I am most likely going to repeat the same thoughts as others, but as an individual, I decided to give my personal thoughts.
(1) I agree that Russell was not a Freemason. But he did believe the Giza pyramid was the “Bible in Stone”. Remember, Russell was the Watchtower Society and had absolute control over the contents of his publication. He did believe that measuring features of the pyramid could predict dates like 1874, 1914, ect… The pyramid teaching did not get changed until 10 years after Russell’s death.
(2) The Watchtower Society was an NGO of the UN and not for a library card, and they knew upfront they had to subscribe to the UN charter and had to educate others on the UN in the literature. And that is what they did in several issues of the Awake. I remembered those issues and at the time was very puzzled when reading them. The UN says the requirements were not changed.
(3) I don’t care about Grieber. I’ll give you that one!
(4) The Watchtower has called Camping’s prediction a false prophesy. And if you read the 1968 Awake, “Is it Later than you Think?” they also called other failed predictions false prophesies. We must hold them to the same standard they hold others. They claim to be the Channel of God, the unique method of communication by which God directs his affairs on earth. There have been many, many failures. This destroys their credibility as that unique Channel. I don’t think individual JWs are false prophets, but the Watchtower leaders are.
(5) Most JWs I know abhor child abuse. However, there were policies in the past where victims and victim’s love ones were told NOT to report the matter to the Superior Authorities, or faced being disfellowshipped. There is a continual pattern of loyalty to the Institution over individuals, the same pattern that can be found in the Catholic Church, Penn State, the Boy Scouts. The Watchtower has proved no different in their policies.
Except for the Pyramid (Russell was buried under a Pyramid) and the many false predictions (1874, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1925, ect…), other concerns weighed heavier on my mind that helped me conclude that the JWs were not the “only true religion”, concerns which I outlined in your other thread.
I don’t hate JWs—in fact, I love them. My thoughts and prayers are constantly with them. My efforts are always toward helping them. It is the Watchtower paradigm that I am against. Not the people in the Watchtower, but the organization and structure and memes that control those people. I am not anti-JW…I am anti-Watchtower.
The title of your thread tells me that, forgive me if this sounds harsh, you are only going by the stereotypes that you’ve heard. I don’t believe you understand what a cult is. A cult has a top-down hierarchy. A cult practices BITE mind control as outlined by Steven Hassan and controls behavior, information, thinking and emotions. A cult implements Lifton’s Eight Criteria for Thought Reform.
Former JWs are not an organization. As a people, they have no structure or leaders. They behave all sorts of ways, take in all sorts of information, think all sorts of things, and have all sorts of emotions. That’s the antithesis of a cult. This forum is simply a forum of individuals from many backgrounds who have directly or indirectly been affected by the Watchtower. They have gone all sorts of different ways in life. They disagree with each other as much as with the Watchtower.
When I was first awakening to the truth about the ‘truth’, I didn’t accept anything without throughout investigation. I spent months checking, double-checking, triple-checking, and beyond. Eventually I realized that sites like JWFacts were meticulous in presenting truth in regard the Watchtower.
Sites like thirdwitness are full of logical fallacies and present pure spin.
