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Title: Thank Jehovah’s Witnesses for Speech Freedoms
Source:
USA TODAY
URL Source: [None]
Published: Aug 27, 2008
Author: Tony Mauro
Post Date: 2008-08-27 22:56:19 by richard9151
Keywords: None
Views: 676
Comments: 43
Date; 30 May, 2000 Source; USA TODAY If you have a front door, a Jehovah’s Witness probably has knocked on it. With well-dressed politeness and practiced persistence, they offer literature, biblical advice and a path to God’s kingdom as they see it. As often as not, they knock at the wrong time, when we’re too busy to listen or not particularly interested in shopping for another faith. But before you shut the door on a Jehovah’s Witness the next time, pause to consider the shameful persecution they suffered not too long ago, as well as the rich contributions they have made to the First Amendment freedoms we all enjoy. The legal clashes Jehovah’s Witnesses had with government authorities over their proselytizing and practices led to an astonishing total of 23 separate Supreme Court rulings between 1938 and 1946 – surely more than any other single religious organization engendered before or since. So frequently did Witnesses raise core First Amendment issues that Justice Harlan Riske Stone wrote, “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.” Next month will mark the 60th anniversary of the most infamous Jehovah’s Witness decision, one the Supreme Court got completely wrong: Minersville School District vs. Gobitis. The court, smitten by pre-World War II patriotic fervor, ruled it was constitutional to require Jehovah’s Witness students to violate their faith and pledge allegiance to the flag in public school. A Pennsylvania school district had expelled Lillian and William Gobitas (their last name was misspelled in court papers) because they kept their arms down during the daily flag salute. The Witnesses’ interpretation of the Bible is that saluting the flag would amount to placing another deity before God. As recounted in Shawn Francis Peters’ powerful new book, Judging Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Supreme Court’s decision unleashed a wave of virulent anti-Jehovah’s Witness persecution across the nation that is little remembered today. Witness missionaries were chased and beaten by vigilantes in Texas. Their literature was confiscated and even burned. Less than a week after the court decision, a Kingdom Hall was stormed and torched in Kennebunk, Maine. American Legion posts harassed Witnesses nationwide. The American Civil Liberties Union reported to the Justice Department that nearly 1,500 Witnesses were physically attacked in more than 300 communities nationwide. One Sourthern sheriff told a reporter why Witnesses were being run out of town: “They’re traitors; the Supreme Courts sys so. Ain’t you heard?” Partly because of this violent reaction to its decision, the Supreme Court reversed itself with remarkable speed. On Flag Day of 1943, the court handed down West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette, using some of the most eloquent language ever written to describe the fist Amendment freedoms Americans enjoy. “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion,” Justice Robert Jackson wrote. The active persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses abated somewhat, although thousands were arrested during World War II for seeking religious exemption from military service. They were accused, baselessly, of being Nazi sympathizers. And Witnesses continued to have run-ins with the law over leafleting, in part because of their sometimes-confrontational style. Peters tells of a Jehovah’s Witness caravan riding through Arkansas waving banners that read, “Religion is a Racket” and “Preachers are Crooks.” Today those message probably would not cause a stir, and even then they should not have triggered violence. But in the America of the 1940s, they were pretty close to fighting words. Speaking of “fighting words,” that concept was embodied in First Amendment law by another Jehovah’s Witness case, Chaplinsky vs. New Hampshire. A Witness named Walter Chaplinsky was arrested in Rochester, N.H., for his fiery street-corner evangelizing, which included attacks on the “harlot” Catholic Church and on saluting the flag. The crowd that gathered became so angry that a man tried to impale Chaplinsky on a pole bearing the U.S. flag. The supreme Court’s 1942 decision placed “fighting words” such as those used by Chaplinsky outside the First Amendment’s protection if they “by their very utterance, inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.” That standard remains relevant today and helped defeat politically correct speech codes that would have censored far-less harmful speech. Perhaps the longest-lasting contribution the Witnesses made to Fist Amendment freedoms came in a 1940 case, Cantwell vs. Connecticut. The Supreme Court. said Jehovah’s Witness Newton Cantwell and his two sons, Jesse and Russell, should not have been arrested for soliciting without a license on the streets of New Haven, Conn. Before the Cantwell decision, it was not legally clear that the First Amendment protected religious practitioners against restrictions at the state and local levels as well as federal. But the Supreme Court in Cantwell said it did, thereby ushering in an era of greatly strengthened religious freedoms. All religions have the Jehovah’s Witnesses to thank for the expansion of that freedom. But in their publications and on their Web site (www.watchtower.org) Witnesses make scant mention of their persecution and their legal battles. Unlike other groups, the Witnesses have not resorted to televangelism and don’t claim a high profile presence in society. Witnesses – all 1 million of them in this country, 3.5 million of them world wide – spread their message door-to-door and through the publications Watchtower and Awake! “Their simple but eloquent voices tell a remarkable story,” Peters says, “one that lays bare the extremes of cowardice and courage so often found in nations engrossed in war.” -- Tony Mauro, the Supreme Court correspondent for American Lawyer Media and a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors, is the author of a new book, Illustrated Great Decision of the Supreme Court. Correction; members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses now number in excess of 7 million world wide.
