Everyone here should see this video

by Juan Viejo2 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Juan Viejo2

  I'm sure that many of you here are familiar with TED.org. If you're not, you should check it out. There is a wealth of information on every kind of subject located there.

  I stumbled across this short (6 minute) talk by a former Moonie turned deprogrammer. Like many of us here on this forum, she has seen both sides of a cult. Like she says in her talk, she "gets it."

  You could substitute Reverend Moon for WT Governing Body and the story would be exactly the same.

  http://www.ted.com/talks/ex_moonie_diane_benscoter_how_cults_think.html
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  Cold Steel

  The video is senseless. You can't go around kidnapping people because you believe their behavior is devient. In the case of Moonies, where you're deprived of seeing your loved ones and exposed to relentless propaganda and so forth, where are you going to draw the line? Once someone is forcibly removed from a religion or course of thought, what is the end result on their psyche? Are you going to go after Jehovah's Witnesses next? And then Mormons? Some atheists believe all religion is cognitive dysfunction. It's like guns. Some people (some cops) grossly misuse and abuse them. But when society goes too far, everyone suffers.

  Life has its dangers, but one has to be careful in drawing the line on free agency. In one well known case, an elderly man was kidnapped by his wacko daughter, who wanted him to admit to her that he'd sexually abused her. The only problems were: 1) that he didn't; 2) his other daughters didn't report any problems; 3) the woman didn't believe her father was guilty until a disreputable therapist had gotten ahold of her and hypnotized her. In the end, she and her female lover were caught and it was quite the scandal.

  Deprogramming people is something I have mixed emotions about. It takes at least a week before results are discernible, but I'm not comfortable with the legal, moral or ethical ramifications. It sets a horrible precedent in a free country. If I were a judge, I wouldn't stand for it.
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  Found Sheep

  I loved it! I like her thougth that " easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing to the emotional vulnerable" depicts JW's!
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  WTWizard

  I believe that education, not force, is the key to busting up cults. However, if someone initiates force, threats of force, or fraud to get people in, and force is the only way to get them out before the leaders use force of their own, then it's justified. The force would be, not against those held against their will, but against those in charge of the cult. Let the leaders get the full course of jail time, educate those near the bottom of the cults, and watch the cults fall apart.
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  Mad Sweeney

  Let the leaders get the full course of jail time, educate those near the bottom of the cults, and watch the cults fall apart.

  I agree with this. This is where Russia went wrong in attacking the Borg. Here's how you destroy a cult such as the WTS.

  1. You study in-depth exactly what human rights the cult violates and how they do so. If you don't find any, you're done. If you do, you go on to step two.

  2. You establish relationships with people who can make things happen in the legal system.

  3. You develop an aggressive public awareness campaign about the human rights violations the group perpetrates. You cannot attack an abusive religion without an answer to their "freedom of religion" argument. Therefore the attack has to be SUPPORTING freedom of worship. Individuals living under the authority of these types of cults are NOT free, and if you can't establish this fact your crusade is dead on arrival.

  4. When public awareness is at its height, you bring the legal system to bear against the group leaders, and even if you can't lock up the individuals because of their clever legal shielding, it is important that you put a lockdown (even if only temporarily) on their operations and leave the rank and file free from the hierarchy for as long a time as you can manage.

  5. You bring other abusive groups into the net of public awareness so that the first group you hit can't claim special persecution.

  6. You continue the public awareness campaign, highlighting the stories of those who have been recently deprogrammed and left, as well as keeping the heat on the leaders and their methods of control in the public eye.

  7. You bring legal pressure to bear on some of the other groups who abuse human rights of its members.

  8. Eventually and ideally, you get this group's parent organizations (as well as that of other abusive groups like it) shut down. The rank and file are free to continue to believe and worship however they like but the organization leaders are NOT free to abuse and rule over the rank and file as if they were representatives of God's kingdom on earth. Cut off the head and the snake withers.

  9. If a full legal shutdown isn't possible, pursue full legal transparency so that the public, including members of the group, have full access to the Org's methods of operations. Do not let them spin a PR campaign without a rebuttal. Do not let them use mind control again without everyone knowing it.

  That's my plan at this point. Feel free to critique, edit, and revise at your pleasure.
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  Juan Viejo2

  Good one, Sweeney!
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  Soldier77

  Mad Sweeney, you are a mastermind. I like it!