The Culting of Christianity

by blondie 42 Replies latest jw friends

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  cameo

  I admit I need to bite my tongue sometimes on this board with the whole Christianity thing. I respect others' views, but I sometimes don't respect the way they try to manipulate others into believing those views.

  Have you ever thought maybe it's not to manipulate people......but because someone CARES where YOU are going to spend eternity after you die? I'm sorry if I sounded rude, but this is a very serious thing and not something to just be passed off as...."oh well, maybe it's true....or maybe it's not true.....la dee da". One second after we ALL die, we will ALL know the truth. Maybe I don't have the truth, but I'll sure find out after this earthly life ends......no doubt about that. Forgive me if I've offended anyone......
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  Narkissos

  One second after we ALL die, we will ALL know the truth. Maybe I don't have the truth, but I'll sure find out after this earthly life ends......no doubt about that.

  Sure? How do you know?
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  itsallgoodnow

  Have you ever thought maybe it's not to manipulate people......but because someone CARES where YOU are going to spend eternity after you die?

  Well, what I meant by that is, I don't think it's the people, the everyday believers, like you, who are manipulative so much as the religious leaders who propagate this fear, in whose best interests it is to create an atmosphere of fear and guilt. They have people shaking in their boots over this stuff, and they can't even prove it. Oh, and they make a little money at it too. I see that works out swimmingly for them.

  On the same subject, James Thomas had put this in an older post, which I happened to see today..."Religion as practiced today deals in punishments and rewards. In other words, it breeds fear and greed -- the two things most destructive of spirituality." -- Anthony De Mello
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  MicStroz

  Blondie,

  Thanks for the article, it fits well with a book I just finnished reading. "The New Believers" about sects, cults and alternative religions by David V. Barrett.

  Mic
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  itsallgoodnow

  Mic,

  does this book seem to have the same "bias" as the article blondie posted, or is it more objective? I just looked it up on amazon and I couldn't tell... I was thinking it looked like an interesting read.

  IAGN
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  AlanF

  I thought the article was fairly good overall. It certainly nailed some of the cult aspects of the JWs.

  Unfortunately the article failed to recognize similar cultish tendencies in the very set of fundamentalist demoninations that the author obviously belongs to. They're just as cultish about the Trinity as the JWs are about blood. Deny the Trinity and those folks will toss you out of their churches. Same goes for any number of other doctrines.

  Fundamentalism -- whether JW-style, Evangelical-style, Muslim-style or whatever -- always breeds a cult mindset.

  AlanF
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  Tashawaa

  Have you ever thought maybe it's not to manipulate people......but because someone CARES where YOU are going to spend eternity after you die?

  Sounds like the same reasoning for shunning....

  My family isn't trying to manipulate me ... but because someone CARES where YOU are going to spend eternity (as bird feed at the big A or happily, on a paradise earth)

  BLAHHHHHH This type of "christian" logic is what makes "New Age" so appealing - at least we're all gods
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  Siddhashunyata

  Poppers, don't be discouraged. I hear you.
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  Satanus

  Blondie

  I liked the article. I think the cult thing falls into the divide and conquer method that the govt, or somebody up there may be using on the american populace. As far as idenitity and political concerns go, there are all the victim groups, the alternate sexual groups, the different racial groups, the different age groups, the cult groups, the handicaps, etc etc.

  Cameo

  Maybe I don't have the truth,

  See, you don't really know, after all. If you haven't been dead for a second, how could?

  SS
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  El blanko

  It hurts.....and it's an insult.

  Hi Gumby, just a thought (nothing else) and I don't want to speak for the way you feel, but (theres always a but), if you have absolutely rejected Christianity in your heart and think it is all a load of pooh-pooh, then why feel hurt? Simply walk away in the knowledge that you have found a better way to live?

  eternal hellfire

  I think most of us here would agree, aside from whether we belong to the Christian faith or not, that the hellfire doctrine is a load of rot and has no place in the Christian message. Even my Lion's encyclopedia released in 1978 that has no group or sect bias refers to the doctrine as a error and refers instead to the concept of sheol.

  Thanks for listening!

  me