i have often seen many categorise the organisation in different ways.
some say cult, some say high control religion.
cult or high control religion?.
They mean exactly the same thing (at least wrt JWs).
Perhaps the only difference would be the context in which you're using whichever term:
If I were an academic writing a paper or giving a talk, I would call JWs a "high-control new religious movement."
However, whenever I casually talk about JWs with people, I refer to them as a "fundamentalist doomsday cult."
I have yet to meet anyone who disagrees. . . . .
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
For instance say you're an adult and you get out of a cult. -- CASSARUBY
I love Christ. Jehovah is another matter. He terrorized me with his immoral actions. An old, prudish man hurling plagues, thunderbolts, and mass genocide is not worthy of worship. A male god who suppresed the existing goddess cults will never receive my attention.
-BoCotR
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
The only evidence for the Bible is contained within the covers of the book itself. Outside of the book it's a different animal -- CASSARUBY
If I find God a blur within my interior belief, there is no wonder there are disputes when others share their perceptions here.
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
You win breakfast.
I don't think I won.
I think you chose to let me win.
-BoCotR
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
You still have enormous amount to learn. Offering advice is presemptuous unless one is asked for their opinion. Indeed, until the day/night we all return to dust we all have much to learn.
-BoCotR
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
Is it possible that you did choose chocolate over vanilla and it's as simple as that?
I LIKE CHOCOLATE. I DON'T CARE FOR VANILLA. DOESN'T GET ANY MORE SIMPLE THAN THAT.
Okay, I gotta get outta here. I've got real stuff to do back in reality. . . . smh . . . .
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
Chocolate or vanilla ice cream? I like chocolate ice cream more than vanilla. I don't CHOOSE to like chocolate more than vanilla; as far as I'm concerned CHOCOLATE IS BETTER THAN VANILLA.
I choose to believe that this is one of the stupidest threads ever.
the moment i saw the "request a study" form on the site, i thought, "umm, that could be a bad thing.".
but to date, i have heard of only one case where it was used for less than genuine purposes.
that was in the case of a "game developer" who was selling crappy asset-flips on steam.
I love how when you select the "Organized" book on the Borg website, the warning pops up
This is an internal publication, provided solely for use by congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses, and is not intended for public distribution.
That should stop unauthorized persons dead in their tracks. No pandas for you!
in conversation with an old jw friend today, it struck me that most jws have replaced their personal conscience with a collective one.. instead of training their own mental powers to distinguish right from wrong, as the bible encourages, they are content to shift personal accountability away from themselves and onto the impersonal org.
whatever behaviour may prompt an ordinary person to have serious misgivings ( such as ignoring glaring misapplication of scripture or rejecting basic human decency in favour of unchristian shunning ) they prefer to have those decisions made for them.. history teaches us, however, that there is no absolution for people who behave unethically or cruelly by allowing the excuse of 'obeying orders' to override what their inner voice should scream is inherently wrong..
I would call it more of an "institutionalized" version of conscience. I'm not entirely against the idea of a collective conscience, e.g., social mores.
But no, there is no such thing as a personal conscience in JW Land. Even when in, I had a hard time trying to figure why there was such a thing as a "conscience matter" (probably because it's cultspeak).
i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.
this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.
.
Could the "earthly hope" be losing its draw for some subconsciously. -- GAYLE
I think this is absolutely true.
The advantage mainstream Christian religions have is that you can't prove that no one has ever gone to heaven (I know this is really poor reasoning, i.e. you can't prove a negative anyway, but you'll see where I'm going. . . ). Maybe aunt Doris is in Heaven, maybe she isn't; you prove to me she isn't, I think she is.
However, the idea of aunt Doris being alive in an earthly paradise is demonstrably false, by the the fact that there is no earthly paradise or resurrected aunt Doris.
You can only string people along so far on the "earthly paradise" thing. The heavenly, spiritual afterlife concept is harder to prove/disprove (to people who want to believe in an afterlife).
