“They burst in at the height of the service, when the symbols were being passed,” Kanin, the spokesman of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia said, referring to the bread and wine used to symbolize Jesus Christ’s body and blood. “They wouldn’t even allow them to finish the ceremony. There was nothing secretive going on there.” Read more…

After heavy pressure from the Watchtower Society Peter Mosier’s site quotes.watchtower.ca has been shut down in compliance with the terms of a Settlement Agreement.

Peter Mosier: “The domain “Watchtower.ca” has been transferred to WTS (I assume they will have it pointing to Borg.org watchtower.org ASAP). My copies of the site have been destroyed, the files deleted, and my WT Library CD has been destroyed, in accordance with the Settlement Agreement which will afford a “discontinuance” of their suit against me”. Read more…

Two brothers, Jason and Johel Woodliff, came back from Iraq with their comrades in a Marine Corps battalion that lost 48 members, greeted by a mile-long parade attended by thousands of strangers. But not by their family.

The brothers, their parents and J.R. Brown, director of public information for the Watchtower Bible Tract Society, all speak out about Jehovah’s Witnesses and military service. Read more…

Disfellowshipped Dasun Allah, editor of the hip-hop magazine The Source and now member of the Islam-based Nation of Gods and Earths, “tagged” the assembly hall to expose the religion’s “hypocrisy.” Read more…

Andrew Holden
Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK

ABSTRACT

Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a puritanical religious movement that claims to be in but not of the world.  The movement has expanded rapidly over the past 130 years and there are now more than 6 million devotees worldwide. This paper examines the effects of Witness conversion on the family lives of non-Witness relatives.  Interviews with couples in mixed marriages reveal discrepancies in how devotees deal with the dissonance between personal feelings and religious principles, and demonstrate that there is, in effect, no uniform or stereotypical Jehovah’s Witness response to domestic scenarios in which beliefs may need to be tempered. The paper exposes some of the problems that arise in a modern secular society for those who hold millenarian convictions.  It concludes that mutual tolerance is essential for amicable domestic relations. Read more…

Andrew Holden
Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK

ABSTRACT

Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a puritanical religious movement that claims to be in but not of the world.  The movement has expanded rapidly over the past 130 years and there are now more than 6 million devotees worldwide. This paper examines the major causes and consequences of defection.  Personal testimonies from unstructured interviews with former members reveal that leaving the movement is characterised by emotional trauma and existential insecurity.  The data also suggest that defectors often come to replace their Witness weltanschauung with a new religious identity that enables them to renegotiate their relationship with the modern world. The paper advances the argument, however, that these alternative systems of belief do not represent a fundamentally different reality and tend to affirm the basic view that modern secular society is soulless and hostile. Read more…

Andrew Holden
Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK

ABSTRACT

Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a puritanical religious movement that claims to be in but not of the world.  The movement has expanded rapidly over the past 130 years and there are now more than 6 million devotees worldwide.  This paper examines the ways in which the Witnesses conceptualise the modern world and how they resist the secular forces that threaten their religious identity. Close analysis of the testimonies of current members reveals that the movement’s millenarian weltanschauung is a reaction to a world that is perceived as hostile and ambiguous. Read more…

Mkalavishvili, a fiery speaker, has railed against Jehovah’s Witnesses
Georgian police have raided a church to detain a radical ex-Orthodox priest after a clash with his supporters.
Vasily Mkalavishvili, known for his fierce attacks on religious minorities, had barricaded himself inside a church in the capital, Tbilisi. Read more…

The Department of Public Information of the UN confirms in a press release (due to “receiving numerous inquiries regarding the association of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York ” with the UN) that Jehovah’s Witnesses shared the ideals of the UN Charter. This is not in line with the teachings of the Watchtower Society. Till this day they depict the United Nations as the “scarlet-colored wild beast” with “Babylon the Great ( the world empire of false religion)” as its rider. Read more…

Tuesday, Jun. 17, 2003

Canadian Press

Montreal — A municipal bylaw restricting when Jehovah’s Witnesses can go door-to-door protects residents’ right to privacy and does not violate the group’s right to religious freedom and expression Read more…