Watch Tower Bible Research Articles

Secret Operations of the Soviet Security Services against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ukraine (1949—1955)

This article reconstructs the history of one KGB operation against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ukraine, launched by the Ukrainian security services in 1951. The operation aimed to infiltrate the Jehovah’s Witness underground organization in Ukraine and to organize a Witness country committee as a covert operation. The plan was designed such that the Soviet security service became the head of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, and the headquarters of the official Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society became a channel in their counter-intelligence operations. This article tells about the failures and unexpected side-effects of the secret operation caused by internal conflicts within the Soviet politics of religion. Paradoxically, in the context of a disintegrated Witness underground network, caused by the post-war deportations and mass arrests, severed communication channels with the Watch Tower Society and the absence of religious literature, the Soviet security service became an alternative communication channel between the faith communities and a source of religious reproduction (including the source of the production of Watch Tower literature). This study dwells upon historical materials from recently opened SBU (former KGB) archives in Ukraine.

The History of the Jehovah's Witnesses: An Appraisal of Recent Scholarship

Zoe Knox's analysis of the English‐language historiography of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was published in this journal in 2011. It assessed four types of historical writing on the organisation: the Watch Tower Society's own publications; material produced by two categories of detractors, namely ex‐Witnesses and Christians writing from other denominational perspectives; and academic studies. There are vast quantities of all but the last of these. Her article thus concluded with a call for scholars to take this religious community more seriously as an historical subject, echoing an appeal made by Rodney Stark and Laurence Iannaccone to social scientists in 1997. This review essay is intended to supplement Knox's historiographical analysis by appraising recent publications on the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses. As we shall see, although scholarship on this topic remains sparse, particularly given the organisation's visibility, since 2011 several important books have appeared alongside others which make contributions to the limited sum of our knowledge of the origins and emergence of the organisation and the way it has operated in different historical contexts. In short, the field requires reappraisal in light of these publications.

Perioperative Management of Patients Refusing Blood Products

Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) originated near Pittsburg (Pensylvania) in the 1870s, when Charles T. Russel formed a movement based on a literal millennialist interpretation of the Bible. However, it was until 1945 that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (the legal organization of leaders of the Congregation of JW, usually known simply as the Watch Tower Society) concluded that blood transfusions are contrary to divine law. JW refuse transfusions of whole blood, of red and white corpuscles, platelets and plasma. They also refuse both natural and recombinant haemoglobin, although positions differ among them regarding blood-derived products such as albumin, immunoglobulin and coagulation factors

Otuo v Morley (1) and Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Great Britain (2)

Contract – Intention to create legal relations – Religious Organisation – Claimant alleging admittance in 1992 as international member of second defendant Society – Second defendant Society not incepted until 1999 – Membership of second defendant Society confined to those invited to join and elders – Claimant satisfying neither criteria – Claimant expelled from fellowship of the Society in 2011 – Action brought by claimant for slander arising from process leading to expulsion – Application for permission to add claim for breach of contract in respect of process leading to expulsion – Whether intention to create legal relations could be established between the parties – Whether contractual relationship between the parties could be established – Whether permission to amend claim should be granted

The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Changing Hymnody

The worship music of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (better known as Jehovah’s Witnesses) has developed considerably since the organisation’s inception. The author discusses the importance of singing in worship, and demonstrates how the Society initially drew on mainstream Protestant hymnody, but progressively distanced itself from Christianity, eventually producing songs that were exclusively and distinctively its own. The Jehovah’s Witnesses found problems both with words and music that derived from external sources, and the discussion explores the underlying rationale behind the changes that have entered successive song books, to accommodate the Society’s “adjustments in view”, so that congregations are always “singing the truth”, rather than paying tribute to any past tradition apart from Jehovah and the Bible.

Ethics and medicine: Jehovah's Witnesses and the new blood transfusion rules

AbstractIt is against the doctrine of The Watchtower and Bible Tract Society for their followers, the Jehovah's Witnesses, to accept blood transfusions. For this reason, this topic remains a critical issue in medical practice and ethics. Few patients can survive a haemoglobin level of less than 5 g per decilitre without transfusion. In the medical field, Jehovah's Witnesses are widely known for their prohibition against the receipt of blood transfusions. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, as the church's legislating body introduced the policy on refusal of blood in 1945, stating that blood transfusion defies divine precepts. This article reviews the ethics of blood transfusion in the Jehovah's witnesses and the new blood transfusion rules in South Africa.

