Why Do People Become Jehovah's Witnesses?

by minimus 44 Replies latest jw friends

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  Ucantnome

  Besides being raised in the religion , why do people become JWs?

  
  

  I was raised as a JW. Why did my parents become JW?

  I don't think they were looking for something. My mother was contacted first and she was married with a child and I think my father worked quite long hours. I understood that my father wanted to meet the Witnesses he had some contact with them and thought he would be abel to dismiss them.

  I think, recently due to a question one of my children raised regarding being scared of God and a thread on this site, it was to do with his view of Jesus. The difference between mainstream Christianity and JW view of Jesus. My father showed no interest in religion and was very politcally minded.

  He said he couldn't prove them wrong, but I also think the Jesus that the Witness present was more in line with his politics.

  I always felt that my mother was in line with whatever father said, although some think she called the shots he just thought he did. She came from a large family and she witnessed to them but they never accepted it. She told me how lucky she felt that she would never experience old age (she has dementia and is in a home now)

  I think in the late 50's early 60's the Witnesses were somewhat different than today.

  In my view I think my father was looking for something better politically and the Witness Kingdom government with a Christ as presented appealed to him. My mother I think she was a little interested in religion and going to some church with people as he worked long hours appealed to her.

  
  
  
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  Fencing

  Thinking back, every found-at-the-door convert (of which there were very few, could probably count on my fingers how many of them I saw) was either mentally unhinged or had just faced some life-altering event that put them at a low point. Death of a loved one, loss of a job and facing destitution, recent divorcee escaping an abusive relationship, drug addict wanting to recover, etc.

  Other than that, the converts that weren't born-in were usually relatives that had been hounded by their JW family for years, sometimes decades. And more often than not, they were also at low point in their lives.
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  Wild_Thing

  Why do people join any religion?

  They are looking for something better than the shitty life they are living. Jehovah's Witnesses are good salesmen when it comes to offering hope, and a sense of belonging among their people. It's only after you sign on the dotted line (get dunked for Jehovah) when you realize what the fine print says, and how you've been duped.
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  TerryWalstrom

  In my day (hint: dinosaurs ruled the Earth) the J-Dubs had a version of Systematic Theology which could rip open shallow belief systems. There was no Internet. Most libraries had almost nothing by way of logical presentations of refutation of flaws in print directed at JW's.
  
  I had no sophistication as a teenager. I was not a churchgoer. I knew next to nothing Bible related. So, my special pleading is this: "My ego led me to study Watchtower publication because I was looking for flaws."
  
  If there had been a Worldwide Web--it would have been all over before we began.

  Personally--I don't see how anybody can be converted in today's tech-savvy world.

  
  
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  Gulf Coaster

  I was dragged in by my mother at age 9 when she converted. My dad went to a few meetings but decided it wasn't his thing. He didn't provide any resistance to my mother practicing her new "religion", to keep the peace. That rankled my mother as she's a control freak so would not allow me, my sister or brother such a choice. Any lack of enthusiasm for going to meetings, out in FS, etc. was met with some combination of verbal, emotional or physical abuse. I learned much later, from my dad, that whenever he asked her to give us the choice to not go to meetings, etc., she threatened him with leaving him and taking us kids away from him where he'd never see us again. I know my mother felt this was a perfectly righteous threat because it was da troof and my dad was a "spiritual danger".

  Looking back, I know what she liked best about the JWs was all the severe limitations and restrictions. The 1950's old-school way of dress, morals, attitudes and lifestyle. It was the 70s, the era of long-haired, dirty hippies with their immoral lifestyle and drugs, which my mother loathed and lived in fear of us kids getting involved in. So it was hell for my sister and I (especially my sister who was 16). As teens, we both looked like women in their 40s with our hopelessly old-fashioned dresses and hairstyles. My sister ended up running off at age 19 with the first non-JW man who showed interest in her. He ended up being a decent bloke, luckily for her.

  One by one, us three kids all left her nightmare reality because none of us really believed. We all just went through the motions to keep our mother from beating us, leaving as soon as we could escape. She divorced my dad because of his "spiritual danger" to her. She's still in, at 87, pining for her paradise. Any conversation with her has her going on and on about how immoral and disgusting the world is these days, something I've heard since I was 9 years old. That's obviously one massive hang-up for her, which the JWs provided answers for.