How did you react

by shera 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  shera

  Hello,

  When we were all in the errmmm..eh hem....cough cough..."truth".How did you react to people who said negitive things about the organization and when they called it a CULT?

  I recall one time,this young man tried to gentally aprouch me,he put his hand on my shoulder and he started to say,its a cult...and I remember my whole body tensed up and I practically went into a seizure to his touch.I just remember he took his hand away from me and stepped back very slowly.He stayed away from me the rest of the nite.LOL,poor guy he must have tought I was a complete nutt.

  I'm just glad I can laugh about it now,of course I wish I listened to him.

  Even the other day,I was talking to my mother and she was saying how upset I used to get with her....
• 

  minimus

  I say that I will agree that the Witnesses are a cult if they will agree that many other religions are too. We've discussed this many times before. Some love to say the Witnesses are a cult. And by some definitions, they certainly are. I think that most political parties are cults too. But it's inappropriate to say that because it's politics...lol
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  DevonMcBride

  The problem is most non-JW's don't know how to approach JW's. By making negative comments about the religion, only makes them defensive and reinforces what the WT teaches which could draw them further in. The best approach would be to make the JW think and come to their own conclusion that the Watchtower is not the truth.

  Devon
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  target

  I remember a Sunday speaker saying that the JWs were not a cult because cults follow a man and the JWs follow Jehovah. I remember thinking to myself, yeah, but they follow the Governing Body, the Faithful Slave. His talk made me realize the JWs were indeed a cult. After that I had no defense if someone brought the subject up.

  Target
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  jws

  I remember a Sunday speaker saying that the JWs were not a cult because cults follow a man and the JWs follow Jehovah. I remember thinking to myself, yeah, but they follow the Governing Body, the Faithful Slave.

  As a brainwashed JW, we used that defense a lot. I don't remember having a problem with the whole following the GB thing because I reasoned that was different. It wasn't one man and the men we followed were pretty much anonymous. Only the people who were really into it knew any of their names. Somehow that anonimity made all the difference. It felt more like we were following a principle.

  I contrasted that with organizations I did think were cults, like the Moonies and Jim Jone's group. We didn't follow a single man who glorified himself. So, we couldn't be a cult. Like most things people said, if they called us a cult, I knew they were wrong and didn't know the "truth".

  Little did I realize there's a lot more to what could be called a "cult" than just who they follow, like their level of control. Right now, I'd agree that they are a cult.
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  alfie

  I'd have to agree with Target and jws. that was the same reasoning we used, that we weren't following "A MAN", and we reinforced our logic with the thought that since the GB were all of the anointed and therefore spirit begotten, we mere mortals then were being led by none other than Jah himself.

  alfie
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  out4good3

  I remember a Sunday speaker saying that the JWs were not a cult because cults follow a man and the JWs follow Jehovah.

  My still brainwashed dub in-laws trot out that weak excuse everytime JW's are accused of being a cult. I guess they are correct in that they do not follow one-man but in their blind devotion to the WT, the GB and the FDS, they are in effect following a man-made entity and God.

  Reminds me of a piece of scripture one of my in-laws loves to babble about how people will "gulp down the camel, but choke on the gnat".
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  Francois

  Minimus, political parties certainly can be cults. There was the cult of Hitler, the on-going cult of the Kennedys, the cult of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. Just goes on and on.

  There are other kinds too. Religion has been defined as that which takes up 51% of your mental and temporal time and attention.

  For some people reforming society can be a cult, like the cult of Carrie Nation.

  For others, a hobby can become a cult, like certain mineral collectors and such.

  What constitutes a cult is the attitude between the ears.

  my two cents

  francois
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  minimus

  Francois, I've never heard of the republican "cult" or the Conservative "cult". Have you?
• 

  DanTheMan

  When I was still a newbie dub, I took a job where I had to work in very close proximity with a very vitriolic, obnoxious and verbose fundamentalist preacher. He would go on all day about political and religious liberals, Clinton, etc. I never met someone who was so enamored of the sound of their own voice. I couldn't stand him, he was sooo self-righteous.

  I was scared to death to tell him I was a JW. I was never a thick-skinned, debating type of JW, and I had no desire to get into it with this guy. Well, he eventually figures out my being a JW, and he let me have it. It was very humiliating. I ended up quitting the job to get away from him.

  It was a very regrettable experience in that I held on to JWism much longer because of it.