Are the JWs a dangerous cult?

Is it a matter of just biblical interpretation? Are they just a little lost? or are they really a dangerous cult? Are they willing to die for their beliefs? Could they kill others (like their own children)? Do they think they are normal?

Check this people out, They thought they were normal, they were professionals and some of the educated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz4yjc-XyfA&feature=related

or how about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX7Jj09K3nQ&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwKmyEfBh54&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDoPD5GeCE&feature=related

The Jehovah's Witnesses are a dangerous, anti-Christian cult.  They deny many of the essential truths of the Christian faith.  That is what prevents them from considered as merely another denomination of Christianity (like the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.).

Christian doctrine falls into one of two categories:  essential and non-essential.  There are certain things that a person must believe in order to be considered a Christian.  In that sense, they are essential.  The Apostles' Creed is a good summary of essential Christian teaching.  To this one could add the gospel of grace, justification by faith alone, and the doctrine of the Trinity.  The list of essentials is relatively small, but extremely important.  It's the core around which the vast majority of Christian denominations are united.

The non-essentials are those doctrinal matters over which well-meaning Christians can disagree.  So long as they are united on the essentials, there is freedom in this area.  Non-essentials include such things as speaking in tongues, infant baptism, church government, and so on.  Believers may hold strong opinions on non-essential matters.  Non-essential doesn't mean non-important.  Even so, Christians should not divide or break fellowship over these things.

Rupert Meldenius, a 17th Century peace-loving Lutheran, offered this advice:  IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS, IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS, IN OMNIBUS CARITAS.  Roughly translated: "In essentials, UNITY.  In non-essentials, LIBERTY.  And in all things, CHARITY."  If the Christian church would take Meldenius to heart, it would be a much more unified body.

The Jehovah's Witnesses, in rejecting essential Christian doctrine, places itself squarely in the realm of heresy.  There is no chance of unity with the body of Christ.  From its Arian Christology to its Pelagian soteriology, the WatchTower seems to be repeating all the gross errors of the ancient church.  As they say, those who refuse to learn from history are forever doomed to repeat it.  Until the WatchTower repents of its heresies, it will remain outside of the Kingdom of God, an enemy of Christ and of his church.

Sincerely,

Rufus

At best they are a high-control group.  

"Are the JWs a dangerous cult?"

Ah, .....  YES!!!!!

"No blood transfusions..."  "You cannot perform alternate service instead of joining the military..."  Malawian Witnesses cannot carry 'political' cards, even tho Mexican Witnesses CAN BRIBE the military officials to falsify their records to show them as having 'fulfilled' the Mexican government's required period of military service - oh, and that's while the Watchtower organization is operating as a BUSINESS and not as a 'religion' in Mexico, as a means of getting around the Catholic Church's opposition in Mexico...

Sheeeeeeeesh...   Zid 

I can only speak of my own experiences.  When any society/religion/government control what you listen too, what you read, who you associate with, what medical assistance to seek, excommunicate you when you don't follow their rules/regulations - that is a dangerous anything.

does the pope wear a funny hat?

Yes they are.  What LouBelle said! 

The Jehovah's Witnesses are a dangerous, anti-Christian cult.  They deny many of the essential truths of the Christian faith.

The Jehovah's Witnesses, in rejecting essential Christian doctrine, places itself squarely in the realm of heresy. 

Just because they interpret the Bible differently (even wrongly) doesn't make them a dangerous cult.  It can be argued that anyone who accepts the Bible as the literal word of God is just as delusional as JWs.  So calling them wrong and your brand of religion right doesn't make them dangerous or you any better than them when it comes to beliefs.

What makes a group, religious or otherwise, a dangerous cult is how it manipulates its members to the point of being harmful or deadly to its members. 

We'll never all agree on whether JWs are dangerous or not.  The blood doctrine has caused harm and death, so it can be argued that it is dangerous.   They are coerced and indoctrinated to treat people who leave as evil and to shun family, which causes harm.  But they don't require followers to turn over all money or property or to live on compounds or give up marriage mates or children. 

Compared to The People's Temple, The Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate and others like them, then no, JWs are not a dangerous cult, or at least a suicide cult.  But from the perspective of being a free minded individual who wants the right to believe and act as they choose, then the JW religion is harmful, possibly dangerous, as it tears families apart and causes mental anquish.

