http://www.slate.com/id/2194321/>1=39001
Just turned on my internet, and this was on the front page.
Why JW's don't vote. (found on msn.com)
by Mulan 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
TheListener
I saw it too. Read it.
All in all it was an ok article. It brought up the 1999 WT QFR about voting being a conscience matter and that even if witnesses did vote they wouldn't be courted by anyone because their just too small a segment of society.
-
Mulan
even if witnesses did vote they wouldn't be courted by anyone because their just too small a segment of society.
right.......it says they are less than 1%. Hehehehe...............Serena Williams doesn't vote. Gag. But she can run around the Olympic Games wrapped in a giant American flag.
-
TheListener
Exactly Mulan. My first thought when reading the article was how bad an example the Williams' are for the witnesses. Did you ever see their reality show? Oh man that was really bad. If they're not marked I would simply be amazed.
-
erandir
If they get away with their posing half naked, and wrapping themselves in flags, playing in a highly competetive sport, and being generally bad examples for witnesses, I wouldn't be surprised if that is a factor of how big their financial contributions to the WT are. Shucks...I know it's speculation, but so what. :)
-
Shawn10538
There is absolutely no way that sratistic is correct. 13% of JWs registered to vote? In all my years as a Witness, I never heard of a single person registering to vote. I neverknew it was a conscience matter until I came to this board. Imopossible! I'll never believe that statistic. 13% is closer to the amount of average Americans that are registered to vote, so why would JWs have a similar percentage as the general population? They say that 50% of americans are registered. I have a hard time believing that is accurate too. I know so many who aren't registered to vote. Even some who are quite active politically just don't trust the electoral process and want no part of it.
-
blondie
explainer: Answers to your questions about the news.
Why Don't Jehovah's Witnesses Vote? Because they're representatives of God's heavenly kingdom.
By Jacob Leibenluft Posted Thursday, June 26, 2008, at 6:39 PM ET
Serena Williams Serena Williams told reporters at Wimbledon on Wednesday that she's excited about Barack Obama's candidacy but won't vote for him because Jehovah's Witnesses "don't get involved in politics." Her sister Venus—who is also a Jehovah's Witness—wouldn't even comment on the presidential election. Why don't Jehovah's Witnesses vote?
Because of John 17:14 and other passages in the Bible. In that verse, Jesus says of his followers: "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." Jehovah's Witnesses have interpreted that statement as a call to remain neutral in all political matters. (In some of the sect's literature, members are described as "representatives of God's heavenly kingdom"; they are thus obligated to stay out of local political affairs in keeping with the behavior of ambassadors.) Witnesses also refrain from serving in the military, running for public office, and pledging allegiance to the flag.
Voting is not expressly prohibited, but it is discouraged. The Watchtower, the official publication of the Jehovah's Witnesses, ran an article in 1999 suggesting that the decision whether to vote was one of personal conscience, although it carefully laid out reasons for staying out of the voting booth. In reference to countries that require all citizens to show up at the ballot box, the Watchtower has explained that "[w]here Caesar makes it compulsory for citizens to vote … [Jehovah's Witnesses] can go to the polls and enter the voting booths," but the Watchtower did not specify what Witnesses should do with the ballot itself. According to some, the requirement for political neutrality led to the violent persecution of Witnesses in Malawi during the late 1960s and early 1970s, when adherents refused to register with the ruling Congress Party.
Most Jehovah's Witnesses in America do, in fact, abstain from voting. According to a survey released this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the religious group is far more likely than any other to believe that there is only one true way to interpret religious teachings. In keeping with that adherence, just 13 percent reported they were registered to vote.
While Witnesses have shied away from electoral politics, they have left a strong mark on the judicial branch: The group has brought several dozen civil-liberties cases before the Supreme Court, including a famous 1943 case over whether Jehovah's Witnesses could be forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in schools.
Jehovah's Witnesses are by far the largest religious group that refuses to vote, but they are not the only ones: Old Order Amish, Christadelphians, and Rastafarians have all traditionally shunned politics. (In the case of both the Amish and the Rastafarians, though, attitudes have changed a bit in the last few years.) Nationally, about 2 percent of people who don't register to vote cite religious reasons. If Jehovah's Witnesses did vote, they probably wouldn't form a large bloc anyway: the group makes up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population and is widely distributed across the country.
Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer .
Explainer thanks Jim Beckford of the University of Warwick, John Green of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Bryce Hemmelgarn of the Watchtower Office of Public Information, Donald Kraybill of Elizabethtown College, and Rodney Stark of Baylor University
100. Rodney Stark and Laurence R. Iannaccone, "Why the Jehovah's Witnesses Grow So Rapidly: A Theoretical Application." Journal of Contemporary Religion, (1997) 12:133-157.
www.geocities.com/rogueactivex/JWGrow-O.pdf
