'I have never saluted the flag, and I am 63 years old'
A former Jehovah's Witness has lingering effects from a faith that does not allow followers to pledge allegiance to a country, vote or serve in the military.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 29, 2001
A former Jehovah's Witness has lingering effects from a faith that does not allow followers to pledge allegiance to a country, vote or serve in the military.
ST. PETERSBURG -- The recent wave of patriotism that has swept the United States, making a stirring show from workplace to religious gathering, has resurrected unhappy memories for Nancy Denison.
A former Jehovah's Witness, Mrs. Denison said she froze when her Church of Christ congregation recited the Pledge of Allegiance the first Sunday after terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Jehovah's Witnesses do not say the Pledge of Allegiance or salute the flag, an omission that often made her the object of abuse by non-believers, Mrs. Denison said.
"I've been beaten and knocked unconscious because I wouldn't salute the flag at school," she said.
"And I had a water hose from a fire truck turned on me while my mother stood next to me. We were standing on the street corner and the fire truck ordered us off the street," she said of the incident that took place during the patriotic fervor of World War II.
At the time, she and her mother were distributing copies of Watchtower, the signature magazine of the Jehovah's Witness faith.
"With the flag issue, my mother said it's better to die for what you believe, but don't ever salute the flag. I have never saluted the flag, and I am 63 years old," Mrs. Denison said.
"It is brainwashing. It is a total control, and when you are raised in it, it's totally encompassing," she said of her former faith's teachings.
Founded in Pennsylvania toward the end of the 19th century by Charles Taze Russell, Jehovah's Witnesses believe the world is in its last days. They do not pledge allegiance to any country or serve in the military. Witnesses, as believers call themselves, are unlikely, therefore, to be among those who will take part in America's new war.
"What we prefer to do is to do some kind of public service in a civilian program that will build up people's lives, that will add to the common good rather than share in the destruction that would be unleashed in warfare," Clayton Barrows, presiding overseer of the East Clearwater congregation, said this week.
"We are not opposed to rendering public service on behalf of the common good, satisfying the duties of citizenship in that way. We prefer something that's positive, that's going to give life to people."
He mentioned, for instance, relief efforts at the group's Brooklyn headquarters on Sept. 11 and the weeks since.
Frightened people fleeing Manhattan the day of the terrorist attacks sought sanctuary at the landmark Watchtower complex, said J.R. Brown, director of the Jehovah's Witnesses' public information office in the group's headquarters building, which sits at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. They were allowed to use restrooms and were fed.
Most important, though, Jehovah's Witnesses have continued to provide help to workers at ground zero, he said.
"We have assigned ministers of our group, and they have been permitted to be right in the work area to talk and provide comfort and spiritual aid and assistance. We have a number who are there every day," he said.
Jehovah's Witnesses, Brown said, are "very good citizens" but do not compromise their beliefs.
During World War II, more than 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses died -- 350 were executed -- at the hands of the Nazis because they refused to renounce their beliefs and pledge allegiance to the Nazi state.
Jehovah's Witnesses respect the American flag, said Barrows, the overseer of the East Clearwater congregation.
"It is a symbol of the country in which we live," he said and added that Jehovah's Witnesses object to saluting the flag on religious, not political, grounds.
"It's based on, among other things, our desire to obey the second of the Ten Commandments. . . . You must not make for yourself a carved image. . . . You must not bow down to them. Our devotion belongs to Jehovah God, our creator."
Jehovah's Witnesses also would not normally wear clothing displaying the American flag, Barrows said. If required as part of a uniform, they will do so, he said.
"We draw the line when it comes to what we swear our devotion to," he added.
Brown, the group's public relations director, explained further: "Our view of the flag is that, for the most part, it is treated by nations as a sacred symbol; and it's really treated with a religious reverence. And that is why Jehovah's Witnesses decline to participate in ceremonies such as saluting the flag, viewing such action as an act of worship."
In any event, he said, "This conscientious stand is not intended to show disrespect for the flag of any nation. . . . Our real devotion and citizenship belong to the kingdom of God."
This position created problems for Jehovah's Witnesses during the 1930s and 1940s, when many children were expelled from school for refusing to salute the flag. The group pursued its case to the Supreme Court and won.
During this period, according to Jehovah's Witness records, believers were routinely harassed. Mrs. Denison, who grew up in upstate New York, counts herself among those victims.
Now a member of Church of Christ Northside, 6329 Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) St. N, Mrs. Denison said she grew up in a strict Jehovah's Witness home and accompanied her parents on door-to-door
evangelization missions.
"When I see a child on the street or one comes to my door with a parent, I always give them a hug," she said.
"And I ask the parents to please allow their children to grow up with the choice to investigate on their own and not be told that this is the only way and that you have to die for a religious idea," said Mrs. Denison, whose own adult children have all left the faith.
The grandmother of 10 and great-grandmother of three said her relationship with Jehovah's Witnesses ended in 1981, when she was "disfellowshipped" for leaving her first husband and marrying Jim Denison, her current husband.
She said she has had to seek therapy to rid herself of the group's teachings, which instructed, among other things, that she could not enter other churches, even for a relative's wedding or funeral, or leave an abusive marriage.
"Every time there has been a major breakthrough, it has been very, very traumatic," she said.
"The last straw was the flag salute. I went to church a week ago Sunday. That's when everybody had a flag in their church. I knew there would be the Pledge of Allegiance. I stood respectfully, but I could not say it. The words "I pledge allegiance to the flag' bothered me. I could still hear my mother's voice. The training was so dense, I couldn't say it."
She was so troubled that she sought the help of her brother-in-law, a Church of Christ minister, and a church elder. Mrs. Denison said they managed to convince her that saying the Pledge of Allegiance did not mean she was worshiping the flag.
"A light bulb went on," she said.
"I'm free."