I'm currently taking a course in cultural anthropology to fulfill a college requirement and thought I'd share something from one of the textbooks we are using. In the book, "Extraordinary Groups -- An Examination of Unconventional Lifestyles" ethnographer William W. Zellner relates his findings when he spent some time studying the Jehovah's Witnesses. He relates of an experience he had when attending a convention:

I thought this scene was very telling. An organization that believes it is "God's channel" on earth and the grand fulfillment of ancient Hebraic prophecies assembles a large entourage for members of the media and no one shows up. I think this illustrates something that JWs are totally in the dark about and something that ex-JWs sometimes forget.

Not many people really notice this religion, let alone know what it is all about. The average JW suffers from a "persecution complex" and believes that 124 Columbia Heights is the center of the universe. The entire world is agitated by the Witnesses (more specifically the couple thousand "annointed"!) preaching and view them as being a remarkable, almost miraculous group of people.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, the JWs make headlines every once in a great while, usually in the news for some court decision or because some young man has died of blood. Ah, also for the child molestation controversies of late as well. But, ask the average person if there is anything really all that special about this group and the response will be in the negative. Nice people, honest, a little weird and pushy, hard workers, kind of haughty -- that's what the average person will probably say if they are asked to describe the Witnesses. If they have even heard of them at all. (Amazingly, I have run across some people who had never heard of the JWs)

I told a proffessor that I was an ex-witness and he said to me, "Jehovah's Witnesses? Something about 144,000 right?" That generally is the extent of anyone's knowledge of the JWs.

Among the elite circles of the world or the proffessional community the JWs are rarely mentioned. The two areas where they are brought up are with regard the issues of bloodless medicine and US constitutional rights. Other than that, the world just doesn't pay attention.

Telling a JW this will be about as productive as talking to cheese. They don't have an answer and they won't understand what you are saying. But, even ex-JWs sometimes make the Society out to be more than it really is. No, it's not the great Evil Empire that we have built up in our minds. It's not the worst religion out there and the rest of the world will sympathize with us former members but that's about it. It's a minor religion that we just happened to be part of and broken away from. They are a small group. We are a small group.

I was talking to a former Seventh Day Adventist on another forum and I asked him what he thought or knew about the JWs. His knowledge was comparable to the average person -- he hardly knew anything about them. But he did tell me something that I found very insightful. He said, "You know, the only people who care about Seventh Day Adventists are Adventists and former Adventists. The rest of the world is ambivalent. The same is true with Jehovah's Witnesses." I don't think it could be said any better.

The only people that are concerned with Jehovah's Witnesses are JWs or ex-JWs. The rest of the world could care less.

Bradley

Great post! 

That is soooo true. 

Excellent point.

Man I have to read that book!

This sounds interesting, too:

Sects, Cults, and Spiritual Communities : A Sociological Analysis
by William W. Zellner (Author), Marc Petrowsky (Author) (Paperback - June 1998)

Wow! Read this (not on the topic of JWs, but religious discrimination, very interesting):

Deep in the Bible Belt - an Atheist Professor's Experience - by William Zellner

http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/december95/zellner.html

Asleif,

Nice research on the author!  I didn't know he was an atheist, his accounts generally are very neutral in the book.  By the way, the other groups mentioned in the book for my class are: the Old Order Amish, the Gypsies (amazing read, really), the Mormons, Christian Scientists, etc.  We won't be discussing the JWs in class, though (unfortunately).

Bradley

Good post logansrun.

I too have met people who have never heard of JW's.  I knew nothing about them until I met one in college.

It was such an intoxicating feeling to join something that seemed so important.  The only true Christians!  The Last Days!  Armageddon!  Paradise!  The Global Preaching Work!

Then one day while enduring another mind-numbing afternoon session at a district convention I was hit with the jarring sensation that I was lost in a wacko cultish religious group that collectively had a very loose grip on reality.

Logan, really great post.  I love the 'experience'.  I wonder if they told that one on the platform?

ash

It doesn't say much about almost 80 years of preaching door to door.  The WTS says that the message of the JWs is the Kingdom of God but few if any JWs use that in their introduction (which the WTS says should be 30 seconds).  Few JWs read a scripture let alone one where Jesus is speaking.

So it is no surprise that few know why JWs are at their door.  All they see are people peddling books and magazines.

Good post, Bradley.  I used to work in administration and the press room.  I used to wonder where the press was.  My secular job brought me into daily contact with the press in my area.  When they did show up, they made the mistake of thinking I, a lowly woman, was the contact.

Blondie

 Me too. I love to hear stuff like this!!  That's why I'm starting a PhD program in cult anth this fall! (despite the fact that my dad is horrified I'm leaving a "good office job" to get a degree he thinks I'm not going to be able to "do anything with." Those of us who are rather obsessed with anthro just love it when people say the class gives them way different insight (professors and potential future professors worry about that, you know )

Maybe I wasn't the average JW and maybe that's why I'm here.  I believed it to be the true religion, and I maybe bought into a little of the self-importance, but not all of it.

Like the convention proclamations being fulfillments of scripture, angels blowing horns and bowls of wrath.  Even as a JW I thought that was a bit weak because I knew I could ask 1000 non-JW people off the street about them and be very lucky if any of them had even the foggiest notion of these proclamations, much less world religion and the governments.  Hell, I hardly knew about them.  Other than knowing they were supposed to have happened, I couldn't quote a single one.  (Hey, maybe that's a point for my next JW encounter - if these are fulfillment of Bible prophecy, show me exactly what was said - which will probably amount to a bunch of statements that are now "old light").

They've also got the notion of being persecuted.  I've been in circles who knew I was a JW and those that weren't.  I saw no evidence of any scheme against them, except for the typical jokes.  And when they did know I was a JW, I never felt any persecution for it.  People just thought it was a wierd religion, but mostly respected it as just another religion.

I learned real quick that the outside world had no idea what our common vocabulary meant.  I remember thinking everbody must know what a Kingdom Hall is.  I eventually just started calling it Church when I talked to wordly people, though my parents didn't like it.  If they don't know what a Kingdom Hall or going out in Service is, I figured out they knew nothing of us.

While JW rhetoric promotes this idea that they are so important and in the crosshairs of the outside world, I wonder if the majority of the rank-and-file JWs believe that.

As for being an ex-JW, they're still on my radar because some of my family is still involved.  I like to keep in-the-know so that if the chance ever arrives, I can help them out of the religion.

Strange, since they've never had a problem with registering for the draft and every year there's an announcement that 18 year olds are required to register. I've also never heard one thing said about the Equal Rights amendment. Where do people get this stuff?