Joker,
If you can't accept that JWs are "the world's most dangerous cult," you surely should be able to acknowledge that it is indeed one of the most dangerous. Your reaction to Dogpatch's post would probably be much different if your life as a JW had been anything like mine.
I was there when a JW businessman was threatened by his fellow elders and by the Society with disfellowshipping. And for what reason? He felt he had a legal and moral obligation to report to the police about a case of pedophilia in the congregation. Despite the Society's threat, he went to the police and, yes, he was disfellowshipped for "insubordination" and "rebellion."
I was there when an instructor from Brooklyn Bethel held up a black slate at Kingdom Ministry School and said, "If the governing body tells you, brothers, that this black slate is white, to you it is white." Later, while mingling in the hallways at Gilead, one of the elders said he thought the instructor's class was wonderful, and several other elders expressed full agreement.
I was there when a long-time pioneer said she would be willing to murder someone if the governing body ever told her to do it. She added, "Of course, they would never ask me to do such a thing, but if they ever did I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to comply."
I have a 90-year-old JW mother who isn't allowed to speak to me simply because I walked out of the organization. She not only fears repurcussions from her elders but she's afraid she'll lose out on everlasting life if she dares say hello to me her own son.
I know several other families where the grandparents aren't permitted to see their own grandchildren due to the Society's tyrannical policy on the treatment of disfellowshipped persons.
I have two friends who left JWs around the time I did. The wives of both eventually separated from them due to the lies and suspicions that were spread by the elders and others. Today all four persons involved are living miserable lives, wishing they could have a marriage partner but being unable to do anything about it due to what they've been persuaded to believe by the WT Society. In the case of one of the couples, their two children are growing up without the benefit of a happy family life.
I know several JW couples who allowed their children to die rather than permit them to have a life-saving blood transfusion. I also knew several adults who lost their lives prematurely due to the WT Society's unscriptural and foolish interpretation regarding blood transfusions.
I was one who vigorously advocated that 1975 would introduce the millennium on earth. I did that in imitation of WT leaders at Bethel. Due to my enthusiasm, the Society appointed me to speak on the topic at conventions and other special meetings. As a consequence, several family heads gave up their lucrative jobs and had to start life all over again after 1975. They also lost the homes they had worked so hard most of their lives to obtain.
The man who brought my parents and me into the organization died many years ago in disillusionment because Armageddon hadn't occurred during his lifetime. I also knew an "anointed" sister who in her later years had serious doubts that she would ever meet her husband who was supposed to be already in heaven. She knew his weaknesses and her own, and she felt that neither was worthy and were therefore doomed to eternal destruction.
I could go on an on, but I'm merely one individual. My experiences are multiplied in the lives of countless other JWs and ex-JWs.
Herk
