A Mr. George Rumtic, on November 13, 2014, posted an article on 'listverse' titled '10 Things You Never Knew About Jehovah's Witnesses'. This post is a very brief response to that article.
First of all, I already knew all of these ten things. I'm quite familiar with this particular religious cult. Second of all, I found it rather amazing that the author stated some of these beliefs boldly and proudly.
To begin with, I believe in religious freedom; to such an extent that so long as you harm no others I don't really give a damn what you choose to believe. Did you catch that one caveat there? 'So long as you harm no others'. But what harm could Jehovah's Witnesses cause, they are nice, moral, upstanding, harmless people right? Well, not quite so much, as we will see.
So, let us take each of these items one by one.
#10 : They Refuse to Go To War or Bear Arms in Conflict
I take no issue with this, It is a perfectly reasonable and moral stance for an individual to take and one can respect this point of view. You could get into endless ethical debates about 'moral' wars, like those against Hitler or other despots, but that is a discussion for an ethics class.
#9 : They Do Not Use the Cross
I take no issue with this. Actually, personally, I find the cross to be extremely offensive. Having a young child sit in church while a man being tortured is displayed in front of them, all the time telling the child that the man on the cross died because of how sinful and awful they are, is one of the most insidious forms of culturally approved child abuse in our country. So, yeah, get rid of the cross by all means.
#8 : Members Are Active In Many Lands
Yeah, I knew that already, but sure, let's be clear that this cult has spread far and wide.
#7 : Clergy Are Not Paid and they do not collect Tithing
Sure, no problems here. I'm absolutely certain there is no psychological pressure applied to any member to contribute more. Again, I don't really care here. If you choose as an adult to belong to a religious cult and want to give them some money, more power to you.
#6 : Targets of Adolf Hitler and Nazis
The fact that a religious cult was attacked by Hitler is hardly any surprise to me. Hitler was an equal opportunity hater.
#5 : They Don't Celebrate Holidays
This to is again fine. You are welcome to celebrate, or not celebrate, traditional holidays however you wish. That said, it is worth asking if it makes any sense? Many atheists and other secular people still celebrate various holidays for the sake of tradition; even though they don't believe in any religious underpinning.
The fact that the author suggests that celebration of these holidays is because they have 'pagan' origins is a bit disconcerting, but I suppose it is once again their choice.
The issue with 'not celebrating holidays' is that it causes the members of the group to be separated from the rest of society and culture, and for no good rational reason. Children of Jehovah's Witnesses go through a tremendous amount of personal angst being separated from the rest of the children at school and their community as a whole. While their classmates and friends all look forward to the holidays the Jehovah's Witness child is highly conflicted. They are forced to undergo some tortured rationalizations as to why they are excluded. And, if the reason they are excluded is that their friends are 'bad' and 'pagan' and involved in activities which violate the teachings of the church, it can cause all kinds of psychological distress.
Let us be clear. This causes a great deal of emotional and spiritual conflict for a young child, one they should not be expected to have to deal with at such a young age and, of course, ex-members of the cult may spend decades unraveling the guilt they feel about this.
The degree with which this separates families from each other and from their culture is severe. It is a major component of what makes this religion 'cult-like' since it serves to isolate from an early age young people from the rest of society. Members become insular and restricted to only their private group who shares their bizarre beliefs.
I don't really care if an adult chooses not to celebrate holidays, but let us not ignore the incredible emotional distress this places on a young child who is separated from the rest of society and their possibly non-Jehovah's Witnesses families.
#4 : They Do Not Accept Blood Transfusions
Ok, now we get to the first really big objection. If you as an adult person want to take a delusional belief and put your life at risk because of some nonsense written in a book by ignorant savages five thousand years ago, well, more power to you.
Let us be clear. The reason the 'Jehovah's Witnesses' claim to object to blood transfusions is based on a statement in the Bible. The statement in the Bible has absolutely nothing to do with blood transfusions at all, since blood transfusions didn't exist back then. And, hey, maybe not drinking blood is a good and reasonable rule to have. Maybe not eating a rare steak should be added to that list. I'm only going to presume that all Jehovah's Witnesses eat their steaks very well done.
