Jehovah’s Witnesses Mobilize Global Response to Threat of Ban in Russia

While not a big personal fan of the JWs, and while disagreeing with much of their belief system, doctrine, and approach to evangelizing (I too have had the repeated doorbell rings, and was once followed by them multiple days in a row when I declined) ... I do have to support religious freedom, even in countries where it isn't as enshrined as our constitutional republic. That would have been my stance before having faith, as well, for what it's worth.

Just as I don't want to see Muslims as a whole labeled extremists, I cannot support Russia officially labeling JWs as a monolithic, single group extremists, with the potential legal ramifications that might have for them over there.

I'd love to say, "Well it's just the JWs," but I can't, especially given Russia's recent track record on how it legally handles other groups it considers "dangerous." (Like LGBT pop acts, of all things.) And especially given that the criteria here for their being extremists seems to be the claim that theirs is the "one true" faith... something many, many religions do to one extent or another, in one form or another.

www.bbc.com...

That said, unfortunately I doubt a letter writing campaign is going to change much if Russia is determined to pursue this course.

Peace.

I'm sure the Kremlin staff will be thankful for the free toilet paper courtesy of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Russia would do itself and all Russians a big Fatter Favour by Banning Islam ,while JWs might annoy you at the door,they dont run round cutting peoples heads off ,throwing homos off buildings ,raping small girls and boys [as a norm ] blowing themselves and innocent people up etc ,beating up and killing ,flogging women .running down innocent people in cars trucks ,where does it end ?????? going on Jihads, killing innocent people for no reason whatsover ,just blood MAD !!!!!! why do these useful Idiots want them living in our Community ???? JWS dont LET their children die ,in many cases blood expanders extra can be used ,which are not harmful, besides how many bacterial contaminants can be in blood that can kill you ,etc the main reason there is the Insistence on pushing blood transfusions is because its a big money making racket ,they get it for nothing then sell it on .

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: RobertConrad

Religious freedom is important but the world will not end if Russia doesn't like Witnesses.


Satan and Jehovah do not exist.

You can't say that with any certainty. Billions of people disagree with you including me. I know you are a bright spark, Mr Phage, but this is something even you can't prove or disprove.

Yes, you think religion is bad for people. It is good for me.

Elvis, Bob Marley, King Haile Selassie, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jesus, Martin Luther King, all the Prophets and Saints believed as I do.

Those above mentioned have been wonderful teachers to me. I think I learned a few things from you about stars, but I learned HOW TO LIVE from them and they are my soul company through their ideas, words and music every day of my life.

The Jehovah's Witnesses don't hurt anybody. They have their ways and it is part of their thing to evangelize as their Master (and mine) told them to. I notice that The Christian Scientists, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses all are marked out for ridicule. Just because they are American denominations does that make them null and void, not worthy of any cultural respect and dignity, with no place alongside the older denominations like Catholicism?

I would defend them and I would defend you to have the right to practice any religion in safety in our free lands. Russia can't shake off its shackles. It has never been able to master freedom. It is an unfortunate huge flaw in Russian history, politics, society and culture. I wish they would wake up and free themselves from the drudgery and chains they inflict on each other and have attempted to inflict on the rest of the world.

Russia is SCARED of FREEDOM. Freedom is a nightmare for Putin. In a free land he would be in court and tried as a murderer and for ripping off billions of rubles from the Russian people as a plain old thief; that is why he is scared of freedom. I am so glad I live in the free West where everyone can do their own thing and be protected by law. Even little me who does not have much money can have a great life of art and freedom and not be frightened of the jack boots coming in the night to take me away just because of my spiritual identity.

I'll put it on record that I have huge respect for L. Ron Hubbard. He started out like me in the occult and just his honesty of purpose to find a spiritual identity led him to Christ, just as it did me. L. Ron made a path that many in modern times are CHOOSING to follow. I adore Tom Cruise and think he has every right to his brethren and sisters in his congregation. Why are we so hell bent on ridiculing he and his friends for that?

originally posted by: Revolution9

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: RobertConrad

Religious freedom is important but the world will not end if Russia doesn't like Witnesses.


Satan and Jehovah do not exist.

You can't say that with any certainty. Billions of people disagree with you including me. I know you are a bright spark, Mr Phage, but this is something even you can't prove or disprove.

There is only 8 million JW. Only just under 150k of them are important.

Christian Scientists are hated because they try to use less science or mix science with philosophy. Science-Is-a-process not something you take with a unique view on politics. The core issue with most of them I'll serve in an analogy, imagine you found a scientific theorem, 2+3=6, that was ground breaking. Especially for your political and spiritual cases. Christian scientists somehow have the ability to overlook simple details, like 2+3=5, and get absurdly many years of research into something with a faulty basis. Sometimes to degrees that even produces things. It's honestly hilarious. But success is mostly not the case. If you give a monkey a typewriter, he will eventually write a book. That is a 'christian scientist'.

Btw- Disclaimer: There are plenty of healthy sane minded Scientists that also happen to be christian and put their faith aside. After years of these people that are Scientists first at work and where it matters, and then Christian at home etc, why has that not been taken seriously as a role model? "Christian Scientist" is a denominationally worthless as "Jewish Scientist" or "Muslim Scientist". You should just not want to talk about it, because the only reason it's even a 'thing' is because it has negative evidence. It's not politically correct to even address someones faith in the scientific community in relationship to their work when taken seriously, and the content is not crack-pot.

a reply to: Phage

Is this a ban on religous freedom or a restriction of public display of worship? Are the same?

If Russia bans Jedi, theres one less place i will visit to practice my belief

a reply to: MacK80

Your post reads terribly. It is full of intellectual ignorance, blindly believing the silly stories you have been told to make Scientology look bad, thuggery and criticism of others.

