This paper examines the ways in which the movement promotes its millenarian message to prospective recruits. It also considers how the Witnesses are able to hold futuristic beliefs and at the same time, lead active lives in the present. The methods of data collection include unstructured interviews with devotees and content analysis of the movement’s own literature. The paper concludes that while the Witnesses’ futuristic symbolism is a form of escape from the modern world, it is also part of their own pseudo-corporate ‘branding’ which has contributed to their international success. Read the rest »

This paper examines the ways in which the movement has managed to retain a millenarian orientation in a world that is, for the most part, indifferent to its beliefs. The Witnesses reject many commonly recognised accoutrements of sacred practise such as mystical concepts, awesome rituals and transcendental symbolism in favour of a rationalised form of religion based on the study of published texts.  Ethnographic analysis reveals the dependency of this quasi-totalitarian movement on the very physical and cultural resources it condemns.  The paper concludes that the Witnesses’ anti-mystical faith is both an inverted form of corporate ‘branding’ and an anti-modern quest for certainty in a hostile world of relativism. The movement’s relationship with the modern world is, therefore, ambivalent and paradoxical. Read the rest »

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 the rest »

A religious conflict is brewing in a small south Kazakstan village whose Muslim residents are increasingly angry at the recruiting methods of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organisation. Read the rest »

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that an ordinance requiring Jehovah’s Witnesses or other door-to-door advocates for religious or political causes to get a permit violates free-speech rights. Read the rest »