u/Lefthandovg0d

I remember one of the conventions I attended when I was 11. They were pushing hard for baptisms. One little girl who was 3 years old got baptized. So they brought her on stage to speak and give her experience. Which tbh, was horrible enough they coerced her into being baptized.

Pretty much she spoke about her love for big J. Blah blah blah, dedicating her life to jehovah. Anyway it was all the soft "awwwwwe" from the crowd that was buzzing around the convention. Way to use the innocence of a child to pull on the strings of already brainwashed fervent sycophants.

And at the end everyone cheered and clapped for the girl. The speaker of course i will never forget his words: " look! Look how jehovah has blessed this child and inspired her to be a full baptized member. With so much love we too can make that commitment."

Every damn parent in that convention who's child was above the age of 3 got the most foul scolding looks because we hadn't dedicated our lives as this kid did.

I felt the glaring, rage fueled stare from my parents.

"You're getting baptized by the end of this year!" They told me. I think that's when I knew something was off. Something didn't feel right. After that so many young ones got baptized left and right. Not me though, I stayed away from all that as much as an 11 year old kid could.

They made me feel shameful and wrong for not wanting to be a JW. and all you saw on Facebook and Instagram, was everyone's baptism videos and little charades of joy during the conventions.... uhhh I hated it. Felt like bragging rights for parents who got thier kids baptized. Gloating on social media to every other JW parent who had a kid who was not baptized. And for added points to being able to brag, the younger your kid got baptized, the better. So cringe and wrong... it still makes me feel disgust even today, 26 years later.

As title ask, what was the most cringe situation you were in that gave you 2nd hand embarrassment while being out in public areas with other JW's?

Mine was when I went to Magic mountain with my cousin and all his JW buddies from his congregation. The whole day was literally watching "young ones and young adults" engaging with one another in some of the most cringe homeschooled socially inept JW behavior I had ever seen.

But the cringiest was towards the end of the day. We were waiting for the Joker ride when one of the older chaperones of the group was talking about how he bumped into another JW in the park and got to talking. Mind you there were other people around and they talked so loud everyone in the line could hear them. Then my cousin and his JW comrades started to sing the "We're Jehovahs witnesses, we speak out in fearlessness" song. They sang like they were at the damn opera. Then another JW came forward from the line and was like "Hey I am JW too brothers and sister" Then started to sing with them.

I was dying inside the whole time and couldn't wait to get out that situation and away from the awkward stares they got from other people that were there.