Is the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization really a cult?

by Etude 56 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  oompa

  i have not read all of these...but most of the first page and it is late here in nc....but i saw the pbs morman doc and it was so cult to me and the people they kicked out and shunned too........and i read a book recently that said the jewish faith evolved into a considerable cult by such and such date...............oompa
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  Black Sheep

  The fact is that many don't view the WTBTS as a cult. Why? How do we change that perception?

  You just talk to people. Tell them your experiences in the cult you were influenced by.

  It is difficult to slap a label onto the many groups that fit the many descriptions to varying degrees.

  I have stopped using the term 'cult' except when I want to shock. Instead, I just hack at the methods used by cults. It is a waste of time debating definitions when the real problem is the tactics they use.

  Cheers

  Chris
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  Black Sheep

  I met a guy who claimed he had been brought up in a cult.

  He thought that JWs were a harmless Christian religion.

  I asked him to describe his upbringing. In ten minutes he described my upbringing using many of the same phrases that my father and his religious leaders had used on me. The only differences were doctrinal. All of the mind control techniques were the same.

  When I introduced the term 'mind control' into the conversation he jumped on it and knew exactly what I was talking about.

  He was not welcome in his father's house until he accepted 'The Truth', even though his father was on his death-bed. He had been thrown out of home at 15 for the 'sin' of questioning a doctrine, he was well into his 40s.

  His father was Plymouth Bretheren.

  There is no point in getting cults recognised as dangerous by name. People must be able to recognise cults by their attributes.

  The Watchtower is not the only cult that wants your children.

  Cheers

  Chris
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  While that may appear to simply be arguing over terms, the classification has its implications out there in the world and it adds legitimacy to these heinous groups.

  That is how many of us feel. We wish people would recognize a duck when it quacks. I always call it a "dangerous mind-control cult" and straightforwardly describe it in the whackiest terms that are true.

  Example: "What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe?"

  "They believe that Jesus' second coming started in 1914, but he returned invisibly. While they don't live in a cult compound, they separate themselves from outsiders socially and condemn celebrating holidays and birthdays and getting a college education. Like Chicken Little saying the sky is falling, they have been proclaiming Armageddon's imminence since 1914 and just like other doomsday cults, have been disappointed on occasions when it didn't come- the biggest disappointment in recent times was 1975. They have their own version of the Bible and believe everything written in Watchtower Magazine as if God directed it to be written."
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  sacolton

  Any so-called "religion" that requires you to "die for God" is a cult. The Watchtower is a doomsday cult like Heavens Gate, Jim Jones and The Branch Davidians except they kill their members through a legal system.
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  Anti-Christ

  I would say all religions qualifies as a cult but some are more damaging then others. Even some main stream companies functions as cults. I would say a better word to describe a religion is meme (mind virus) and like viruses some are more damaging then others and some spread with more ease then others. So for me the Jehovah's Witnesses are just an other meme that causes damage to the host. BTW the Catholic Church is a "cult" (meme) and yes it does kill some of it's hosts (the spread of AIDS and the use of condoms).
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  Podobear

  That's nonsense sacolton... surely, there are things you are willing to die for in life... or do Brown and Obama dictate your conscience?? Check the base line... if that happens to be Christianity, common sense and good judgment should prevail with a sprinkling of reason. Nuking kids in Baghdad because you HAVE BEEN TOLD it is avenging 911, shows the duplicity of Politics and the self- interests of men. Get real! Use your head, man.