Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses are members of an international denomination who identify themselves as Christian and number over six million. Their headquarters are in New York, USA. It is an international organization known for its extensive preaching and publishing activities, distribution of the Watchtower and Awake! religious magazines being the most prominent.

Practices

:See Practices of Jehovah's Witnesses for details.

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Jehovah's Witnesses have five meetings a week, which are made up by five program parts (totaling approximately five hours). Meetings are held in their local Kingdom Halls and in private homes. Larger conventions are held usually three times a year in facilities that are owned or maintained by the Watchtower Society or in ones that are rented, such as sports stadiums or auditoriums. Throughout the week, there are also meetings for "field service" (preaching work) where members meet either in homes, or the Kingdom Hall, to organize and pray prior to engaging in door-to-door or other forms of evangelism. On a daily basis, Jehovah's Witnesses are encouraged to meditate on spiritual matters, often by aids such as "Examining the Scriptures Daily," a booklet with a scripture from the Bible and commentary. Before meals, Jehovah's Witnesses commonly say a prayer, either silently when alone or aloud when at a gathering.

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Aside from their worship practices, Jehovah's Witnesses are identifiable by what they abstain or refrain from doing. There is a general avoidance of practices that are considered to have nationalistic or "false religious" roots. These can be in such things as singing the national anthem at sporting events, or things as minor as not saying "bless you" when someone sneezes. They avoid celebrations of birthdays and holidays. Their only officially mandated celebration is the "Memorial of Christ's Death." Weddings, wedding anniversaries, and memorials at death are also observed. Adhering to these standards of behavior, Jehovah's Witnesses believe themselves to be faithful even in the seemingly small things (see Luke 16:10). The use of distinctive titles in address (such as Father, Pastor, Elder, Reverend, etc. among other groups) is strictly avoided (Matthew 23:6-12). All Witnesses, irrespective of privileges of service, address one and other as "Brother or Sister", often followed by the first or last name of the individual. There are categories of privileges of service (Pioneer, Elder, Presiding Overseer, etc.) which may be used to refer to an individual in reference to those duties, but never as a title or to address him or her.

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Jehovah's Witnesses seek to maintain moral and spiritual cleanliness as well as attempting to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing out of a desire 'not to bring reproach on Jehovah's name.' They therefore typically refrain from language or behavior which might be considered offensive. Similarly, their view of sexual behavior reflects conservative Christian views, such as pre-marital sex and homosexual acts as violations of God's law. "Modesty" is heavily encouraged in daily dress, especially at spiritual events, where standards of dress are more formal, varying by country and regional custom (In the U.S., Europe, and most of Asia, this typically consists of formal western business attire). In addition, entertainment with sexual, spiritistic and/or violent subject matter is strongly discouraged. Further, though they are nonconformists in some ways, they seek not to appear to be "counter-cultural." They avoid presenting an image that might appear unkempt or unprofessional given local culture and societal norms. Therefore, in certain areas things like beards, long hair or earings for men, or any dress or grooming for both men and women that appears "rebellious" or "immodest" are seriously discouraged, even outside of spiritual activities. A person violating these standards would risk providing a "bad witness," and would fail to mark him or herself as different from the secular and "false religious" world. This is in keeping with their interpretation of the scriptural admonition at 2 Timothy 2:9,10 (NWT), "Likewise I desire the women to adorn themselves in well-arranged dress, with modesty and soundness of mind, not with styles of hair braiding and gold or pearls or very expensive garb, but in the way that befits women professing to reverence God, namely, through good works." Note that Jehovah's Witnesses consider this admonition to apply, in principle, equally to Christian men as to Christian women.

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Jehovah's Witnesses are known in many lands for their building work. International and regional building teams frequently undertake so-called "quick builds," construction of Kingdom Halls over the course of one or two weekends. Larger construction projects, including the building of regional Assembly Halls and Bethel office, factory, residence, warehouse, and farm facilities, are also carried out almost entirely by volunteer members.

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The Witnesses are noted for their racial and ethnic integration. In the United States an academic study (ARIS 2001) by CUNY put the proportion of blacks among adults who self-identified as Witnesses at 37% (the highest proportion among any of the 22 largest religious identifications which make up 90% of the U.S. population). Congregations are organized geographically, and members are encouraged to attend the Kingdom Hall in whose territory they reside, resulting in an ethnic mix generally representative of local population. Anecdotal accounts of Witness outreach across racial lines are a common subject matter for the annual Yearbook of Jehovah's Witness. A notable example is the account of relief efforts to both Hutu and Tutsi Witnesses and non-Witnesses during the genocide in Rwanda and to Congo refugees. "Since 1994, Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe alone have sent more than 190 tons of food, clothing, medicine, and other relief supplies to the Great Lakes region of Africa." This humanitarian aid was not given exclusively to Jehovah's Witnesses. Others also benefited. For instance, the Witnesses distributed medicine and clothing to several primary schools and an orphanage near Goma. The orphanage is home to 85 children.{{ref|jw_rwanda}}

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