When natural and man-made disasters occurred, the guidance given to us rank-and-file members was to "help" by distributing copies of the Watchtower and Awake to give the bereaved and stricken 'hope for the future.'
When I left the religion at 34, my father refused to speak to me for the remainder of his life; he died with us estranged by church doctrine. After his death, I looked for a Kingdom Hall with members who might have remembered him and would want to memorialize him. None returned my calls.
What new recruits are not told is that, should they change their mind, all the good, loving "friends" they have made will turn their backs. The children they have raised in the religion will shun them on pain of death by God's hand.
The regular folk who populate the Kingdom Halls believe they are doing the right and righteous thing. When they knock on your door, they truly feel they are doing you a favor. They are under the power of a high-control cult; don't take it out on them.
Review from Guidestar
Even as religious organizations go, this is one of the worst offenders to human rights and human dignity. As a child who was raised in it till the age of 30, I suffered great psychological and physical harm by the hands of this organization. They stole my opportunity to pursue higher education, and put me in great danger in their field ministry. I had been sexually assaulted, shot at, and malled by a dog before I was even 17 years old due to their negligence and abusive control tactics over me.
Their children are in great danger with no outside access to the world due to their infamous control tactics and fear programming. The watchtower org is crooked in every sense of the word from the coverups on their true organizational and doctrinal history, to the way they handle money and the donated funds of the members. The Jehovahs witnesses themselves have so many good and well meaning people with loving families. But they have no idea what they're a part of because they are under the undue influence of this coercive corporation. All who leave this organization are subjected to completely cruel shunning practices and blackmailed out of contact with any of their former friends or loved ones. It's like a second death, and even minors are subjected to this asanine belief. So many are fearful for their livelihood and well being and choose to stay instead of risking everything near and dear to them. The legislative authorities need to make such blackmail a crime...ESPECIALLY when it's directed at CHILDREN!
The worst part of it is they're getting away with their existence. They've used clever language and different forms of denial to do big deals with businesses and lobbyists to find loopholes in the legal system. But they are losing some court cases. And these cases, if they keep building are doing a great service to this country. They have shown the entire country the weak points in our system. Namely: the 501c3 labeling having no checks and balances as to the legitimacy of their "charitable" status; the right a religion has to exert undue influence and control over its members and violating their human rights; the ability of a corporation to seal private documents on sex offenders and pedophiles and not having to turn these over to law enforcement or courts; and the unfortunate use of a statute of limitations for sexual crimes. This country has allowed this monster to grow into what it is and if we just bring this fraudulent organization to justice we can stop this widespread corruption and save the families of this country a whole lot of dismal heartache.
Review from Guidestar
This organization isolates its members by teaching an us vs everyone else mentality.
As an doomsday organization, they teach Armageddon is soon eminent. They are false prophets who have prophesied the end of the world in 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975 and any day now.
Members are isolated in a group think echo chamber with little meaningful outside contact. When their children choose other than the only option placed in front of them, they are kicked out and shunned by everyone they ever knew. There have been multiple suicides in my family alone due to this practice.
Not only is there an extremely high suicide rate due to the shunning practice, there is an extremely high death rate due to their blood transfusion policy.
This is an extremely dangerous organization.
Review from Guidestar
This organization is surely the true religion. They practice true love, they preach as Jesus Christ did, they meet every week to worship God, their teachings are based on the Bible, they help their brothers and others in natural disasters and they carry out humanitarian work.
Review from Guidestar
I was a member of this organization for the better part of 30 years. While we were always encouraged to donate money to help our "brothers" worldwide, never does the organization seem to help at the local level. Instead individual members are encouraged to help local members who are having a hard time. My family was included in those who were impoverished. We donated regularly but when life took a bad turn the organization never helped. Individuals within out of the kindness of their hearts helped but the church never once was there. So where do those donations go? If you are thinking of donating to this organization it is your decision to do as you wish with that which you own. Just know that it may be better served to donate to an organization that truly holds out a helping hand to those who need it instead of a church who solicits and accepts donations from the impoverished and turns its back when they need help.
The watchtower is a huge corporation which hold sits members by fear of losing their family members to the cruel practice of shunning.Sadly nealy all of its members only know what they know about the watchtower due to what they are told by watchtower.Most dont know that the group was a memvber of the UN from 1991 to 2001. They also were found guilty by the Australian royal commission for covering over 1000 cases of child abuse in Australia.They are currently awaiting dozens of trials in the USA for child abuse.Sadly most dont know anything about the groups cover uops due to its high control of information.The watchtower also has shares in major warfare manafacturers such as lockheed martin amd boeing. All the information can be found at government websites such as the IRS.This is a high control group and and ticks all the boxes to qualify as one.
Jwfacts.com
Review from Guidestar
I have found this organization to show profound respect for the Bible's message which is evident in their accurate and reliable translation of the Holy Scriptures.
Review from Guidestar