Is the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses a Sect? (Part III)

Part III – Instrumentalization of the adept

Another characteristic of the sects that we mentioned at the beginning is the instrumentation of the followers for the sect’s own purposes. We also said that their primary activities were proselytizing (getting new followers) and collecting money. In the case of multinational sects, the money is sent largely to the headquarters of each group. Does this happen in the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization? To answer this question you have to know a little about the structure of the organization.

The organization

The headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization is located in Brooklyn, New York, where hundreds of thousands of books, magazines, pamphlets, postcards, religious paintings, calendars, cassettes, videotapes, and many other products are produced. It has its own factories that consist of paper warehouses, a machinery workshop, a carpentry shop, a bookbinding workshop, a laundry, etc. In other parts of New York itself, it has a combination of factories and farms where it produces food for all the workers.^[1].

We are talking about the largest publishing organization in the world. To give you an idea, the biweekly magazine La Atalaya is published simultaneously in 194 languages, with an approximate circulation of 42 million copies, positioning itself as the most read magazine in the world, while the magazine Despertad, also produced by them, has an average circulation of 41 million.

Volunteer work

The entire production of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization is supported by volunteers, who work in the editing, preparation, printing and distribution of publications, in the same way as the factories, farms, all the machinery and people who work at the organization’s own headquarters.

They do not receive any remuneration, they receive a monthly tip that is insufficient to cover their expenses, but since their food is covered they can survive modestly. They also do not have old-age insurance or social premiums, only health insurance, because since they think that the end of the world is near, there is no need to spend money on insurance.^[2]

All of these people do tireless and selfless work to carry out the work of the organization. We could say nothing about them because they are moved by an altruistic intention, preaching what they consider to be the Word of God.

The halls of the kingdom

The halls of the kingdom can be rented (rent borne by the adepts) or purchased, in which case the cost is also borne by the adepts. If they do not have enough money to buy it, the organization lends them the money, charging interest, and after the purchase it is registered as property of the organization, although the outstanding credit installments continue to be paid by the followers. In the end, for each new Kingdom Hall the organization is left with a new property, the return of the money it lent, and the interest on it.

Kingdom halls can also be insured, through insurance offered by the organization itself and paid for by the followers.

Instrumentalization

It is in this way that the organization instrumentalizes its followers for its own purposes: thedistribution of your publications. Needless to say, the production and distribution costs of their products are very low, taking into account that the workers are volunteers, they do not pay royalties, and they do not even have the costs related to the sales area, since it is the followers themselves with their house-to-house preaching who act as sellers.

In addition to this, in the early 1990s they changed the distribution system for their literature to one based on donations. They stopped setting the sales price for their magazines The Watchtower and Awake!, and instead suggested that people make a donation, which ended up being similar or higher than the money from the old sale, while they benefited from the laws of most countries, which do not levy tax on donations.

It is no wonder that there is so much pressure on followers to dedicate a minimum of hours per month to house-to-house preaching. Special pioneers must reach 130 hours a month, regular pioneers, 70; auxiliary pioneers, 50; and the person who for some reason cannot reach the monthly hours must at least reach the national average, which in 2003 was 10 hours.^[3]

Jehovah’s Witnesses, like other Protestants, claim to be governed only by the Bible, however, it is still curious how they are completely dependent on these publications that consider the “provision of Jehovah“, and “spiritual foodTaking into account that magazines The Watchtower and Wake up! They are published biweekly, and The Watchtower is mandatory study in their meetings, it is not difficult to understand how Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves end up becoming the best clients. For every book, magazine or brochure printed, the organization knows that it is guaranteed to sell at least 8 million units.

Imminent end – Motivating factor

Of course, all this machinery does not move, but it is due to the work of all these selfless volunteers, whom society, like any sectarian organization, needs to have working tirelessly, leaving everything in the background. The key piece that the Watch Tower has used to achieve this is to repeatedly announce the imminent coming of Christ and the end of the present.wicked system of things“They have done it for 1914, 1918, 1925, 1941 and 1975. Even after all their prophecies failed they continued to insist that in 1914 the coming of Christ did occur but in an “invisible” way, and that there are people from the generation of the year 1914 who will never die. For more details regarding this you can consult the article: Jehovah’s Witnesses and 1914

Disastrous consequences in 
people’s lives

It goes without saying that thinking about having the end of the world approaching can severely alter people’s behavior.^[4]. Although the organization currently does not set a fixed end date, doubting that the end of the world is near is a clear symptom of apostasy:

“Some who served as Jehovah’s Witnesses in the past have rejected various biblical views that are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles. For example,They insist that we are not living in the “last days”, despite the great amount of evidence that we are living in them (2 Timothy 3:1-5). These apostates ‘have come out from among us because they are not of our kind’ (1 John 2:18, 19). …such selfish heretics have no “participation” with the Father or the Son, regardless of how much they boast of having an intimate relationship with God and Christ. Rather, are in spiritual darkness (1 John 1:3, 6)”^[5]

