State control on cults

by greendawn 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  avishai

  To the degree that the state already steps in to other religions, yeah!!

  For instance. The dubs want to say "Our two witness rule trumps your mandatory reporting rule, freedom of religion, blah, blah, blah." No, I don't think so.

  If the govt. can step in and tell adult native americans that they can't take peyote, they can certainly step in and tell the JW's "No way, you don't get to hide behind religious freedom to protect pedophile's with your stupid two witness rule, regardless of how much scripture you wanna quote."

  I'm so tired of these chickenshit's at the WTS not fessing up.
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  Forscher

  Although we consider what freedoms we have on this side of the pond something not to be given up without very good cause, we do admit that no freedom is absolute. For instance, freedom of religion does not mean that the Thugee cult has the freedom to sacrifice humans. To that degree the government does have the right to step in. The big question that we are wrestling with is whether groups can claim ecclesiastical priveledge in the matter of reporting pedophiles. In view of recent events involving pedophiles in Florida and Idaho, we may see a crackdown on them, including denying chuches ecclesiastical privilege, coming down the pipe in an effort to put a stop to the problem. That despite the fact that the cases mentioned did not involve any churches trying to hide them.
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  greendawn

  Without undercutting the reasonable freedom of religious belief there is a margin where action can be taken to restrict abusive cults like the jws, especially where they destroy families or exploit people's ignorance, perhaps their questionable actions should be tightly supervised by a state anti cult organisation.
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  cab1000

  An elder was just at my house this afternoon, and he told me that the governments are turning on religion. If they do ANYTHING negotive to the witnesses, they will consider it proper persecution. They expect it and look forward to it. This will strengthen the faith of many. They would say, "its about time!".

  That does not imply that I would oppose such a thing, only that the above would happen.

  ~cab
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  greendawn

  If they act as a potent poison to all those around them then they need to be stopped in their tracks and if they can't aknowledge the hurt they've caused to so many people and see this attempt at controlling them as persecution then it's their own tough problem. They had plenty of time to get their act straight.
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  AllAlongTheWatchtower

  I am a firm believer that though almost all proponents of major religions say they desire world peace, it can never be achieved until all mankind reaches a level of understanding where we simply shed religion like a no longer needed skin. That being said, I'm not sure I trust governments to impose fair legislation that involves breaking the taboo of seperation of church and state. Once that boundary is blurred....well, enough said. To those who think this is a good idea, you might want to refer to another thread on here that talked about Muslims and seperation of mosque and state. Ideally, this is an idea that should come from the people, and work its way up, not the other way around. Though I fear that the people will never actually manage this.

  I do however, feel that ALL religions should lose their tax-exempt status, in every country in the world. This is not a seperation of church and state issue, merely one of taxation and fairness. Far too many churches/religions take advantage of this to perpetuate themselves and are run like businesses for the exemption policy to sit well with me.