JWs double standard re: defending religious freedom

by behemot 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  behemot

  When a government challenges JWs' freedom, it's not unusual that they (wherever they can do that) organize a campaign of sorts to protest, affirm and defend their religious freedom (see, for instance, the recent campaign in Russia http://www.jw-media.org/rus/20100226.htm and the 1999 campaign in France over the denial of tax-exempt status to JWs http://www.rickross.com/reference/jw/jw6.html).

  One of the reasons of concern such campaigns focus on is the threat implied for other religions by the government's behaviour with the JWs ("What will happen tomorrow to other religions?").

  But do they really care about what happens to other religions? Have you ever seen JWs campaigning to defend the religious freedom of some other group or denomination whose activities are prohibited or somehow hindered by the secular authorities?

  If they really cared about religious freedom (not only their own), wouldn't they do just that?
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  blondie

  The WTS did attach itself legally to a case re taxes on publications.

  jwfacts.com/images/watchtower-swaggart-amicus-curiae.pdf

  www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/politics.php
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  behemot

  The WTS did attach itself legally to a case re taxes on publications.

  Yeah right, but they do that only when the problem touches (or they feel may touch) them directly.

  If in a country they are fine, but other religious minorities are harassed, they won't move a finger to defend their rights (after all, don't they expect the political "wild beast" to turn against against religious "babylon the great"?)
• 

  LongHairGal

  Religious freedom is all well and good for a persecuted minority. But, what happens when a religion becomes a threat and a nuisance to the host country it is located in?

  What happens when THAT religion denies freedoms to its own people? What happens when it produces people who are, at best, uneducated, passive, disinterested citizens? What happens when it preaches disrespectful things about the government (that it is usually leeching from) as well as saying nasty things about other religions? etc. etc.
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  mindmelda

  I think in many countries, civil rights violations and violations of personal liberty might be weighed against the rights of a religion to freely operate.

  Such as Scientology being "unwelcome" in France. The Witnesses aren't too far behind there....I want to move to France!

  *speaks a little French*
• 

  BabaYaga

  Behemot, you called it what it is: Double standard.

  Remember, too, the recent article defending those who change their religion in the face of adversity from their family... but only if one is becoming a Jehovah's Witness, of course.