Clergy's Opposition to Jehovah's Witnesses

Bans, Mob-Action and Persecution Against Religious Group

Jun 14, 2009

Jehovah's Witnesses have often been the target of violent mob action and persecution. The case studies are numerous - this article focuses on just three.

Persecution of Christians is nothing new and goes back to the first century CE. Jesus Christ himself said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:17 – 20)

"Persecution has been an enduring fact of Christian history,” writes Robin Lane Fox in the book Pagans and Christians. Early Christians were accused of threatening public order. As a result, some endured torture and were killed by wild beasts in Roman arenas.

In the face of such bitter persecution, some, such as the theologian Tertullian, pleaded for religious freedom. In 212 C.E., he wrote: “It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own convictions.”

Throughout the centuries there have been numerous people martyred at the hands of the Church such as William Tyndale and Jan Hus.

Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Era – Why the Churches Opposed Them

Roman Catholic Hierarchy of modern history had formed alliances with nationalistic dictators, such as that of the Lateran Treaty with Benito Mussolini in 1929 and the Concordat with Adolf Hitler in 1933, regarding which Cardinal Faulhaber wrote to Hitler: “This handshake with the Papacy ...is a feat of immeasurable blessing...may god preserve the Reich Chancellor (Hitler).”

Winston Churchill, in his book The Gathering Storm, published in 1948, tells how Chancellor von Papen further used his reputation as a good Catholic to gain church support for the Nazi takeover of Austria. In 1938, in honor of Hitler’s birthday, Cardinal Innitzer ordered that all Austrian churches fly the swastika flag and pray for the Nazi dictator.

Catholics and Protestants heard their clergy urge them to cooperate with Hitler, if they resisted, they did so against orders from both church and state.

Not with carnal weapons, but with a power-packed Bible message, Jehovah’s Witnesses took action to expose their view of political philandering on the part of Christ’s professed church.

The Roman Catholic Hierarchy fought back. As the “sword of the church,” the Nazi Fuehrer took the lead in a campaign to annihilate Jehovah’s Witnesses in Catholic-dominated lands. A Catholic priest of Berlin testified to this in an article in The German Way of May 29, 1938: “When Adolph Hitler had come to power and the German Episcopate repeated their request, Hitler said: ‘These so-called “Earnest Bible Students” (Jehovah’s Witnesses) are trouble-makers. .. I do not tolerate that the German Catholics be besmirched in such a manner. .. I dissolve Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany.” To which the priest added, “Bravo!”

Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany refused to be conscripted into Hitler's army, they refused to give the Heil Hitler salute or compromise their Christian neutrality. The book Mothers in the Fatherland reported, “Jehovah’s Witnesses were sent to concentration camps, a thousand of them were executed, and another thousand died between 1933 and 1945.”

Jehovah's Witnesses had the opportunity to escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs.

Jehovah's Witnesses Meet with Opposition in Canada

Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada occurred during both world wars because of their evangelical fervor, conspicuous abstinence from patriotic exercises and conscientious objection to military service.

Canadian government archives reveal that it was in compliance with a letter from the palace of Catholic Cardinal Villeneuve, of Quebec, to the minister of justice, Ernest Lapointe, that Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned in Canada in 1940.

Duplessis' efforts to rid the streets of Jehovah's Witnesses took the issue all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. 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' authority.

In order to obtain religious freedom the Jehovah's Witnesses launched a national campaign for the enactment of a Bill of Rights. On June 9, 1947 they presented a petition to Parliament with 625,510 signatures and established numerous libertarian precedents before Canada's highest courts.

Jehovah's Witnesses in Georgia

Although religious freedom is guaranteed in Georgia, the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses has frequently been confiscated. In April 1999, customs officials stated that the literature could be released only with the permission of the patriarch, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The following month, the Orthodox Church was mentioned again—this time in Georgia's Isani-Samgori District Court. There, Guram Sharadze, parliamentary deputy and leader of the political movement "Georgia Above All!," filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the legal entities used by Jehovah's Witnesses, accusing the Witnesses of being anti-national and dangerous. Who backed Sharadze's claim? Attached to the lawsuit was a letter from the secretary of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.

Between October 1999 and August 2001, there were over 80 documented attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses.

In May 7, 2001, the UN Committee Against Torture expressed its concern about "continuing acts of torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in Georgia committed by the law enforcement personnel; the continuing failure to provide in every instance prompt, impartial and full investigations into the numerous allegations of torture."

The copyright of the article Clergy's Opposition to Jehovah's Witnesses in Religious Persecution is owned by Fleur Hupston. Permission to republish Clergy's Opposition to Jehovah's Witnesses in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.