Why is "considered by some to be a cult" on this page but not the others? Shouldn't it be in the description of every church on the wiki?
-=-BarnabasTruman
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From a purely secular perspective, they are authoritarian and use tactics such as disfellowship to keep people in the fold. They require their members to reject many life-saving treatments based on some flimsy reading of Old Testament ceremonial law (shared by essentially no other group in the history of people reading the bible). The degree of control exerted over members is far greater than any other common variant of Christianity. Additionally, every few years, they make an end-of-the-world projection and tell people to prepare. People have sold all their possessions and quit their jobs only for nothing to happen. Cf. the recent Harold Camping nonsense.
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From a religious perspective (basically, people comparing it to other Christian sects): Their doctrine rejects many quintessentially Christian doctrines held by nearly everyone in Christianity. For example, they believe that Jesus is not God, God is not the creator (except of Jesus), communion isn't for anyone except the 144,000, and way more little things that seem like quibbles but add up to firmly put these folks in the not-Christian camp. To support these doctrines, they have created their own "translation" of the Bible that contains numerous delibrately-introduced errors.
Two prongs:
I'm gonna have to agree with Barnabas on this. If the JW are a cult, so is every other religion listed on this wiki. I'm agnostic, and to me (yes subjective, just like the label cult), they are all cults.-Davidlm
Would you agree, though, that these people are in some fundamental way different from everyone else except possibly Grace Valley Christian Center? —WilliamLewis
Sure, if you only think "Christian", and even then, what about Mormons? Seventh Day Adventists? Moonies? Christian Scientists? How far shall I go? I'm not passionate about this issue, I just don't think we should be throwing these kinds of labels around.- dm
The description of a group as a cult does not really provide much information to a reader because it is so subjective and subject to a lot of discussion and debate. It looks like this was debated thoroughly on the Cults page a few years ago and it was narrowed down to the small list on that page. But it seems like there isn't really a working definition of what defines these groups as cults. If we are going to label any groups as what some consider a cult, we should probably say why in the text of the article. —ChrisDietrich
I'd say it's a common belief among many people that they are a cult. Their prohibitions on modern medicine and shunning of ex members tend to be cited. Personally, I see Jenny McCarthy and Van Halen doing both of those, and I'd only count the latter as a cult, but that's just me. In all seriousness, I don't think they really cross over to "cult" in my mind, but they do seem to have a reputation as one. I'd like the statement to be followed by a honest, frank statement of their beliefs so that people can understand the popular perception, but also be presented with enough information to make their own mind up. I will admit that I don't know much about their core beliefs, despite having had some lengthy discussions, so I'm hesitant to write it myself. It seems to me that the best course is being honest about the common perception and presenting real information, including bits contributed by people who can attest to their positive attributes. I'm betting they have a strong fellowship, as they seem to inspire their members to advance their message. Of course, that applies to community gardeners as well, whom I also don't think are a cult. (Or are they? Dunn dun DUUUN!) Regardless, the gardeners don't have a popular image as a cult, whereas, for good or ill, warranted or unwarranted, Jehovah's Witnesses do. ⁓ʝ⍵
I agree that that all religions are a bit cultish, but that some are more cultish than others. I also think that JabberWokky is right about the best way to handle the edits on the page. —CovertProfessor
