JWs are not a cult................

vitty

...............or so I thought

When you were an active JW, how did you feel when ppl accused you of being a cult !!!!!!!!!

And do you think its a cult now your out ?

kls

I thought like every other jw did ,a cult is like Jim Jones or the Moonies ,,etc but now with the research i have done ,i have no doubt that it is a cult.

undercover

I used to not worry about it too much...Just ignorant people making knee jerk reactions to something they didn't like or understand.

Then....

The WTS put out a magazine defending themselves from the accusations of being a cult. All those years of being told to ignore the "false stories" and "lies" that was spoken about us and here was the Society printing a whole magazine about why these lies were lies. It struck me wrong somehow. Why go to all the trouble to bring attention to the fact that some people call us a cult? Why not let our beliefs and doctrines speak for themselves? Well, I figured that out much later....I was in a cult and they didn't want me to catch on.

daystar

I believed them when they said the Witnesses were not a cult because we didn't align exactly with all the earmarks of a cult: no single human leader, etc.

Cygnus

The standard answers..... no one human leader, no technical "brainwashing," etc.

I say JWs are a high-control group with mind-control techniques. When I get emotional, I can refer to it as a cult and feel justified.

BrendaCloutier

I didn't have any concept of it being a cult while I was in. Afterall, we didn't drink Koolaide or stand in airports with pink sheets for clothes, or get married en-mass.

It was in the early 80's that I started believing the JW's had cult-like mentality. At the very least, a high control group.

No one in a cult believes they are in a cult.

I have a long-time girlfriend that has moved on from one new-aged-cult to another. She now believes Jesus is incarnate in a man named Gary Olsen in California. A spin-off of Eckankar.

http://www.masterpath.org/

She uses the same excuses the JW's use in "proving" she's not in a cult.

hopelesslystained

When I was a teenager and starting to think in a critcal manner, a boy at the kingdom hall whom i was madly in love with told me it was a cult and he often referred to the term 'the organization'. My gut told me that he was somehow right (he went on to join the army special services). Then there was a talk at the hall in part about jw's being referred to as a cult and that it was something to be proud of because that ment we stood out as being different from the rest of the 'world', Huh??? Anyway, in my continuing efforts to force myself to be a 'good' little jw, I simply pushed the whole idea in the background until much later, actually till I started researching the net as my suspicions were still floating around in the back of my mind even though I had left the 'organization' many years ago (for survival reasons of my own) and guess what? AHA! it sure as hell is a cult with 98% of the identifiers in place. That's enough proof!

itsallgoodnow

No human leaders... what a lame reason. What religion doesn't fit that description? They all have human leaders, even though they make big claims their leader is God himself. Take the human leaders out of the Watchtower and let's see what you end up with. Peace and quiet for a change. That would be nice.

daystar

There is a buddhist saying... "If you meet the buddha on the road, kill him."

In other words, if you think you have found the Truth, set that thought aside and continue in your search. Enlightenment, truth, etc. whatever you want to call it, is to be found within and not without, and certainly not through an earthly organization, or person.

You might consider quoting this to your new-agey friend.

Confession

While a practicing Jehovah’s Witness, I never could have imagined that I had been brainwashed. Certainly I knew many on the outside thought this, but I had become skilled in explaining to them (and convincing myself) why this was not true. I was wrong. It is now abundantly clear that I was indeed the prey of a High-Control Group.

I used to be so irritated by the word "cult." I would point out to people that "cult" only came from the word "culture," and that in the beginning it did not have nearly the negative connotations that it does today. I would point to the Catholic church and other groups, showing how much they could well be considered cults--as defined by some. I would also claim that certain groups, such as the Cult Awareness Network, despite their apparent concern for others, were actually involved in infringing on a person's right to believe what they want to believe.

At this point, the biggest indicator I can identify as to why the organization of JWs is a "cult," "high control group"--whatever--is the efforts to which they go to keep you from looking at ALL the information. Why really do they disfellowship a person who disagrees with them? The answer they provide is, "To keep him from poisoning the minds of the congregation." This is another way of saying, "To maintain our authority over the group by controlling through threats the information to which our sheep are exposed."

JWs are not a cult................

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