@@survivingparadisepodcast Absolutely true. I can remember watching the freedom to fellowship enjoyed by my peers who had been raised, as I had been, in the organization but who had not gotten baptized and, thus, came and went and grossly sinned as they pleased. Lol.
@@survivingparadisepodcast Yes. I hadn't thought of that. In my hometown, the college rebellion came late, after my departure (in 1991), because it had not become a phenomenon while I was still inside.
No one is forced into baptism. Naturally baptized JWs are concerned for the welfare of all people who are at the point of baptism and might be overzealous in letting you know, but you have a voice and could have said no. Baptism is a personal choice that cannot be decided by anyone but you.
@@ronhansen8471 I respect your opinion, however what you mentioned varies from congregation to congregation. I didn’t want to get baptised because I didn’t believe it fully. Almost every meeting I was asked “what’s wrong?” “ “why are you not baptised?” “When I was your age I was already a ministerial servant” “if I am Bly baptised by the time Armageddon comes I won’t make it” hearing that at almost every meeting was annoying so I did it to shut them up. Again, it did not come from my heart I did it to get them of my back & stop pestering me.
@@nivlek3234 If you did not believe it you shouldn't have gotten baptized. You should have told the ones pushing to mind their own business. What the friends did not tell you is that the true God intends to bring back all people but the wicked and will not judge people under Satan's systems. The problem is that at Armageddon will people know what they need to do to survive.
Pretty soon the new light will say that if your two year old can say 'Jehovah' then they are evidently spiritually mature, and it would be entirely appropriate for the parents to answer the baptism questions on the toddler's behalf.
I was 18, when I got baptized. I didn't WANT to get baptized, but I thought it was my duty. I was trying to take responsibility of my spirituality, and I was trying to do everything I was supposed to, and nothing worked, as I hated all of it. I'm a nerdy, goody-two-shoes - no partying or forbidden activities - I just HATED going to the meetings, smiling at the people I didn't know or care about, studying the publications, wasting weekends. But I was trying. Finally, I thought maybe I'm not getting Jehovah's blessings and the true joy because I hadn't made the decision. So I made it. I'm a studious person, so answering the baptismal questions with the elders was no problem. My never-JW dad asked me if it was a good idea to get baptized, I told him, "It's not like I'll be leaving it [the religion]." I literally didn't see how I could ever be anything else than a JW. The actual day of my baptism, I could describe my mood and thoughts most accurately as 'numb'. It was like I was stoically walking to my own execution. I didn't want to do it, but it was expected of me and there was no way out of it. My mom was happy and smiling all throughout, I just wanted to get it over it.
:( those emotions are all too familiar. We all grew up during the past 4 decades to believe we had 'no choice' but to be a JW. I actually suspended all goals, desires, etc. because none of it mattered, I just had to be a JW to survive. It's so sick.
@@survivingparadisepodcast It really is an insane world that we were brought up and lived in. Like an alternate universe bubble within the actual world. It's been about 20 years now, but I really do remember vividly the feeling I had when my dad questioned my decision. (And he didn't even KNOW what all that decision entailed - not even close.) It was... If you're a video gamer like me, imagine a patch of a game world, and the draw distance is so short that you can see the edges of the world, it's a hazy fog all around that little patch of yours, nothing else there. THIS is the world right here, and there is nowhere else to reach, nothing else to be. Just emptiness and nothing, no options beyond that little world. That's what it was. Dad asked me the question and it was like I just peered out into the world, but there was nothing else that I could be, nothing else to aspire to be, to even imagine. Just a grey fog, and the best I could do was to just try to do the best I could within that little patch of game world - that was to level up and get baptized and hope that it would help. It didn't. I was out, as a believer unfortunately, within two years or so. I never even had any dreams or aspirations, I didn't know what I wanted to be as a grownup. I don't know if that's because I'm wishy-washy or because of the faith, no clue, but I'd guess the former. The irony, however is, that the one great talent that I have, that I could have cultivated, I thought for SURE would be entirely useless for the organization here in this world and definitely in the paradise. Imagine my feelings when I watched Splane's explanation about the overlapping generations and it hit me that the ENTIRE faith is based on -- creative writing! 😂😂🤣🤣😂😂
@@Elecyah so much to unpack with what you described. I've struggled to find the best way to explain what you just did. There is this malaise over your entire life. You have no need to plan for the future, no goals, no dreams. You live in a strange fog....and when you find your way out, you're flooded with anger. Seething anger at being duped by it all. But we have to forgive our inner child......they did it to us when we were KIDS and our brains were forming. It is truly evil.
@@survivingparadisepodcast So true. I look at people around me, who knew what they wanted to become when they grew up, people who had plans. And I'm like, wow, that's so odd. Imagine that. I had no plans, I had no realizable dreams. Some or even most of it could just be in my nature, I'm not denying that, and you can be what an uncle of mine describes as a lifestyle artist - someone who drifts along life and lands where they happen to - without being a JW. I landed on my feet, got lucky. The sad thing is that I had my options wide open when I was young. Free education, all the way to university or equivalents, and it was allowed in my congregation, encouraged by my PIMI mom. I got accepted into a polytechnic just on my grades. That was when I was 18, at the same age as I got baptized and... when I looked at my future, it was a grey fog. Is it any wonder depression and dropping out of school were roughly 6 months away at the time. I'm a third gen. born-in, and thinking about my mom, she drifted along life, too. She landed by accident at the job she had and then sought for higher education to advance in the job. She didn't have a plan either. This same thing is happening to lots of young people right now. Living in a fog, and actual life is supposed to happen at some later date with the pandas and the watermelons. 😞
Just to add to your point: What capacity does a child have, especially before the "bloom of youth" , to understand the commitment to abstinence from sex or moderation in alcohol, etc?! At a tender age, they don't even have those desires! As you implied so well, the Org has no right to criticize other churches for infant baptism.
So glad I didn't even consider baptism, stopped believing in thier garbage around 15 yo and stopped going to meetings as soon as I started working, I found the so called worldly people to be more honest than any jw I had ever known.
