Why did you get baptized? (page 3)

FriendlyFellaAL

Hi all,

I'm a long-time lurker, but haven't really been courageous enough to step forward and post...until now!

In all honesty, I'd have to say that the main reason I got baptized was to make my Mom happy. Admittedly, it's not the best reason in the world, but it's the truth.

I was 17, just graduated from high school, unsure as to what the future held for me and trying to help my family make it through after my parent's divorce. My Dad was an unbeliever and my Mom had been baptized shortly after I was born so I was raised as a Witness.

I can still remember the ever-so-subtle pressure exerted on me the summer before my baptism. My sister (who was 12 at the time) had gotten baptized that summer and my Mom began throwing around some very scary words that I've seen mentioned above already: the age of accountability.

At the time I felt like that was the scariest concept in the world. It didn't seem to matter to the members of my congregation that only Jehovah could read your heart and mind, but if you were past the age of accountability and unbaptized...well, they just wouldn't want to be in your shoes.

bboyneko

Actually this is a trick answer (is there such a thing?) cus I never got baptized..I was raised a JW and around when i reached 'the age of accountability' 18 I started feeling the intense pressure to get baptized...but deep down I knew it was a large commitment and was like signing a contract with horriffying implications...so I researched the JW's history at the local library where I worked during my spare time..after about a year I had inadvertantly 'deprogrammed' myself and I suddenly woke up just like in THE MATRIX.

I was eventually made homeless by my loving family and lived in my van for a few months, but I turned my lief around and now live in my own apartment and have a steayd job as a web designer. And I even started a side-career as an actor! If any of you watch WEST WING on NBC i was on the season finale episode. I have pics from when i was on the set if anyone wants to see them. The world isnt a hirrlbe place at all :)

SixofNine

bboyneko, did you work in the art dept. on "The Chaos Factor"?

As for why I got baptised? It seemed like the thing to do at the time. Oddly enough, the pressure didn't come from my parents (much like the pressure to even finish high school didn't come from my parents), but rather from my friends/peers. And not even direct pressure from them, that I remember, just that at 18, it seemed like time, the right thing to do, and I wanted to keep my friends as "peers", liq.

I remember being clueless, especially about the dedication part. Feeling as if I should be having sweeping emotions about spirituality, and feeling a bit as if I was a fraud for not having those deeply spiritual feelings. But hey, you push forward, right? If you don't do the right thing, you certainly aren't going to have any spiritual revelations, right? And then again, the Society doesn't really say you have to feel anything right? Just do it, the blessings will come. If they don't, you didn't do it hard enough, or you are an ingrate.

Choose one, but please don't feel good about yourself.

larc

Hi,

I must be the one of the exceptions here, because I did it because I really did want to dedicate my life to Jehovah. No one put any pressure on me. At that time, there were no prebaptism questions. They took your word for it.

teejay

'cause i wanted to carry the mikes.

individuals wife

For me - I was swept along with all the enthusiasm of the elder I studied with. I did it more to please him and his wife than for myself. Stupid I know, but it all made perfect sense at the time.

By the way a big welcome to FriendlyFellaAL - looking forward to hearing more from you!

freakshow

wow you guys are so mean to each other, guess this site isn't as supportive as I was told.

Lindy

I was baptized at 16, just days before my 17th BD. My younger brother was baptized a few years before and all the ones around my age had already been dunked. The Brother that was the PO at the time was supposed to go over the questions with me and never did. I found out later that he was having his own "crisis of conscience" and subsequently left the "truth". I should have followed my instincts and not let everyone push me into baptism. I never did feel the need. But my Mom and by brother (Who is now DF.) really pushed, along with my peers so I went and did it anyway. Years later I explained this to the Elders and asked if I needed to get baptised again and they discussed it and said "No, it was valid anyway." Never really understood that either. But who can understand many things about how the brothers and the Society does things.

Lindy

Francois

I thought I was going to be the first to admit to my bone-headed reason for getting baptised, but nytelecom1 beat me to it: It was all about a girl I wanted to date whose father (ex-Navy and wise to the ways of us evil guy-types) wouldn't allow it because I wasn't baptised. So I took care of THAT little obstacle. Damn.

Wasn't worth it in the end. Had ice water in her veins.

She married someone else and eventually had a child. Only the one, I presume.

Franc

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

Sam Beli

My dad put pressure on me because he was worried about the end coming soon. I was seven (yes 7) years old!

Sam Beli

Why did you get baptized?

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