Baptized at 5. (page 4)

Doubtfully Yours

I disagree with this practice wholeheartedly!!! Whenever they mention young ages at the assemblies I just shake my head in shame.

Have this close friend whose daughter wanted to be baptized at age 9, and then again at age 11, and I kept telling this girlfriend of mine to stall her desire in anyway possible. Thus far, the girl will be 14 soon and she's doing well in school and emotionally.

I just kept emphasizing the fact that it's not a good decision until the young person has been through puberty, that wild stage in which hormones go crazy.

I mean, if the Bible says that one shouldn't committ to marriage so young, then why should it be any different in making such a strong decision as baptism?!!!

I always kill my opinion opposers with the point that our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the best model; so, wait 'til your 30s!!!

MrMoe

grr!!

I do know of a far off sect of the Mormons that may endorse such teachings. Read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer. he talks about how they still practice polygamy and hold some of the really old school Calvinist and Mormon beliefs.

Children are children! We can get court orders to get them blood... what abotu issues such as this? Fine, let them get baptized... but don't force them to be shunned

Mulan

Her mother says that she has very little association with children,
except those who are out in the ministry with their parents...all of
her life she has been around adults who speak about the truth and
walk the walk.

We had a Circuit Overseer who had a daughter (how weird is that?) who accompanied them in the circuit. We met her when she was in her late teens and she was one odd girl. I asked her lots of questions about her childhood, and she told me they lived in one large 2 circuit area in Oregon, for 6 years while she went to elementary school, then she did correspondence for the rest of school. She was really smart and very nice, but definitely different. Her mother was really different too, but her father was a sweetie, and one of the handsomest men I'd ever seen.

When she was in her 20's, she went to Bethel and got married to another Bethelite. Perfect.

She never had a normal childhood and had a hard time relating to the others in congregations who were her age. We had two gals her age (pioneers) who tried really hard to reach out to her, and had some success but she was stiff and seemed fearful of anything away from her parents. In one conversation I had with her, she compared herself to "little Samuel" or "little Samson", who were "set aside for special things from early childhood". Gag!

Moe, here is the link to the child marriage topic. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/60239/1.ashx

minimus

Sorry, but this sounds like bulldung. Unless the story could be verified, I wouldn't repeat it. It's so stupid sounding, though, you want to believe it!

ApagaLaLuz

Sounds alot like me. I was a publisher at 4, on the ministry school at 5. I asked to be baptized at 6, but thankfully the brotehrs had enough insight to tell me to wait. I was finally baptized at 13.

Maybe the WTBTS is getting more desperate for statistics

I would love to talk to this girl 20 years from now

Euphemism

I learned to read at 4, joined the school and became a publisher at 5, and was baptized at 8. I wanted to be baptized when I was 7, but my parents made me wait.

Obviously, I didn't fit in at all with other kids my age. I would go out in service with teenagers and young adults in the congregation, and those were my "friends." I didn't actually have friends my own age until my late teens.

BTW, for those who believe that a toddler cannot learn to read... my brother learned to read when he was 2. By the time he was 4, he was reading the encyclopedia. No, I am not joking.

blondie

I will add that I read before I was 4. I was reading the dictionary and the encyclopedia by then. My first teacher did not believe I could read and handed me a book to read to the class thinking she would embarrass me. Was she surprised when I started reading! Being able to read so young did not mean I was able to comprehend the emotional and moral issues of someone older.

Since my father was not a JW, early baptism was not pushed or suggested. Most children from "divided" families are rarely seen as spiritually good examples. Might catch some spiritual cooties from your non-JW parent.

Blondie

minimus

I too learned to read before I went to Kindergarten. I was a publisher when I was 5 or 6. I got baptized at 9 although I begged to be baptized a year before. But the story still sounds silly to me. And when I was younger I was smarter than Euphemism and Blondie, too. .....only kidding....They were always smarter than me.

AnnOMaly

Holy Maloney, Eu! Didn't know you were baptized at 8!!! (Maybe I'd forgotten) That's no age for such a serious, far-reaching decision.

A girl in our cong (daughter of a very 'cultish' family) got baptized at about 11, pioneered straight from school with hardly any qualifications and we could see the resentment/unhappiness in her eyes. While still in her teens, she ran off with a 'worldly' older guy she met in a chat room. Of course, it's the internet's and Devil's fault

Oh yeah, one of my kids learned to read at three - she's only four now and she's fluent. Of course, none of my kids are going to join the TMS until they know what they're talking about (if we're still attending then).

MrMoe

Mulan - thanks... will read the link in a bit...

I think I believe it. Even then, I know of a friend of mine who was baptized at the age of 9. Which is fine, let a child participate, but don't involve the same legal ramifications. Choices made a minor child should not affect your adult years. Children are children for God's sake. The entire thing has bothered me for a logn time. I was on reading by the age of 4 and part of the Theo. School by the age of 5. The Elders are not allowed to tell kids no... they simply have to be able to undertand the questions...

Baptized at 5.

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