Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the church of Jehovah's Witnesses established?
Jehovah's Witnesses originated as a branch of the Bible Student movement, which developed in the United States in the 1870s among followers of Christian Restorationist minister Charles Taze Russell. Bible Student missionaries were sent to England in 1881 and the first overseas branch was opened in London in 1900. The group took on the name International Bible Students Association and by 1914 it was also active in Canada, Germany, Australia and other countries.[1] The movement split into several rival organizations after Russell's death in 1916, with one—led by Russell's successor, Joseph "Judge" Rutherford—retaining control of both his magazine, The Watch Tower, and his legal and publishing corporation, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
Originally known as the "Peoples Pulpit Association", the organization was incorporated in 1909 when the Society's principal offices moved to Brooklyn, New York. In 1939, it was renamed "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc.", and in 1956 the name was changed to "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc". Until 2000, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses was president of both the "Watch Tower" (Pennsylvania) and "Watchtower" (New York) corporations, as well as Britain's International Bible Students Association corporation; in 2001, it was decided that the corporations' directors need not be members of the Governing Body."Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, Inc." was established to organize and administer the congregational affairs of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States. It filed for incorporation on August 21, 2000 in New York State as a “domestic non-profit corporation” in Putnam County, New York. An incorporation record was also filed with the State of Florida on March 3, 2006, as a "foreign non profit corporation" with agency in Collier County, Florida.
Scholars estimate that during the Nazi regime, about half of all Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany were incarcerated in prison or concentration camps, where they were exposed to "sadism marked by an unending chain of physical and mental tortures, the likes of which no language in the world can express." At the time, they were represented by several geographical Bible Students Associations, each of which considered itself affiliated with the Watch Tower Society despite little contact with their US headquarters in Brooklyn. When contact was re-established, a minority of German Jehovah's Witnesses either preferred their autonomy or disagreed with the doctrinal changes that had occurred in the meantime. Some disassociated themselves from the Watch Tower Society and some individual members established contact with non-Jehovah's Witness Bible Student groups.
In 1992, American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton placed the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination in a list of "established cults". However, he and others have since been more reluctant to use the term "cult" for various groups, including Jehovah's Witnesses, because the term is considered too controversial. Ex-cult watchdog John Bowen Brown II and "Knocking" producer Joel P. Engardio also reject the assertion that Jehovah's Witnesses is a cult. The two-volume encyclopedia "Contemporary American Religion" stated, "Various critics and ex-members in recent years have wrongly labeled Jehovah's Witnesses a 'cult.'"
In the Jehovah's Witnesses case, Kuznetsov and Others v. Russia, the ECHR ruled in January 2007 that Chelyabinsk authorities had violated the rights of the Chelyabinsk Jehovah's Witnesses when they disrupted a worship meeting in 2000. The court ordered the Government to pay $121,486 (90,544 euros) to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Approximately 20 Protestant churches previously operated in Karakalpakstan; however, it was unknown how many of these were still active. No Baptist church has successfully registered since 1999. Out of the 11 Jehovah's Witnesses groups in the country, only 1, in Chirchik, was registered at the end of the reporting period. On August 24, 2006, the Government canceled the registration status of the Jehovah's Witnesses' Ferghana congregation, citing several violations of the Religion Law, including proselytizing, inciting religious enmity, and holding meetings in a private home. The Jehovah's Witnesses appealed the decision, but remained unregistered at the end of the reporting period.
After World War II, the Church came under attack by the Jehovah's Witnesses who challenged its doctrines. They were determined to seek Catholic converts. In response, the Duplessis regime mounted a campaign of persecution against Jehovah's Witnesses and communists. The result was a legal struggle between the Duplessis regime and lawyers such as Frank Scott and Pierre Trudeau who argued in defence of the rights of minorities.
Development of Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine Eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses Watch Tower Society unfulfilled predictions Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses Watch Tower Society presidency dispute (1917)
Since the elaboration of the blood doctrine to the point of prohibiting transfusion, the majority of Jehovah's Witnesses have adopted the organization's position. Those Jehovah's Witnesses who accept the blood doctrine typically hold strongly to their conviction. In the August 1998 issue of "Academic Emergency Medicine", Donald Ridley, a Jehovah's Witness and organization staff attorney, argued that carrying an up-to-date Medical Directive card issued by the organization indicates that an individual personally agrees with the established religious position of Jehovah's Witness.