Last weekend's watchtower study article was all about life of children and teenagers after the baptism. Many paragraphs of the previously mentioned article showed that JW children are expected to get baptized when they are still children. It is insane.
Stacy great podcast. You’re right the organization does lie about very young children getting baptized. My wife’s niece was baptized at 9 years old. And once you’re baptized, that’s it, you belong to the hateful eight in New York!
Great episode...I was a "rebellious" youth so I never got baptized.. unfortunately both of my younger siblings did..they were both shunned before graduating high school
6 yrs? going to all the meetings, bible readings. Service every Sat morning. never missed, worked with my parents or elderly people, never with someone around my age . That was my life
@@lizzidpeepole We did! Mid '70's, beautiful property. I would just stare out the windows at the trees....they've since leveled that KH and built a new one :(
So glad that you are drawing attention to the baptism of young children. My sister decided to get baptized at the age of 14. She went through all discussions with the elders. I was just turning 12. What my parents did not know is that I put my swimmers into the bag. During the baptism talk, I asked my father if I could get baptized to, he said "OK," so of I went., surfs up, I just wanted to go for a swim in this ocean bay. My baptism is a joke. When I saw through this religion,years later I wrote and sent a letter to the organization leaders. I explained how I was baptized with my fathers permission, and that I did not consider myself to be baptized. No elders at all came to talk to me about my letter. It might have been thrown into the bin. I haven't been to a meeting in a long time, and when I run into any JW,'s they want me to go back to the meetings. I have never been shunned, even though I told them, what I thought about this religion. All very strange. Yes, baptism is a trap. Thank you.
WOW!!! Incredible story Gisella! I'm so glad you escaped all the damage that comes with being baptized. It seems clear that even your father had no idea the impact of baptism. So few do!
Such a great video bro! I can relate with this all too well, got baptized in my early teens and later became inactive for nearly a decade and when I came back to the org to confess my sins that I did when I was inactive the elder said “well yes you was inactive but you was still a baptized publisher wasn’t you?”….. they got my ass! Once you get dunked no matter what they own you for life!
I was baptized @ 9 years old in 1969. I am now 61 and have faded from this Crazy religion 36 years ago. When I left I was an active Ministerial servant. Some family is still active In this madness. Thank you, for this. Would love to tell you my whole story one day. Much love.
I was 16 when I was baptized, hade not a single clue of what really was the cost of being baptized, I knew that if I didn’t I would be destroyed Armageddon and it would protect me from satan. But man I didn’t know it would carry so much baggage in it, as a PIMO I now know what it costs your time money family and soul they have taken from you. And if you leave you have to re find who you are After you leave!
Just this week I had some repressed memories come to me....and they all had to do with WHY I became baptized at age 12, even though my family struggled with witness life. The elders pressured me at first, and nudged me to become "the man of the house, and head of my family" after my dad left us. The literature did the rest. I remember that bullshit about how kids who know better but don't get baptized, are dead at armageddon. And I was so troubled as a kid from my toxic unsteady home life....I was an easy target for the organization to groom me. I'll forever resent them for that. In the end, that's why I started questioning last year at age 30. They baptize kids too early. And there are even biblical precedents from the Bible if they wanted to have one about the age of consent for kids. (None of the ancient Israelites kids under age 20 were killed before their wandering in the wilderness because they did not yet know right or wrong). The elders were speechless when I showed them the scores of scriptures that condemned that practice of baptizing little kids. I left 6 months later after pouring over the literature myself. What a waste of 18 years of my life, and everybody else who got baptized early on!!! I hope it somehow becomes illegal to baptize JW kids before age 18.
You were given wrong counsel. No child at 12 years old should become the man of the house. It is the job of the elders to take care of single mothers with children. There is no age limit in Jehovah's organization, but common sense would dictate when an individual should get baptized and not be pressured by others. It is a personal choice.
@@ronhansen8471 the elders merely lit the wick. Like I said, the literature did the rest. Not just literature you understand. The audio, the video dramas, the demonstrations and interviews at conventions and kingdom hall meetings. It all grooms children to think of themselves as spiritually accountable to the organization and Jehovah...this is all dumped on them FAR BEFORE they're even aware of who they are. That is what is so unethical about it. JW children are immensely pressured in many ways. Coerced is the appropriate term. They're pressured to be satisfied with menial work and no substantial career path. They're pressured to even surrender their very life if they ever need a blood transfusion. What psychopath asks a child to 'present themselves as a knowledgeable young adult' so that they can satisfy the frivolous opinions of men in New York? Come on. The choice they're making is all with a gun to their head. I lost my dad to being DF'd for many years. And that grief kept me in the organization until I became a man and realized that this corporation feeds off the blood sweat tears, blind devotion, grief, and their uncontested service. No matter what their agenda is, they ought to leave the kids out of it completely.
@@jwallaby7895 Have you tried looking in God's word on how children are to be raised instead of listening to man? I can see why you left the truth. What I find interesting about people is that their heart will reveal who they are and how they interpret their world, and everyone is different. It does take a special person to accept the truth and become a JW. Matthew 13:1-7 explains what happens to some who accept the truth but later for several reason drop out of the race.
@@ronhansen8471 you obviously did not read my first comment where I presented what gods word said to the elders. They had no truth to share with me. What does the Bible say about raising kids in the truth pray tell? Better yet, how does it define truth? So far all you're telling me is what YOU define truth as. Why don't you let god speak for himself?
When we listen to the wrong people we get what we get. Just because an elder tells you something does not always make it so or from the bible. We are to confirm all of what we are told from the bible. Some JWs like to make rules and some become overconfident that affect the ones they are supposed to be looking out for. While there is no age limit in God's organization the one getting baptized must have a reasonable knowledge of bible basics and a track record as an unbaptized publisher. Parents bare some of the blame in pushing their children to baptism. The child needs to determine for themselves whether or not to get baptized not the parents or the elders. While some JW children are very mature for their age and smarter than the average child most are not and I for one feel the child should be old enough to understand what baptism is all about with a solid bible base.