Witnessing in Black: Jehovah's Witnesses, Textual Ethnogenesis, Racial Subjectivity, and the Foundational Politics of Theocracy

This article attempts to show how the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses), has systematically worked to construct an anti-racial religious identity, through a multi-decade campaign against ethnic and national affiliation. Through a close analysis of Watchtower periodicals, pamphlets, and polemical literature, this work considers the ways that the Society has narrated specific historical examples of race-based political projects, to argue for a supra-statal, theocratic ethnicity that draws upon the aesthetic, cultural, and political sensibilities of predominately White, exclusively American male, leadership. For Witnesses, the legacy of the holocaust continues to loom large in Watchtower positions on race and nation. Given this legacy, I argue that the ideological work that occurred in the aftermath of the Second World War created new possibilities for the articulation of race politics that curtailed many meaningful opportunities for a truly multi-ethnic, multi-racial Watchtower Society. This was one where the expression and performance of cultural difference could be seen as a constructive rather than destructive constituent of one's religious identity. Ultimately, I demonstrate that the Watchtower Society is interested in its own form of nation-building, and that this political project requires the consistent delegitimization of all other national formations.

Writing Witness History: The Historiography of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

From their humble origins as small, loose-knit groups of Bible students in Pennsylvania in the 1870s, Charles Taze Russell and his followers laid the foundations of a highly visible, and frequently controversial, worldwide religious organisation known since 1931 as the Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite the Witnesses' broad historical role in defining and shaping understandings of religious tolerance, freedom of conscience, and civil liberties around the world, historians have paid very little attention to the Witnesses, with the notable exception of their treatment in Nazi Germany and the United States and Canada in wartime. The paucity of historical knowledge is all the more surprising given their visibility and notoriety. This article aims to initiate discussion of this under-researched history by addressing what has been written, by whom, and for what purpose. It represents the first effort to evaluate the English-language historical literature on the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

Issues arising during the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses by in vitro fertilisation

Four Jehovah's Witness couples were treated between 2000 and 2009 using in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection. A review of the issues encountered during their treatment, and the options chosen, was made in an attempt to provide effective treatment without compromising the moral views of the individuals concerned. Considerations specific to the Jehovah's Witness faith were identified that required departure from the standard operating procedures used in the clinic, and the development of modified protocols prior to treatment is recommended to minimize the stress and anxiety of patients and staff alike. Issues raised included the collection of semen by masturbation, the use of donor gametes, the number of oocytes inseminated, the discard of poor quality embryos conventionally thought unsuitable for transfer or embryo cryopreservation. A common request was the avoidance of blood products as a culture medium supplement. The use of recombinant human albumin circumvented this, although a recent shift by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania in the interpretation of the Bible opens the possibility of using blood fractions if not whole blood, and so the use of standard culture medium containing human serum albumin is now acceptable to some Jehovah's Witnesses.

Text of U.S. Supreme Court Decision: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., v. Village of Stratton Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit: No. 00-1737 Argued 26 February 2002 Decided 17 June 2002

Text of U.S. Supreme Court Decision: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., v. Village of Stratton Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit: No. 00-1737 Argued 26 February 2002 Decided 17 June 2002

The Withdrawal Process and the Its Consequences : Cases of Dropouts from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Japan

The Withdrawal Process and the Its Consequences : Cases of Dropouts from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Japan

Jehovah's Witnesses and Child Custody Cases in the United States, 1996-1998

Disputes over religious training between divorced or separated parents can become the most acrimonious of judicial disputes. When one parent is a member of a non-mainstream or minority religion, the religious differences can be an added source of tension. To date, no behavioral science research study has been conducted that systematically evaluates the effects of a parent 's religious beliefs or practices on the best psychological interests of the child. This study sought to provide basic demographic and litigation-related data about child custody cases in the United States involving Jehovah's Witnesses. In addition, this study explored the relationship between various litigation variables and the outcome of child custody cases. The data for this study was collected from cases in which the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, the corporate entity for Jehovah Witnesses, activated a file for the purpose of monitoring, consultation, or litigation during 1996, 1997, and 1998. Outcome and other data about the parents were collected from the congregation elders of Jehovah's Witnesses where the parent attends meetings. While this study was exploratory and preliminary in nature, the results suggest that the religious beliefs and practices of Jehovah 's Witnesses were not the primary factor related to the dissolution of the marriage. The findings from this study also indicate that while religion is commonly labeled as the principal issue at the beginning of the litigation, it is rarely a factor in the conclusion or settlement of the case. Studies examining the relationship between a child's involvement in these cases and their future social and psychological adjustment as well as their future religious preferences may provide important and meaningful information.

