[cynicalsecurity]

Jehovah's witnesses is another vile scam that hugely spoiled the image of the West in the eyes of the people who just broke free from the Soviet occupation. I don't understand how such evil and disgusting cult is allowed to exist. If a person would hide a list of thousands of child molesters or would endorse killing children by giving fake medical advice to their parents, they would be put straight to jail. How are cults allowed to do the same without any repercussions?

[to11mtm]

Well it's a nuanced answer. The United States has freedom of Religion, and a large separation of Church and State. It leads to some bad but theoretically some good.

> If a person would hide a list of thousands of child molesters or would endorse killing children by giving fake medical advice to their parents, they would be put straight to jail.

Unfortunately any progress our country has made in this regard has been utterly regressed in the last 5 or so years....

But to better understand the other side of this as far as religion, consider the Catholic sacrament of Confession. A priest is not supposed to divulge confessions to anyone.

Then, let's consider the danger on the other side. Historically, Governments swooping in and grabbing lists of church members, what happened next was not looked well upon.

And so the US has this sometimes almost horrifying level of separation of church and state, where people do have the freedom to worship, however other benefits are abused [0][1] and we even have let folks that infiltrated three letter organizations keep their church status [2]

[0] - I still remember the baptist sermon of "I am not telling you how to vote! I am not telling you how to vote. But the bible says X will go to heaven and Candidate Y does not X"

[1] - Churches do not have nearly the same level of oversight as a normal nonprofit

[2] - "Operation Snow White"

[lifestyleguru]

It's not about some faith nuances, Jehovah's Witnesses are predators and stalkers.

[lifestyleguru]

I used to ignore or look down on them. After they stalked me with some profiling and unwanted weekly visits while I lived abroad, I actively hate Jehovah's Witnesses. They stalk intercoms in the buildings. Another American smiling predators and lunatics.

[Beijinger]

"a) list of thousands of child molesters or b )would endorse killing children by giving fake medical advice to their parents"

I do neither associate with Jehovah's witnesses. Would you be willing to share some details?

[jstarfish]

> How are cults allowed to do the same without any repercussions?

I am not a friend of the JW, but as an adult, you're expected to be your own advocate. You opted in to a system of faith, not science.

Regarding child molesters, any organization that spells out a code of silence in its doctrine is always fun to deal with. The JW are hardly unique with their theocratic warfare, there's also mesirah, deceivers-yet-true, keep sweet, omerta, "snitches get stitches", etc. You can't penetrate such a culture from the outside, so no witnesses testify, hence no repercussions.