One of my red flag was at the assembly listening to boy who was only 6, just baptized at that assembly. It was my first time being in this org at an assembly listening to a boy only 6 being interviewed about his faith course to baptism. JW around me were clapping their hands but I was wondering how did this boy even answered those questions of sexual matters listed in the baptism question book. How did he understand what fornication and adultery is!?
Can this little boy even commit adultery? Adultery means that you have got sex with someone marriage. Someone who is under the age of consent (which is 15 years) can't have sex, nor be married. In some countries age of consent is even higher (18 years)
I understand why anyone would think this....there are many questions in there that do not apply to a six year old in any way, shape or form. It's sickening that they are even going through the process!
I was 12 the first time i was asked the questions and the day before the assembly the elder called me told me that I could not get baptized. Second time I was allowed to get baptized. now I know why they didn’t let me get baptized the first time. I was probably having apostate ideas at 12 already
That loophole you refer to is a real thing the nuances that a Bible study will not get until they are trapped if they not born in. In the congregation I was in a JW couple arrived with three adult children 18-25 one of them an alleged rapist of a young sister. None of them baptised. One of them got baptised had a relationship was disfellowshipped and cut off. They never cut off the alleged rapist, helped him buy a home, the other was into drugs helped him no end because they were smart enough not to get baptised!
I knew a family like that. Eight kids altogether, four girls, four boys. The girls were all baptized, none of the boys. The boys did any and everything that the 'worldly' people do, and then some. They were never shunned, always got praised whenever they did show up at a meeting. Whereas, each one of the girls were disfellowshipped, shunned, then reinstated. I never knew this was so common.
UGH!!! Makes me sick to read this....but YES....I seriously laugh at the parents that leverage the baptism loophole and it's VERY COMMON. Especially now. I have people that shun me, but not their kids...for one reason......they never got baptized. Sickening that a person guilty of assault still get's their love and association!
@@ingramwright5399 very, VERY common.....it's the loophole these parents lean on. It's comically stupid and intellectually embarrassing. But they do it.
@@survivingparadisepodcast Yes ceasing to be a JW is an unforgivable sin everything else is up for negotiation😂. It’s a business and if you stop consuming the product that is BAD for business. Crimes are not bad for business if they can be kept out of the public gaze. Even the report slip is like a sales report and you are called a publisher (of books which were sold until Jimmy Swaggart messed that up)
I was 15 when I was coerced into getting baptized. I believe I was too young when I did get baptized. The age of baptism is an organization like Jehovah's Witnesses should be at least when you are at least old enough to enter a contract. Dedication to the organization is very similar to entering a contract.
Bingo. Another conundrum. Why does any of it matter? Because they want the control....thus the question on 'organization'.....has nothing to do with a god
I was baptized at 10 at a district convention! So they're definitely baptizing kids! Yeah, I sort of understood, but did I have a clue what it truly meant? ABSOLUTELY NOT. My top priorities back then were my Lisa Frank notebooks and stickers, my Giga Pet, and wondering how bad I was going to get talked about at school bc my mother had my hair looking crazy on most days. 🙃 I had no business getting dipped. This was the only time my parents were legit proud of me. Oh well. I sorta want to try annulling my baptism just for shits and giggles 🤣 Great episode Stacy! Thanks again ❤️
Thank you Lilith!! Ugh, 10 years old??? It's insane!! LOL that annulment thing worked for a few people, but of course, they still put a black cloud over you
frequently the parents push their children too much and later it comes back to bite them. Each child should be instructed by the parents, but children are under the protection of their believing parents and do not need to get baptized until they reach the age of consent. Each child should be allowed to decide for themselves when to get baptized or not.
I was thinking about this non baptism loop hole the other day. I have a close relative that has never been baptized and they are living the "worldly" lifestyle, I left because of the false flip flopping teachings. I am shunned by everyone I knew my entire life, but my non baptized relative is hanging out with friends n family with ease and going to all the gatherings at the kingdom hall. I always found that loop hole odd with this cult.
So sorry Godly Beard...it's absolutely intellectually insulting and also goes against what is in print. But they use it constantly. It's embarrassing. But the ones who were rebels when young and didn't get baptized were smart
Bad association spoils useful habits. These non-witnesses cannot be stopped from attending the public meetings but the JWs associating with them are not following the rules. Friendship with the world makes the person an enemy of God. (James 4:4) Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is making himself an enemy of God. If Christians who are dedicated to Jehovah and who are in the new covenant defile themselves with the present system of things, they commit spiritual adultery.
I got really lucky! The Elders lost my card! One of them told me that it was probably in a dead file somewhere! 😂. No, I had not committed any grievous sins. So when I finally just quit going, they didn't come after me. I didn't have a card! Praise the Lord!
Stacy, I've noticed JW's are using the local Wal-Mart parking lot to hand out magazines on Saturday morning. I wonder who came up with that brilliant idea. 💡
They're everywhere they can expose it to crowds. Not surprised. In my neighborhood, they are in the park, the walking paths and in front of a grocery store. It's disturbing.
My partner had an argument with his sister a few years ago when she was PIMI & he told her "Good luck getting traptized". Thankfully, she never did, since she woke up in 2021.
It's sad, I'm glad I never got baptized. You brought out some very interesting points. I studied with them for about five months and soon realized this isn't God's religion. Jesus is God. The God of watchtower Jehovah is Satan
Hi Stacy, I signed that contract in the late 70s, and left in 1980, but I can’t recall when, where, how, it’s like a blank on that part of my life although I was around 17. I was a virgin, no drinking, no lies, a complete good girl. I was a lucky one, no one in my family or friends joined, so coming out was a breeze, but mentally I felt like it was still close to the truth, except the resurrection part, that shit never convinced me. I’m so puzzled about not remembering, it’s weird. Like always you’re right, it’s a trap.
@Krissy Hold on, Krissy, I may have beat you. How can you be first when I was ahead of you by 2.7 milli seconds? Let’s both be first to stay permanently out of the circus of JW’s! Just yanking your chain, girl!
