If You Never Were a JW What Religion Would You Have Been?

minimus

Personally, I find Catholicism too weird and if followed properly, just another "cult". If I was not raised as a Witness, I probably would have been a "home Baptist" or something like that. What do you think you would have been, religiously speaking, if you were not first a Witness?

SpunkyChick

Well, both my parents were raised Catholics. My mom felt that relgion was major BS. If my mom hadn't found the witnesses, I might have been raised faithless.

gitasatsangha

my parents were witnesses when I was born. I wouldn't be "me" otherwise so there is no answer.

undercover

agnostic. at best, unaffliated.

blondie

After 3 generations of JWs on one side, and 7th Day Adventists on the other, I was doomed. I visited several churches growing up and was not impressed by any of them. (Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, nondenominational), as well as a Jewish synagogue and an Islamic center (I don't know what to call it, but it wasn't the mosque), and Buddhist retreat.

As a minor at home with my parents making the religious decisions (other than JW), we would have been members of the Sleep in on Sunday religion.

Blondie

freedom96

I personally would have enjoyed a non-denominational church, as I at times do now. The main time I was a witness was as a kid, and only a few years into my twenties. I am not the type to go and follow others, so I cannot imagine belonging to any other church.

bittersweet

Since I grew up in the jw religion, it's hard to venture a guess as to what I would have been. If left to choose for myself, then I would say no religion. But that's after years of being in a cult, which totally made me hate all religions. Maybe if I didn't have the experiences I did, I would feel differently. If my mom hadn't become a witness when I was four, my guess is I would have been raised Catholic ( I was baptised Catholic as a baby ), or I could have been raised a Quaker, because that's how my mom was raised ( she had to convert to Catholicism to marry my dad ). I guess I will never really know the answer to this question.

Gadget

When my family was first contacted my dad was training to be a medium, so I probably would have been a spiritualist. Also on my mothers side, all my grandfathers family were spriritualists, apparently quite high up. obviously as good wittnesses we didn't have any contact with the, but this has just made me more curious about the whole thing.

dedalus

Spunkychick wrote:

Well, both my parents were raised Catholics. My mom felt that religion was major BS. If my mom hadn't found the witnesses, I might have been raised faithless.

I use to wish that, instead of Witness angst, I had Catholic angst. It isn't that Catholicism as such appeals to me, but it has a deep, colorful symbolism, and a long, complicated history. One of the things I disliked about Witnesses was their lack of ceremony, ritual, tradition, and history. I felt uncomfortable in a religion without art -- raging against a small American sect wasn't the same as raging against an ancient, neo-Roman religion that stretched back nearly to Christ himself. I desired authenticity; rebelling against a synthetic religion didn't seem as noble a thing to do.

I've come to feel differently, though. Art and literature has had its fill with Catholicism. I'd like to read (or write!) a great book about the peculiarities of assembly-line American sects -- there are so many of them, and they haven't been exhausted as a subject for art.

After 3 generations of JWs on one side, and 7th Day Adventists on the other, I was doomed. I visited several churches growing up and was not impressed by any of them. (Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, nondenominational), as well as a Jewish synagogue and an Islamic center (I don't know what to call it, but it wasn't the mosque), and Buddhist retreat.

Wow -- perhaps Blondie should write the book I'm thinking of! I'm genuinely curious about this background, particularly the connection between Witnesses and Adventists. Have you written about it on the DB someplace else, Blondie?

Anyway, I probably would have ended up like Undercover:

agnostic. at best, unaffiliated.

God seems absent from life, although religion is everywhere.

Dedalus

minimus

I was thinking....since my family background was Catholic, I probably would have remained one but rarely practice anything ut the holidays.

If You Never Were a JW What Religion Would You Have Been?

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