http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-05-06-opledereligion_N.htm?csp=34
I agree with most of the 'benefits' he describes from the religion - particularly the civil liberties they have gained in the US. Story is one-sided, but ok.
By Joel P. Engardio Please excuse me if I ever disrupted your laundry, yard work or nap by knocking on your door. A Jehovah's Witness on your front porch is not a Girl Scout with cookies or a neighbor out of sugar. So I understand why you cursed and slammed the door. My Watchtower magazine and other Bible literature, with messages on morality and "false" religion, can be heavy reading. But did you really need to sic your dog on me?Allowing Jehovah's Witnesses to knock door-to-door says a lot about the freedoms we value in America: religion, speech and personal liberty. It isn't easy letting people fully exercise their rights when you don't agree with their message or lifestyle. It seems threatening, which explains our current culture war. Jehovah's Witnesses uniquely demonstrate how to avoid this impasse and show us not only how religious and personal freedoms can peacefully co-exist, but also why they must.
I was in preschool in Saginaw, Mich., when I began helping my mom spread the "good news" of Jehovah's Kingdom. Designated doorbell-ringer was a cool job for a 4-year-old, even if our Saturday morning ministry meant sacrificing my cartoon-watching. That was a struggle. But our 10:30 a.m. coffee break was a blessing. That's when we would gather at Dunkin' Donuts, try not to get powdered sugar on our suits and dresses, swap stories and laugh. We always knew when you were "home-but-hiding."
As a teenager, I gave presentations at doorsteps around town in hopes of becoming a "publisher," or minister, of the Bible. I found fulfillment in telling others — anyone who cared to listen — that all of mankind's plagues would be solved when God's kingdom arrived. Eventually, though, I decided I wanted to take on the world's problems now. So I didn't become a Jehovah's Witness. I became a journalist. That was the first time I broke my mom's heart.
The courts and the Witnesses
In college, it surprised me to see Jehovah's Witnesses in the footnotes of my history books. I knew they were unpopular, but I hadn't realized how often they had been denied their rights to speak, worship, assemble and live as they chose. They had been regulars at the U.S. Supreme Court since the 1930s, arguing that the First Amendment was an empty promise to citizens outside the mainstream. Jehovah's Witnesses have argued 62 cases before the high court. Only the U.S. government has argued more. Jehovah's Witnesses won 50 of the cases, breathing life into the Bill of Rights and setting precedents for the civil rights movement.
"The Jehovah's Witnesses ought to have an endowment in view of the aid which they give in solving the legal problems of civil liberties," Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone wrote. His court would reverse itself in 1943, at the height of World War II, overturning a 1940 decision affirming the government's right to force citizens to perform patriotic rituals. Jehovah's Witnesses had refused to say the nation's Pledge of Allegiance, saying only God deserved such devotion. "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation," Justice Robert Jackson wrote in deciding the case, "it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion."
Reading my textbooks, I realized that's why my mom and I had the right to knock on your door. You may have been annoyed, but the annoyance led to court cases that expanded freedom for all. And not just in the USA. Since the fall of communism in the early 1990s, Jehovah's Witnesses have done the same in emerging democracies, winning 34 of their 45 cases before the European Court of Human Rights.
Politics isn't a part of it
The second time I broke my mom's heart was when I told her I am gay. Jehovah's Witnesses are social conservatives. Members can't be actively gay and can't get an abortion; women can't serve as religious leaders. These positions are not unique to this religion, of course. Just ask any gay kid how easy it was to come out to his Evangelical Christian, Roman Catholic or Mormon family. Yet Jehovah's Witnesses don't try to force their beliefs on others through politics. They would never protest an abortion clinic, bankroll a campaign against gay marriage or vote to restrict what they view as "sins." They believe that Jesus commanded Christians to stay out of politics and all war, including culture wars.
Jehovah's Witnesses do use the courts, however, to protect their Christian way of life. They choose to live within certain self-imposed boundaries, which include shunning members who reject the agreed-upon standards. But they also recognize and accept the fact that outside groups will benefit from their legal victories. Imagine if all religions had enough confidence in their faith that someone else's definition of marriage, life or morality posed no threat to their own.
So am I offended because my mom still distributes The Watchtower magazines, which include articles calling homosexuality a sin? If we want an open and free marketplace of ideas, many messages we don't like will compete for our attention. That's OK as long as no one is forced to listen or comply. Once you've said, "No, thanks" and closed the door, Jehovah's Witnesses will leave you in peace (at least until their next visit).
I'm proud of my door-knocking childhood, especially now that I recognize the legal legacy of my mom's faith. Consider this: At their last Supreme Court appearance, in 2002, Jehovah's Witnesses successfully argued that the climate of fear surrounding 9/11 should not justify the government's right to limit free speech by requiring permission to knock. I want to live in a society where everyone has the right to knock on a door and speak face-to-face with his neighbor. Even, as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said, if it's just to "borrow a cup of sugar."
Joel P. Engardio has written and narrated KNOCKING, a documentary about Jehovah's Witnesses that will air May 22 on the PBS series Independent Lens.