Jehovah's Witnesses employ modern technology in their defense

[Guest Kurt]

RUSSIAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES LAUNCH HASHTAG IN SOCIAL NETWORKS BECAUSE OF THREAT OF BANNING THEIR ACTIVITY IN THE COUNTRY

Portal-Credo.ru, 25 March 2017
 
Late in March Russian Jehovah's Witnesses began a campaign for promoting on the Internet the hashtag #StopJWBan in order to attract attention to the threat of a ban on their confession. Thanks to the action, in just one day almost 20 thousand persons viewed on YouTube a video appeal of Vasily Kalin, the director of the Administrative Center of their confession, a Portal-Credo.ru correspondent reports.
 
"They don't let us defend ourself in courts and they do not admit us to major news media. Only the Internet remains," the campaign on the website, stopjwban.blogspot.com, says.
 
The action is actively connected to believers beyond the boundaries of the country. Twitter users from various countries have published on the aforementioned hashtag photographs of their own letters to Russian authorities, the American president, the United Nations, and other international organizations.
 
The hearing in the Supreme Court of the RF on the lawsuit of the justice ministry is scheduled for 5 April, which requests declaring the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses to be "extremist" and liquidating it. 
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Rights advocate fears criminalization of tens of thousands believers

BAN OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND DECLARATION OF THIS ORGANIZATION AS EXTREMIST VIOLATE FREEDOM OF RELIGION

Echo of Moscow, 17 March 2017
 
Consideration of the lawsuit of the Russian Ministry of Justice for ruling the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" to be an extremist organization and for liquidating it and banning its activity on the territory of the country has been scheduled by the Supreme Court of the RF for 5 April
 
Granting the lawsuit by the court will be an act that is unconstitutional and a violation of freedom of religious confession. This opinion was expressed on a broadcast of radio station Echo of Moscow by the director of the SOVA Center for News and Analysis, Alexander Verkhovsky.
 
"Of course this violates freedom of religious confession, because there already have been many bans of local organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and prohibition of their brochures, texts, and website.  And they are considered to be extremist simply because they themselves consider that their religion is best of all. Speaking frankly, this is a bit wild," he said.
 
A. Verkhovsky emphasized that the ban of the Administrative Center will entail the automatic ban of all local organizations.
 
"Believers are not going anywhere from this, they will all still gather together, and all this activity can be viewed as a criminal offense. I do not rule out that such measures will be applied. It will turn out that more than 100,000 persons will prove to be in some sense criminals although they do not intend to commit a crime. I think that somebody needs to intervene now. The prosecutor general's office has gone much too far," he concluded. 

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Another rights advocate speaks out for Jehovah's Witnesses

AFTER THE BAN OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES WE WILL GET 170,000 PRISONERS FOR FAITH IN RUSSIA

Blog of Oleg Kozyrev, 17 March 2017
 
The Ministry of Justice has requested closing the chief organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. The old accusations are extremism and other furious passions.
 
Jehovah's Witnesses belong to the so-called new religions. Neither the traditional Christian confessions nor protestants acknowledge them as their own. Like Mormons, Jehovists incorporate some Christian teaching, but beyond that they add much of their own. The greatest criticism is evoked by the point that Jehovists, alone of the major confessions, simply take and rewrite the Bible in their own way. This is the so-called "New World Translation," in which everything that does not conform to the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses is casually corrected. Well, the doctrinal difference of Jehovists from ordinary Christians is great.
 
At the same time, everybody recognizes that the Jehovah's Witnesses preach possibly more than all religious movements. Their life is, on the whole, pious. They do not drink, smoke, or take drugs, and they are faithful to their wives and husbands and are good fathers and mothers.
 
On the personal level, all have different experiences of discourse with Jehovists. But on the whole their situation does not differ in any way from representatives of other confessions. Some Jehovists are more reserved and some are more congenial and social, generally like everybody.
 
Problems with the surrounding setting and with the state arise for the Jehovists only on two issues. First, they do not accept blood transfusion, since they believe that this is a form of cannibalism. Second, they do not engage in politics, nor serve in the army, nor celebrate holidays.
 
It is easiest to criticize Jehovists for refusing blood transfusion. But let's be honest, there are in the world thousands of various religions and many of them have various strange restrictions. Jehovists do not damage bodies, nor restrict nourishment for themselves and their children, nor practice monasticism and withdrawal from the world. They work, study, live, and proclaim. Why imprison them merely for their faith?
 
I recall that even during World War II, Hitler was not able to break Jehovists by torture and concentration camps. Many of them perished in ovens and gas chambers, but they did not betray their faith and did not take up arms. I do not think that the Ministry of Justice will manage to frighten them if Hitler could not. We will get 170,000 (the approximate number of Jehovists in Russia) prisoners of conscience, who are imprisoned merely for faith. And there may be some number of additional broken fates.
 
Christians have a dark cloud of criticisms of Jehovists. But that is our "disputes." Everything can be clarified through preaching, through criticism, through apologetics. Why involve the government? The Jehovists are not some kind of dark forest. They have been in the world for many years and they are in almost all countries. Let's admit that they are a rather ordinary religion. Sure, somebody is annoyed that they are ringing the doorbell. But if one realizes that among them there are former drug addicts and alcoholics who could ring the doorbell for entirely different reasons—then it is better to let the Jehovists ring the bell. For the fact that people are striving for a proper life—for that they should not be punished.
 
There is also one other rather sticky issue. Because of their faith, Jehovah's Witnesses cannot, on principle, defend themselves in any way politically, since they do not participate in politics. They are not Mormons with their own state of Utah; they are not Disciples of Christ or Baptists with their own presidents leading the USA. In principle Jehovists do not have political forces that could protect them. And of course Christian confessions love to exploit these, who have such representation and who have their own teeth for this effect.
 
I will not talk about other confessions. Perhaps if they were banned, their people would flee. But as to Jehovah's Witnesses, we know what will happen. The majority of them will not renounce their faith. So what then—send them to the camps? And repeat what the fascists did?
 
Think about it: do we need to break the life of 170,000 persons?