Are Jehovah's Witnesses a Cult? (alternate title: Balls, Cuts, and Dudes

Beth Sarim

There was a book published a few years back called Kingdom of the Cults, very striking discussion.

The Scientologists do not acknowledge publicly to be a cult, yet they are one of the most infamous cults around. Dianetics, based on scientology, is pushed in mainstream bookstores (or, at least it was in the mid 1980s). That book teaches that mental illness is the result of distress experienced very early in life, usually even before being born. These are repressed, and one needs to release the effects contained within these bad experiences. What the book never tells is that they are dealing with a very dangerous cult, one that is probably even worse than the jokehovians (though the jokehovians seem to be headed that way).

Try approaching the Moonies and asking if they are a cult. Or, the Boston Movement (International Church of Christ). Or the Twelve Tribes. None of these will admit in public that they are cults, and even if you bring it up while studying, they will deny they are cults. They might mention the jokehovians and the Mor[m]ons as cults, but never themselves. I myself believe the jokehovians are a cult, and becoming an even worse cult than what they always were.

sparrowdown

I remember telling people in the field that JW's are not a cult. Sad thing is, I actually believed it.

Any cult worth it's salt is not going to admit to being a cult even if at it's inception they all sat around a table and said:

"Hey, I ve got a great idea, let's start up a cult"

It would be like asking a serial killer "you are not a serial killer are you?"

OnTheWayOut

Many people ignorant on the subject imagine members of cults wearing robes on the street and banging tamborines while selling flowers and being forced to participate in mass weddings marrying someone they never met before or teenaged girls willingly having babies from their leader. Jehovah's Witnesses do not wear robes on the street, do not bang tamborines, do not sell flowers, do not have mass weddings of strangers, and the teenaged girls only have babies with their teenaged husbands. Therefore, Jehovah's Witnesses are not a cult.

Vanderhoven7

yes and a dangeous one at that.

cognisonance

Of course we all know the answer to the question. I was just do a breakdown of their answer, and I'll admit, I was being a bit snarky as well. But for some people this may be new to them. Not everyone on this site has been here a while.

This post was more about how evasive the answer is.

Apognophos

I think you did a good job with this subject. I know when I was a believer I would have confidently said it was not a cult because cults have a single charismatic leader and live in compounds and JWs don't do that (well, besides Bethelites...). But I completely failed to consider in this context what it really meant that the Society was always telling us not to listen to apostates. That was information control, and I did in fact find it a bit odd and gradually it may have stirred my curiosity to see why this information was supposedly so dangerous -- but I failed to really see it as a hallmark of a cult, which it is, especially in combination with the expulsion of members who disagree with even one teaching.

dogon

They are a cult. They use mental mind control scare tacticts to scare people into not questioning, they use the idea that they alone have truth and if you look anywhere else you will be sucked in by evil. They isolate the member within society by not allowing them to associate outside of work or school with any non believers. Cult fuck yes they are a cult.

KateWild

yep it's a dangerous cult

cultBgone

bttt

Are Jehovah's Witnesses a Cult? (alternate title: Balls, Cuts, and Dudes - Oh My!)