Like others in her religion, Scorah believed that the apocalypse was imminent, and that at the end of the world, only those who devote themselves to the Jehovah's Witness faith would be saved. But as the years went by, she began to doubt the absolute truth of her faith.
However, she didn't dare tell anyone. If a Jehovah's Witness does something that goes against the core rules of the church, they are asked to confess to a panel of elders, who then decide if they are repentant enough. If they are deemed not to be, the church member can be "disfellowshipped," meaning other members of the congregation will no longer speak to them, or even acknowledge them if they pass them on the street.
When Scorah's congregation found out about her doubts — through one of her Bible students — she was shunned, though not officially disfellowshipped. The Current requested interviews with the Jehovah's Witnesses International Organization, as well as its Canadian branch. Both declined, directing us to their website, which describes disfellowshipping as "a loving provision. The website also addresses the question of whether the Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult, saying, in part, "Far from being a dangerous cult, Jehovah's Witnesses practice a religion that benefits its members and others in the community.
Scorah said that the word cult is "very charged," but thinks she received "retribution" for what she calls a "very moderate doubt. Scorah was living in China when she left the church, and lost contact with a lot of the people in her life. I didn't know how to live in the real world because I had been taught that that world was scary," she said. Scorah left the church, and lost contact with her now former husband. A former Jehovah's Witness has offered a rare insight into the religious group, describing it as a cult that "tries to control emotions, thought, information and behavior of a person".
The man, who did not want to be formally identified, shared his experience of growing up as a Jehovah's Witness in Poland in an Ask Me Anything post on Reddit. Using the username "Ohmyjw", the former Jehovah's Witness JW elder speaks out against the group's rules, such as prohibiting blood transfusion "even if that costs them their life" or believing the world "will end in Armageddon 'very soon'".
However, he said he tried to "never give an impression that JWs are dumb or intelligent", adding that "many of them are actually quite intelligent, albeit deluded people". He also described how his family now refused to acknowledge him and his wife after they left the group.
Those who leave the faith are called "apostates" and are "disfellowshipped", a term for formal expulsion and shunning, where members are "prohibited from talking, and even from saying 'hello' to them", according to Ohmyjw.
In one situation where an elder started to lose his faith and challenge the group, he said they allegedly denounced him and spread gossip about him, pressuring him "so much he jumped into a river and killed himself".
A spokesman for the church in Australia, Sydney solicitor Vincent Toole, dismissed the allegations and said shunning was a"myth. Mr Aron, who has written two books on cults and has investigated them for thirty years, said the Jehovah's Witnesses were an outwardly benign group but they withheld information from potential recruits.
Jehovah's Witnesses cannot celebrate Christmas, Easter or birthdays. They are not allowed to have blood transfusions, sing the natiuonal anthem or salute the national flag. They don't celebrate birthdays because they say there are no birthdays in the Bible, which Aron, an observant Jew, maintains is not true. Does that mean we shouldn't do those things either? Jehovah's Witnesses believe they have God's messages to themselves, that all other religions are wrong, that the end of the world will come and only those in 'The Truth' will survive.
They have predicted the end of the world five times. They also believe Satan has ruled the earth since Jehovah's Witnesses 'a cruel cult'. Please try again later.
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