I Watched A Documentary On Jim Jones &The People's Temple & Thought of JWs

by minimus 30 Replies latest jw friends

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  undercover

  as controlling as JWs are there is no f'kin comparison to Jonestown and trying to put them in the same boat is slightly offensive and plain wrong.

  I don't think it's offensive to compare them to Jonestown, but I do think that there are some big differences between the two and comparing JWs to Jonestown is probably wrong.

  What is similar is the cult mentality and the constant indoctrination. What is not similar is that the JWs are not "destructive" as the word is used to describe both Jonestown and the Branch Davidians.

  While I agree that the JWs are a cult, I don't see them ever being destructive to the point of a mass suicide. The leadership is not collectively as insane as Jones and they have too much to lose if they come across as too cultish or dangerous.
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  minimus

  Honestly, in the 70s, I'd say that there were many Witnesses that were true believers and they accepted hook, line and sinker that WHATEVER was said by the "Slave" was true. Or they at least wouldn't want to bet against it! There was quite a mentality then regarding believing that in 1975 everything was going to go. In that mindset, people sold their homes, property, got rid of their jobs, to pioneer,.and of course they were commended for it. It's really not a stretch to believe that many JWs would do whatever they were told----even if it was detrimental to their existence NOW, because they believed they would for sure get a ressurection. So it's easy to do something like even die, if you think, death is not that big of a deal compared to the reward. (See fanatical Muslims)...Many JWs are or at least were fanatical and fanatics are capable of doing anything, right?
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  JK666

  Cult is as cult does. Just don't drink the KoolAid!

  JK
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  undercover

  Yes, many are fanatical enough to do whatever they're told, but I really think that by and large if the leadership was to go so extreme as to require everyone to live together in a compound or give all their money and belongings to the organization that a majority would sit up and realize that they've gone too far and that something was terribly wrong.

  A mass suicide would be even more unlikely.

  Having said all that, there definitely is a cult mentality there. And yes people sacrifice their lives in the name of the religion (blood doctrine). And people give of their time and money. But they haven't been exploited to the degree that the followers of Koresh or Jones were.

  It's really a moot point to debate because the WTS will never go so far as to ask their followers to do what Koresh or Jones asked their followers.

  The real debate is whether they are a cult or just a non-mainstream religion.
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  minimus

  The Witnesses are not as bad a cult as the Branch Davidians or the People's Temple. But they are still a cult. The Moonies are a cult too as are the Scientologists. Both aren't as bad as JWs.
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  undercover

  The Witnesses are not as bad a cult as the Branch Davidians or the People's Temple. But they are still a cult.

  The Moonies are a cult too as are the Scientologists. Both aren't as bad as JWs.

  I don't know that much about Moonies but Scientology is just plain fucked up. At least the JWs use the same ancient text as a basis for their beliefs. Scientologists use science fiction as theirs.
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  minimus

  Why, L.Ron Hubbard was a great science fiction writer!
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  jaguarbass

  The Wactower causes many people to commit suicide and offer up child saccrafices at their alter of false religion over the blood issue.
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  greendawn

  The WTS killed more people than Jim Jones did though these are spread out over the years and don't have as much impact as killing almost 1000 people in one day.
  
  It was all down to the absurd blood ban and suicides due to the shunning policy. So they have their own more subtle kind of Kool Aid.
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  LisaRose

  I saw the documentary also. It creeped me out because I did see a some similarities to the JW's. It's funny because at the time of the Jim Jones mass suicide I was thinking I was glad I was a JW and not in some crazy cult. Now I see I was also in a cult. I don't think the JW's are as extreme and isolated as the Peoples Temple, and I don't think most JW's would drink the Kool-aid. But some of the thinking is very similar. Once you buy into the thought that the "Faithfull and discrete slave" knows what's best for you and is the only instrument of salvation, then you suspend your own logical thinking skills to a certain extent. Eventually you don't question anything and come to belive things you wouldn't have accepted before. It's a slippery slope. The difference is the Jim Jone's slope was steeper and more slippery.