This particular rule is stupid. It is seriously, seriously, fucking stupid. If you consider yourself an intelligent human being but allow yourself to be ruled based on a nonsensical comment written by an ignorant savage thousands of years ago, you seriously, seriously, need to wake the fuck up!
It cannot be stressed enough just how stupid this belief is.
When I say the Bible was written by ignorant people, I mean that in the literal sense. They were ignorant. Not necessarily stupid, but they were definitely ignorant. They could have been geniuses They could have been the Albert Einsteins of 3,000bc. However, they were still ignorant.
They did not know about viruses, bacteria, molecules, atoms, sub-atomic physics, electricity, electromagnetism, DNA, or cosmology in general. The extent of their ignorance is mind boggling.
But, what is even more mind boggling, is that a modern human being who has access to all of the benefits of millennium of accumulated human knowledge about the natural world would put their lives at risk because of a scribble by an ignorant man thousands of years ago; especially a scribble which actually has no bearing on the modern world of medicine!
That said, let's get back to the whole idea that a legally deluded adult should be allowed to do whatever they want, including kill themselves through stupidity. Ok, sure, go to town.
However, the heart of this problem is with children.
Let us give you a scenario. Let's say that you have a child and that child has a serious heart problem requiring open heart surgery. You find a Dr. willing to do open heart surgery without a blood transfusion, ok. However, the Dr. tells you that the chances of your child's survival is improved if they do have a blood transfusion.
What do you, as a parent, do? Do you put your child at even the slightest fraction of a greater risk because an ignorant savage scribbled something about *drinking* blood thousands of years ago?
I know my answer. If anyone doesn't believe it is fair to call the Jehovah's Witnesses a 'cult', I give you exhibit A. Any parent who would put their child at risk because they take literally the writings of savages in a vile and violent book written thousands of years ago has clearly suffered some serious brainwashing!!!
#3 : They Believe the Faithful Are Rewarded with A Paradise on Earth
The level of stupidity in this belief boggles the mind. I suppose it is no more stupid than some other religious beliefs but this one has some extremely dangerous undertones which I will discuss in a moment.
#2 : They Pronounce the Name of God as 'Jehovah'
I could care less. They can call an imaginary being any name they want, it doesn't make it any more real.
#1 : They Believe These are the Last Days
And now we get to the number one problem with this horrific and terrible cult. This is the number one thing which makes it a cult.
This is a doomsday religion!!
To raise a child into this world and spend their entire life convincing them that the world is going to come to an end in their lifetime is child abuse of the highest order! To control and manipulate a group of people in a death cult which is obsessed with the end of the world is one of the most vile and obnoxious things you could do. It is, quite literally,spiritual extortion.
Jehovah's Witnesses have always believed the world was coming to an end in their lifetime. Of course, it never has.
The world has been around for billions of years. Human beings have been around in their current form for hundreds of thousands of years. During that time there have been untold natural disasters and wars. Just 10,000 years ago all of North America was in an ice age.
There will never be a time when an eschatologically minded individual cannot point to natural disasters and man-made violence and not see 'signs of the end of the world' in their glassy eyes. The reality is all they are seeing is the natural course of change.
The earth has been here for billions of years and will be here for billions more. Mankind may go extinct at some distant point in the future as have many animal species in the past.
However, a healthy, rational, individual does not run their life assuming the end of the world is going to happen in their lifetime. More to the point, to subject a child to this kind of belief system is absolutely disgusting and horrific.
I realize that in our country we have freedom of religion, which includes the right to teach your child whatever nonsense that you want, but let us be clear, telling a child that they cannot celebrate holidays with their friends, telling them that the world is going to end and only the faithful will survive and all of their pagan friends worshiping false religions are going to suffer, is evil pure and simple.
If this child does manage to leave this cult as an adult, they will have been inflicted with tremendous emotional distress that they may never got over. Their family will shun them, which is the teaching of the 'church'.
So, while I am pleased that Mr. George Rumtic chose to share these 10 'facts' about the Jehovah's Witnesses, I would suggest he should be deeply ashamed for doing so. Admitting to delusional and dangerous beliefs which destroy lives is nothing to be proud of!
