The Internet has been a lifesaver for victims of Cults of all sorts .Is it then the beginning of the end for Cults ?

by smiddy 19 Replies latest jw friends

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  besty

  Yes education and community via the Internet play a huge part in releasing existing members and preventing new ones signing up.

  The Internet also gives a new platform to New Religious Movements to attract followers - look at the slick sophistication Scientology shows via their website - I would say they are at least 5 years in front of the JW;s and 2 years in front of the Mormon websites.

  And the Scientologists bought a Superbowl ad :-) just to cover their marketing bases...

  The main problem is that high control NRM's operate at the murky margins of religious and personal freedoms, thereby limiting government power to remove their tax free charitable status and expose them as commercial entities.

  Perhaps the continuing child abuse scandals and ensuing publicity is their worst enemy.
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  Witness 007

  Watchtower growth is in countries with NO internet...these folks dont even know about "the generation 1914" nonsense. Having the net in the late 1990's killed my faith in the Watchtower and made me slowly exit stage right.
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  Amelia Ashton

  I don't know for certain I wouldn't still have joined even if internet had been available to me.

  I needed people and it just happened they knocked on my door when I was particularly vulnerable and needy. The fct they peddled a vile religion which is how I got sucked in wasn't really the real reason. (With hindsight)

  If it had been any other group offering support and friendship I would have joined and it was my own doubts that lead me to these web sites. Before my doubts I had no reason to thoroughly research what they said because it was what I needed at the time.
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  Phizzy

  The Internet is great for exposing scams ( and for carrying scams in the first place often ! ).

  The WT/JW thing is not just a vile religion, as dear Amelia rightly says, it is also a HUGE SCAM !

  It is a Publishing and Real Estate Corporation posing as a religion for the tax advantages.
• 

  Pickler

  I think cults will still be able to attract people who are missing something in their lives, but, it will become a lot harder for them.

  The people that I knew who joined JW as adults had one thing in common, they were lonely.

  For me, having been raised in this cult, finding out all this information online has been incredible. It was only because of the conti case that I followed threads online to here & other places. It has affected me so much, even after all this time, so many little things that people who weren't JW could never understand.

  Here's an just one little example...... the other day my partner came home and laughingly said, "hey, do you know what apostate means? I didn't!" ( it was in a trivia quiz at his work ).

  I laughed, but inside I was seething........ I felt like saying, you've been living with one for 20 years f**kwit!!!!!

  It struck me that we are so different, so many things, like him complaining about getting too many Christmas presents, Boy Scouts, etc etc I don't think he even remembers that I didn't have any of those things.

  sorry, I think I've gone off thread, what I'm trying to say is that the Internet is a lifesaver because I'm typing this here My iPad instead of ranting to my partner, or drinking a bottle of wine or doing something else equally stupid. Thanks Internet, and thanks everyone who posts here!
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  Amelia Ashton

  Thanks Internet, and thanks everyone who posts here!

  Hear hear!
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  smiddy

  Aussie Oz , I get your point .Hopefully with these ones just plain human curiosity / doubts will get them to do their own investigation privately ,asking questions and searching for answers,which surely is what got most of us here .I know it can take a long time .It took me 33 years .

  smiddy
• 

  smiddy

  But we didn`t have the internet then
• 

  Zordino

  I Friggen hope so! Hopefully, the third world will eventually have internet access so that they can be warned of these dangerous cults. But once Cults get mostly taken out in the future, there will be other scams that will take its place. Unfortunetly, there is a scam artist and the suckers that follow them born every minute.
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  Aunt Fancy

  I am so thankful for the Internet and all the information we have at our fingertips. It would have been a different story if this would have been available when I came in. I just wish more weren't afraid to go on line and read about it. It is also interesting that two new books just came out about Scientology, I wish there were some new books about JW's so cults would be a big news topic.