Chronicles of Faith: Jehovah's Witnesses find strength in their religion's strict constraints

At 21, Marcie Silver wants protection -- from heartache, from the troubles that sometimes go along with being a young adult, from the consequences of haphazard living.

She believes she has found it in the Jehovah's Witness faith.

"Being in school, I saw a lot of the things my peers were going through -- teenage pregnancy and broken homes and a lot of heartache," Silver, who graduated from Chaparral High, said. "I was raised with restrictions that protected me from that stuff.

"I saw the protection I was getting from (being a Witness) and I want to keep that protection with me for the rest of my life."

As a Witness for Jehovah (Jehovah is the name of God in early versions of the Bible), Silver adheres to strict moral standards and generally steers clear of associating with people who don't share her faith.

In high school, she didn't go to the school's social events or partake in the pushing-the-envelope pastimes typical of teenagers.

"I made choices not to go to the dances and stuff, and not to be around the kids and all that -- I chose not to spend a lot of time outside of school with those who were not of my faith because I felt it would weaken me, weaken my faith," Silver said.

"A lot of people have the impression that we don't have any fun, but that's wrong -- we have our own parties."

Silver is one of about 5,000 Witnesses in the Las Vegas area -- some 3,000 are English-speaking and another 2,000 are Spanish-speaking. This year, members of several existing Kingdom Halls -- the meeting places for Jehovah's Witnesses -- mortgaged their buildings to pay for five new halls being built around the valley, according to David Silver, Marcie's dad and a fourth-generation Witness.

"The growth we're experiencing is phenomenal," David Silver said. "It's mostly a function of the population growth in Las Vegas, but some is because of our door-to-door efforts."

The Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door testimonials, which they have in recent times shifted to parking lots and other places where they are likely to find a listener. All Witnesses proselytize because they believe the Bible mandates that Christians share their faith.

Many converted Witnesses came to their own faith through door-to-door exchanges.

"When I first learned about the Jehovah's Witnesses, I liked the attitude of the people. It was was so different -- it was just a countenance of people who are happy with their lives and showing love toward one another. They love God, and love their neighbor," Loren Barrett, 62, said. He has been a Witness for 26 years.

The Jehovah's Witness organization -- The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society -- is based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was started in the 1870s. Followers were originally called the International Bible Students. Today, they report having 6 million members in more than 230 countries and a growth rate of 300,000 new Witnesses per year.

Witnesses believe in the Bible and Jesus, but they do not believe in the Holy Trinity as many other Christians do. They go to religious meetings three times a week, at which they listen to talks given by unpaid leaders, called elders. No tithings are taken at the meetings -- the organization is funded by private donations.

Inside the houses of worship, there are no crucifixes or pictures -- Witnesses believe that no other entity should be held sacred except Jehovah.

Similarly, they do not celebrate Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Year's or their own birthdays, among other commonly celebrated dates because the holidays are not Bible-based, Barrett said.

"Most of them are pretty adulterated anyway," Barrett said. "They teach greed."

Instead, Jehovah's Witnesses have special services on the date of Christ's death, which falls in the spring each year.

Witnesses also avoid other religions -- declining to be involved in interfaith or ecumenical activities because other spiritual beliefs are considered false and harmful.

"You're either right or your wrong," David Silver said. "You can't believe different things and both of you be right."

They also abstain from military service because they believe it is sinful to kill -- sometimes accepting the legal punishment that accompanies that decision in many countries.

To outsiders, the moral strictness of the Jehovah's Witnesses may seem excessive, but Witnesses don't shy away from embracing a God that requires moral performance and punishes those who don't comply.

"The reason a lot of people don't like what we say is because we say exactly what the Bible says, and sometimes that hurts a little bit," David Silver said. "We don't wrap our faith around our lives, we wrap our lives around our faith."

In fact, Silver once was forced to choose between keeping a job as a truck driver and attending a weeklong Witness elder-training program, and he chose the latter.

"I relied on the Scripture -- it says seek first the kingdom," he said. "And by the next Thursday I had a better job making more money. If you put God first, he will see that you have what you need."

God as disciplinarian

Like many other Bible-based religions, Witnesses believe God is chiefly loving and kind. But unlike the trend among some Christians to portray God as unlikely to express wrath, Witnesses support a vision of God as disciplinarian.

