by GetBusyLiving 11 Replies latest jw friends
What sort of people come to mind when you think of the term "cult" or "cultist"? I used to think of really cheezy B-side movies with zombie like creatures wearing all white and frothing at the mouth as they rock back and forth singing hymns to their overweight leader standing on a soap box somewhere out in the woods preparing kool aid.
Now I think of the Witnesses!
GBL
That is what i think of ,the jws and many cults like them. The ones that care more about recruitment and their bible then their own families.
I was stunned last night when I came to the full realization that my now deceased Grammy was a hard core JW cult member when I found some notes in her 1982 edition of the Live Forever book...
On page 179 she crossed out paragraphs 9 & 10 and paper clipped in a 2-paragraph "correction" from 1989 -- some "new light" on whether or not the poeple of Sodom & Gomorrah would be resurrected. A total 180 degree flip flop and she didn't miss a beat. Just totally swallowed a whole different view of the matter which, apparently, doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
~Merry
Yeah, it always really creeped me out when they would change some doctrine and everyone was all non chalent about it.. or happy about it. Freaky.
GBL
What comes to mind when hearing the term cult or cultist?
For me it's pretty broad and would include anyone who has reduced God, or the ultimate truth to a conceptual ideology or belief system that has one sincerely and unquestionably believing it, is the only way.
When this happens we are entombed within mental interpretations and ideas. Blind to everything that does not support and reinforce our beliefs. This would include many religious and political people and even atheists who are blind to any sense of a grander intelligence (I would be considered an atheist -- do not believe in any deity or deities -- yet do not deny an infinitely larger wisdom).
In other words, a "cultist" is one who has shrunk reality and their sense-of-self -- to thought.
j
I think of any religion which has their members cut off associations, friends, and family members who do not accept their beliefs. There are many who qualify...
J
It was hard for me to think of Jehovah's Witnesses as cultists when I left. I just couldn't see it. At best, I would say, it was a high-control group. I always thought of a cult as a group that separated themselves from society to the point of having their own compound, dressing all alike in weird clothes, and having one single leader that they follow as their savior who is supposedly the voice of God.
Now, the longer that I am gone, the more I realize how much of a cult that the organization really is. They may not stick out like a sore thumb like many smaller cults, but they are a cult none the less. They do separate themselves from society and view everyone else as inherently evil and dangerous. And in a way, they even have their own compounds for the specially priveledged governing body and the other "fortunate" ones who get to go live there to be a slave servant for "Jehovah".
They also make up their own rules and claim the direction comes from God. And while they may no longer have one single leader that they follow, their have evolved their cult leadership into a group of like-minded old men. They still serve the same purpose and they still claim to be the sole voice of God.
The most convincing reason that they are cult is because it is so damned hard to leave. No, they do not threaten to kidnap you or lock you up until you come to your senses, as is sensationalized as happening in some cults, but they have you so brainwashed that you believe it will be your utter destruction if you do. They use emotional blackmail to try to coerse you to stay, and then encourage your family to disown you if you do not. They do everything they can to silence their dissenters.
Some people disagree that JW's brainwash. I believe they do. They brainwash you no matter if you were brought up from infancy, or even if you joined as an adult. I just think it is more tragic and engrained if it is done from infancy. But even if you do not believe they brainwash, they have just about every other hallmark of a cult group.
I used to think people that were in a cult wore robes and obeyed some groovy looking master.
Now I think a cult is anyone who extremely obeys a man or a group of men that controls their life decisions.
JW's come to mind.
On page 179 she crossed out paragraphs 9 & 10 and paper clipped in a 2-paragraph "correction" from 1989 -- some "new light" on...
Merry, my Live Forever book looks exactly the same way. As well, I discarded the '85 ed. of the Reasoning Book and "bought" the '89 version with the about face "new light."
James Thomas
There is a theme that runs through your posts about the vastness and wonder of the universe its power, and the narrow mindedness of trying to reduce it to a size that we can fit into a manageble box. On the Free Will thread you said:
What sense does it make to attribute this endless wonderment to a limited and blundering tribal deity? Jehovah, the male deity, is a fools god; and to attempt to make sense out of foolishness is, well, foolish.I always enjoy your posts.
