by Ron1968 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Fortunately, it is not the case with me but this deal about parents not talking to their children who have been disfellowshipped is horrid. It is bad enough for those who have been disfellowshipped, but to have their own family turn on them?
As such, I think the jw's are a cult as they separate families. The blood issue could be another reason to say they are a cult, but I won't get into that right now.
Ron
What is the difference between a cult and a religion?
I have a hard time distinguishing since both are based on Bull Shift (sp?)
Jack
Take it one step farther,
not only family turning on you, but the whole congregation cuts you off, close friends you may have had for years and years.
the other one that bugs me is parents telling their children that all kids that are not JW's will die at Armaggeddon. How pathetic is that ?
Cult ? Yes, Religion ? Yes , Waste of life ? Yes
All religion are cults .
See this web page... it shows the warning signs which indicate a cult:
http://www.rickross.com/warningsigns.html
The JWs fit the bill perfectly.
According to the dictionary defintion, a cult is a fanatical devotion to a human leader and/or a fad.
They have been around since the 1800s, so would they be a fad? As for a human leader, they worship Jehovah, or at least claim to. However, it is obvious they put a lot of trust into the WTS, a society that has made mistakes in the past.
Do I consider them a cult? ....I don't know. However, after reading the book called The Giver, for my Young Adult Lit class, my professor called the society in that book a dystopia. I saw some parallels between the society in The Giver, and the JWs. First of all, make three mistakes in Giver and you are executed. The JWs disfellowship, although that's not as extreme as execution. Second, you are assigned a job in the community in Giver; with the JWs, they don't want you to go to college, so your job selection is limited. Some of the people I've studied with have made subtle hints that I should drop college, my career plans, just to follow their group. I thought but didn't say "Go blow yourself. Pay for my stuff and THEN you can tell me what to do." Third, the community in Giver chooses a mate for you; the JWs seem to only allow baptized people to date each other, and I get the impression from adults of some girls that I'm not good enough for their daughter. Finally, the community in Giver seems perfect in a lot of ways. There are no wars(JWs stance of pacifism), everyone is assigned a role in the community, people are given drugs to make them happy and suppress sexual urges. etc. But really, it's a forced utopia, which makes it more of a dystopia. The JWs have a lot of good, but it's mostly forced.
Im curious as to why you consider the matter of refusing blood to be a cultic red flag . Ron68 . When youre in the mood to elaborate....
A cult is simply a sealed system which practises an absolute doctrine. Whether the sealed system is a product of the absolute doctrine or not Im uncertain. It may well be. Once you have an absolute truth, well you are morally obliged to propagandize everyone with it to protect them from themselves. Once you Seal the system no balancing influence can countermand the tendancies to paranoia and terrorization.
Its possible that the most complete evil in our world is the product of nothing more than persons who believe they are absolutely right in what they believe and practise and who believe they are doing nothing more than trying to protect others from a percieved evil.
I have my websters here and al it says a cult is a system of religious worship or rites and ceremonies. The WT is just trying to avoid the truth on the word by using other definitions IMO. The catholic church is as much a cult . From what I heard the word cult was first coined by the orthodox church of england in an attempt to discredit other forms of religion.
Im curious as to why you consider the matter of refusing blood to be a cultic red flag
Hi RF,
I hope you are well! I know that you didn't ask my opinion but I have one about this too. IMO, the wt is deceitful in the handling of this doctrine by allowing certain fractions and omitting the fact that many identical twins share thier blood in utero, etc.. They allow members to feed off of false information and they deviate from truth. The fact that they have slowly over many years allowed new fractions proves that they are deceitful because many have died and there is no apology just new light. Most jw's don;t even know about fractions. they simply believe they are not allowed blood transfusions....it is usually only when there is a crisis when they get the 4 page allowance/forbiddence papers! It is all deceit and hypocrisy and very cultish imo. Who asked me...lol...love, dj
On this site the working definition for cult is "a religion I don't like."
Most people associate cults with a charismatic leader, which certainly is not the case with JWs, I can't think of anyone that has been charismatic in the history of the organization, not even Russell.
