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Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses

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Jehovah's Witnesses
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Notable former members
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Criticism
Opposition

Throughout the history of Jehovah's Witnesses, their history, their beliefs, doctrines and practices have met controversy and opposition from the local governments, communities, or religious groups. Many Christian denominations consider their interpretation and doctrines to be heresy. Thus some religious leaders, have accused Jehovah's Witnesses of being a "cult". Although the term "cult" is problematic and generally carries strong negative connotations, conveying disdain and prejudice without having any valuable, substantive content, many persist in using it to label groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses, perhaps for these very reasons but some end up not acquiring valid evidences to back up this ideology. Political and religious animosity against them has at times led to mob action and government oppression, including the targeting of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Holocaust.

On the milder side, there have been opposition by locals to the building of facilities (such as Kingdom Halls), and the holding of large conventions. In those circumstances, at times the reason is opposition to the religion, but at other times, they are more mundane, such as concerns about traffic congestion and noise.

Mob violence in the USA

Strong resentment and anger were sometimes directed at the group (then called Bible Students) in the 1910s and 1920s. At the time, this was largely due to the Watch Tower Society's outspoken manner; members carrying placards outside many churches and in the streets proclaiming the imminent destruction of church members, along with both church and government institutions if they did not flee from "false religion" was not an uncommon sight. Typical examples of the Watchtower's attitude are found in the Watch Tower Society's book publication The Finished Mystery (SS-7), 1917 edition: "Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of 'Christianity.'" (Page 485) "The people who are the strength of Christendom shall be cut off in the brief but terribly eventful period beginning in 1918 A.D. A third part are 'burned with fire in the midst of the city.' Fire symbolizes destruction. . . .After 1918 the people supporting churchianity will cease to be its supporters, be destroyed as adherents, by the spiritual pestilence of errors abroad, and by the famine of the Word of God among them." (Pages 398, 399) The Bible Students believed religion was a "racket and a snare" and refused to be identified as a 'religion' for some time.

In the United States in the late 1930s and into 1940, especially during wartime, mob violence against Jehovah's Witnesses became rampant. On June 16, 1940, the United States attorney general, Francis Biddle, made a radio broadcast over a coast-to-coast network in an effort to quiet the mob action, saying in part:

" . . . Jehovah's witnesses have been repeatedly set upon and beaten. They had committed no crime; but the mob adjudged they had, and meted out mob punishment. The Attorney General has ordered an immediate investigation of these outrages. The people must be alert and watchful, and above all cool and sane. Since mob violence will make the government's task infinitely more difficult, it will not be tolerated. We shall not defeat the Nazi evil by emulating its methods."

After wartime, violent actions against Jehovah's Witnesses subsided, but, they were viewed with continued suspicion especially due to their doctrine of "neutrality," and especially during the Red scare in the 50s were viewed as possibly communist. As legal battles were won to establish their rights to preach from "door to door" and abstain from patriotic activities in schools, and the US society increasingly became more tolerant of non-mainstream viewpoints in the 60s and 70s, general opposition to Jehovah's Witnesses further subsided.

Proselytizing

Jehovah's Witnesses base their practice of evangelism on scriptures, such as Matthew 28:18–20; they cite Acts 20:20 as scriptural support for the manner in which this activity is carried out, and receive additional encouragement in this activity from their literature and local congregations. The Supreme Courts of many lands have established their rights to proceed with this activity.

The installation of Kingdom Halls (the Witnesses' meeting places) is sometimes met by local opposition. As an example, in 1995 the inhabitants of the village of Remomeix (resp. Deyvillers) in the Vosges département of France opposed the installation of Kingdom Halls. Reasons given were the fear of aggressive prozelytizing of minors, and the large size of the installations. In both cases, the number of Jehovah's Witnesses attending the Hall would have well exceeded the total population of the village.

