I posted the following comment. It is awaiting approval:
"When you can choose your definition of cult, it is easy to refute any accusation of being one. Semantic arguments and strawmen aside, below is the common meaning most English speaking people are thinking when they use the term "cult." Does it fit Jehovah's Witnesses? Let the reader decide.
If the organization displays unquestioning commitment to its leadership and regards the belief system, ideology, and practices as the truth, as law,
If questioning and dissent are discouraged or even punished by excommunication and/or shunning,
If the organization claims a special, exalted status for itself, If the organization has an us-versus-them mentality as regards to other religions and the rest of the world,
If the leaders are not accountable to any humans, not even the organization's membership, but only to God, If the leadership induces feelings of shame or guilt in order to influence and/or control members' behavior,
If the organization requires reducing or cutting ties with non-member family and friends, radically altering the personal goals and activities a member had before joining the group,
If the organization is preoccupied with bringing in new members,
If the members are expected to devote large amounts of their time to group meetings and activities,
If loyal members feel there can be no life, no happiness outside the group and feel there is no other valid way of living,
If the organization fosters dissatisfaction with the present and encourages members to participate in time-consuming organizational activities that promise to lead to a better future,
then it's a cult."
