I began to completely withdraw from the Watchtower, my friends, and more importantly, God. My life spun out of control for a good year. So I held all these questions, along with many more concerns I had, deep inside.įeeling that I had nowhere to go, I turned to drugs and alcohol at the age of 15. The difficulty with having such questions as a Jehovah’s Witnesses is that a person who begins to ask such questions is then “marked” by the church as a “bad association,” or even reprimanded for questioning the organization. Questions like, “How do we know that the Watchtower Society, Jehovah’s Witnesses, is the only true religion?” and “Why is it that the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses only goes back so far, thus creating a huge gap in the connection to the Apostles?” These and many other questions began to truly eat away inside me at a very young age. Inquisitive as most at my age, I began to question many of my beliefs.
I just loved meeting new people and teaching them the things that God was teaching me! Thus, in 1987, at the age of 13, I was baptized as an ordained minister in the Watchtower organization as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.Īs we all know, the teenage years are a difficult time regardless of one’s religious views. My heart was drawn to go out publically from door-to-door preaching this “good news” that I was learning. I learned Scripture quickly and, at a very young age, I began to give “talks” (sermons) in front of the congregation. I felt a part of an organization that seemed to truly care for me and my family and that was teaching me “the truth.” Standing up for my beliefs as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses made me feel good inside, knowing that I was being loyal to my God. As a child, I felt a part of something much larger than myself, than the world, than my parents. Growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness was difficult at times, but it was also very rewarding. The Watchtower message touched my parents enough to eventually become baptized Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1984. Throughout the various moves from place to place, my parents were contacted by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Both of my parents are “cradle” Catholics and each had very different experiences with the Catholic Church. I was born in San Francisco, California, where my father was stationed in 1974. My father was in the Army so our family traveled around quite a bit. Peering back into my childhood, however, I realize that my exposure to Catholicism actually began as a child. At the age of 31, an unexpected realization set in – thus beginning my personal journey to the Catholic Church, my home. My future wife, born and raised in the Catholic Church, was by my side, silently showing me something that I never thought I’d see or feel. In 2005, I found myself inside a Catholic church for Midnight Mass. Resources for Non-Catholic Clergy and Ministers.Bible and the Catechism in a Year Reading Plan.Supporting Members of the Coming Home Network.
0 kommentar(er)
