More Americans Religiously Tolerant? Not if You're a Jehovah's Witness

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey released today by the Pew Forum, revealed that citizens in this country - the most religious among developed nations - are becoming more tolerant of other faiths. However, evangelicals and fundamentalists religious, categories that the Jehovah’s Witnesses fall somewhere in-between, were less likely to be tolerant. This is not surprising considering that the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that over 90 percent of the world’s inhabitants who do not belong to their faith will be killed very soon, during Armageddon, or God’s Judgment Day (an event they have predicted this since the late 1800s).

Jehovah’s Witnesses will not readily admit this belief if asked while at your door, but invite them in for a free home Bible study and over time, their privileged status as Gods chosen will become apparent.

According to the survey where less than 1 percent of Americans are Jehovah’s Witnesses, 77 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses respondents believe that there is only one way to interpret their beliefs compared to 27 percent nationally. Eighty percent of Jehovah’s Witness respondents viewed their faith as the one true faith compared to 24 percent nationally.

Considering that Jehovah’s Witnessed expel and subsequently shun individuals who do not agree with the above statements, it is not surprising that they are one of America’s religions least likely to be tolerant. In the current summer conventions held nationally, Jehovah’s Witness speakers are reminding adherents that the “Society” or the Faithful and Discreet Slave (a group of governing men located in Brooklyn, New York) are the only source for true Biblical knowledge and interpretation, and that independent inquiry from independent sources is not to be tolerated. Convention goers are also warned of the dangers of advanced education (beyond high school), and any who attend college are chastised.

Jehovah’s Witnesses practice McCarthy type control over each other and if one member is overhead expressing any type of dissent of the “Society,” one is reported to the Elders and is called before a judicial hearing. Granted, any expressed doubt of the Bible’s authenticity or whether it should be interpreted or read literally does not incur such drastic action, only if doubt of key doctrines (including interpretations of Biblical dates) or the authority of religious leaders is expressed. This is apparent in the survey where Jehovah’s Witnesses are nearly evenly split on whether the Bible is to be read literally, but overwhelmingly believe that they have the one true faith.

Since the religious inception in the latter half of the 19th Century, initially called Russellites (named for the religions founder, Charles Taz Russell), then International Bible Students and finally adopting the name of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931, there has been little tolerance for other religions and their isolationism has grown dangerous.

In an age where Muslim extremism calls for the death of Infidels or non-believers, Jehovah’s Witnesses are similarly and shockingly intolerant, albeit more peacefully. Nevertheless, families remain divided, and former Jehovah’s Witness parents or children are not in communication with their believing family members, for rejecting the absolutism of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Former members who are expelled for violating any number of the religions “moral” standards and do not "repent" are similarly shunned.

While there is hope since 16 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses answered that there are more than one belief system that leads to salvation, the sect needs to reconsider its relatively young existence (under 140 years) and place within a world that is struggling for greater tolerance. Isolationism, rejection of advanced education and dissent are hallmarks of tyrannical systems throughout human sociopolitical history. Jehovah’s Witness religious leaders, primarily located in Brooklyn, New York, need to be held to task for denying basic human rights to their adherents and to dangerous forms of social control.