Finland: move to reinstate national service for JWs

by behemot 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  behemot

  Move to reinstate national service for Jehovah’s Witnesses

  Defence Committee chair Jussi Niinistö says the preferential treatment granted to Jehovah’s Witnesses is difficult to rationalise to other conscientious objectors.

  A Kingdom Hall is a place of worship used by Jehovah's Witnesses. Image: YLE

  Jussi Niinistö, who chairs Parliament’s Defence Committee, is demanding that the military service exemption granted to the Jehovah’s Witnesses be abolished. Members of the Christian denomination were exempted from the compulsory national service in 1987.

  “A special exemption from military service granted to one religious group is unfair towards others,” Niinistö stated in a formal query submitted to the cabinet on Monday.

  Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse military service as a matter of religious conviction, but Niinistö points out that a number of countries do not allow Jehovah's Witnesses to skip military duty for this reason.

  Last year, former Defence Minister Stefan Wallin called for Jehovah's Witnesses to take part in non-military national service.

  Jehovah’s Witnesses and residents of the autonomous Åland Islands are the only groups exempted from carrying out military service.

  Some 20,000 people are members of Jehovah’s Witness congregations in Finland.

  source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/move_to_reinstate_national_service_for_jehovahs_witnesses/6263512
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  smiddy

  Well they will probably do what they did in Mexico , pay a bribe to the officials to obtain a certificate stating they have done so.

  smiddy
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  Diest

  Id bet in finland they will make them work or go to jail...
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  InquiryMan

  It will probably make no problem whatsoever as witnesses no longer object to civilian service which is normally a duty given to those who object to compulsury military service.
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  breakfast of champions

  Good thing they're still represented as an NGO at the OSCE conferences. It's nice to have an "ad hoc organization under the United Nations" swoop down and rescue your religious freedoms.

  Those wild beasts of Revelation come in pretty handy while Jehovah's Celestial Chariot is in the shop.
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  RubaDub

  It will probably make no problem whatsoever as witnesses no longer object to civilian service

  Inquiry ...

  Very true. It has been that way for, I'm just guessing, 25 years or so.

  So they will simply have the option of working in a hospital or some other form of community service.

  Rub a Dub
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  blondie

  Remember though it is the WTS definition of alternative/civilian service which does not always match the government's definition. The WTS has eased up but it has not been applied by the WTS in all countries equally.
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  Kaiser

  "It will propably make no problem whatsoever as witnesses no longer object to civilian service"

  Actually it will be problem. It´s not permitted for jw cause civilian service is under military supervision. Or so one elder told me(lied).

  I know many brothers who are in "the truth" just because without it, they would have to go military/civilian service.
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  BluesBrother

  The above is true....As far as I know, it is permitted to do something else entirely from the millitary, but not to be a part of the millitary organization, doing alternative work......

  Perhaps instead all the families with young males will move to The Aland Islands ?
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  RubaDub

  Remember though it is the WTS definition of alternative/civilian service which does not always match the government's definition.

  Blondie ...

  Good point. I was thinking in terms of alternative service here in the US which can have absolutely no connection to the military. If the only options were to work in a factory making military uniforms or some other type of indirect military support, then yes, it would be a problem.

  If that were indeed the case, then it gets reported as persecution and a sign that the end is near ... you know drill.

  Rub a Dub