My last thought today is this. When making major life decisions such as what home to buy, where to work, and how to raise children, rational people do not do so on a whim. They may research their options, meditate on their findings and, likely, ask for advice. Only after taking these things into consideration will they make a decision.
The decision of how we should worship God desrves more of our time and effort than any other decision in life. It will affect how we live our life now, and more important, it will affect our prospect of eternal life in the future.
While I agree that JW's teach that everyone makes a decision to worship God, and even go so far as to tell bible students that, in reality many do not make such a considered decision.
Consider, for example the situation of a child brought up in the "truth." Does this child REALLY make a decision to worship God (read: get baptised as a JW), my answer is NO! I say this because this child will have had little or no association with anyone (outside of school) other than other JW's and as a consequence all of their friends/associates/support network will be fellow JW's. Additionally they will have been indoctrinated by their parents to believe that all people who are not JW's are "bad association."
By the time this child reaches an age where he/she is being pressured into getting baptised, which seems to be occurring at an earlier and earlier age, they will likely have few, if any, friends outside of the "organisation."
The choice then becomes this: Stay within the JW fold and keep all your friends, or: Choose to live your own life, exercising your own mind, and loose ALL your friends/associates.
As this decision is usually required to be made at a time when a youth is extremely vulnerable and peer acceptance and relationships are of crucial importance, one has to ask if they really have a choice. Ask any teen if he/she could cope without ANY friends from their peer group and I would wager that the answer will be a resounding NO!
I do some volunteer work with a youth crisis call centre and a common thread repeated by callers considering suicide is that they feel they have no friends, no peer acceptance , no one who really understands them, no support network.
So, do JW youths, raised in the organisation, REALLY make an informed choice to serve God? I say NO!!
There are many witnesses who are there because they are 'locked in," they have nowhere else to go because the cost of leaving is so high. Few are willing/brave enough to make the break away. Perhaps this is why so many "fade away" slowly, building a friendship/support network outside of the JW organisation and then disappearing off the radar.
JW's is not a religion that young people (and others) make an informed choice about serving god or not, they are forced to, in practice if not in theory.
If you don't agree, try to leave. See what happens.
Edited for spelling.
Edited by - Mackin on 11 June 2002 5:58:46
Edited by - Mackin on 11 June 2002 6:0:5
