Daughter (15) recently told my wife and I that she has a huge crush on this boy (17) from school who’s hanging out with her friend group a lot these days. She said he can’t date because he’s a Jehovah’s Witness. All wife & I knew before is that they’re some Christian group. From what we read online they seem to be pretty radical & abstract stuff like 144000 (?), Armageddon. They even get called a cult.
The JW’s are a specific branch o protestant Christianity that arose in the USA.
They are evangelical, note the small e, in that they believe it is their express duty to spread their take on Christ’s message. They are NOT Evangelical in the sense of non-denominational Christianity.
They are non-trinitarian (there is just God not parts of God), they believe Armageddon is imminent.
Witnesses still fall into most of the red flags for cultishness but they are a little too big to be viewed as a cult.
They also shun any sort of therapy, or psychiatric help. They just pray away the problems. This led to my best friend’s suicide because his mother would only have him speak with their priest or whatever to help with his depression and alcoholism.