The authorship of these files on cults has his or her own motivations for providing them a

    [Fredric Rice, The Skeptic Tank:  The authorship of these files on
    cults has his or her own motivations for providing them and will
    contain his or her own bias.  What I find typical is that
    individuals and organizations which report on cults are usually
    themselves a competition cult yet like to think of themselves as
    "a religion, not a cult."  In actual fact, _ALL_ religions are
    cults by the primary, secondary, and terciary usage definition of
    the term.  Some of the information you find here is inaccurate and
    contains urban legend -- take what you find with a grain of salt.
    If you wish to acquire a copy of the Law Enforcement Guide on
    Occult Crime, contact myself at frice@stbbs.com or at The Skeptic
    Tank (818) 335-9601 and I'll forward the address and information
    you need.]

Jehovah's Witnesses

        [Fredric Rice: Several various brand names of the Christian
        religion employ "faith healing" to "pray away" their
        children's ills.  Since the human body is capable of
        healing itself without intervention for a great many
        things -- even cancer spontaneously goes into remission
        and disappears entirely in a small percentage of the
        populace without intervention -- pretending to "pray away"
        problems still remains a belief in _MOST_ brand names of
        the Christian religion.  Since "faithy healing" is a
        testable claim, you'll find on The Skeptic Tank many
        files which talk about "faith healing."  For my part,
        when these come to the door with a child, I invariably
        ask the child if they're aware that their parents will
        allow them to die if they get sick in the hopes that I
        might implant a seed of doubt in thye youth which might
        some day help them decide to leave when they're older.]

Otherwise known as The Watchtower Bible And Tract Society, there
are now 4.5 million Jehovah's Witnesses in morethan 100 countries.
The most damaging press surrounding the movement concerns its
members' refusal to allow blood transfusions to sick children (or
indeed themselves) because of their belief that 'drinking blood'
is blasphemous. It'sa belief that has led to deaths as well as
litigation by hospitals which have tried to prevent Witness
children being removed from their care.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Armageddon is about to happen (it
was supposed to in 1914, 1925 and 1975) and thatonly Jehovah's
Witnesses will survive. Of those survivors, 144,000 special ones (The
Anointed) will go to heaven andthe rest will live in earthly paradise.
To turn a Jehovah's Witness away from the door is to turn away
the chance of surviving the imminent end of the world and that is
the movement's central selling point.

The 'Society' was begun in 1879 by a Pennsylvanian businessmen called
Charles Russell. He abandoned Christianity,became interested in
Eastern religion and joined the Adventists, whose theories about
the precise dating of Armageddoninterested him. He was also
interested in pyramidology. After Russell's death in 1916, the
movement was taken over by'Judge' Rutherford who built a huge house
for himself in San Diego and had deeds drawn up holding the property
in trustto Noah, Isaac, David, Gideon andJoshua, who would return to
earth after Armageddon.

Christmas, Easter and birthdays are not celebrated and friendships
with those not in the movement are stronglydisapproved of. Members
buy Witness literature from their local Kingdom Hall building at a
small discount and then sellit door to door. In1984, British
Witnesses made £3.3 million from street selling. Many converts,
particularly in Britain, supporttheir missionary work by window
cleaning.

'You are the whore of Babylon! You are the devil incarnate - back
to the pit you stinking vomit. Keep away from us, don't come near
us - you will be destroyed just as the Tower of Babel.'
- Letter received by a British Witness after leaving the
movement.

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