Sheep and Goats

Tag: stopJWban

  • A Dangerous Criminal That Everyone Can See is Not

    Okay, do I understand this correctly? Dennis Christensen presided over a Bible study meeting at a Kingdom Hall in Russia one year ago. He has been jailed for a year in pre-trial detention, after police broke in with SWAT team gear to arrest him. Several motions to have him released on his own recognizance have proved unsuccessful and bank accounts have been frozen, leaving his wife to fend for herself. Only now, after a year in prison, is his case finally coming to trial, having been postponed several times.

    And…a key prosecution witness is an individual who will testify out of sight, his or her voice garbled by electronic means. Are you kidding me? For a Bible teacher? Is it prosecution theatrics to plant the notion that Jehovah’s Witnesses are as dangerous as the mob?

    And then…more evidence that this escalation is unheard of, at least in the Orel court, it turns out that no one knows how to make the machine do what it is supposed to. The witness’s testimony is garbled to such an extent that nobody could understand it, and the trial was postponed until they either got someone who knew what he was doing or brought in a better machine. “Try speaking in syllables,” the judge (or someone) had said, but it was no good.

    Look, you want to fear the authorities, “for it is not without purpose that it bears the sword,” and it sure has been bearing it lately with Jehovah’s Witnesses, the subject of numerous SWAT team searches in various parts of Russia. One tries not to invoke images of Boris and Natashia from Bullwinkle, but with reports like these it is hard to banish the thought.

    Prosecutors attempted to restrict news media coverage to the trial. But Dennis doesn’t see himself as a criminal and stated such secrecy would impede a fair trial. The judge agreed with this and denied the motion of the prosecution.

    Christensen

    dennischristensen, #jwrussia, #stopJWban

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

     

  • It Just Might All Be True

    The most absurd accusations about Russia flow from Western media these days. Surely CNN’s report that Russia utilized the Pokemon Go game to undermine the American spirit takes the cake. ‘Is there no end?’ RT.com has, in effect, asked. ‘Is there no accusation too preposterous?’ Unfairly, perhaps, but predictably, Russia’s bullying of all minority religion and the outright ban of one suggests that the answer is that there is not, and that all accusations must be carefully assessed.

    All but the most repressive nations on earth have learned to accommodate the human urge to worship as each person sees fit. Russia sides with the forces of repression in this regard, and even surpasses them when, for example, it bans the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ website as extremist – the only country on earth to do so. Everyone else on the planet can visit and plainly see that it is not. How can Russia not lose face? A certain journalist laments the rise of Muslim terrorists run amok today. Of course! Everyone know what extremism is and they know that Jehovah’s Witnesses are not it.

    Columnist Andrew Sorokowski posed the question: “Why would a nation of some 144,000,000 risk its international reputation to persecute a religious sect numbering no more than 175,000 followers?” Yet Russia has done so. Religious repression hardly accounts for media accusations, of course, which are driven primarily by American politics. But it suggests to the unpracticed eye that all such accusations just might be true and that there is no accusation too ridiculous to be dismissed out-of-hand. People hear of Dennis Christenson, jailed 5 months without trial for merely leading a Bible study – how can they not imagine Russia capable of unlimited nastiness?  It is sad to see the self-inflicted decline of a great nation.

     

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

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  • Dissent on the Margins

    Since I am retired and do nothing but write, I am putting together a short Ebook (which gets longer all the time) on the Russian ban, the letter-writing campaign, and things leading up to it. This one will be a freebee, unlike the others I have written  – ‘free’ is more in keeping with the spirit of things. They should all be free, but unfortunately, writing is my sole gig. It’s either that or Mickey D. for me.

    En route to gathering material, I came across a book entitled Dissent on the Margins, which is about the history of our people in Russia, published in 2014. The author, Emily Baran, is not a Witness, nor a cheerleader for us, but she gets it right with regard to her facts – she relates them accurately and impartially. She has been quoted on jw.org. Her book has given me much context, preventing what might be some clumsy missteps, and I recommend it.

    It’s pricey, but less so as an Ebook. And worth it, if you’re into history and non-biased commentary. Whereas my books are largely anecdotes and experiences, my ‘research’ mostly just nailing down the specifics of things or events I already know about, she actually has done the academic kind. Her book is heavily footnoted with materials both from Witnesses here and in Russia, as well as government archives.

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

  • Tell the House Church to Go to Hell!

    Today, an RT.com article discusses the U.S. 1917 Espionage Act:
     
    "The government cracked down on domestic dissent by introducing the Espionage Act (June 1917), Sedition Act (May 1918) and Alien Act (October 1918)." [RT.com is mad about the U.S. striking Syria, an up-till-now ally, and likens it to the U.S. entry into World War I]
     
    This Act was famously used against Jehovah's Witnesses, sending leaders to prison. Today, Russia's own Extremism Law threatens to do the same.
     
    Okay, I know it's naive, and the following is tongue-in-cheek, but could this play out?
     
    Putin: "Yesterday, it is St. Petersburg! Now it is Syria! What a screwy world! What do I care if the Jehovahs want to preach? Get this case out of my hair! I've got things to do! Tell the House Church to go to hell!"
     
    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

  • He May Come to Realize That With all the Threats Facing His Country, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not One of Them

    The trick will be to generate such worldwide publicity, to make every person aware, that for Putin to snuff out Jehovah’s Witnesses will be comparable to his strangling a cat on live TV. He may decide not to do it. He wants to be regarded as wise, as firm where necessary, but certainly not as an unhinged Kim Jong-un.

    To be sure, he plays hardball when he has to, but he may come to realize that here he does not have to. What with Post Offices around the world being crushed with the volume of JW letters, likely from every Witness in the world, (to him or to one of his associates) everyone except the most disconnected may become aware of the situation soon to be decided by him. Will he want to be an international pariah? All our letters will be respectful, [except some seeded in by those religious enemies who want the ban to proceed] in sharp contrast to how he is usually portrayed in the West.

    He may get fed up, not with us, but with the house church that is trying to feed him the line that jw.org is extremist, doing so for the purpose of taking out the competition. He may, on a night he cannot sleep, peruse jw.org, see that it plainly is not extremist, as every other nation in the world sees, and come to resent the house church that would have him look like a total ass on the world stage. In short, he may come to realize that, what with all the very real concerns facing his country, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not one of them.

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why