The more that I see these kinds of topics and the posts that follow, the more I'm beginning to wonder how many people really research things for themselves or is everyone now just content to echo the comments of others.
I seriously don't know.
I'm saying this because when anyone even superficially compares Jehovahs Witnesses to other mainstream religions of the world today, you must come to the conclusion that the Society is definitely not a cult and on its ranking against other high control groups in the world, it would be to be only half way up the ladder (at best), on the global scale.
I'll explain why.
Firstly, compare being an average Witness to a Muslim in Afghanistan under Taliban control. Are you more or less free? Compare being a average Witness to a Muslim in Iran under Khamenei. Are you more or less free? What about the worshipers of the Kim dynasty of North Korea .... better or worse. Yet, those three countries alone (and the Faiths that steer them) dominate every aspect of the lives of over 155 million people. And millions of those people over the years have literally been lost at the whims of their religious leaders, through needless wars of ideology, purges and direct assassinations ... all in the desire for the control of how their people think. Why in the past 10 months of this year alone ... 70,000 Muslim civilians have been killed by Muslim Taliban fighters because the latter believe those in Karbul have fallen away from the true faith.
And people say the we are in some kind of dangerous high control group? I'd say to these ones, go and take your family to live for a while in any Arabic country ruled by a theocratic government (which is most of them) and see how free and safe you really are. Yeh ... let your wife and daughter take their bikinis down to the beach, and see what kind of sh*t storm you'll create. Or go and talk to the family of Ms Amini who was beaten to death in a Tehtanian detention center by the moral police because some of her hair was visible under her headscarf. And then you might begin to understand the concept of living in a high control religion.
Secondly, as a older person who has spent his whole life in 'The Truth' and seen a lot, I can tell you, that no more than 20% of the brotherhood are hard-core Witnesses. The rest, the 80% of Jehovah's Witnesses, live quite relaxed lives. Many drink more than they should, go to parties when ever they want, travel the world, get involved in a sport and some even dare to go to university. I even known Sisters that have gone topless bathing during the summer holidays. Yes this 80% are just doing the minimum, been doing it all their lives and all still remain in 'good standing' congregationally.
And yet people say that we are in some kind of prison? I'd say to these ones, just open your eyes and take a honest look a the people in your congregation and see that the greatest majority do what they basically like, and don't know or really care about the latest 'new light' that comes down from above.
And finally and most importantly, no person, organization, religion, political party or gang has power over you ... unless you give it to them first. That's the bottom line. Somewhere in your life, YOU made a deal with the Organization. Maybe it didn't work out like you expected, but none the less you did the math and joined up. Yes, we all did that calculation .... and for better or worse, we married our religion and willingly committed ourselves to certain obligations.
It's does no good just continuing to bitch about the bad decisions that WE made. It's just not helpful nor healthful. And quite frankly, if we've had to suffer through a judicial committee, you should thank God that the Elders didn't extract information from you stretched out on the rack, on the wheel or in a iron maiden ... because if you want want to compare our religion to others from the past, you'll quickly understand that we are already living in paradise.