What a people them lie they just lie and lie and lie some more my children were baptize very early they were encouraged to do so when you are at the convention the announcement comes boastful our youngest to that got baptize is 6 or 7 that the boastful announcement of summing the convention you are speaking nothing but truth here fear and guilt is the clue that hold these people together
I never understand why a 7 year old can make this decision. Cant get married, vote, drink, or smoke. Yet get them baptized so when they go through puberty and make mistakes parents are expected to shunn them. Then suddenly when parents need care the shunned children are suddenly now ok to take care of them. Jesus was at the temple teaching at 12, why wasn't he baptized then? He was certainly familiar with the scriptures.
I LOVE the way you think Joan! Jesus not getting baptized at 12 is a GREAT question and one I've always had... the end result to JW families is devastation....
Seriously, you undermine your EXCELLENT videos by not putting the references upm on the screen, you read these referenves very quickly so it would be helpful to older people such as myself to put the reference up on the screen as text.
Thank you for the suggestion! I've been short on time and traveling, so it's difficult to put together a top notch video, but I agree, it would be very nice to do that for many. This is a little different type podcast, more based on the human experience/observation, so I try to quote for reference. Maybe in the future, thank you!
Mormons baptisms for the dead is waterboarding little girls and boys! This causes dissociation. The rest I'll leave up to you to figure out. It's unspeakable.
S ONE TRUE RELIGION It is only logical that there would be one true religion. This is in harmony with the fact that the true God is a God, "not of disorder, but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33) The Bible says that actually there is only "one faith." (Ephesians 4:5) Who, then, are the ones who form the body of true worshippers today? We do not hesitate to say that they are Jehovah's Witnesses.
Hi John, not sure I'm following here... but perhaps you can prove to us why Jehovah's Witnesses, started in the late 1800's, is the one true religion out of an estimated 10,000 worldwide.
@@survivingparadisepodcast HOW OLD IS THE RELIGION OF Jehovah's WITNESSES? According to the Bible, the line of witnesses of Jehovah reaches back to faithful Abel. Hebrews 11:4--12:1 says: "By faith Abel offered God a sacrifice of greater worth than Cain....By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear .... By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed in going out into a place he was destined to receive as an inheritance ......By faith Moses, when grown up, refused to be called the son of the daughter of Pharoah, choosing to be ill-treated with the people of God rather than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin ......So, then, because we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also put off every weight and the sin that easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." With reference to Jesus Christ, the Bible states: "These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Of whom was he a witness? He himself said that he made his Father's name manifest. He was the foremost witness of Jehovah. ----Rev. 3:14; John 17:6.
@@johncolage1651 hi John, was hoping for an answer to the original question? I've read Hebrews 11 many, many times.....I don't see the Bible stating "the first Jehovah's Witness is Abel, then Noah......" Can you point us all to the scripture that says the Bible and everyone in it were the first Jehovah's Witnesses? A name not even created until the 30's by Joseph Rutherford? Or maybe just a reference from any Bible stating this book is for Jehovah's Witnesses....
@@survivingparadisepodcast Of whom was Jesus Christ "the faithful and true witness"? By his birth into the nation to whom the words of Isaiah 43:10-12 are directed, Jesus Christ was obligated to be a witness of Jehovah. He lived up to this obligation, for all the written record as to what he said and as to all the Hebrew scriptures that he quoted proves that he was Jehovah's Witness. If the question were today directed to Jesus Christ, of which God are a witness? He would reply: Of Jehovah! He was still is in heaven the "Faithful and true witness" of his God and Father." ---Rev. 1:5, 6. AS
Gosh it's just so hard to believe myself an others fell for all this control an mind games. I was told if I did not get baptized I would die at Armageddon because only baptized Jehovah witnesses would be saved , I think for me I got frightened. Really really regret opening that bloody door. 🦚
I can't believe, that I will have to bear consequences for a decision I thought I had to make at 13.
You can't vote or have alcohol, but you can sign your life away forever. Cult.
this infamous statement " the 8 guys in upstate New York" 😂
"[JW] Baptism is the handcuff." A most powerful statement!
Thank you! Without that verbal commitment, many can navigate the insanity and keep family. But once you get in that pool....it's over ;(
@@survivingparadisepodcast Absolutely true. I can remember watching the freedom to fellowship enjoyed by my peers who had been raised, as I had been, in the organization but who had not gotten baptized and, thus, came and went and grossly sinned as they pleased. Lol.
@@TheWriterWalker They figured out how to 'game' the system.....likewise for people that disobeyed and went to college in the 80s and 90s
@@survivingparadisepodcast Yes. I hadn't thought of that. In my hometown, the college rebellion came late, after my departure (in 1991), because it had not become a phenomenon while I was still inside.
I was 22 when I was forced and emotionally black mailed into baptism, worst life decision I have ever made.
I'm so sorry Nivlek....it's all too common!
Yep- me too! My life was upgraded after healing from this damn thing. lol. Take Care Nivlek.
No one is forced into baptism. Naturally baptized JWs are concerned for the welfare of all people who are at the point of baptism and might be overzealous in letting you know, but you have a voice and could have said no. Baptism is a personal choice that cannot be decided by anyone but you.
@@ronhansen8471 I respect your opinion, however what you mentioned varies from congregation to congregation. I didn’t want to get baptised because I didn’t believe it fully. Almost every meeting I was asked “what’s wrong?” “ “why are you not baptised?” “When I was your age I was already a ministerial servant” “if I am Bly baptised by the time Armageddon comes I won’t make it” hearing that at almost every meeting was annoying so I did it to shut them up. Again, it did not come from my heart I did it to get them of my back & stop pestering me.
@@nivlek3234 If you did not believe it you shouldn't have gotten baptized. You should have told the ones pushing to mind their own business. What the friends did not tell you is that the true God intends to bring back all people but the wicked and will not judge people under Satan's systems. The problem is that at Armageddon will people know what they need to do to survive.
Pretty soon the new light will say that if your two year old can say 'Jehovah' then they are evidently spiritually mature, and it would be entirely appropriate for the parents to answer the baptism questions on the toddler's behalf.
LOL, they are not so subtly inching their way there!!
@@ellegee4683 It's heartbreaking! 😭
It doesn't work that way. The one answering the baptism questions gets no help.
Something inside of me always NO BAPTISM!!!
EXCELLENT....so glad you dodged that!
