This book is founded on a simple premise: that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a crucial litmus test for tolerance.When Witnesses do not enjoy basic freedoms to practice their faith, scholars should consider what their treatment reveals about the broader state of tolerance and respect for religious pluralism and religious minority groups. They should also examine how the Witnesses’ struggle for acceptance has shaped religious freedom and the protections enshrined in law in many modern states in the twenty-first century. This is what the authors call the ‘Jehovah’s Witness test’.
The contributors have run the ‘JW test’ across a range of countries, from Egypt and Mexico to Russia and South Korea, addressing religious, political and medical opposition and their outcomes for modern states and societies. They bring to their conclusions a wealth of perspectives; among them are medical experts, sociologists, political scientists, historians, anthropologists, and representatives of the Witness community.
Taken together, this volume is a call for scholars to look to the treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a barometer for the overall health of religious tolerance and basic civil liberties in our contemporary world.
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Zoe Knox (University of Leicester, UK) and Emily B. Baran (Middle Tennessee State University, USA), ‘Religious Minorities and the “Jehovah’s Witness Test”: An Introduction’
1. Joseph Webster (University of Cambridge, UK), ‘When Witnesses Talk Back: Ethnographic and Eschatological Reflections on Experiences of Intolerance among Jehovah’s Witnesses in Contemporary Northern Ireland’
2. Edgar Zavala-Pelayo (El Colegio de México, Mexico), ‘Intersectional discriminations against Jehovah’s Witnesses: Blood transfusions, religious minorities and secularism in Mexico’
3. Margo A. Peyton (Mass General Brigham, USA) and Michael P.H. Stanley (Tufts Medical Center, USA), ‘Blood Refusal and the Ethics Revolution’
4. Lise Paulsen Galal (Roskilde University, Denmark), ‘Nation building, Christian churches, and Jehovah’s Witnesses: Dual Encounters in Egypt’
5. Kwang Suk Yoo (Kyung Hee University, South Korea), ‘Minority Religions and Conscientious Objection: The South Korean case’
6. John R. Vile (Middle Tennessee State University, USA), ‘First Amendment Freedoms and Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States’
7. James T. Richardson (University of Nevada, USA), ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses and the International Campaign for Religious Freedom’
8. Emily B. Baran (Middle Tennessee State University, USA) and Zoe Knox (University of Leicester, UK), ‘Banning Religious Minorities: Does it Work? A Case Study of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Soviet Union and in Putin’s Russia’
9. Tharcisse Seminega (Author, No Greater Love: How my Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda) and Valens Nkurikiyinka (Independent researcher, Rwanda), ‘“Political Neutrality” During the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: A Case Study of Jehovah’s Witnesses’
George D. Chryssides (York St John University, UK), ‘The Law and the Prophets: Concluding Reflections’
Index
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