by Cady 65 Replies latest jw friends
What if "preservation" means a new understanding that death and resurrection are paramount to "surviving" the tribulation?
Yah that would be like a complete 180 from where they are today . They would lose their sales force . I do know that suicides are up in the org as it is but the church itself has not demanded anybody take their own life . They think you commit suicide by leaving the church . I've known some strange dubs in my life but so far none that suggested a group suicide .
Q: Sect or Cult?
A: Cult
Sect or cult are just roughly synonymous terms. They also differ beteween countries. In France, JW's are a sect. In England, a cult (using the most common usage).
However, I prefer the term "high control group" as it is a better definiton than either sect or cult.
I believe JWs very well meet the criteria for being a cult. However, I am of the mindset that the label doesn't matter. IMO people thinking of exiting are often held back by the "c word", being too afraid to go to the extreme of calling their once loved org a cult. I think it's unneccessary to accept "cult" as a label as far as healing goes. Recognizing the negative and control aspects of the JWs is necessary, calling it a cult is not.
I prefer , satanic cult .
Sect or cult?
Potato or potatoh?
A leader who is the sole judge of a member's actions or faith. (This is iffy - the JC ends up being that way, but I'm still not sure of this one...)Every JC I was ever in, the elders all cracked open the Shepturding the Flock book to decide what to do. Those star chamber judges get marching orders from the Leader aka GB, service dpt, or what evah.
Cult - Sect - High Control Group. These are all loaded words that are carefully defined by the business that centers around getting people out of unpopular relgious groups.
Yes there is money to be made in this area.
Kind of like Alcoholics Annonymous. If your go by their definition of "alcoholic" just about anyone except an abstainer needs treatment.
Albert Ellis uses what I consider a better term: devout religionist.
If you are a devout jew, muslim, catholic, jehovah's witness, mormon, Quaker, or whatever -- the chances are you are messed up.
What really upsets me is some of the people in this forum cheering on the persecution of JW's by other idiot religions like the Russian Orthodox church.
There are plenty of JW's who follow the rules THEY want to. They watch R rated movies. They wink at oral sex. They let their kids listen to gangsta rap (or at least ignore it.) They stretch the rules on blood as far as they possibly can. They drink to excess (though they never get drunk ha!) And they shake their "groove thang" at wedding receptions.
It's a continuum. Some are devout jack ass pharisees. Some talk to their disfellowshipped friends and relatives.
Hypocrisy is rampant. It is an organization that is taken less and less seriously by more and more of its members.
My question pertained more to the area of research as opposed to the usage in everyday life. Part of the foundation of understanding an area of study is having a good hold on the definitions that are part of the field. And perhaps even in the healing process it could help a person to call the jws a cult if that helped them to validate their pain - i.e. we often try and say something shouldn't have hurt us, even though it clearly did, and the word cult has such a negative connotation that it might allow us to stop apologizing for feeling hurt.
I wonder if ppl who cheer when the jws are attacked do so, less out of maliciousness towards the individual people, but more out of a lack of knowing what to do with their own anger and hurt and helplessness. I'm glad the jws are having less and less of an effect on their members, although I can't vouch for that b/c I've been gone for three years. But I was very devout and it was my life, and remains such for my family.
Cady:
It's important for people to be aware of the dangers of victimology. Blame is not the answer. It may be convenient to shift responsibility to a "definition" but it doesn't solve the problem. It is important for us to realize that we may not be as immune to social influence as we would like to be. Humans are "troop animals" and some of us have a temperament that craves group oriented activities. These can be people as different as firemen and teachers.
Don't expect the healing process to remove the scars. That is an effort at denial.
If you wear your emotional scars proudly they will be constant reminders of what you need to avoid. My JW experiences have been a bitter lesson but a lesson I wouldn't trade away. I will never be bamboozled again!
I envy those who wake up while they are still young.