I was 18, when I got baptized. I didn't WANT to get baptized, but I thought it was my duty. I was trying to take responsibility of my spirituality, and I was trying to do everything I was supposed to, and nothing worked, as I hated all of it. I'm a nerdy, goody-two-shoes - no partying or forbidden activities - I just HATED going to the meetings, smiling at the people I didn't know or care about, studying the publications, wasting weekends. But I was trying. Finally, I thought maybe I'm not getting Jehovah's blessings and the true joy because I hadn't made the decision. So I made it.
I'm a studious person, so answering the baptismal questions with the elders was no problem. My never-JW dad asked me if it was a good idea to get baptized, I told him, "It's not like I'll be leaving it [the religion]." I literally didn't see how I could ever be anything else than a JW.
The actual day of my baptism, I could describe my mood and thoughts most accurately as 'numb'. It was like I was stoically walking to my own execution. I didn't want to do it, but it was expected of me and there was no way out of it. My mom was happy and smiling all throughout, I just wanted to get it over it.
:( those emotions are all too familiar. We all grew up during the past 4 decades to believe we had 'no choice' but to be a JW. I actually suspended all goals, desires, etc. because none of it mattered, I just had to be a JW to survive. It's so sick.
@@survivingparadisepodcast It really is an insane world that we were brought up and lived in. Like an alternate universe bubble within the actual world.
It's been about 20 years now, but I really do remember vividly the feeling I had when my dad questioned my decision. (And he didn't even KNOW what all that decision entailed - not even close.) It was... If you're a video gamer like me, imagine a patch of a game world, and the draw distance is so short that you can see the edges of the world, it's a hazy fog all around that little patch of yours, nothing else there. THIS is the world right here, and there is nowhere else to reach, nothing else to be. Just emptiness and nothing, no options beyond that little world. That's what it was. Dad asked me the question and it was like I just peered out into the world, but there was nothing else that I could be, nothing else to aspire to be, to even imagine. Just a grey fog, and the best I could do was to just try to do the best I could within that little patch of game world - that was to level up and get baptized and hope that it would help. It didn't. I was out, as a believer unfortunately, within two years or so.
I never even had any dreams or aspirations, I didn't know what I wanted to be as a grownup. I don't know if that's because I'm wishy-washy or because of the faith, no clue, but I'd guess the former. The irony, however is, that the one great talent that I have, that I could have cultivated, I thought for SURE would be entirely useless for the organization here in this world and definitely in the paradise. Imagine my feelings when I watched Splane's explanation about the overlapping generations and it hit me that the ENTIRE faith is based on -- creative writing! 😂😂🤣🤣😂😂
@@Elecyah so much to unpack with what you described. I've struggled to find the best way to explain what you just did. There is this malaise over your entire life. You have no need to plan for the future, no goals, no dreams. You live in a strange fog....and when you find your way out, you're flooded with anger. Seething anger at being duped by it all. But we have to forgive our inner child......they did it to us when we were KIDS and our brains were forming. It is truly evil.
@@survivingparadisepodcast So true. I look at people around me, who knew what they wanted to become when they grew up, people who had plans. And I'm like, wow, that's so odd. Imagine that.
I had no plans, I had no realizable dreams. Some or even most of it could just be in my nature, I'm not denying that, and you can be what an uncle of mine describes as a lifestyle artist - someone who drifts along life and lands where they happen to - without being a JW. I landed on my feet, got lucky.
The sad thing is that I had my options wide open when I was young. Free education, all the way to university or equivalents, and it was allowed in my congregation, encouraged by my PIMI mom. I got accepted into a polytechnic just on my grades. That was when I was 18, at the same age as I got baptized and... when I looked at my future, it was a grey fog. Is it any wonder depression and dropping out of school were roughly 6 months away at the time.
I'm a third gen. born-in, and thinking about my mom, she drifted along life, too. She landed by accident at the job she had and then sought for higher education to advance in the job. She didn't have a plan either.
This same thing is happening to lots of young people right now. Living in a fog, and actual life is supposed to happen at some later date with the pandas and the watermelons. 😞
@@Elecyah So true. I have some ideas on tackling this subject, but it seems like a big one to me. Trying to describe the emotions behind it!
I answered 200 questions and at my baptism my second question was “… in association with Jehovah’s spirit-directed organization?”
Yep, they started using that version in 1985. A far cry from what the Bible says baptism is all about
Just to add to your point: What capacity does a child have, especially before the "bloom of youth" , to understand the commitment to abstinence from sex or moderation in alcohol, etc?! At a tender age, they don't even have those desires! As you implied so well, the Org has no right to criticize other churches for infant baptism.
It is truly insane RR!
So glad I didn't even consider baptism, stopped believing in thier garbage around 15 yo and stopped going to meetings as soon as I started working, I found the so called worldly people to be more honest than any jw I had ever known.
So glad you dodged the trap! The culture breeds dishonesty from the beginning
Last weekend's watchtower study article was all about life of children and teenagers after the baptism. Many paragraphs of the previously mentioned article showed that JW children are expected to get baptized when they are still children. It is insane.
Wow, I missed that! Thank you for letting us know. It's shameless.....they push it on kids every chance they get
Thank God, who I now know doesn't exist, I never got TRAPTIZED!
That’s cool! I just talked about that in my comment, sweetie!
What a great word!!
Stacy great podcast. You’re right the organization does lie about very young children getting baptized. My wife’s niece was baptized at 9 years old. And once you’re baptized, that’s it, you belong to the hateful eight in New York!
Thanks AJ.....the hateful eight is a great name. Oh they've been baptizing children for decades. They're professional liars
Great episode...I was a "rebellious" youth so I never got baptized.. unfortunately both of my younger siblings did..they were both shunned before graduating high school
I'm so sorry. Makes me sick to read about your siblings. It's criminal...they are still KIDS!! So glad you escaped it!
@@ellegee4683 100%
6 yrs? going to all the meetings, bible readings. Service every Sat morning. never missed, worked with my parents or elderly people, never with someone around my age . That was my life
Yep. Same childhood. Horrific!!! We used to stare out the windows of the kingdom hall and just want to be outside!
