by ButtLight 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
interesting point, i read a book the other day that listed them as a cult.
They are a cult, but like most cults the people on the inside get one side of a two sided story and are lied to.
The society will make every excuse in the book for every single thing they do and they dont even need to be good at it considering the mistakes that dubs regularly overlook.
I see your point, under-believer. But therein lies the reason why cult indoctrination is so effective. There is always going to be "wiggle-room" for someone who is a true believer. The cult indoctrinates its members with triggered responses that serve to neutralize any threat to the cult's existence.
For example, any faithful witness will discard this list as being "worldy" or "apostate" propaganda, and therefore not to be trusted. Most won't even read it at all if they perceive it to be anti-JW in any way, much less seriously consider its contents.
It's only those who already have deep-rooted doubts that would even consider this kind of information. And what happens to those? They are quickly disfellowshipped and remaining cult members are admonished not to have contact with them in any way... the cult's way of weeding out anything that is a threat to its existence.
It's really a very clever and effective scheme.
I think Armageddon and Genicide on a globel scale of everyone that is not a JW,constitutes violence..JW`s support an orgaization that is extremely violent...OUTLAW
Underbeliever,
Actually you proved number #3 (deceptive teaching) is true with your answer to #6, where you said:
We know this one is true, with their not-so-veiled "suggestions" about who one should marry, how much school one should get, what jobs are appropriate, what entertainment and recreation (and how much!) one should "partake" in. But the way this sentence is written it sounds like the elders directly make all these decisions for the Witnesses and that's not true, it's more indirect and much more insidious.
Regarding #12 (ends justifies the means) philosophy, there are many examples:
Blood: Letting children die is ends justifies the means
Theocratic warfare: Lying to secular authorities because they aren't "entitled" to know the truth.
Regarding #14, one only has to look at how often JW serial killers, JW molesters, and JW abusers are in the news.
Here's a few examples.
-ithinkisee
I'm very surprised the list does not contain shunning of members who leave the cult.
The description that a Christian cult is one that 'departs from orthodox Christianity' is a bit silly. What, you're in a cult just because you don't believe in the trinity and an immortal soul?
Nonetheless, sadly there are many cultish elements in the JW's. The main ones are the complete lack of open enquiry and tolerance of dissenting views and the doomsday approach.
I don't think they are an out and out cult..they just use some serious fear/guilt/mind control methods, but you can say that about almost any religion if you try hard enough.
Islam is most definitely a cult according to that list.
My mother always said JW's aren't a cult because we don't follow one man we follow Christ.
Well there more requirements than that,that apply.
I did not accept the fact that the WT was a cult until a while after I became an 'apostate for truth' ... actually after I read Steve Hassans book I knew and admitted that I, WAC-A-LICIOUS was a cult member
9. Cult members are isolated from the outside world and any reality testing it could provide. This one, unfortunately, I don't think is true at all.I don't agree. The problem is that the JW interpret EVERYTHING about the outside world thru the FDS/GB provided "lens". So they thet "see" the outside world and those in it only as they are taught to. This blocks out the possibility of incorporating new and potentially useful info from the "outside" because "the world is ruled by Satan". What kind of meaningful intellectual/rational exchange can be had with a "worldly person"?
Skeptic1914
I never knew that it was a cult until I was out of the organization after 20 years of being in it. It's only until you leave, you see how really screwed up it is, and how it's really a cult.
My parents say we the Jehovah's Witnesses don't follow human leadership, they follow God and Christ. Which doesn't make any sense to me because they follow the Governbody who are made up of men.
They receive their information from the society, and believe they are god's only channel of communication.
I guess in the Bible Moses was a prophet, and God spoke through him to people. But I can't see a group of highly controlled extremists being in charge.
Many of their rules and regulations are very unreasonable. Not to mention their doctrine changes in the past, and present.
By the Witnesses changing numerous doctrines, is what they were taught in the past wrong since it changed? Is it no longer to be believed ? How would you know what their teaching right now isn't later down the road going to be changed again ? Then not to be believed ?
Seems to me that they really enticed alot of people into their religion with false prophecy. I know one doctrine change that really bothered me personally, it was about the generation of 1914 seeing the end of this system. They stopped teaching that.
Jehovah's Witnesses are blindly following the society. And the Society is not to be questioned by any of it's members. If your a Witness and you do question the society, you will be automatically labelled as an "apostate", and have committed the unforgivable sin. They will kick you out on your ass.
Witnesses don't know what a cult is, perhaps, because the society hasn't made a watchtower or awake article on it. I wonder why ? Hmm.
Now that im out of the organization, I realize what I was into. And as I said before, when your in it, you don't realize anything, the only thing your realizing is what the society teaches you since your under a form of mind control (which is yet another sign of a cult, mind control).
keith
3. The cult's recruitment techniques are often deceptive. Hmm... I don't think most Witnesses would agree with this one. I'm not even sure I do. You can find out anything you want about them by asking, they don't deliberately hide anything about themselves from "Bible studies". Of course there are things you find out after you've been in for a few months, but it's not like they're official points of doctrine that were hidden on purpose.
You ever seen a dub asked a controversial question, point-blank? I remember one day I was at the door, and the householder asked several pointed questions. One of them was, "I've had several blood transfusions. Does that mean that God hates me?"
"Well no..." he stammered. The guy also asked a bunch of embarrassing questions. The dub had to weasel his way out of them all.
When studying, you won't be told about disfellowshipping, and you won't hear about how important the FDS class is.
