I was baptized at age 12 in 1957 because my parents told me I had to. The parents told me that at the start of puberty family merit ends and individual merit begins. Before puberty I was saved by the good deeds done by my parents, after puberty I was judged by Jehovah based solely on my own behavior and if I was not baptized I would be murdered by Jehovah at Armageddon soon.
That seemed like a compelling enough reason to me at the time.
Much the same like Gary, I too was baptized at 12, 20 years later. I was told/threatened that if "I am in the "truth" and know it, then I should be baptized because if
I didn't, I would be destroyed at Armageddon". Then they said, since I was the last to get dunked in my family, "Do you really want to be the only one in the family that doesn't make it because you are not baptized"? Imagine what that would sound like to a 12 year old kid. So of course, with those kinds of threats, I did it.
Looking back at it, that is way too much of a decision for a child to make not knowing the complexities invloved with that decision and how it can effect your life from there. It is way too young and the expectations are too great. I would never allow a child of mine to do that much less, recommend it.
Like everyone else said, children and minors are not allowed to do many things but yet Crooklyn thinks they are smart enough to make that kind of a decision? In my opinion, as far as I'm concerned, Crooklyn is only concerned about their numbers and how great this would look for their stupid reports. Much like everyone does with their "service" time, I think the boys in Crooklyn flub their numbers too.
Brigido Free to be Me - Walking away, the best thing I ever did!
