Jehovah’s Witnesses And Its Dependence Relationship To America

Does a non-orthodox religion like Jehovah’s Witnesses have a dependencerelationship to America? Since the1870s, Jehovah’s Witnesses has developed fromStudent Bible Movement to a religious denomination with an average membership ofapproximately7.5million in more than230lands around the world. After observingthe development of Jehovah’s Witnesses, we may find they went through a lot ofadversities in the United States, especially during the wartime. With all the ups anddowns it has gone through, scholars tend to attribute the successful development ofJehovah’s Witnesses only to the self endeavor of the organization and at the same time,begin to doubt the essence of religious freedom in America. This thesis aims toanalyze whether non-orthodox religion has a dependence relationship to America.Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion parts, the thesis mainly consists offour chapters. The first chapter will be an overview of Jehovah’s Witnesses, includingan introduction of the organization founder Charles Taze Russell and his BibleStudent Movement, from which Jehovah’s Witnesses as an independent religiousgroup came into being later. This part will also discuss its beginning process as wellas its elementary structure established in the early years. Then it will outline the chiefbeliefs of the Witnesses, including their source of doctrines which are set up by theruling council of Jehovah’s Witnesses, their understanding that the Jehovah is the onlygod that all worship should be directed toward him, and that he is not part of trinity,ect.. Moreover, attention will be paid to the mouthpiece of Jehovah’s Witnesses, suchas The Watchtower, which is the primary means of disseminating the doctrines ofJehovah’s Witnesses. Then, Jehovah’s Witnesses and their free practices will beobserved in the second part. Living in the secular society morally corrupted and underthe influence of Satan, they, as disciples of Jehovah’s Witnesses, spread their doctrines to the mainstream society and keep evangelizing in the secular world, andachieve much success in attracting new recruits in the way of door-to-door preaching.To fight against the resistances from outside world, they take lawsuit as a weapon todefend their right. Most important of all, in Chapter Three, the thesis probes into thehistorical context of the United States as to how it makes the development of non-orthodox religions possible, giving particular attention to the inclusiveness ofAmerican religion. Additionally, through case studies about Jehovah’s Witnesses, theroots of religious freedom of the nation will be well illustrated. After examiningJehovah’s Witnesses and some other non-orthodox religious minority’s growth inAmerica in the last chapter, the thesis points out that although there is arguably cleardependence relationship between Jehovah’s Witnesses and intensely religiousAmerica, there is some limitation to such dependence relationship, due primarily tocertain historical and current social factors.