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#1. To: richard9151 (#0)
wow. who knew? maybe i shouldn't get so annoyed when they knock on my door. nah, they're uninvited nuisances. how've you been, richard?
Good, Christine, and you? Nice to have my computer back! As to the 'univited nuisances,' that is what I used to think as well. I should have checked closer a long time ago! Here are just a few of the things that I have learned about them over the last 9 months. 1. They offer alligence to no government of man, nowhere on the earth. 2. One wing of the Holocaust Museum in DC is dedicated to them and what was done to them in Nazi Germany -- Jehovah's Witnesses were the first people rounded up by the Nazis. 3. They do not vote, or participate in any manner with any government -- ever. 4. They live as closely as is possible in this world today according to the principles laid down in the Bible. 5. They have congregations in more than 200 lands world wide. 6. Everything they offer is free -- they NEVER ask for money. 7. They have NO ministers, priests or any kind of a heirarchy. And, no churches. They understand that the congregation is the church. 8. NO ONE receives a wage from the congregation. Everything is completely volutary, on the part of the people of the congregation. 9. They admit no one into the congregation that smokes, does drugs, is homosexual, a member of the government, a politician, or drinks to excess. Or, is a member of the military. 10. And, they have their own judicial process where if any member of the congregation back slides, they are asked to leave the group. Frankly, they are the answer to organized religion, because they understand that the principles within the Bible are not a religion; they are a way of life. Needless to say, I have been impressed. Equally impressive is what I have observed locally in how they affect those who do study with them, and how it changes the lives of such students. Another impressive fact is the fruitage of their work. I live in a town of about 25,000. I would estimate that there are more than a 1,000 people here that are members of the congregation or are Bible students with the congregation. Oh, did I mention that I am now one of such students? And, Christine, as much as I understand and have learned through the years, reading with them is like having the veils lifted off of my eyes. I very seldom find anyone who knows more details or facts than I do, or, who understands better than I do. I have NEVER found a group of people who, as a group, understands more than I do. I have now found that such a group. As I said, I am impressed.