Tom Cruise is a hugely successful, loaded with cash and loved by millions. Who is the brightest spark and highest achiever, he or you? Like Bob Dylan said,

"Don't criticize what you can't understand".

I meant how many Christians and Jewish people there are in the world. You don't even read my post properly before you criticize me. You do the same with Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists. You don't look properly for yourself as far as I can see from your words.

2.2 billion Christians.

14 million Jews.

Even the 1.6 billion Muslims believe there is a Satan.

That is over 3.5 billion people who believe in God and the Devil.

Half the people currently on planet earth believe God and Satan exist. I am one of them.

a reply to: Phage

Dont awnser the door


Anyway you can ask to be a do not call and then they stop calling.

a reply to: Revolution9

Yes. But you don't know it's over a billion that agrees with 8 million.

Your comment about Scientology is baffling. Please go on,

I understand Christians, their motivations, and Christian Scientists pretty well in my opinion. When they're understandable. I'm generally open and accepting of view points, I tried to watch your crazy delusional video, when you cried he didn't give it a fair chance, and by the 6th time I heard them say "Satan" I was out, that is not science nor understanding, that's the 'professional wrestling' of intellect designed to push philosophies and agendas above observation..

a reply to: D8Tee

Russia is doing what most Western Nations should have done a long time ago....Banish them

a reply to: RobertConrad

Well the JW's in Russia can convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy...problem solved

a reply to: RobertConrad

The spiritual man, the one called and chosen seeks the spiritual and longs for release to be with the great Spirit.

If the spirit calls people then why do JWs indoctrinate their children form a young age? Why not let them chose their own calling?

a reply to: Revolution9

So by that logic...what? so half the world's population agrees with your beliefs because you say numbers?

Do 2.2 billion Christians all personally believe in Satan ? Or do you presume they do because some poll or census told you a certain number of people identified themselves with the same label?

And if 14 million Jews cannot all agree with being one sect or otherwise, and perhaps some of these identifiable Jews could be considered converts and may not have attested their sincere devotion and entered into a pact with whatever nam their God ascribes himself in full faith...

Yada yada yada.

Numbers do not equate to individual belief, and belief does not equate with Understanding.

But good for you for saying you are part of one half of the human population globally.

I don't really believe God or Satan give 2 sh*ts what any of us think.

a reply to: RobertConrad

And it will happen. But in God's time, not yours.

Why would god allow religions to be banned ...seems counterproductive....but then again nothing propagates religious zeal than martyrdom

Good! shut this Cult down.
it is the same as scien-tology.
but they dont stop them!

many years ago I was told of how marriages broke up.
and people had to give them a lot of money.
first hand!

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Free will, I suppose.

a reply to: RobertConrad

As far as Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell and L. Ron Hubbard go, yeah I have read the purported reports of their eccentricities and character failings. I am also acquainted with some of the similar faults in the authors of those reports and all the critics of these men.

I can in truth not distinguish between the behaviors. The pot just keeps calling the kettle black.

As for all those who think they can denounce any Christian congregation, to me they are acting as though they had the authority of Christ Himself when He told the Seven Churches off in "Revelation". How crude, how vain and how delusional can one be?

originally posted by: RobertConrad

originally posted by: Lysergic
I don't like those nutbuckets either, weird, me and Russia agreeing on loonies.


Now for the rest of religions.

Yes, yes, we are all going to hell.

My classmates when I was a kid, in Denver in school hated me for not celebrating their holidays. And my teachers hated me even more. Especially for not saying the pledge of allegiance. We are used to hatred for being different.


But there are people who realize that even if they don't like we are different, they know we are non-violent, and to prosecute us as terrorists is stupid and wrong. And very dangerous for the rest of humanity. Jehovah's Witnesses are always the first targeted when human rights violations by the government and religion begin.

Think about Hitler and the Nazi. The first into the concentration camps were Jehovah's witnesses, and no one else, as a religious group were persecuted more, or murdered, aside from the Jews (but they were as an ethnicity.)

You are watching history starting to unfold again. I am just very familiar with it. You, not so much.

I don't know much about it other than my mother in law believes in Jehovah, as does my sister in law. All I really know is that my sons father didn't get to participate in holidays as a child and he was teased at school for it. His dad had to hide his Halloween costumes and pretend he was spending the night with his friends on Halloween. His mom even withdrew him from school on holidays so that he could not participate at school behind her back.

She is really nice. Shes never tried to push her religion on me. The men and women who have been lucky enough to get an answer when they knocked- were polite, didn't take up all of my time, and went on about their business. They are just doing what they believe is right.
While I have some personal resentment for the religion because of what her conversion did to their family, and how my best friend in highschool was treated by her mother, and how her mother treated me, I still respect their right to believe what they want.

Jehovah Witnesses are not terrorists, or extremists, based on what I've experienced here- however I would have no knowledge of if they behave differently in Russia? If I'm missing something please inform me, but I just don't see them as extremists. Strict sure, bizarre, sure, but not extreme in the sense of being a threat to others.

-Just another worldly girl.

JWs are just another group of people following someone.

Frankly the JWs ,Mormons,Christians,Muslims,everyones religon is based upon non-terresrial sentience of one type or another .

a reply to: NerdGoddess

Well, children being ostracised not having a choice in the matter lays even more burden on them... have they ever stopped to ask the children if they want to celebrate those things? Not even once.

Buddhism not without issues itself where people are involved doing people things as any other religious philosophy; say sure why not? And are happy to celebrate all of it along side their own days. Of course enlightenment is not just reserved to Buddhism anyone walking their path as it is intended has a chance for such a thing; not walking it well, it becomes an excuse to just do what someone wants to do anyway and not feel so bad about it in the idea of forgiveness that the religius philosophy holds. In such a manner the religion is used instead of walked.