< http://www.as.ysu.edu/~cwcs/prcdsa-g.htm#becking
Rebecca Beckingham, The New School for Social Research
In What Kingdom Will They Come...: A Comparative-Historical Analysis of the Jehovah Witnesses in the United States and Israel.
This paper will explore the class significance of this particular religious belief and explain in what ways class intersects with Jehovah Witness’ism (JW’ism) in Israel and in the United States (US). I will claim that JW’ism presents a stabilizing force for marginalized populations (immigrants) I will claim that JW’ism is a way of organizing poverty and coping with the bi-polarization of capitalism. I will investigate the extent to which JW’ism is symptomatic in that it reflects the alienation of populations marginalized by ‘formal democracy’ and ‘laisse-faire’ economies, choosing to seek justice and equality outside of the material-political realm. They seek justice outside of the political realm because they feel they have no voice in the public sphere. Thus, I will claim that they are in fact, rebelling against the existing forms of democracy by refusing to participate in the democratic process at all. This claim parallels Hobsbawm’s idea of religion acting as a primitive form of rebellion. In other words-- the apolitical nature of JW’ism says to me that in a way they have given up on “Democratic” hopes of justice and equality and in so doing have also given up on using the political realm to help them achieve their goals of justice and equality. Instead, JW’s have chosen the ethereal mode of the new world promised to them by the authors of the Watchtower in Brooklyn, New York.
My question is-- what is the class significance of the JW belief system? Why is a particular class attracted to JW’ism and not one of the many other evangelical and/or millenarian fundamentalist religions? What characteristics make an individual a likely candidate for conversion to JW’ism? More specifically, I would like to understand why immigrants in both Israel and the US are flocking to Kingdom Halls in growing numbers? Why are the Jews in Israel choosing JW’ism as opposed to Hasidism (Jewish orthodoxy typically associated with a certain socio-economic status) or Orthodoxy? Why are South-American immigrants in the US choosing JW’ism as opposed to Catholicism? Is the liturgy of JW’s particularly attractive to immigrants? Why? Does one’s belief in the dogma of JW’ism speak to the class position of the devotee?
Why are the JW’s important?
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Understanding why this particular faith has such mass appeal is an important barometer of the condition of our global society. It’s important to understand what kind of message JW dogma is sending to its host nation-states. What are they telling us about the social climates of individual nation-states? Understanding the nature and appeal of this popular cult may help us to glean some kind of underlying class consciousness which may be precipitating this millenarian movement. Drawing a class analysis out of a particular religious belief needs to be framed in an explanatory apparatus which can spell out why a particular group of people (namely, immigrants and the working-class) are attracted to a particular religious belief (namely, Jehovah’s Witnesses). I will establish that the JW’s are in part, acting as revolutionaries according to Eric Hobsbawm’s theory of primitive rebellion. “It is high time that movements of this kind... were seriously considered not simply as an unconnected series of individual curiosities, as footnotes to history, but as a phenomenon of general importance and considerable weight in modern history... They are in perpetual ferment but, as a mass, incapable of providing a centralized expression for their aspirations and their needs” (Hobsbawm,1959,10). Such dramatic alienation of populations seems to point to the precursors of a society in transition. In essence, this kind of millenarian movement is what Hobsbawm would refer to as an archaic form of social agitation.
Are the JW’s colluding with God in the dramatic overthrow of the present system? This paper will assert that the JW’s are revolutionary thinkers in that they believe in the need for the complete destruction of the existing world and the creation of a New World. However, they differ from traditional revolutionaries because JW’s believe that the revolution is going to occur by divine providence not having to do anything to precipitate its evolution.
Method
This study takes the form of a historical-comparative analysis of the US and Israel (in the last 50 years), two modern democratic nations that deal with large immigrant populations and have large JW constituencies. I have also used the method of participant observation in Israel and the US, which produced some useful field notes.
sKally