@@survivingparadisepodcast You had windows?
@@lizzidpeepole We did! Mid '70's, beautiful property. I would just stare out the windows at the trees....they've since leveled that KH and built a new one :(
So glad that you are drawing attention to the baptism of young children. My sister decided to get baptized at the age of 14. She went through all discussions with the elders. I was just turning 12. What my parents did not know is that I put my swimmers into the bag. During the baptism talk, I asked my father if I could get baptized to, he said "OK," so of I went., surfs up, I just wanted to go for a swim in this ocean bay. My baptism is a joke. When I saw through this religion,years later I wrote and sent a letter to the organization leaders. I explained how I was baptized with my fathers permission, and that I did not consider myself to be baptized. No elders at all came to talk to me about my letter. It might have been thrown into the bin. I haven't been to a meeting in a long time, and when I run into any JW,'s they want me to go back to the meetings. I have never been shunned, even though I told them, what I thought about this religion. All very strange. Yes, baptism is a trap. Thank you.
WOW!!! Incredible story Gisella! I'm so glad you escaped all the damage that comes with being baptized. It seems clear that even your father had no idea the impact of baptism. So few do!
No one will stop you from getting baptized. That doesn't make it right or acceptable.
Such a great video bro! I can relate with this all too well, got baptized in my early teens and later became inactive for nearly a decade and when I came back to the org to confess my sins that I did when I was inactive the elder said “well yes you was inactive but you was still a baptized publisher wasn’t you?”….. they got my ass! Once you get dunked no matter what they own you for life!
Insane! The baptism is how they control millions and ruin lives
I was baptized @ 9 years old in 1969. I am now 61 and have faded from this Crazy religion 36 years ago. When I left I was an active Ministerial servant.
Some family is still active In this madness.
Thank you, for this. Would love to tell you my whole story one day. Much love.
so glad you're out and I'm sure you have some amazing stories to share!! ugh.....NINE!!!
@@survivingparadisepodcast yes
SIR...My baptism questions were from the book "your word is a lamp to my foot and a light to my roadway"
@@SuperMayor31 now there is some history!!
@@survivingparadisepodcast lol
@@SuperMayor31 can’t wait to hear your story my friend !
I was 16 when I was baptized, hade not a single clue of what really was the cost of being baptized, I knew that if I didn’t I would be destroyed Armageddon and it would protect me from satan. But man I didn’t know it would carry so much baggage in it, as a PIMO
I now know what it costs your time money family and soul they have taken from you. And if you leave you have to re find who you are
After you leave!
All true cold!! I'm so sorry you were trapped. I was too! Devastating effects that last a lifetime!
Just this week I had some repressed memories come to me....and they all had to do with WHY I became baptized at age 12, even though my family struggled with witness life.
The elders pressured me at first, and nudged me to become "the man of the house, and head of my family" after my dad left us. The literature did the rest. I remember that bullshit about how kids who know better but don't get baptized, are dead at armageddon. And I was so troubled as a kid from my toxic unsteady home life....I was an easy target for the organization to groom me.
I'll forever resent them for that. In the end, that's why I started questioning last year at age 30. They baptize kids too early. And there are even biblical precedents from the Bible if they wanted to have one about the age of consent for kids. (None of the ancient Israelites kids under age 20 were killed before their wandering in the wilderness because they did not yet know right or wrong). The elders were speechless when I showed them the scores of scriptures that condemned that practice of baptizing little kids. I left 6 months later after pouring over the literature myself. What a waste of 18 years of my life, and everybody else who got baptized early on!!!
I hope it somehow becomes illegal to baptize JW kids before age 18.
You were given wrong counsel. No child at 12 years old should become the man of the house. It is the job of the elders to take care of single mothers with children. There is no age limit in Jehovah's organization, but common sense would dictate when an individual should get baptized and not be pressured by others. It is a personal choice.
@@ronhansen8471 the elders merely lit the wick. Like I said, the literature did the rest. Not just literature you understand. The audio, the video dramas, the demonstrations and interviews at conventions and kingdom hall meetings. It all grooms children to think of themselves as spiritually accountable to the organization and Jehovah...this is all dumped on them FAR BEFORE they're even aware of who they are. That is what is so unethical about it. JW children are immensely pressured in many ways. Coerced is the appropriate term. They're pressured to be satisfied with menial work and no substantial career path. They're pressured to even surrender their very life if they ever need a blood transfusion. What psychopath asks a child to 'present themselves as a knowledgeable young adult' so that they can satisfy the frivolous opinions of men in New York? Come on. The choice they're making is all with a gun to their head. I lost my dad to being DF'd for many years. And that grief kept me in the organization until I became a man and realized that this corporation feeds off the blood sweat tears, blind devotion, grief, and their uncontested service. No matter what their agenda is, they ought to leave the kids out of it completely.
@@jwallaby7895 Have you tried looking in God's word on how children are to be raised instead of listening to man? I can see why you left the truth. What I find interesting about people is that their heart will reveal who they are and how they interpret their world, and everyone is different. It does take a special person to accept the truth and become a JW. Matthew 13:1-7 explains what happens to some who accept the truth but later for several reason drop out of the race.
@@ronhansen8471 you obviously did not read my first comment where I presented what gods word said to the elders. They had no truth to share with me. What does the Bible say about raising kids in the truth pray tell? Better yet, how does it define truth? So far all you're telling me is what YOU define truth as. Why don't you let god speak for himself?
When we listen to the wrong people we get what we get. Just because an elder tells you something does not always make it so or from the bible. We are to confirm all of what we are told from the bible. Some JWs like to make rules and some become overconfident that affect the ones they are supposed to be looking out for. While there is no age limit in God's organization the one getting baptized must have a reasonable knowledge of bible basics and a track record as an unbaptized publisher. Parents bare some of the blame in pushing their children to baptism. The child needs to determine for themselves whether or not to get baptized not the parents or the elders. While some JW children are very mature for their age and smarter than the average child most are not and I for one feel the child should be old enough to understand what baptism is all about with a solid bible base.
