Why Don't Jehovah's Witnesses Vote, Pledge Allegiance Or Support The Military? Copyright © 2020 Multiply Media, LLC. Russell died in 1916; he was succeeded by his lawyer Joseph Franklin Rutherford, who shrewdly emphasized that the Apocalypse was near, but not so near that Witnesses didn’t have time to convert new followers, which they were required to do lest they miss out on salvation. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. When Gobitis v. Minersville School District (as with Barnette, a court clerk misspelled the family surname) made its way to the Supreme Court in the spring of 1940, Rutherford and Covington framed their argument in religious terms, claiming that any statute contrary to God’s law as given to Moses must be void. Jehovah’s Witnesses were unlikely champions of religious freedom. In the majority opinion, written during the same month that France fell to the Nazis, Felix Frankfurter wrote: “National unity is the basis of national security.” The plaintiffs, said Frankfurter, were free to “fight out the wise use of legislative authority in the forum of public opinion and before legislative assemblies.”, In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Harlan Stone argued that “constitutional guarantees or personal liberty are not always absolutes…but it is a long step, and one which I am unwilling to take, that government may, as a supposed educational measure…compel public affirmations which violate their public conscience.” Further, said Stone, the prospect of help for this “small and helpless minority” by the political process was so remote that Frankfurter had effectively “surrendered…the liberty of small minorities to the popular will.”. They insisted that pledging allegiance to the flag was a form of idolatry akin to the worship of graven images prohibited by the Bible. Does Jerry Seinfeld have Parkinson's disease? But their persistence in fighting in the courts for their beliefs had a dramatic impact on constitutional law. Rutherford instructed Witnesses not to vote, serve on juries or participate in other civic duties. Posted by Elijah Daniels at 7:55 AM. Links are offered here for additional reading, however the manager of this site does not necessarily support every comment on all of these sites. They tested the nation’s tolerance of controversial beliefs and led to an increasing recognition that a willingness to embrace religious diversity is what distinguishes America from tyrannical regimes. the Bible was "FULL of falsifications!” They believed they could prove that He even claimed Social Security numbers were the “mark of the beast” foretold in Revelations. Does Job 1:4 indicate that Job’s children celebrated their birthdays? Witnesses soon became a ubiquitous presence in courtrooms across the country.

Email This BlogThis! (Eph. In a country locked in battle with godless communism, a spiritual weapon such as an amended pledge that was not denominationally specific made sense. The steadfast refusal of Witnesses to pledge, combined with their refusal to serve in the military or to support America’s war effort in any way, triggered public anger. Every day in court for Rutherford and the Witnesses’ chief attorney, Hayden Covington, was an opportunity to preach the true meaning of law to the judges and to confront the satanic government.

Flags are often used as representations of things. If Jesus is not God, how can he be a God?

Why? Some vigilantes interpreted the Supreme Court’s decision as a signal that Jehovah’s Witnesses were traitors who might be linked to a network of Nazi spies and saboteurs.
God Himself consistently made it clear for humans to "abstain from blood". Eisenhower’s political instincts for the ways that religion functioned in American life were finely honed: Support for the amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance was strong, including an overwhelming majority of Catholics and Protestants as well as a majority of Jews. The relationship between Witnesses and the courts was complicated, in part because of the open disdain Rutherford and his followers displayed toward all forms of government and organized religion. Wang Wanxing, Chinese rights advocate; prisoner for 13 years in detention centers and psychiatric institutions (Ankang), he is the only person thus far to be released from these institutions and allowed to live in a Western country. The sect’s leaders denounced all other religions and all secular governments as tools of the devil, and preached the imminence of the Apocalypse, during which no one except Jehovah’s Witnesses would be spared.

Why don't Jehovah's Witnesses say the pledge of allegiance to the flag? The Court rejected the Witnesses’ claim, holding that the secular interests of the school district in fostering patriotism were paramount.

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