Some examples of these consequences:

to sell everything

“There are reports of brothers selling their homes and property and that they are making plans to complete what remains of these days of this old system in the pioneer service.This is certainly an excellent way to use the little time left before the end of this wicked world...”^[6]

 

To postpone marriage

“It is better that we postpone our marriage until eternal peace has come on earth. Now we should not expand our load, we have to be free for the Lord.”^[7]

To postpone having children

“Having children today…

Now, more than ever, “the time left is reduced.” Yeah, the time left is limitedso that Jehovah’s people may finish the work that he has given them, namely: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached throughout the entire inhabited earth as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) That work must be done before the end comes. That’s why It is appropriate for Christians to ask themselves what effect their marriage or, if married, their having children will have on their participation in that vital work.^[8]

The end is near… University for what?

They recommended that parents guide their children towards trades such as plumbing or plumbing and avoid long careers such as medicine or engineering, so that they could support themselves and thus dedicate more time to “preaching”:

“If your reader is a young person, you must face the fact that you will never grow old., in this present system of things, why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecies indicates that this corrupt system will end within a few years.”…Therefore, As a young person, you will never take a career that offers this system. If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, this means at least four, maybe up to six or eight more years for you to earn your degree in a specialized field. But where will this system of things be at that time? It will be well along towards its end, if not actually gone! 

That’s why Parents who base their lives on the prophetic Word of God find it much more practical to direct their young people to jobs that do not require such long periods of education.additional. And trades such as carpentry, plumbing and others will not only be useful now, but perhaps even more so in the work of reconstruction that will be carried out in God’s new order.

With such practical jobs, many young people have been able to support themselves by working part of their time. This allows them to spend much more of their time helping interested people learn God’s requirements for life. studying the Bible with them”^[9]

Sports take time away from preaching

Although Jehovah’s Witnesses recognize that in moderation sports can be of some benefit^[10], they generally discourage their followers from practicing them, first because they will have to interact with non-Jehovah’s Witnesses whom they consider “bad company that spoils useful habits”^[11], and second because they recognize that it would take away from the time they would like the followers to dedicate to the organization:

“Therefore, you who are young Christians, let your fellow students mock you, make fun of you or ignore you because you have chosen to be different, because you neither care nor have time for the associations that are included in after-school activities such as sports, parties and excursions. To you simply It is not convenient for them to get involved in those things!You have much wiser goals than them! Begin working toward them now through personal study, meeting attendance, and field ministry. Participate in the holiday pioneer activity! It will be a safeguard for you as well as a source of many great blessings.”^[12]

“It is clear that, for a Christian, being an athlete should not be his goal in life”^[13]

It is obvious that many of these positions of Jehovah’s Witnesses have fallen under their own weight. They no longer encourage their young people to decline long professions for trades such as plumbing, since they do not currently have a tentative date for the end of the world, they do not recommend them to sell their properties, however the central core of the eschatological doctrine is still there, and continues to be used by the organization to instrumentalize its followers.

In the first installment of this series I said that one of the characteristics of destructive sects was that under psychological coercion they obtain the personal assets of the followers. This is no different from what the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization has done by maintaining its machinery at the expense of volunteers, motivating them to sell their properties, postpone their marriage, their children, their university studies, their sports activities, abandon their former friends, prefer part-time jobs, all with the excuse that the end of the world is imminent.

There have been many volunteers who have spent a lifetime working for the organization, and after being considered apostates, they have been thrown out onto the streets without retirement or pension, and having to face the contempt of their lifelong friends, who now cannot even speak to them.

These are obvious sectarian characteristics of this organization that takes advantage of the good intentions of its followers and uses them for its own purposes. If this isn’t a cult, I really don’t know what is.

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6 – Conclusions

Grades

1.  Robin Ruiter, The hidden power of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Ediciones Paulinas S.A., Mexico 2000, p. 8 ↩
2.  Ibid. ↩
3.  Alfredo Raúl Fermín, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Trípode Editions, Caracas 2010, Page 29 ↩
4.  A recent case: Harold Camping and his global campaign to announce the end of the world at the expense of the followers. He ended up retired after the fiasco but was left with donations of approximately $80 million. ↩
5.  The Watchtower, October 1, 1983, p. 20-25 ↩
6.  This appeared in English in Our Kingdom Ministry (Our Kingdom Ministry) in the May 1974 issue ↩
7.  Children, page 346, 1941 ↩
8.  The Watchtower, March 1, 1988 ↩
9.  wake up, August 29, 1969, p. 15 ↩
10.  wake up, March 22, 1970, p. 3-5 ↩
11.  wake up, August 22, 1991, p. 5-9 ↩
12.  The Watchtower, January 1, 1971, p. 15-21 ↩
13.  wake up, August 22, 1991, p. 5-9 ↩