From other religious groups

Hostility from traditional, fundamentalist and evangelical Christians has been common, perhaps because of this group's rejection of many of the doctrines of mainstream Christian groups. For example, they teach that Jesus Christ is God's first creation rather than God Himself, and that the Holy Spirit is not a person but God's active force. Orthodox Christians believe this contradicts the translation of John 1:1 given in the King James Bible and other popular English translations; Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15-16; Revelation 1:8, 1:11 & chapter 5, 22:13, Philippians 2:5-11; and also what orthodoxs believe to be the historical teaching of Christianity. While many versions of the Bible translate these verses differently, Jehovah's Witnesses consistently translate some of these verses differently. (as some of the aforementioned texts have been regarded as spurious or inaccuractly translated) Witnesses teach that orthodox Christianity has been fundamentally wrong for most of its history (see Restorationism). (See also New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and Great Apostasy for more on these controversies.) Many have been critical of their opinion that our current time period is "the Last Days."

In Nazi Germany (1933-1945)

Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany were persecuted between 1933 and 1945. They were scorned by the name Ernste Bibelforscher (Earnest Bible Students) at that time, because Jehovah's Witnesses would not give allegiance to the Nazi party, and refused to serve in the military, they were detained, put in concentration camps, or imprisoned during the Holocaust. Unlike Jews, homosexuals and Gypsies who were persecuted for racial, political and social reasons. Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted on religious ideological grounds. The Nazi government gave detained Jehovah's Witnesses the option if they were to renounce their faith, submit to the state authority, and support the German military they would be free to leave prison or the camps. Approximately 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps where they were forced to wear a purple triangle that specifically identified them as Jehovah's Witnesses. In the end, 635 of their members who were incarcerated perished under the Nazi system. All lost their employment, many were sent to regular prisons.

(Quoted from Jehovah's Witnesses--Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, p. 661. Original.)

As early as 1921, political and religious factions accused the Witnesses of being linked with the Jews in subversive political movements. Bible Students were branded as the dangerous, Bolshevik, "Jewish worm." In response, the April 15, 1930, German edition of The Golden Age (forerunner of Awake!) stated: "We have no reason to regard this false accusation as an insult as we are convinced that the Jew is at least as valuable a person as a nominal Christian; but we reject the above untruth of the church tabloid because it is aimed at deprecating our work, as if it were being done not for the sake of the Gospel but for the Jews." Swiss theologian Karl Barth later wrote: "The accusation that Jehovah's Witnesses are linked with the Communists can only be due to an involuntary or even intentional misunderstanding."

In May 1933 the Gestapo searched the house of Ewald Vorsteher, who had been disfellowshipped from the society in the 1920s for refusing to accept the new leadership following the crisis sparked by Pastor Russell's death in 1917. The writings found in his home were highly critical of Hitler's regime, and were used as a basis for condemning the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Watchtower Society reacted by strongly rejecting Ewald Vorsteher and his opinions.

In spite of the evident hostility of the Hitler regime, Jehovah's Witnesses organized a convention in Berlin, Germany, on June 25, 1933. Some 7,000 persons assembled. The Witnesses publicly made their intentions clear: "Our organization is not political in any sense. We only insist on teaching the Word of Jehovah God to the people, and that without hindrance." In 1934, in a document produced to clarify their neutral stance, they told Hitler that they "have no interest in political affairs, but are wholly devoted to God's Kingdom under Christ His King."

After intensified persecution of this group, a world-wide body of Jehovah's Witnesses passed a resolution in 1936 again strongly condemning the Nazi regime.

During the same time period this group was also persecuted in the United States and many other countries for similar reasons, mainly because they refused to serve in the military or help with war efforts. In Canada during that time, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps along with political dissidents and people of Japanese and Chinese descent. In the United States, the Supreme Court issued a series of landmark First Amendment rulings that confirmed the Jehovah's Witnesses right to be excused from military service and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. (See also Supreme Court cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses.)

References

  1. The King James Version Debate DA Carson p. 64
  2. 1974 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, p. 212
  3. Declaration of Facts (English translation)

External links

See also

  • Knocking, a documentary on Jehovah's Witnesses featuring a Jewish concentration camp survivor, Joseph Kempler

Additional reading

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