We're not a cult because we don't have communes
The LDS Church (Mormons) are one of the largest cults in the world...and they don't live in communes either.
We're not a cult because we don't have communes
by carla 38 Replies latest jw friends
-
lavendar
-
StAnn
They're not a cult because they don't have communes?
Well, they're not a Christian faith either, because they don't have God.
Besides, in my old cong., there is a gated community called Lakengren. Every other house is owned by a JW. They all move in there so they can be together. Any of you have Dub infested neighborhoods in your areas?
StAnn
-
drew sagan
Sure they do. Over 50 pages inside the proclaimers book showing various facilities throughout the world where people work and live inside.
Defining cults can be tricky. Regardless of how the members live the WTS is an organization that exercises an extreme amount of control over its followers. This is the reason for the cult label being attached to the JWs and this is what should be addressed, not definitions. -
-
truthsetsonefree
Bethel is their commune. And they substitute the physical control for the rest of the dubs with mental control, which is actually more powerful. A cult they still are.
Isaac
-
Hobo Ken
I have a few simple rules for cult identification.
Does it restrict the flow of information to members?
Does it treat ex-members badly?
Does it harm or cause people to die by following it's edicts?
Does it have a vested financial interest in members remaining in it?
Does it recruit "new members" (not many people don't just wander in to a cult)
Does the wts fit the bill?
H.K.
-
WTWizard
You don't need to physically sequester people from the world to have a cult. All you need is to make the people think differently and build up walls preventing them from mixing with outsiders. And the Washtowel Slaveholdery has done that, and that's enough.
-
garybuss
It doesn't matter if a dog says he's not a dog. He still has a tail, scratches fleas, barks at the mailman, and buries bones in the backyard.
My favorite view of a believing Witness is in the rear view mirror. -
Lady Lee
After I left the witnesses my ex was bringing me the mag for a while. I recall getting one about cults and that statement that they couldn't be a cult because they didn't have just one leader and they didn't live in communes.
And I fell for it. I was still believing of course so the argument made sense to me. I wasn't doing any research on the witnesses and certainly nothing on cults.
It took 10 years before the bubble would burst. Even then I couldn't figure out why they manipulated and controlled people. Unlike the rich cults that were easily identified as using their converts to rake in bundles of money the WTS couldn't be a cult because of course the WTS had no real money.
Then some people posted copies of their taxation records. Billions of $$$$$ BILLIONS!!! (see The Best of... WTS Finances )The bubble burst and I was ready to call them a cult. Not just a high control group but a cult that used people and tossed them away if there was any possibility they might burst the bubble that other JWs lived in.
-
reniaa
By todays standards first century Christians would be a cult and Jesus a cult leader!
Luke 18:28-30 (New International Version)
28 Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."