this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (6 children)

The Jehovah's Witnesses have this problem too. Their workaround is that "their [anonymous] governing body has had new revelations and insights" so now it works like this.

For a cult to survive the death of its founder, it needs to be picked up by a strong right-have man who can reform it into something that'll survive - but not in a way that will alienate all the followers.

I suspect the Mormans do something similar. Do they have a patriarch or use an elder counsel?

[–] ToucheGoodSir@lemy.lol 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anonymous governing body you say πŸ€¬β˜ οΈπŸ‘οΈπŸ“ΏπŸ™πŸ€£

[–] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Eh, while the issues are correct, I don't recall the governing body being that anonymous; they just didn't talk about it much in meetings. The body is listed on their website: https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/governing-body-jw-helpers/

No women of course, and not all had pictures so I can't be sure, but didn't see much people of color, though I do recall some in the past.

In my experience growing up in the cult, one of the things that sorta helped it not feel like one was the lack of deifying the founder and body. While they do teach their own history of it, it wasn't a large part of the worship. There's lots of other cult hints like isolationist and punishment by group shunning and stuff of course.

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