Monday, April 6, 2009

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Have Freedom of Religion?


Of course, it depends on the country. Jehovah's Witnesses have successfully defended their religious liberties through litigation in many countries such as the United States. (See Supreme Court Cases Involving Jehovah's Witnesses.) In other countries, they face persecution and limits on their religious freedoms.


Jehovah's Witnesses have prided themselves on advancing religious freedoms. They should be given some credit for doing this. However, the focus of their activism has been to advance their liberties as an organisation. The story is quite different when it comes to the personal liberties and religious freedoms of its members.


There is a troubling contradiction here. It can be demonstrated by considering this standard of religious freedom as stated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief". Article 20 says, "No one may be compelled to belong to an association."


Unfortunately, the organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses doesn't respect these basic human liberties. They compel their members to stay within their association by imposing a nearly intolerable cost for resigning their membership. The penalty for leaving is enforced shunning by family and former friends. This causes many to stay in the organisation, despite their earnest desire to leave. These people don't have true freedom of religion.


Even resigning, with knowledge of the consequences, can be a difficult challenge. I have sent a letter of resignation and several follow up letters (some by certified mail) and I have not yet received a response. I don't know if they have honored my request to be removed from their membership lists. They claim that membership in their religion is voluntary, but their callous refusal to respond to letters of resignation would indicate that this isn't really the case.


Their attitude is highly hypocritical. They petition governments to protect their religious liberties as an organisation, but refuse to extend even the most basic courtesies in allowing their members to exercise their own personal religious rights.


If you would like more information, please see this discussion I started at Jehovah's Witness.net.

3 comments:

Maciej Psyk said...

Hello, I'm from Poland. I run a portal wystap.pl ("leave"), which - due to statistics... - is primarly focused on the Catholic Church, but after I've learned the shocking story of "shunning" in Jehovah Witnesses cult I wrote three articles about it and I'm in touch with ex-JW in Poland, arguing that they should not give up but use the available legal measures. In Europe we have a strict anti-discrimination law, and shunning apparently falls within a scope of this legislation (former JW can't be fired by JW boss for being shunned by the congregation).
These links are:
http://wystap.pl/shunning-czyli-dyskryminacja/
http://wystap.pl/kasepekang-i-shunning-prehistoria-zachowana-przez-religie/
http://wystap.pl/nie-podwazaj-prowadzenia-sie-mamy-biskupa/

regards,
Maciej Psyk
admin@wystap.pl

Anonymous said...

When I became a witness and left the methodist church and asked them to remove me from their membership roles but I never got a response from them either. They also never contacted me to inquire why I wanted to leave the church or convince me my new beliefs were wrong. I suspect the elders in your kingdom hall did talk to you about your desires.

Anonymous said...

Christ Jesus taught all to Love GOD and to Love your neighbor as yourself.

Shunning fails, love never fails.
Organizations have taught many teachings not approved in Scripture.
Many years of preaching wrong teachings. Governments have shown tolerance. It is about time organization showed a balanced view.

One man asked who is my neighbor?
Jesus gave an illustration of man beaten, robbed and left half dead by the roadside. Two religious person happened to come along the same road and when they saw the injured man they crossed over the road and walked away from the injured man. Then a Samaritan man came along the same road, saw the injured man,and helped him,even paying for his care at an Inn and instructed the Inn keeper that on his return he would pay whatever it cost to look after the injured man.

After Jesus finished the illustration he asked the man who do you think proved to be neighbor to the injured man. He replied the Samaritan who cared for the injured man. Jesus replied you answered correctly. Be doing the same yourself.

The interesting thing about this illustration is Jesus knew Jews hated Samaritans. They caused trouble for the returning Jews when they were rebuilding the Temple. Of all people to highlight to a Jew as a good neighbor, Jesus chose a Samaritan.

Jesus did not shun Samaritans. The Law had its place but the spirit of the Law was to show love to your neighbor not to shun them. Some Organization live under the Law and fail to understand the spirit of the Law.

Jesus illustrations shows shunning fails your neighbor. Love never fails. A balanced tolerance shows wisdom. A two way street. When Jesus arrives with all the holy Angels he will separate the sheep from the goats. We can not over-ride his commands and start separating people.