Witnesses teach that God must be distinguished by his personal name—"Jehovah". The name is a common modern Latinized form of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, or four-letter name, transliterated as "YHWH". The use of his personal name is regarded as vital for true worship, and Witnesses usually preface the term "God" with the name "Jehovah". The title, "" (Greek: "Kyrios"), is rarely used by Witnesses when speaking about God. Because no other religion uses the name "Jehovah" with the same prevalence, they believe that only Jehovah's Witnesses are making God's name known.
Silentlambs was founded in 2001 by William H. Bowen, a second generation Jehovah's Witness. Bowen served as an elder for approximately 15 years, and worked in the printing factory at the headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses from 1977 until 1979. According to Bowen, he was removed as an elder in July 1992 for refusing to back down on a matter involving the appointment of a child molester. He was reappointed as an elder in 1994, but resigned the position in December 2000 over concerns about new allegations of child abuse and continued disagreement with Jehovah's Witnesses' policies for reporting child sex abuse. According to Bowen, he was disfellowshipped in 2002 for actions considered to constitute "causing divisions" and tantamount to "apostasy". Bowen claims to be an expert in comparative religions including Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholic Church and Mormonism regarding child sex abuse policies, and provides services as a consultant for attorneys who file civil cases against Jehovah's Witnesses. He has stated that he is not an expert regarding investigations of sex abuse allegations, nor an expert regarding the historical standards of care and detection of child abuse. Bowen has self-published two books, and states that he is an expert in child custody and taxation policies of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Nazi authorities denounced Jehovah's Witnesses for their ties to the United States and derided the apparent revolutionary millennialism of their preaching that a battle of Armageddon would precede the rule of Christ on earth. They linked Jehovah's Witnesses to "international Jewry" by pointing to Witness reliance on certain Old Testament texts. The Nazis had grievances with many of the smaller Protestant groups on these issues, but only Jehovah's Witnesses and the Christadelphian Church refused to bear arms or swear loyalty to the state.[3]
Missionaries from the Episcopal Church, the LDS Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh-day Adventist church, and various Mennonite churches also travel to the island. Jehovah's Witnesses, specifically, have been known to be migrating (more so during the last decade) to the Dominican Republic where they feel there is a great need for evangelizing their faith.
The clash between Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church became an issue of the competing ideas of freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. Jehovah's Witnesses went to court to establish the right to distribute their literature on the streets of Quebec. They also became political dissenters because during the Duplessis era, a challenge to the Church was tantamount to challenging the government. Any limitation of the Church's authority would mean limiting Duplessis's authority.
Various individuals, courts and the media around the world have raised concerns about the manner in which cases of child sexual abuse are handled when they occur in congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses. An independent 2009 study in Norway was critical of how Jehovah's Witnesses dealt with cases of child sexual abuse but stated there is no indication that the rate of sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses is higher than found in general society. The organization officially "abhors" child sexual abuse, and states "the incidence of this crime among Jehovah's Witnesses is rare."
Jehovah's Witnesses did not have a significant presence in the Soviet Union prior to 1939 when the Soviet Union forcibly incorporated eastern Poland, Moldavia, and Lithuania, each of which had a Jehovah's Witness movement. Although never large in number (estimated by the KGB to be 20,000 in 1968), the Jehovah's Witnesses became one of the most persecuted religious groups in the Soviet Union during the post-World War II era. Members were arrested or deported; some were put in Soviet concentration camps. Witnesses in Moldavian SSR were deported to Tomsk Oblast; members from other regions of the Soviet Union were deported to Irkutsk Oblast. KGB officials, who were tasked with dissolving the Jehovah's Witness movement, were disturbed to discover that the Witnesses continued to practice their faith even within the labor camps.
Individuals who attend meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses but are not involved in preaching are occasionally referred to in Watch Tower Society publications as "associates" or as being "associated with the congregation". Attendance figures for Witness events include "Jehovah's Witnesses and associates"; such statistics may be cited for comparison of Witness numbers with membership figures of other denominations, but only those sharing in their ministry are counted by Jehovah's Witnesses when reporting their official statistics.
