If Im NOT JW, what can I be? (page 2)

Sirona

LOL Blondie. I dont want to be part of a religious group, and being pagan I dont think many JWs would join me!

Sirona

ballistic

I know there is a deep side to your question, and I personally do not choose to believe now, but the non-cultist mainstream JWs in the UK are methodists.

The Worldwide Church of God is very similar in outlook and doctrine to JW's. Have you ever heard of "The Plain Truth" magazine? Rumor had it at one time that the head of the WWCOG, Herbert Armstrong, was once affiliated with the JW's, but I don't know if it's true.

Herbert's son, Garner Ted Armstrong, used to have a TV program. I don't know whether he's still in the preaching business or not.

I had a former co-worker who was a member of the WWCOG. She didn't celebrate Christmas and had other weird habits and beliefs. I think I was influential in getting her to stop going to that church, too.

As to what you can be, you can be anything. The sky's the limit.

Regards, Mum

Mindchild

Hi Sirona,

I found your thread interesting for more reasons than one. From my own personal experience in leaving the Borg, I looked at a lot of other diffrent belief systems to see if my experience with religion was simply a case of getting a "bad apple." It soon became obvious that while Jehovah's Witnesses were way out in left field with their unusual beliefs, many of the individual beliefs that make the total ideology of the dubs is scattered here and there in other religions. For example, you can find other religions that believe in going door to door, not celebrating Christmas, etc.

I was more interested at the time in seeing if there was a "psychological" match with the JW's. Essentially, the warm family type approach, the apparent loving and kind extended family, a wholesome experience. Here I had more success. I did discover that Jehovah's Witnesses are rare in that they are classified as a totalizing type of religion. Essentially that just means they live their religion 24/7 whereas many other belief systems are much less demanding. Another example of a totalizing religion is Scientology.

The closest thing that I could find to the familiar family type theme was an Eastern group of people who are followers of OSHO, who is formerly known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931-1990) This group of people living in India and scattered around the world are much happier than any dub ever dreamed of being. His ideas and philosophies were quite interesting and outside the box but alas tragedy came down on this group like a ton of bricks. To start with, they built a large commune up in Oregon and became infamous for celebrating human sexuality and bus after bus of eager males would travel to their commune and do the babes. This of course bugged the hell out of the conservatives living in the same area and the tensions and hostility grew and grew.

This religious cult is the one and same that went paranoid because of all the local hatred and was the first to use biological warfare in the USA by sprinkling bacteria on door knobs and salads in resturants in Oregon, making hundreds of people sick but not killing anyone. OSHO and some of his followers got implicated but OSHO was deported back to India, where he lived until he died some years later. The group still continues with different leaders and is totally peaceful now but still are infamous for sexual liberation.

Regardless of how enticing that may be, sometimes the search for "truth" takes you to places that are not as fun and give you a whole lot of uncertainty about life. I would rather though have one microgram of reality than a ton of fantasy...except when it comes to, uh you know following my biological drives:)

Skipper

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism...." Albert Einstein

ballistic

mind child, just an observation...
Sirona asked for non-cult groups and your passage centred on two of them???!! And, what are you thinking? Scientology is one of the most dangerous mind-control groups out there. I know a lot about it and I damn well hope youre not endorsing them!!!

Mindchild

Ballistic,

I certainly don't endorse Scientology or OSHO or any other religions. Yes, both of these are cults, so is the JW's. I was just pointing these out as examples of simililarity between what the Jehovah's Witnesses either teach or experience vs. with what I discovered in other religions.

I only endorse careful and analytical thought with a heavy dose of skeptical inquiry.

Skipper

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism...." Albert Einstein

Sirona

Interesting. As you said, they're cults and I wouldnt recommend them.

I agree that searching religion can lead to confusion, but I'd rather have confusion than being in a controlling cult like JWs.

Essentially, JWs have to realise that there is no one true answer. However, while reasoning with them I think its a good idea to have some ammo on other religions that are doing some of the things they do, etc.

Thanks
Sirona

blondie

Garner Ted Armstrong is still on TV and has this website:

www.gtaea.org/

Escargot

Raymond Franz second book, "In search of Christion Freedom," has some good points for Christians to consider:

Page 672, "The Body of Christ, a Religious Organization or a Family-like Community?"

Page 681: "Is an Authority Structure Needed?"

Please read this detailed information. Lots of food for thought. I have to agree with Franz, “it is the Christian Faith that is the truth, not any one religion.

Also see http://www.nazarene-friends.org

Erasmus (1520 AD): "If we want truth, every person ought to be free to speak what they think without fear."

msil

"religion is sanctioned insanity" - MSIL

If Im NOT JW, what can I be?

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