Religions that do not go to war.

by jwfacts 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • jwfacts
    jwfacts

    Many JW's seem to believe they are the only pacifist religion that does not go to war. Here is a list of others that I found on wikipedia. Other religions that do not participate in war are the Church of the Brethren, Mennonites and Society of Friends, Amish, Hutterites, and others in the Anabaptist tradition, Doukhobors, Molokans, Bruderhof Communities, Schwenkfelders, Moravians many groups of Brethren, and many groups within the Pentecostal movement. The article also mentions that most major religions have factions of pacifism.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_churches

    The more I look the less unique I have found JWs to be. The only reason they feel unique is that none bother to look at other religions to find out what they actually believe and practice.

  • DelTheFunkyHomosapien
    DelTheFunkyHomosapien

    They may not go to war, but all the ones I come into contact reckon the yanks did a good thing by going to Iraq. WTF???

  • Kenneson
    Kenneson

    The irony of it all is that Jehovah's Witnesses will not go to war because they tell us Jesus is opposed to it. We're supposed to love our enemies and turn the other cheek. How consistent is that with their teaching that Jesus will destroy all his enemies in the greatest war ever, called Armageddon?

  • DelTheFunkyHomosapien
    DelTheFunkyHomosapien

    Most JW's won't see the big A as a war though. It would imply that we'll (wordly people) will actually be able to fight back.

  • moggy lover
    moggy lover

    I believe the Seventh Day Adventist Church also will not bear arms in conflict.

    They will, if pressed, allow their members to be conscripted into medical service, many of whom have served with distinction in some of the most dangerous combat situations.

    The WTS in quivering self-righteousness insist that they do not go to war because they "love their neighbour" Indeed, if they truly did exercise such love, they would think otherwise.

    No greater love had any man than that a man should lay down his life for his neighbour. If it was not for the fact that our parents and grand parents answered the call to arms, and sometimes even paid the supreme price, the JWs, like us would be in bondage to a foreign power, speaking another language, and bereft of those basic freedoms that they so casually take for granted. We owe those ones a debt of gratitude that goes beyond crass theological debate. The fact that we all, including the JWs partake of such freedoms as is evidenced by this forum, is a testament to the selfish and callous attitude of the WTS

    While our forebears patiently and uncomplainingly went about the practical task of defending our rights from grasping tyrants, the WTS under the ignorant leadership of Judge Rutherford were mouthing futile and often hysterical exclamations of the soon-to-end world as we know it. Exclamations that the WTS blatantly now refuses to admit to. In fact, others have suggested a shameful connivance with dictators during the last major world war

    Cheers.

  • BlackSwan of Memphis
    BlackSwan of Memphis

    I'm pretty sure that the Buddhists and Taoists are pacifist.

    meagan

  • blondie
    blondie

    I might mention that the WTS says they do not claim to be pacifists, against all war. Here is a segment from an article specifically about that point. The WTS differentiates between pacifism and conscientious objection to war as well. This is how they get around the paradox of being neutral but supporting the destruction of the "wicked."

    ***

    w66 7/15 p. 425 The Long-suffering of God an Eternal Blessing to Mankind ***

    The long-suffering of God is not pacifism either. It may be and is accompanied by war to the death against evil or wrongdoing.

    ***

    w55 8/1 p. 478 Questions from Readers ***

    However, this refusal to pay back insult for insult does not mean Christians are to be pacifists or that they must never resort to self-defense. Christ Jesus himself will go forth to fight Jehovah’s battle of Armageddon, at the head of heavenly armies. Christians resurrected as spirit creatures will serve with him in that war. In ancient times Jehovah’s people fought at his direction and with his help. Today Christians rightfully defend the Kingdom interests, their meeting places, their right to assemble, their property, their brothers and sisters and their own persons. They do not arm in advance, in anticipation of trouble. But when attacked they may ward off blows and strike in defense, though not in offense. If attacked on public property they will call on officers of the law or withdraw, if possible, but in their homes or at their meeting places they need not retreat. They have Scriptural and legal rights to take defensive action. They are not thereby violating Jesus’ words at Matthew 5:39, for those words pertain to personal insults, not to attacks designed to do serious physical damage to one’s person.

    ***

    w54 11/15 p. 687 The Sacredness of Our Warfare ***

    Jehovah is no pacifist, but according to his own purpose he has righteously resorted to war against the enemies who warred against him and his people. He has never lost a battle, for his warfare is holy and righteous.

    ***

    w51 2/1 p. 67 Why Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Not Pacifists ***

    At the 1950 international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Yankee Stadium, New York city, 10,000 foreign delegates were there from more than sixty other lands. Most of these had been subjected to great religious discrimination, embarrassment, hardship and inconvenience because they were obliged to clear themselves of the false charge of "extreme pacifism". An indignation meeting was held Friday afternoon, August 4, at the assembly, at which the 70,000 American delegates in the presence of these foreign brothers unanimously passed a "Regret and Protest", and at the close of the afternoon’s session a million copies of this were distributed. This 4-page paper vigorously called attention to the "Discrimination on False Charge of Pacifism" and said: "The smearing of us as extreme pacifists is without foundation and is a deliberate lie to provoke prejudice against us and this international assembly. They have done as the Scriptures prophesied, ‘framed mischief by law.’—Psalm 94:20. Extreme pacifism is not our preachment. We are not pacifists. . . . To charge that we are extreme pacifists is a lie."

    3

    As defined by Webster’s New International Dictionary (2d edition, unabridged, of 1943) pacifism means: "Opposition to war or to the use of military force for any purpose; especially, an attitude of mind opposing all war, emphasizing the defects of military training and cost of war, and advocating settlement of international disputes entirely by arbitration." Such pacifism not even the Bible itself can be charged with teaching, and neither can Jehovah’s witnesses, who stick most scrupulously to the Bible.
  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    A lot of JW's have a double standard when it comes to political nuetrality. They say they do not go to war, but many of them have propaganda imbedded into their minds from watching too much TV about other nations and why war can be justified. The true spirit of pacifism is lost among their Western affluenza.

  • uninformed
    uninformed

    While it is true that a few other religions don't go to war, most of them do allow their members to take non-combat duty within the military.

    While I was in the Pen during the 60's for not going to Viet Nam, there were three other young men in there with us. One was simply a pacifist, another a German Baptist (off shoot of Brethren) and one Adventist.

    There was a maximum of 80 JW's in there during the time that I was there for two years.

    u

  • jwfacts
    jwfacts

    JWs used to do non combatant military service, and that was a good stance. In the same way that JWs use blood but do not donate, they use the benefits of war without participating.

    JWs do not go to war because of their inconsequential numbers. BLONDIE, those were great quotes. I have always believed that once the JWs became large enough they would start going to war. The Cathari, who the WTS likes to pretend at times were JWs would not go to war so they hired mercenaries. If Australia was a 90% JW country, and Indonesia attacked it, JWs would form an army and fight. There are plenty of scriptural presedence to do so. The reason they do not fight at the moment is that they dont have to, they can rely on other people to work for them.

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