In 1997, the authorities in Transnistria announced that they would annul the registration of the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Jehovah's Witnesses in Transnistria were originally registered in 1991, and the church was reregistered by the "Ministry of Justice" in 1994 and 1997. However, in 1997 the "President's Commissioner for Religions and Cults" sent official letters to public authorities falsely claiming that the activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses was banned and that their registration was annulled. Using the "President's Commissioner's" deceptive letter, authorities have repeatedly harassed the Jehovah's Witnesses, including halting the distribution of religious literature and refusing to approve a property request to build a house of worship. In 2001, the Jehovah's Witnesses lodged an official complaint with the "President" of Transnistria, and in 2002, they lodged a complaint with the Magistrate in Tiraspol against illegal actions taken by the "President's Commissioner for Religions and Cults." In July 2002, the "President's Commissioner for Religions and Cults" sent a letter to various government departments with instructions to consider the Jehovah's Witnesses as illegal until the case brought against them had been finalized. The Jehovah's Witnesses have lodged an official complaint and a counter lawsuit against the "President's Commissioner for Religions and Cults." Following several hearings, the Court has decided to suspend the trial until the liquidation case has been finalized.In December 2003, the Jehovah's Witnesses were informed that the two trials would be combined into one trial that would be heard by a panel of three judges. The case was being heard at the close of the period covered by this report.
Watch Tower Society publications have claimed that God has used Jehovah's Witnesses (and formerly, the International Bible Students) to declare his will and has provided advance knowledge about Armageddon and the establishment of God's kingdom. Some publications also claimed that God has used Jehovah's Witnesses and the International Bible Students as a modern-day prophet. George D. Chryssides stated, "while prediction may be part of a biblical prophet's role, the root meaning of prophecy is that of proclaiming God's word." He went on to say that, "Jehovah's Witnesses ... are the recipients of prophecy, who regard themselves as invested with the interpretation of biblical writings." With these interpretations, Jehovah's Witnesses' publications have made various predictions about world events they believe were prophesied in the Bible. Failed predictions have led to the alteration or abandonment of some doctrines. Some failed predictions had been presented as "beyond doubt" or "approved by God".
Many Christian denominations consider the interpretations and doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses to be heretical. Some religious leaders have accused Jehovah's Witnesses of being a cult. According to law professor Archibald Cox, in the United States, Jehovah's Witnesses were "the principal victims of religious persecution … they began to attract attention and provoke repression in the 1930s, when their proselytizing and numbers rapidly increased."
The Eritrean government is against what it deems as "reformed" or "radical" versions of its established religions. Therefore, alleged radical forms of Islam and Christianity, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Bahá'í Faith (though the Bahá'í Faith is neither Islamic nor Christian), the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and numerous other non-Protestant Evangelical denominations are not registered and cannot worship freely. Three named Jehovah's Witnesses are known to have been imprisoned since 1994 along with 51 others.
Though Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions of whole blood, they may accept some blood plasma fractions at their own discretion. The Watch Tower Society provides pre-formatted durable power of attorney documents prohibiting major blood components, in which members can specify which allowable fractions and treatments they will personally accept. Jehovah's Witnesses have established Hospital Liaison Committees as a cooperative arrangement between individual Jehovah's Witnesses and medical professionals and hospitals.
Millions Now Living Will Never Die: A Study of Jehovah's Witnesses by Alan Rogerson. Constable. 1969 Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada: Champions of freedom of speech and worship by M. James Penton. Penton, who is a professor emeritus of history at University of Lethbridge (a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses), examines the history of legal activities that led to expansion of religious freedoms in Canada. Referenced in the January 1, 1977 Watchtower, page 11 and the 1979 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, page 94. Publisher: Macmillan of Canada. ISBN0-7705-1340-9 (Canada, 1976) Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's Witnesses by M. James Penton. Penton, who is a professor emeritus of history at University of Lethbridge, examines the history of Jehovah's Witnesses, and their doctrines. Read selections from: Publisher: University of Toronto Press. ISBN0-8020-7973-3 (Canada, 1998)
From 1936 to 1959, Jehovah's Witnesses faced religious and civil opposition in Quebec. Historically, the Roman Catholic Church had been the dominant institution in the life of the province of Quebec and a major influence on French Canadian culture. It nurtured the young people of Quebec, in language and faith; and at the same time it endorsed the legitimacy of British rule and of the established economic order.
Trouble arose in 1931 when the Jehovah's Witnesses took control of station 5KA. In 1933 the government banned its diatribes against the Catholic Church, the British Empire, and the United States. In 1941 its station was closed down as dangerous to national security, at the demand of the Army and Navy. Furthermore, the Jehovah's Witnesses were declared an illegal organization.