One of my red flag was at the assembly listening to boy who was only 6, just baptized at that assembly. It was my first time being in this org at an assembly listening to a boy only 6 being interviewed about his faith course to baptism. JW around me were clapping their hands but I was wondering how did this boy even answered those questions of sexual matters listed in the baptism question book. How did he understand what fornication and adultery is!?
Can this little boy even commit adultery? Adultery means that you have got sex with someone marriage. Someone who is under the age of consent (which is 15 years) can't have sex, nor be married. In some countries age of consent is even higher (18 years)
I understand why anyone would think this....there are many questions in there that do not apply to a six year old in any way, shape or form. It's sickening that they are even going through the process!
Wow, drivers license.. wow, i remember!!
I was 12 the first time i was asked the questions and the day before the assembly the elder called me told me that I could not get baptized. Second time I was allowed to get baptized. now I know why they didn’t let me get baptized the first time. I was probably having apostate ideas at 12 already
LOL you were one of the smart ones! There were also elders who actually used some common sense. It was rare, but it would happen!
That loophole you refer to is a real thing the nuances that a Bible study will not get until they are trapped if they not born in. In the congregation I was in a JW couple arrived with three adult children 18-25 one of them an alleged rapist of a young sister. None of them baptised. One of them got baptised had a relationship was disfellowshipped and cut off. They never cut off the alleged rapist, helped him buy a home, the other was into drugs helped him no end because they were smart enough not to get baptised!
I knew a family like that. Eight kids altogether, four girls, four boys. The girls were all baptized, none of the boys. The boys did any and everything that the 'worldly' people do, and then some. They were never shunned, always got praised whenever they did show up at a meeting. Whereas, each one of the girls were disfellowshipped, shunned, then reinstated.
I never knew this was so common.
@@ingramwright5399 It’s very common! No logic whatsoever!
UGH!!! Makes me sick to read this....but YES....I seriously laugh at the parents that leverage the baptism loophole and it's VERY COMMON. Especially now. I have people that shun me, but not their kids...for one reason......they never got baptized. Sickening that a person guilty of assault still get's their love and association!
@@ingramwright5399 very, VERY common.....it's the loophole these parents lean on. It's comically stupid and intellectually embarrassing. But they do it.
@@survivingparadisepodcast Yes ceasing to be a JW is an unforgivable sin everything else is up for negotiation😂. It’s a business and if you stop consuming the product that is BAD for business. Crimes are not bad for business if they can be kept out of the public gaze. Even the report slip is like a sales report and you are called a publisher (of books which were sold until Jimmy Swaggart messed that up)
I knew people now in their 50s who grew up as Mormons. Children were baptized (or baptised) when still at primary school.
There are so many parallels between Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.....JW's are doing that as well!
I was 15 when I was coerced into getting baptized. I believe I was too young when I did get baptized. The age of baptism is an organization like Jehovah's Witnesses should be at least when you are at least old enough to enter a contract. Dedication to the organization is very similar to entering a contract.
The dedication to the organization is where they get you. That is why it's the second question at the baptism!
The best thing that happened to me when I was baptized in 89’ was going to Olive Garden for dinner and ordering my own fettuccine alfredo!
I hope you got some bottomless bread sticks too!!😂
Hahaha. I'm guessing fairly young seeing you consider ordering a privilege.
You are accountable to skydaddy whether your baptized or not… Then why get baptized? It’s all sick!
Bingo. Another conundrum. Why does any of it matter? Because they want the control....thus the question on 'organization'.....has nothing to do with a god
This is such an amazingly fantastic, wonderful Xjw podcast. I love it so much. Thank you for sharing your loving insight here
Thank you so much Rebella!!!!
I got baptized at 14. I really wasn't old enough or did I really comprehend the religion. Hell I didn't comprehend it until about a few years ago.
Almost everyone feels that way. They didn't understand MOST of it until they were adults! And most JW's still don't understand any of it
@Jdub NoMo Absolute delusion. No nine year old grasps what they've done...not at all
Great video, thank you. Kids should never be getting dunked into the pool at such a very young age.
I was baptized at 10 at a district convention! So they're definitely baptizing kids! Yeah, I sort of understood, but did I have a clue what it truly meant? ABSOLUTELY NOT. My top priorities back then were my Lisa Frank notebooks and stickers, my Giga Pet, and wondering how bad I was going to get talked about at school bc my mother had my hair looking crazy on most days. 🙃 I had no business getting dipped. This was the only time my parents were legit proud of me. Oh well. I sorta want to try annulling my baptism just for shits and giggles 🤣
Great episode Stacy! Thanks again ❤️
Thank you Lilith!! Ugh, 10 years old??? It's insane!! LOL that annulment thing worked for a few people, but of course, they still put a black cloud over you
frequently the parents push their children too much and later it comes back to bite them. Each child should be instructed by the parents, but children are under the protection of their believing parents and do not need to get baptized until they reach the age of consent. Each child should be allowed to decide for themselves when to get baptized or not.
I was thinking about this non baptism loop hole the other day. I have a close relative that has never been baptized and they are living the "worldly" lifestyle, I left because of the false flip flopping teachings. I am shunned by everyone I knew my entire life, but my non baptized relative is hanging out with friends n family with ease and going to all the gatherings at the kingdom hall. I always found that loop hole odd with this cult.
So sorry Godly Beard...it's absolutely intellectually insulting and also goes against what is in print. But they use it constantly. It's embarrassing. But the ones who were rebels when young and didn't get baptized were smart
Bad association spoils useful habits. These non-witnesses cannot be stopped from attending the public meetings but the JWs associating with them are not following the rules. Friendship with the world makes the person an enemy of God. (James 4:4) Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is making himself an enemy of God. If Christians who are dedicated to Jehovah and who are in the new covenant defile themselves with the present system of things, they commit spiritual adultery.
I got really lucky! The Elders lost my card! One of them told me that it was probably in a dead file somewhere! 😂. No, I had not committed any grievous sins. So when I finally just quit going, they didn't come after me. I didn't have a card! Praise the Lord!
