Here is a list we put together a while back on this forum
Red flags that reveal you are in a cult.
1. when the all important question is not: "Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?"....but...."Do you believe in the "Faithful and Discreet Slave" appointed in 1919?"
2. when you will be refused baptism if:
a. you don't believe Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BC whereas all non-JW scholars, all encyclopedias and all history books say this event took place in 587 BC.
b. you, like Cornelius, are a member of the military.
c. you, like Daniel, Joseph and the Ethiopian eunuch hold political office.
d. you don't believe the apostles went door-to-door and that Christians are required to do the same.
e. you reject the idea that the majority of Christians running around today are not part of the New Covenant, do not have a heavenly hope, and are not Spirit-begotten or born again.
f. you don't believe that finding and serving in the right organization (the one with headquarters in Warwick) is necessary to escape eternal destruction at Armageddon.
g. your hair as a male is too long
3. when:
a.window-washing, JC Penny suit-wearing elders insist that THEY carry out and handle cases of child abuse and NOT the trained authorities.
b. your organization holds NGO status in the Beast of Revelation for 10 years running.
c. your leaders have a 100% failure rate interpreting biblical prophecy...except of course when it comes to invisible stuff.
d. you have to surrender your conscience to men.
e. independent thinking is labeled as sin.
f. you are to encourage everyone else to question their religion, but are forbidden to question your own.
g. you are told not to look into the past history, or failed predictions because that would not be " encouraging ".
h. your religion enforces medical quackery such as forbidding vaccinations or organ transplants.
i. you are forbidden to celebrate birthdays because thousands of years ago, somebody died at a birthday party.
j. you are constantly told to wait on Jehovah for answers to your scriptural questions and doubts.
k. You are not allowed to be baptized because your hair is too long (male)
l. victims have to jump thru hoops to expose a pedophile
m. you have shunned your own children for the last 25+ years.
n. you just had to supress the thought that you might be in the wrong religion.
o. a generation can last over 100 years.
p. you are denied life saving medical treatments.
q. you are taught to distrust your own thoughts.
r. you are told to shun your own family.
s. you were told you didn't need college because you would not have time for a career in this system and now you a card carrying member of AARP.
t. you can't figure out the current teachings on which 'fractions of fractions of fractions of blood' are acceptable to Jehovah.
u. you find out that and your wife made love in the wrong way.
4. when all your friends stop speaking to you because you:
a. grew a beard.
b. visit web sites critical of the Watchtower
5. when you will be disfellowshipped (spiritually executed) if
a. you don't agree that rejecting the authority men in Warwick is worthy of excommunication and shunning ex-JW family members.
b. you disagree with any doctrinal position or change handed down from the current governing body in New York.
c. you engage in any behavior that could be labeled as "brazen", and you refuse to "repent" when called before a kangaroo court.
d. you allow your child to have a blood transfusion to save his or her life.