Call it a high control group around people (jw's) who will be greatly offended by the word cult. Are jw's an out and out cult? yes. Researching cults in general and comparing the info to jw's shows they are a cult. To the naysayers on this topic, all I can say is do your own research.
Is it more accurate to call it a cult or to call it a high control group?
by Hillary 25 Replies latest jw friends
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slimboyfat
Not Hillary Step?
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jgnat
I just finished the Wiki article on cult.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult#Mind_control
I am a bit worried how detractors of high-control groups are portrayed. Their testimony is said to be overblown and unreliable. I suspect in the collaborative wiki atmosphere, that cult apologists have contributed their two cents.
Based on the wiki article, I would say that "high control group" would be better used.
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Scully
If you call a group a "cult", people get their hackles up and go on the offensive, even if you're right about them being in a cult.
If you tone the language down and call it a "high control group", people may still get offended, but not in a knee-jerk reaction kind of way.
It's the same kind of thing when JWs call us Apostates™, when we would rather be regarded as "fully informed about Jehovah's Witnesses".
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Phizzy
As with the comments above, I make ajudgement as to who I am talking to, and what their appreciation of a word may be, so I tend to use High Control Group mainly.
I also use "Real Estate Company posing as a relgion" to some, if I am going to, or want to, talk about the scam element.
Some time ago I used the word cult to a woman who knew little about them, and she said they all seemed nice normal people, she had the idea that cult members were all stary eyed and obviously slightly looney.So I went on to explain the cult methods they use.
Use the word cult advisedly, no matter how accurate it may be.
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Black Sheep
Is it more accurate to call it a cult or to call it a high control group?
There is a difference??????
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breakfast of champions
'High control group' sounds nicer than 'cult' - so it depends on your audience.
I think if you were a social scientist and took an academic interest in Jehovahs Witnesses, you would call them a 'high control new religious movement' - in other words, a cult.
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kokyong.soon3
Hillary, I call it high control group
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2+2=5
I prefer bat-shit-crazy-religion, but cult or high control is fine.
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Simon
I think high control group is probably safer / more accurate, but it's really the same as a cult.
The difference just comes down to numbers.
Heck, Catholicism and Islam are really 'cults' too, so are Mormons. Anything that involves belief in the preposterous is frankly a cult. So all religions then ...