Nearly everyone has experienced a knock on the door from the
Jehovah’s Witnesses early on a Saturday morning. Most often, we
politely refuse to discuss Bible topics with them, but who are
these people that call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses? What do
they really believe? The Jehovah's Witness religion is based on
the teachings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, an
organization that claims to be God's channel of communication to
his people here on Earth.
The Jehovah’s Witness religion was founded by Charles Taze
Russell, who had a difficult time dealing with the traditional
teachings of Heaven and Hell, as well as the deity of Christ and the
Holy Spirit. In 1870, at the age of 18, he organized a Bible class
in Pittsburgh, of which he was soon viewed as the pastor (Slick Short
1). Eight years later in 1879, Russell founded a magazine titled The
Herald of the Morning (now named The Watchtower), which contained his
own theories and interpretations of the Bible. In 1884, Russell
founded Zion’s Watchtower Tract Society (now known as the Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society) and began publishing numerous books and
magazines (Vandeburgt 2).
Russell spent much of his life thereafter speaking in Protestant
churches, gathering followers and selling his magazines and books
published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Russell also claimed
that the Bible could only be understood properly according to his
interpretations (Slick Jehovah 1). He even predicted many dates for the
end of the world to occur, only to see his prophecies fail. Eventually,
many of Russell’s teachings were so abstract that his followers broke away
from their previous fellowships and began a new denomination (Reed
Short 3).
At meetings Jehovah’s Witnesses conduct Bible studies that focus
exclusively on how to share their faith with the public and defend
their doctrines against other religions. Witnessing to, or recruiting,
the public is a high priority of the Watchtower Society. This creates
a very strong recruiting force and accounts for the amazing growth of
the religion (5).
Interestingly, in 1918 the United States government seized many
Watchtower publications and sentenced nine Watchtower officials to
jail for alleged un-American activities (Vandeburgt 2). However,
the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society survived and continues to
grow, because many people are unaware of the danger the Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society and the Jehovah’s Witnesses present to modern
society.
The Watchtower Organization sustains the power of its teachings
by the following doctrine taken from an article in The Watchtower
magazine. “If we are to walk in the light of truth we must
recognize not only Jehovah God as our Father but his organization
[the Watchtower Organization] as our mother” (Slick Interesting 1).
This lifting up of the Watchtower Organization and the doctrine that
the Organization is equal to God is the primary danger of the religion.
These doctrines set the Jehovah’s Witness religion apart as a cult.
Steven Hasson, the author of the best-selling book Combating Cult
Mind Control, defines a cult as a religion or society that seeks
control of its members in three areas: thought control, behavior
control, and emotional control. These three areas of control are
especially used to disengage the desire of the member to leave the
society. Additionally, a fourth area of cultic control is information
control (‘C’-Word 2). Hasson comments on these forms of cultic
control:
Each form of control has great power and influence on the
human mind. Together, they form a totalistic web, which can
manipulate even the strongest-minded people. In fact, it is
the strongest-minded individuals who make the most involved
and enthusiastic cult member.
After identifying certain cultic characteristics, the cultic behavior
within the Jehovah’s Witness religion becomes clear and well defined.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society controls its members by
first using thought control. Members are required to read
approximately 3000 pages of book and magazine Bible studies and
readings each year. Consequently, it is through the Bible studies and
readings that the Watchtower Society gains thought control of its
members. Notably, the Watchtower Organization has altered the
correct translation of the Bible to support their own beliefs
(Watchtower 2). The Watchtower Society also teaches Jehovah’s
Witnesses to internalize their ideology as “the Truth” and that there
is no other true religion. They even coerce followers to disbelieve
criticism of the religion as lies from Satan. Finally, they
instruct Jehovah’s Witnesses that the apocalypse is very near,
predicting the exact dates in some cases (Watchtower 6).
Behavior control is another form of cultic control exercised by
the Watchtower Society. The Watchtower Organization teaches that
members are not allowed to discuss criticism of the leader(s), the
doctrine, or the Organization. Members are also taught that spying
on one another and reporting improper activities or comments to
leaders is a positive action. Also, while witnessing and promoting
the Watchtower doctrines they are taught to suppress anything that
might reflect negatively to outsiders about the religion ('C'-Word 7).
The Watchtower Society advocates socializing only with other members
in the Organization and they encourage dating and arranged marriages
within the religion. This strategy often keeps young adults in the
community congregation and discourages them from furthering their
education. Parents are even discouraged to involve their children in
extra-curricular clubs and social activities, including sports (8).
The third characteristic of a cult is strict emotional control.
