while in college but decided to finish and get their degrees. So he and I started a Bible study and I was baptized a few months after graduation. This was in 1973, the JW view of world conditions lined up with mine (anti-war anti-government).

Fifteen years later I got out. I think the guy I studied with may have left before I did as I lost contact with him in the early eighties. This all took place in Pullman, WA if anybody was around that area then.

the girl next door

JWs borrow from the Adventist and put a twist on the scriptures. They did so effectively with sociopathic scribbles of Fred Franz presenting in an assertive way that they had deciphered the meaning of the scriptures particularly concerning the Kingdom. For wayward and weary church goers and curious alike, all that door knocking and good news moved a lot of hearts. Look at what was happening in the world during those early days. Mainstream religion was boring and stagnant. All those rebellious hippies needed somewhere to land.

It is a different religion today made up of captive born ins, prodigal sons and a pinch of "worldly" despots. Nobody in their right frame of mind joins this religion if they have simple internet connection. If they do...they frankly deserve what they get.

A more intriguing question to me is, "why do so many people stop being Jehovah's Witnesses 100%"? PIMI, POMO, POMI, PIMO. WTAF?

Pinch it off.