On the Witnesses' official website one doctrinal lesson is called "Practices that God Hates."

"Servants of God love what is good. But they must also learn to hate what is bad," the passage says. It lists the sinful behaviors that God hates -- lying, stealing, gambling, drunkenness and sex before marriage, among other things.

"People don't want to hear that you have to be responsible to God," Barrett said. "But the Bible is very strict about morality."

Barrett and his wife, Kathy, had participated in Protestant religions before becoming Jehovah's Witnesses 26 years ago. Kathy Barrett said she knew immediately after hearing the precepts of the Jehovah's Witness faith that it was, for her, right.

"I think the largest difficulties I felt I had (in converting) were quitting smoking -- Witnesses do not smoke -- and dealing with my family. They felt the Witnesses were a cult, and they were against the idea of my becoming involved," she said.

In the years since her conversion, however, her family has come to respect her faith choice, she said. But many still consider the Jehovah's Witness faith to be cultish, and for every website there is supporting the Witnesses, there is one criticizing them.

"But there is a war going on between God and Satan. Satan's organizations are religious, political and economic. The whole world is lying in the power of Satan," Loren Barrett said.

"God wants people to serve him and Satan doesn't. If someone is trying to serve God, who do you think Satan will attack? We're used to be criticized," he said.

One thing detractors criticize is the Jehovah's Witness practice of shunning members who change their beliefs and leave the organization.

"When a person is involved in sinful behavior, he is 'dis-fellowshipped' " David Silver said. "And we do not say greetings to the dis-fellowshipped. We do not speak to people who are dis-fellowshipped. ... We think it might wake them up and turn them around."

144,00 Seats in Heaven

Another thing that distinguishes Jehovah's Witnesses from other Bible-based religions is their belief that only 144,000 people will go to heaven.

Based on their biblical interpretation, Witnesses believe that the Armageddon -- "the war of the great day of God the Almighty" is coming very soon, according to David Silver. (In fact, several dates that had been cited as possible Armageddon dates have come and gone without event, and Witnesses no longer pinpoint a certain date.)

At the time of Armageddon, all those who oppose God's kingdom and are a part of "Satan's system" will be annihilated. All those who are loyal to Jehovah will enjoy everlasting life in a peaceful earthly paradise, under rule of the 144,000 kings and priests in heaven.

"We just had a sister die in Boulder City who was one of the 144,000," Loren Barrett said.

He said they "just know" she was one of the 144,000, as did she.

"Her depth of spiritual feeling was much greater than ours," he said. "You could see it when she was at the meetings. Her answers to questions were deeper and showed a deeper understanding of the spiritual things than the rest of us have."

Loren Barrett said there are about 8,000 seats left in heaven, and most of those are already reserved for exceptional Jehovah's Witnesses here on earth.

"It goes down each year. The spaces have been filled more each year. Those people will be part of the ruling society," he said.

For Marcie Silver, the philosophy of a post-Armageddon earthly existence in which everyone is healthy and happy is key to her faith. She suffers from a neurological disorder that causes her to black out occasionally, as well as from colon problems, she said.

"We have the belief that there is going to be a new world where we'll be restored to physical perfection -- that keeps me going because I believe that if I remain strong in my faith, someday I won't have these problems," she said.

Her beliefs could also affect her health prior to Armageddon, too. Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions because they say the Bible says to abstain from such practices.

The Witnesses' organization has a Hospital Information Services department and local hospital liason committees to provide advocacy to hospitalized believers who face medical staffs recommending blood transfusions.

"I have seen a couple of situations where court orders were obtained (by medical institutions) and blood was forced on infants and in some cases adults, but not many," said David Hoch, a Las Vegas Jehovah's Witness who once served as a hospital liaison.

"Some physicians can be passionate about it, understandably. They think we don't have respect for life, but we do, and we don't refuse any other type of medical treatment. But the Bible says to abstain from blood. If someone says to abstain from alcohol, you don't take it intravenously, do you?"

Marcie Silver said she is prepared to follow the rules of her faith should the need arise.

"It affects me only if I have to go in for surgery -- and I don't see that coming in the immediate future. But if I have to, I will not accept the blood transfusion," she said. "It says not to."

archive