Jehovah's Witnesses and the Responsibility of Religious Freedom: The European Experience

Journal Article Jehovah's Witnesses and the Responsibility of Religious Freedom: The European Experience Get access Carolyn R. Wah Carolyn R. Wah associate general counsel Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Church and State, Volume 43, Issue 3, Summer 2001, Pages 579–601, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/43.3.579 Published: 01 July 2001

The blood transfusion taboo of Jehovah's Witnesses: Origin, development and function of a controversial doctrine

Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to accept a blood transfusion. According to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society this therapy is a transgression of divine precepts. Additionally, in the judgement of the believers, secular proof is abundant these days; to them AIDS is a powerful justification to abstain from blood. Founded on the work of the anthropologist Mary Douglas, it is argued that the rejection of this medical therapy is based on perceptions of pollution and purity inherent in the Watch Tower Society's ideological concept of anti-worldliness. Rooted in the movement's pre-war opposition to vaccination the implementation of the taboo was triggered by the prevailing social-political climate surrounding the Society during the Second World War, resulting in this intriguing and controversial religious proscription. For the community of Jehovah's Witnesses the blood transfusion taboo still functions as a significant mechanism of sectarian boundary maintenance.

"It Separated the Wheat from the Chaff": The "1975" Prophecy and Its Impact among Dutch Jehovah's Witnesses

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the worldwide organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, marked the year 1975 as significant: the apocalypse might take place. The proselytizing activities of the Dutch adherents were greatly influenced by this prediction: a significant increase in missionary zeal prior to that date, followed by a similar decline afterwards. The latter phenomenon looks contrary to cognitive dissonance theorizing, according to which an increase in missionary attempts is hypothesized (Festinger et al., 1964). It is questionable, however, if Festinger's theory is relevant in this particular case, mainly because of the ambiguous formulation of the prophecy and in-group characteristics among the adherents. Also it is proposed that dissonance may have played a greater part in the period prior to 1975 than afterwards, mainly because of doctrinal characteristics of the Watchtower ideology.

Watchtower Influences on Black Muslim Eschatology: An Exploratory Story

INTRODUCTION. This study explores the possibility that Black Muslim leaders were influenced in the early 1930s by certain eschatological teachings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses). The paper first presents several similarities of doctrine which appear to be too close in specific detail not to suggest direct influence. Then, evidence is presented suggesting contact between the Watchtower Society and the Nation of Islam sect and the possibility of influence of the former on the latter. Finally, an interpretation is offered as to why Black Muslim leaders may have been influenced by Watchtower teaching.

Witnesses and Watchtower in the Rhodesias and Nyasaland

One of the most fascinating, if misunderstood, fundamentalist sects operating in Central Africa is the body whose members term themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, the fellowship whose corporate identity is the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Incorporated, of Brooklyn, New York. Their British branch, the International Bible Students' Association, has struggled most with varieties of recalcitrant African material, and in this unrewarding enterprise operations have been directed into the Rhodesias and Nyasaland from South Africa.

New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Rendered from the Original Languages by the New World Bible Translation Committee. Vol. I, Genesis to Ruth. (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.A. 1953. 853 pp. n.p.)

New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Rendered from the Original Languages by the New World Bible Translation Committee. Vol. I, Genesis to Ruth. (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.A. 1953. 853 pp. n.p.)

Religious Liberty v. Police Power: Jehovah's Witnesses

It is stressing the obvious to observe that the state must often resolve conflicts between certain of its constitutional powers and certain equally constitutional private rights. Such is the age-old controversy of liberty versus authority, familiar to every social scientist. Such is the contemporary controversy between “Bible-dizzy but patently sincere” zealots of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, more widely known as Jehovah's Witnesses, on the one hand, and the police power on the other. There is nothing novel about a quarrel between religion and the police power, as witness the Mormons; but a new twist is now given by the personalities of Jehovah's Witnesses and their unique ways of practicing their faith.Much of their attitude is reflected in their slogans, “Religion is a Racket,” “Religion is a Snare,” and “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” With a fine neutrality, they consign to the leaping flames all existing religious beliefs other than their own, although they are especially antagonistic to Roman Catholicism. Followers of “Pastor” Charles Taze Russell and “Judge” Joseph Frederick Rutherford, they are serene in their belief that the second coming of Christ is due momentarily, that there is no time to build churches, and that the “witness work” must be carried on by the direct method of calling on people in their homes, distributing pamphlets and playing records on portable phonographs describing their publications and beliefs for the edification of whomsoever will listen.