I read on one thread were it outline what is a cult" by Steve Hassen I am having trouble finding it to share with my friend..can anyone help me out.. I do wish there was a way of filing topics we find interesting in our on filw thanks
Steve Hassen book
by zions watchman 3 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
-
Satanus
Is your friend a jw?
S
-
Mad Sweeney
Here's a list I like. It's kind of a "best of" from many experts and sites. I've bolded the stuff that stands out to me as JW:
1.The organization displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leadership and regards the belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
2. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
3.Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work/service routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leaders.
4.The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members need permission to date, change jobs, marry, or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
5.The organization is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leaders, and members (for example, the leader(s) is often considered to be a Messiah or other special being, or the group is on a mission to save humanity).
6.The organization has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.7.The leaders are not accountable to any human authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders, or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).
8.The organization teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
9.The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
10.Subservience to the leaders or the organization requires members to cut ties with non-member family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
11.The organization is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
12.The organization is preoccupied with making money.
13. Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
14. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
15.The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the organization. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.16.The organization fosters continued dissatisfaction with the present world, encouraging members to participate in more and more time-consuming organizational activities that promise to lead to a better future.