good to have you back, richard! 2. One wing of the Holocaust Museum in DC is dedicated to them and what was done to them in Nazi Germany -- Jehovah's Witnesses were the first people rounded up by the Nazis. richard, didn't that raise a red flag? And like another people, they seem to have a propensity for fudging their supposed numbers in the camps: corior.blogspot.com/2006/...ehovahs-witnesses-in.html Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. They reject God's word that Jesus is The mighty God, The everlasting Father, which in my mind, makes them a cult. "Secrets of The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society Their Connection to Freemasonry and the New World Order Better Known as The Jehovah's Witnesses....." "......It has been proven that The Watchtower Society has been involved in Enochian magick since its founding by Charles Taze Russell. Russell himself has been linked to a Satanic bloodline and was operating with key figures whose agenda has been a New World order. ...... "...See an early edition of the Watchtower with this Masonic crown and cross on its cover. ....Russell was buried with a pyramid site marker or headstone if you will, with Masonic symbols engraved on it. This is a picture of the Masonic crown on Russell's tombstone. Click On Picture To Visit This Site! The above picture was taken from a Masons site in Texas. They have since removed the picture after this article. The above crown with the cross is very much a Masonic symbol. ......the plaque ..... reads "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society". ....." web.archive.org/web/20011...irtywatchtowersecrets.htm The Masonic Crown is also known as the fecundating cross and crown: ".....In The Masonic Report we find more about this emblem: "Question: What does Masonry's emblem of the 'Cross and Crown' actually symbolize? "Answer: The 'Cross' of Freemasonry is a philosophical cross, according to Albert Pike, 'Morals and Dogma,' p. 771. It is philosophical in the sense that it represents the generating fecundating principle by the perpendicular shaft, 350 MASONIC AND OCCULT SYMBOLS ILLUSTRATED and the matrix or womb of nature, the female producing principle by the horizontal shaft. The philosophy of the Masonic cross is totally phallic. "The 'Crown' of this Masonic emblems is also phallic, it being the first emanation of the Cabalistic Sephiroth...."4' A former Mason also explains: "The other York Rite jewelry you may see is the Templar symbol....It is a large Maltese cross with a circle in the center. Inside the circle is a red Latin cross within a crown. Around the arms of the cross is the Commandery motto, 'In Hoc Signo Vinces.' (In this sign, conquer!) "Although this may seem harmless enough, the motto is originally attributed to the emperor Constantine, who used it in conjunction with a supposedly heavenly vision to begin the subversion and politicization of Biblical Christianity into the false, apostate Alexandrian cult.... "A similar shell game is played with the word 'sign.'... The sign Constantine referred to was NOT a Christian cross, but a kind of 'X' which had both Christian and pagan associations. In modern magic, it is the sign of the slain and risen Egyptian god, Osiris (another version of the 'slain and risen' Hiram Abif). -Again Masonry has downgraded Jesus and replaced Him with its own 'christ'." [Emphasis in the original] 351 MASONIC AND EASTERN STAR SYMBOLS Two other groups (both with Masonic connections) use the cross and crown. Charles Taze Russell was a Mason who started the Jehovah Witnesses.'4' He used the red cross and other distinctive features of the Knights Templar logo.'" He also used the Masonic symbol of the winged sun-disk with snakes and he is "buried in a pyramid with masonic symbols on its capstone." 149 ......" http://watch.pair.com/lahaye.html "....We have founded many secret associations, which all work for our purpose, under our orders and our direction. We have made it an honor, a great honor, for the Gentiles to join us in our organizations (such as Masonry), which are, thanks to our gold, flourishing now more than ever. Yet it remains our secret that those Gentiles who betray their own and most precious interests, by joining us in our plot, should never know that those associations are of our creation, and that they serve our purpose. One of the many triumphs of our Freemasonry is that those Gentiles who become members of our Lodges, should never suspect that we are using them to build their own jails, upon whose terraces we shall erect the throne of our Universal King of the Jews; and should never know that we are commanding them to forge the chains of their own servility to our future King of the World . . . " B'Nai B'rith speech. Verdict: IMHO, Jehovah's Witnesses are another cryptoJew organization.
#34. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#31)
First off, Jesus is the mighty god, and they know that. Secondly, he IS NOT the Father, and they know that very well. If you would care to read the post I put up yesterday about Mary -- Mother of God? You may learn a few things. Thirdly, they know very well who the Jews are, and, they openly talk about them and the problems that they cause/have caused. And, such is repeated in their writings. Fourthly, I started off with your attitude when I started my Bible study with one of them, and NOTHING has been said by this group that is not EXACTLY Bible based. IN ALL CASES. Fifthly, no one can deny the fruit of their efforts, world wide. And I have yet to see any masonic sysmbols in anything they produce, so I am not inclined to take someone's word for sometning like that without personal knowledge. Sixth, just as they seldom say anything about the problems they have world wide with governments because of their refusal to bow down to the flags, serve in the military and etc., they have VERY VERY little to say about what happened in Germany. One man opened up to me about it, and mentioned the museum, and that was it. I have personal experience with them, and nothing I have seen or heard matches with ANYTHING that I have read/heard about them. The Russell name does not ring a bell with me. No one speaks much about individuals. EVERYONE talks about Jehovah and His Work. That about sums it up.
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#2. To: christine (#1)
how've you been, richard?
#31. To: richard9151 (#2)
Replies to Comment # 31. The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
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