Any thoughts on Jehovah’s Witnesses

[PSOL]

I’ve noticed that Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t that talked about much outside of a few niche circles. Going back and forth R&P, Evangelical and Orthodox ire is usually on Mormonism instead of them, even though there’s some similarities in them bastardizing biblical hagiography and interpretations and the centralized prophet head.

With 9,000,000 or so members and a history rife in false predictions, an oppressive structure, and rampant sexual abuse—even in the mainstream they aren’t talked much about compared to the much smaller cult of $cientology. Only outside the US is there an effort at pushing back and putting restrictions and social ostracism on them.

I find it odd how they managed to grow as indeed professing nominally (or should I drop the previous word) countercultural viewpoints on nationalism, war, and idolatry. Seems to have been corrupted over time through immense dogma and hardening of the cult through each factional and failed prediction predicaments.

I hate to say this, but out of all religious groups, I see immense parallels between JWs and some campus cults professing nominally about socialism. Their tight structure and wonky centralized state reminds me of the CWI episode in Trotskyism, and the PSL today. For shame it had to go that route and not something like the Quakers or modern Mormonism at least, or the US branch of SAlt today.

What have anti-JW Christian apologetics said about them? Seems odd I’m not that exposed to attacks on one of the most sectarian and downright harmful cults in history.

[°Leprechaun]

I agree with some of their ideas.
They reject the idea of the trinity(*1) (which I believe is a falsity) and hell, as do other non-dogmatic Christians.

They also don't celebrate birthdays or holidays and I am sympathetic with their reasoning here. People make too much of holidays and birthdays. (they are merely arbitrary days on the calendar)

In many ways I would prefer them to many Christian sects.

They are much too conservative, orthodox(*2), and traditional for me.

So, I am not defending them as I see as many problems with them as with many Christian sects and dogma.

*1         https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/g201308/trinity/

I don't argue that the trinity is wrong because of what the Bible teaches as much as I do because it makes no sense to me

*2 in many ways they reject orthodoxy, but the idea of an infallible bible is one example of how they are orthodox. (I know that their translations are controversial)

The whole problem with Christianity it that it is (like many religions) divisive, and therefore can be mean-spirited. (doesn't apply to all Christians, of course)

I would not call them a heresy or a cult, but a heterodox form of Christianity, since they believe in the Bible.

Anyway words like "Christian" "heresy" and "cult" are not only subjective terms but ambiguous as well.

I don't pretend that this is a polished or well written essay, just a few thoughts, because I think that (even though there is much to disagree with them about), they are unfairly singled out, persecuted, mocked, and maligned. There is much that is wrong with other sects.

For more information:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness.htm

[TDAS04]

When I took a religion match test, to see which religion fit me best, they came in dead last.

If a child needs a life-saving blood transfusion, society has an obligation to get it to them, even if it’s against the parents’ wishes.  I also like holidays, and I believe that more than 144,000 people can fit into heaven.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

They believe in Revelations literally that you don't get Resurrected until Judgement Day and 144K Jews will live in Heaven and rest of us are gonna be living souls on Earth

The Catholics resurrected Heaven/ as Purgatory as a middle ground so that you don't feel bad for missing your loved ones

But, Buddhist believe in the Astral plane, that some form of self will be there in case of Reincarnation in the after life

Who knows what in the Astral plane aside from sleep we will eventually find out
.

[Battista Minola 1616]

I have often heard people invoke Jehovah's Witnesses as a stereotypical big nuisance because of their heavy door-to-door preaching, which every time feels strange to me because none has ever knocked on my door, and sometimes heard their opposition to military service and to blood transfusions mentioned. Otherwise the only way they have entered my life has been seeing some quietly offering literature about "searching for answers" in the corners of public squares, I think.
Honestly - and I realize this plays right into OP's initial consideration - Jehovah's Witnesses are a group of people I spend extremely little time having any thoughts on.

[John Dule]

I had a friend who was raised in this cult. His parents completely believed that if he left their church, he would be damned for all eternity. As such, they went to great lengths to make him stay, often threatening to disown or banish him if he said he didn't believe in their faith. I fell out of touch with him a few years ago. Hopefully he's ok.

[John Dule]

There were enough of them in my hometown that some elementary school teachers had to alter their classroom planning around holiday celebrations to accommodate their children. The parents were usually dumb and unpleasant. In many cases, they were outright abusive.

My feeling is that JWs are basically a predatory cult that ensnares the most vulnerable and isolated people that they can find - people with drug problems, women in abusive relationships, people with poor literacy, etc. And not in the positive Christian sense of elevating "the least ofe these," either. You would be hard-pressed to name a religious group of which I have a lower opinion.

Relevant: My friend's parents were first-gen Korean immigrants who were ensnared shortly after arriving here. They had no friends or family ties in America and so they turned to the cult as a source of community.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

There was a Kingdom Hall in my small town growing up and I had a Jehovah's Witness kid in my class at school. He was pretty normal except he had to sit outside during assembly because his parents didn't want him taking part in school hymns.

[Mr. Smith]

Anyway, I don't have much of an opinion on them.

[MATTROSE94]

Anyway, I don't have much of an opinion on them.

Same here. I only knew about four Jehovah’s Witnesses and they all were pretty nice to me, though they did give me religious literature that didn’t really apply to me.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

There were enough of them in my hometown that some elementary school teachers had to alter their classroom planning around holiday celebrations to accommodate their children. The parents were usually dumb and unpleasant. In many cases, they were outright abusive.

My feeling is that JWs are basically a predatory cult that ensnares the most vulnerable and isolated people that they can find - people with drug problems, women in abusive relationships, people with poor literacy, etc. And not in the positive Christian sense of elevating "the least of these," either. You would be hard-pressed to name a religious group of which I have a lower opinion.

Prosperity Gospel Pentecostals?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If you have Hulu, I'd advised checking out the A&E documentary series "Cults and Extreme Belief" which is available to watch there. I did and it's very interesting in general and has an episode on Jehova's Witnesses and an in depth interview with a woman raised in them and who left it. In addition to all the things covered above it also reveals that (unsurprisingly) they have a high rate of sexual abuse and often engage in victim blaming against young girls who suffer this. For the record, the other episodes are on NXIVM, the Children of God/The Family, United Nation of Islam, the World Peace Unification Sanctuary (which is an even kookier offshoot of the Unification Church), and the FLDS. So yeah quite negative.