The real problem with debating this is that it's best done with people who have escaped.  Trying to reason with a current JW that he's in a "dangerous cult" is only going to drive him deeper into "mother's arms" for protection.  Cult members never believe they're in a cult...until they escape.  Even then it takes time to admit to themselves.

Compared to The People's Temple, The Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate and others like them, then no, JWs are not a dangerous cult, or at least a suicide cult.

I think it is important to point out that none of those cults were suicide cults, either, UNTIL they PLANNED AND COMMITTED SUICIDE.

Nobody sets up a religion with the goal at the outset of killing themselves and anyone they can recruit to join them.  It starts with delusion and mind control and EVOLVES INTO a suicide cult.  Lets take a look at Jehovah's Witnesses:

Delusions?  Check.

Mind control?  Check.

Murderous life-ending policies established as trial balloons/loyalty tests?  Check.

Suicide cult?  TBD

The future is a LONG time.  It is short sighted to think it could never happen.  It is short sighted to think ANYthing could never happen.  "Never say never" is a valid expression.

"If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact

that you will never grow old in this present system of things."

Awake! 1969 May 22 p.15

Are they a dangerous cult?

AWAKE May 1994:

Enough said.

I get ya, Sweeney...part of me is in your corner.  I see the delusion, the mind control.  The obedience to the blood policy is one of the most damning things that classifies JWs as a cult to outsiders.

My biggest problem with harping on JWs as a "dangerous cult" is that, outside of our own circle of damaged ex-members, it can be counter productive in trying to convince a current JW that they are indeed in a "dangerous" cult.

Fortunately (though unfortunately for some easily controlled people) we have freedom of religion.  If one chooses to follow the tenants of a particular faith, no matter how stupid it is, we pretty much have to let them.  We can warn them, try to reason with them, but in the end, it's their decision.

You're right...you knows what can happen in a couple more overlapping generations...but for the right here, right now, I don't see JWs becoming as over-the-top dangerous as these other crazy groups.  but what happens when I'm dead and buried I don't really care...I have to work with what I know and observe now.  If I could free just one or two of the right people from the clutches of the WT, I wouldn't even worry about it now anymore...

                                           JW`s continue to die because of WBT$ Rules,Policys and Doctrines..

                            Does killing JW`s one at a time,rather than all at once,make them less dangerous?..

                                                                                                                                                ........................ ...OUTLAW

"Danger" is not always a demand to drink poisonous Kool Aid right now.  The danger can be as some here have posted, lives lost to the blood issue, lives guided to panic that the end is imminent, families destroyed over shunning and religious holidays and the like. 

Now, if you ask if the JW's are just a run-of-the-mill dangerous mind-control cult, then YES.  They are not Heaven's Gate or the likes.  They are nothing special in the likes of compound-cults or people who commit suicide for their beliefs.  In many ways, the Mormons and JW's are more dangerous than the freaky cults because they are considered good religions and fairly mainstream by people who do not understand their doctrines. 

Also, examine the fringe LDS cults out there and get an idea what happens over time.  You don't start out telling people to follow the leader all the way to even death, but you get there eventually if your leader is ready to self-destruct.  The current teachings of the Governing Body have an expiration date for the end to arrive- granted way off in the future.  The next generation of Governing Body might feel the loss caused by the current GB and see no way else to go but to form a compound and get the members to give up all worldly ways and spend their days selling leaflets on the street, then commit suicide when the government hears about the goings on at the compound.

I believe JWs are a dangerous cult. Not dangerous in the sense of killing sprees or mass suicides. The danger is in the gradual, systematic destruction of individual thought, purpose, value and identity. You have 7 million people who have been taught to look to the watchtower for guidance in even the most simple, basic decisions in life. They raise their children to follow the same pattern of dependence on the Watchtower to do their thinking for them. They are taught that everything outside of the watchtower is "worldly", and as such is evil and demonic. They are taught that the watchtower supercedes any authority, and therefore loyalty to family, friend, or country takes second place to loyalty to the cult. Even within the congregation they discriminate between those who have titles, and those who are "weak".

I find this sort of thinking dangerous.

W

I believe JWs are a dangerous cult. Not dangerous in the sense of killing sprees or mass suicides. The danger is in the gradual, systematic destruction of individual thought, purpose, value and identity.

Well stated.

I guess when discussing "dangerous cults" we have to define "dangerous".  And then we have to define "cult" because to me, using FF's line of reasoning...all religions are cults and thus dangerous to some degree.

They steal your Liberty and your Humanity. Anyone outside the group is viewed as Bird Food.

Sounds lovely.