THAT is everything a person could wish for. I actually made it happen on purpose
Stacy, I've noticed JW's are using the local Wal-Mart parking lot to hand out magazines on Saturday morning. I wonder who came up with that brilliant idea. 💡
They're everywhere they can expose it to crowds. Not surprised. In my neighborhood, they are in the park, the walking paths and in front of a grocery store. It's disturbing.
Traptism
My partner had an argument with his sister a few years ago when she was PIMI & he told her "Good luck getting traptized". Thankfully, she never did, since she woke up in 2021.
Ha, I love that 'traptized'.....that is the perfect word!! Glad she woke up!!
🙌🏻
Are there any scriptures in bible which justify child baptism and punishing of children?
On baptizing children: no! On punishing kids with 'the rod'.....oh yes, a future episode! 😎
It's sad, I'm glad I never got baptized. You brought out some very interesting points. I studied with them for about five months and soon realized this isn't God's religion. Jesus is God. The God of watchtower Jehovah is Satan
so glad you could see through the nonsense! I appreciate you listening!
Shout out to the Star Wars crew
"It's a trap" 😄
Hi Stacy, I signed that contract in the late 70s, and left in 1980, but I can’t recall when, where, how, it’s like a blank on that part of my life although I was around 17. I was a virgin, no drinking, no lies, a complete good girl. I was a lucky one, no one in my family or friends joined, so coming out was a breeze, but mentally I felt like it was still close to the truth, except the resurrection part, that shit never convinced me. I’m so puzzled about not remembering, it’s weird. Like always you’re right, it’s a trap.
Stacyyyyy I’m first. What do I win?
A trip to Bethel and dinner with the GB.
Great prize..I'd love to win it ...have fun 😂😂😂😂😂
You escaped from this JW foolishness that’s a prize for life!
A pillow 'autographed' by selected bethelites.
@Krissy
Hold on, Krissy, I may have beat you.
How can you be first when I was ahead of you by 2.7 milli seconds? Let’s both be first to stay permanently out of the circus of JW’s! Just yanking your chain, girl!
What a people them lie they just lie and lie and lie some more my children were baptize very early they were encouraged to do so when you are at the convention the announcement comes boastful our youngest to that got baptize is 6 or 7 that the boastful announcement of summing the convention you are speaking nothing but truth here fear and guilt is the clue that hold these people together
100% true!!! It's criminal!!
They literally told us kids in the 1980s 'you wont get into The New System™ on your parents coat-tails 😡
Its control by. Fear
100%
I never understand why a 7 year old can make this decision. Cant get married, vote, drink, or smoke. Yet get them baptized so when they go through puberty and make mistakes parents are expected to shunn them. Then suddenly when parents need care the shunned children are suddenly now ok to take care of them. Jesus was at the temple teaching at 12, why wasn't he baptized then? He was certainly familiar with the scriptures.
I LOVE the way you think Joan! Jesus not getting baptized at 12 is a GREAT question and one I've always had... the end result to JW families is devastation....
Seriously, you undermine your EXCELLENT videos by not putting the references upm on the screen, you read these referenves very quickly so it would be helpful to older people such as myself to put the reference up on the screen as text.
Thank you for the suggestion! I've been short on time and traveling, so it's difficult to put together a top notch video, but I agree, it would be very nice to do that for many. This is a little different type podcast, more based on the human experience/observation, so I try to quote for reference. Maybe in the future, thank you!
Mormons baptisms for the dead is waterboarding little girls and boys! This causes dissociation. The rest I'll leave up to you to figure out. It's unspeakable.
Yeah they are a crazy cult too .
most dangerous cult
S ONE TRUE RELIGION
It is only logical that there would be one true religion. This is in harmony with the fact that the true God is a God, "not of disorder, but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33) The Bible says that actually there is only "one faith." (Ephesians 4:5) Who, then, are the ones who form the body of true worshippers today?
We do not hesitate to say that they are Jehovah's Witnesses.
Hi John, not sure I'm following here... but perhaps you can prove to us why Jehovah's Witnesses, started in the late 1800's, is the one true religion out of an estimated 10,000 worldwide.
@@survivingparadisepodcast HOW OLD IS THE RELIGION OF Jehovah's WITNESSES?
According to the Bible, the line of witnesses of Jehovah reaches back to faithful Abel. Hebrews 11:4--12:1 says: "By faith Abel offered God a sacrifice of greater worth than Cain....By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear .... By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed in going out into a place he was destined to receive as an inheritance ......By faith Moses, when grown up, refused to be called the son of the daughter of Pharoah, choosing to be ill-treated with the people of God rather than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin ......So, then, because we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also put off every weight and the sin that easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
With reference to Jesus Christ, the Bible states: "These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Of whom was he a witness? He himself said that he made his Father's name manifest. He was the foremost witness of Jehovah. ----Rev. 3:14; John 17:6.
@@johncolage1651 hi John, was hoping for an answer to the original question? I've read Hebrews 11 many, many times.....I don't see the Bible stating "the first Jehovah's Witness is Abel, then Noah......" Can you point us all to the scripture that says the Bible and everyone in it were the first Jehovah's Witnesses? A name not even created until the 30's by Joseph Rutherford? Or maybe just a reference from any Bible stating this book is for Jehovah's Witnesses....
@@survivingparadisepodcast Of whom was Jesus Christ "the faithful and true witness"? By his birth into the nation to whom the words of Isaiah 43:10-12 are directed, Jesus Christ was obligated to be a witness of Jehovah. He lived up to this obligation, for all the written record as to what he said and as to all the Hebrew scriptures that he quoted proves that he was Jehovah's Witness. If the question were today directed to Jesus Christ, of which God are a witness? He would reply: Of Jehovah! He was still is in heaven the "Faithful and true witness" of his God and Father." ---Rev. 1:5, 6. AS
@@johncolage1651 Nice to see you john c.! I hope all is well!
Gosh it's just so hard to believe myself an others fell for all this control an mind games. I was told if I did not get baptized I would die at Armageddon because only baptized Jehovah witnesses would be saved , I think for me I got frightened. Really really regret opening that bloody door. 🦚
You were far from alone, many, many, many of us fell for this trap! We were all taught we would die if not baptized and they still teach that!