cultspodcast

In this episode I am in conversation with my son, Jodi, about how me leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses when he was growing up affected him. He shares some experiences from school that I was not aware of.

___________________________________________________________________

If you would like to support the work I do and would like to see this channel grow please consider supporting me on Patreon. It would be highly appreciated. https://patreon.com/robinjackson

Buy my book Losing The Faith: Amazon https://tinyurl.com/27x2htzm

Buy my book Cults: How They Work Amazon https://tinyurl.com/3bw82jk4

Sign up for the pre-launch of the How Cults Work course here: https://north-star-academy.thinkific.com/courses/how-cults-work

#JehovahsWitnesses #ExJW #Cults

South Africans went to the polls this week to vote in the local government elections, however, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses did not. And that's because they are faced with a conundrum. Are they allowed to vote, or are they not allowed to vote?

It is a dilemma that they face which is quite understandable, looking at the history of the Watchtower's standpoint on issues of a political nature. Jehovah's Witnesses are known to be politically neutral and for refusing to vote. They have suffered imprisonment and even death for abstaining from involvement in political affairs. But the Watchtower's writings have been very very misleading and proves once again how their doctrines do not hold up in the face of scrutiny due to their flip flops on these matters.

___________________________________________________________________

If you would like to support the work I do and would like to see this channel grow please consider supporting me on Patreon. It would be highly appreciated. https://patreon.com/robinjackson

Buy my book Losing The Faith: Amazon https://tinyurl.com/27x2htzm

Buy my book Cults: How They Work Amazon https://tinyurl.com/3bw82jk4

Sign up for the pre-launch of the How Cults Work course here: https://north-star-academy.thinkific.com/courses/how-cults-work

ver the course of a number of years of my cult activism I have appeared in the mainstream media speaking about my journey as a Jehovah’s Witness and I have been asked to give my views and to unpack the dynamics around cults locally here in South Africa and abroad. I’ve written extensive articles about the phenomenon and have commented on the cult landscape not only from a religious perspective, but also from a commercial, self-help and political overview.

And during the course of all of this I have also been contacted by parents and concerned individuals wanting to know more about a certain group or how to protect their children, family members and friends from getting drawn into cults or high control groups. I remember working with the Concerned Parents Group here in Durban whose children were being recruited at high school and eventually lured to Mauritius and told to cut ties with their family members. It was a heartbreaking saga as it reminded me of how many other groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses practice shunning and what a devastating effect it has.

Recently, I have been contacted by concerned individuals who once again wanted to know how to protect their family members and how to get individuals who are stuck in a cult out.

With that I realized that I needed to put an educational programme together to educate people on the basics of cults and their recruitment techniques. The past year and a half have been tough on many of us. We’ve lost family members, friends and many other loved ones to this pandemic.Many of us are suffering the after effects of the virus and its impact on our health and our psyche. The economic impact has also been a major factor that has caused major mental health issues with many of us.

And this is a climate ripe for cult recruitment as people want to make sense of what is happening in their lives and looking for a way out. Cults thrive in this type of environment. Not only the religious type, but the political type as well.

So subscribe to this channel to be updated on when this will be released and how to access the course.

Buy my book Losing The Faith: Amazon https://tinyurl.com/27x2htzm

Buy my book Cults: How They Work Amazon https://tinyurl.com/3bw82jk4

Growing up in the Jehovah's Witnesses I've always had a disdain for the misogynistic and sexist nature of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

They are a patriarchal society where women are to view men as their head and only men can hold positions of responsibility and teaching in the congregation. The head of a wife is her husband, and the spiritual head of a "sister" is a "brother". A female Witness is not to pray in front of a male Witness and must wear a head covering in order to pray in front of an unbaptized man or conduct a meeting in front of other sisters.

Women have not fared well in many of the world’s religions and societies. And the JW organization is part of this discrimination against women. All leadership roles within Jehovah's Witnesses are filled by men. Women fill only the very bottom position of the organisational hierarchy.

Misogynistic, sexist and subjective views of women are not without consequence.

Buy my book Losing The Faith: Amazon https://tinyurl.com/27x2htzm

Buy my book Cults: How They Work Amazon https://tinyurl.com/3bw82jk4

A few months ago I appeared on ENCA to express my views on the events surrounding Trump, the insurrection and how the Republican Party in USA has become the personality cult of Trump. How that personality gave rise to the insurrection on the Capital on January the 6th. The events that have unfolded over the past few days here in South Africa has shone a spotlight on our vulnerable society and how political leaders and personalities use the status quo to advance their own agendas and to protect their own selfish interests.

What we saw here in the province of KZN and Gauteng was a well orchestrated attempt by the faction of the ANC aligned to Jacob Zuma who has been imprisoned for contempt of court. Zuma and his RET faction has always been a Cult of Zuma within the ANC organization itself. With the RET faction realising that their Zuma faction was slowly being rooted out and confronted by the Ramaphosa faction, it was time for them to stage a fight back to protect their criminality and own looting of the state coffers for over a decade. Their aim was to destabalise the economy and SA as a whole by crippling our supply chain and infrastructure. The names of those responsible are already known according to the Minister of Police and Minister of State Security. A reformed National Prosecuting Authority has put key players like suspended Secretary-General Ace Magashule on the defensive as he faces Free State-related corruption charges in court in August. The ANC itself has put its own reform into top gear. In the past week, it has suspended RET spokesperson Carl Niehaus, Mpumalanga leader Michael Ngrayi Ngwenya and on Wednesday suspended the Eastern Cape renegade politician, Andile Lungisa.

And as I've said before in a podcast on political cults that history is littered with examples of this. Show people the contradicting statements and utterances of these characters and cognitive dissonance sets in. Their minds simply short circuits in an attempt to justify and legitimise the contradictions and flip flops. Some people will wake up and some won't.

There is no doubt that the criminal element took over the chaos which was instigated by the hidden hands under the veil. Many were opportunist going along with the masses and got swept up in herd mentality.

And as this dies down within the next few days, and communities pick up the pieces in the aftermath, this will have an effect on peoples mental health, physical health and overall well being. But they will rebuild.

Those who instigated this madness should be held accountable. South Africa has a fragile economy and may have survived this past week of violence and mayhem. But only just. It might not be so lucky the next time.

#SouthAfricaUnrest #ANC #Zuma