The Watchtower Society instills a terror of being caught and
punished by the leaders for wrong doings. In fact, each congregation
has judicial boards made up of church elders that question and
judge members who are caught breaking Watchtower rules, often
threatening to kick the member out of the Society. This process of
the Jehovah’s Witness religion is referred to as disfellowshipping
and is the primary means by which the Watchtower Society locks its
members into the religion. This creates a difficult situation
emotionally for family members that are disfellowshipped or who
simply want to leave the religion. If they choose to
leave, they are shunned by their family and friends, even a
neighborly greeting is not acceptable. Furthermore, Jehovah’s
Witnesses are likewise told to avoid contact with ex-members or
critics, even with their relatives (‘C’-Word 7).
Ultimately, the Watchtower Organization plays on the fear of each
member by continually telling him or her that Armageddon is around the
corner and that if they leave the Organization they will not only be
shunned by the congregation, but they will not be accepted into the
after life (7). A research team of Jehovah’s Witness experts say,
“This can have a devastating effect on a person whose entire
religious, family and social life are grounded in the Society. It
has occasionally resulted in suicide” (Watchtower 6).
Information control further identifies cultic behavior within
the Watchtower Organization.
Since Jehovah’s Witnesses receive all of their information from one
source, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, they are not allowed
to read books or magazines published outside of the Organization.
For instance, this research paper would be considered apostate
literature and members would be punished for reading it (‘C’-Word 3).
Cults are absolutely a dangerous phenomenon because the one
all-powerful source of information may be misleading, teaching
doctrines which could potentially cause tragedy in the lives of its
followers. The Watchtower Organization has many examples of doctrines
that lead to devastated followers and suicide victims due to
disfellowshipping. Even worse, there are a few doctrines taught by
the Watchtower Organization that have caused thousands of Jehovah’s
Witnesses to die (Watchtower 5).
The first evidence of Watchtower doctrines threatening the
followers’ lives was published in The Golden Age, a Watchtower book
published in 1931. The book states, “Vaccination is a direct
violation of the everlasting covenant that God made with Noah after
the flood” (Rutherford 293). Therefore, many obedient followers may
have died during the period of this teaching.
Again in 1967, the Watchtower Organization banned organ
transplants. “Those who submit to such operations are thus living
off the flesh of another human. That is cannibalistic”
(Interesting 2). Fortunately, the Watchtower Organization reversed
their decision in 1980 stating, “There is no Biblical command
pointedly forbidding the taking in of other human tissue” (2).
Sadly the reversal of the decision on organ transplants came too
late for many people. “Some Jehovah's Witnesses. . . died between
1967 and 1980 because they refused available transplants”
(Watchtower 5).
The most tragic of all doctrines taught by the Watchtower
Organization is their ban on blood transfusions. They interpret the
Bible to teach that blood transfusions are morally wrong and members
who receive a blood transfusion are believed to be committing a sin,
which would forfeit his or her eternal life (4). Jehovah’s Witnesses
firmly believe this doctrine.
Twelve-year-old Lisa Kosack died (no date given) in Canada after
holding off transfusion therapy by threatening that she "would
fight and kick the IV pole down and rip out the IV no matter
how much it would hurt, and poke holes in the blood"
(Reed Why 1).
Protective Services often intrude on parents' rights and take
sick Jehovah’s Witness children into care, whose health or life is
threatened by the lack of a blood transfusion. Many adults have also
died. “One particularly sad case occurred in the UK when a woman
bled to death after giving birth to her second child” (Watchtower 4).
There is no record of the number of deaths that could be
attributed to the Watchtower’s ban on blood transfusions (5).
However, the Red Cross estimates that one in ten people in the
United States require a transfusion annually. With approximately
4,700,000 members in the Watchtower Society, there is an estimate
that 1,287 Jehovah’s Witnesses need a blood transfusion each day.
Additionally, the Watchtower magazine stated that, “The Jehovah’s
Witness patients’ decision to forego transfusions for major surgical
procedures appears to add 0.5% to 1.5% mortality to the overall
operative risk. . .” (MacGregor 4). Calculated out, 0.5% to 1.5%
equals six to 19 Jehovah’s Witnesses that die daily. It is a grim
reality that the Watchtower Organization is responsible for the deaths
of many innocent people.
As a whole, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are friendly people of
upstanding moral character. They believe very strongly that they have
the "True" religion and are willing to defend Watchtower doctrines at
all costs. However, the danger of the Watchtower Society exceeds the
behavior, emotional, thought, and information control of the cult.
The real concern is that people blindly put their faith in a phony
religion. The religion began because one man, Charles Russell,
incorporated his own system of beliefs with Biblical teachings. In
addition, the Organization has made false prophesies, rewrote parts of
the Bible to fit their doctrines and made a false conclusion on
vaccinations and organ transplants, later reversing their decision on
both. The Watchtower Organization is also responsible for the death
of thousands of its members due to their ban on blood transfusions.
The Jehovah’s Witness religion and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society
are dangerous. The Jehovah's Witness cult has the potential to
devastate ones life and, in some cases, may lead to death.
dan_probert@hotmail.com
It only takes a second!!!
Thank you.