Jehovah's Witnesses, can you give me some examples?

It is a fact that people on this planet to to hate one another and kill one another in large rates. It is not only JWs who have awful things happen to them for their faith.

The most documented place I know of about things done to JW online (not a JW source) is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

http://www.ushmm.org/shared/search/main.php?q__typ...

If that link doesn't work, just go to http://www.ushmm.org/ and search. There is a video online there for being shown in public schools about this. While some of the books listed are written by JWs, many are written by apologetics or non JW defenders and historians.

BBC in England also did a series on human rights violations. The episode on Jehovah's Witnesses was called Purple Triangles. JWs got the right to copy and distribute that.

Forum 18 and Amnesty International and courts of humans rights also have many cases going on.

Here in America, non JW family members do many things to stop people. It was done to me. You can easily be accused of being depressed or mentally ill and put in hospitals and given drug treatment.

My ex-husband and his family had me put in by filing a supposed murder plot I had against my husband. They used it to divorce and gain custody of my 4 y/o son.

Later, I did have a nervous breakdown from stress and my Dad sent me to one again. I was kept there for 2 months though I learned a whole lot about legal rights and about what people do to others even here in supposedly the greatest human rights country.

The lady in the bed next to me was homosexual and they treated her with a "cure" for her lesbianism with some medicine they told her was merely vitamins. Her lawyer told her it was a drug to control sexual perverts and pedophiles and such.

She and I kept talking to people who came in to see what had been done to them by families and turned them over to her lawyer. Because I looked more clean-cut and churchy, I took the ones who looked like that. She was a biker leather wearing one and talked to those types first.

My Dad had said he would not take me home as long as I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses (it was written in my record which I learned I had the right to read). A worker was discussing with me that I was going to have to stay in there indefinitely as they didn't feel I was making progress enough to be sent home.

I told them that was ok. That my friend, Kathy (the lesbian) and I were sitting in there and interviewing everyone who came into the place and turning them over to her lawyer (who had started visiting the place once or twice a week to talk to all the people who we had gathered. He also wanted me to sue my parents.)

Their drugs and talk could not change me (even though they actually even gave me sodium pentathol twice while there supposedly to make me tell the truth about my supposed cocaine use---which I'd never done).

Just a brief presentation as to situations. I will reference

*** jv chap. 30 p. 680 ‘Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News’ ***

In Italy and Hungary, as in Romania, Bible literature used by the Witnesses was confiscated by the police under the governments that were then ruling. The same was done in Japan, Korea, and the Gold Coast (now called Ghana). Jehovah’s Witnesses who had come from abroad were ordered to leave France. For many years none of Jehovah’s Witnesses were granted permission to enter the Soviet Union to preach about God’s Kingdom.

I can add a few experiences from my family who have been Witnesses for over 100 years.

My grandparents were both of the anointed and very zealous all their lives. Their daughter, my Mom, went to the Gilead missionary school in the early forties. Grandpa had the responsibility during the the thirties, when we faced much opposition in the US, to go along with field service groups and he and another brother would go down one side of a street while the others in the group worked down the opposite side. Often the group on the opposite side would be arrested but Grandpa and the other brother were NEVER noticed by the police. The police didn't seem able to see them! The reason was that their responsibility was to go and bail out the brothers who got arrested. They were always able to do this.

Another thing that happened to them was that my Grandma had what would probably be recognized as bi-polar disorder today. She was always faithful but she suffered from severe bouts of depression and mania. Due to all the threats of violence against the Witnesses and even threats against her family she suffered several nervous breakdowns. But she always rebounded well and was faithful and zealous all her life. One of her bad episodes happened after my Mom finished Gilead school and was sent on an assignment right here in the States. But this was during the end of the second world war and persecution was at a peak here. The threats sent her into another breakdown and my Mom was told by Br. Knorr to go home and help out her Dad and Mom. Her Mom recovered and they pioneered for many years all over Long Island when there were very few Witnesses there. Mom eventually married my Dad another Witness who himself had been put into prison in Connecticut with many other young brothers because they would not fight in the war.

OK, I'm back.

I wanted to add that the biggest form of persecution I personally see is the knee-jerk reaction of hatred toward Jehovah's Witnesses in person or online. Just look at the nasty answers you yourself got on your other question about thanking Jehovah's Witnesses. People are programmed by this world to respond that way. Just say you are a Witness and people's faces turn nasty and then frequently they themselves say and do hurtful things. We face this every day, all the time.

Just last week what I thought would be a short simple Biblical message on Twitter turned into almost a hate The Bible and Witnesses free-for-all. A few people did respond positively but the instantaneous rush of venom from just ordinary people, not even opposers, was amazing. Most of them were completely ignorant about what the Bible really teaches and thought themselves very smart in the worldly sense but they really knew SO little and were filled with so much hostility. This is Satan's world and it hates us simply because we are not part of it and its wickedness, just as Christ said true worshippers would be.

They do pretty well for themselves, there has been much growth in their organization since it's beginnings, I don't think they need your personal boost to sell themselves.

They are not selling themselves neither are they? Sounds like your trying to pride build in them. I'm not surprised. They don't need that kind of help !

God's people will always be on the minority side. And persecuted. I believe the bible tells us that. They don't have to prove that is how it is, the bible is proof enough and past and current events back up that bible truth.

The rest is public obtainable

Hi again,

There are some good links to see from some of our brother & sisters who have taken the time to get some links for you. Here is one from "Wikipedia" click on the link and scroll down to the section "persecution".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovahs_witnesses#Pe...

There you will see on the right of the page a purple triangle that was sewn onto the prison uniform of German JW in the concentration camps, just a sober reminder for us!

There was a ITV television programme here in the UK all about the JW's in the camps during the 2nd world war, this was a independent programme made by one of the main TV station in the UK, if you ask the person that sent you the books he might be able to send you a copy of the DVD of the programme, it was called "The purple triangle" it is just amazing!

Here is a clip that I found on YouTube, it features the account of one family of about 9 that were rounded up by the Nazi and put into the camps because of being JW's, 2 were even executed!

I am SO PROUD that my German brothers and sisters in Nazi Germany stood up to Hitler and his Nazi's and would not support him in his madness, and would not even "Heil Hitler" him! Just a shame that those form the main stream Churches did not do the same, that way Hitler would have been all on his own with no one to fight his mad war!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXzqo7iM-UA

Regards

Terry

EDIT....I look forward to your feedback on this so that we can see what you think!

A misconception that must be cleared up is that we "sell" our religion. We are messengers that others can pay attention to, or not.We are happy when others decide to join us and help us in the work, but we don't sell anything. Persecution comes in a variety of ways. For the majority of us it comes from family members that choose to disown us despite our best efforts to live up to Bible principles.

For one thing you need to understand the reason for our persecution, there are many example of different ones being persecuted because of their faith, just look at anyone that calls themselves a Christian in countries that are controlled by the Muslim faith they are put to death without a trial so one could call that persecution.

Jesus said his true followers would be hated for being his followers, you tell me what religion that say they follow Jesus Christ are hated for that, all the so called Christian faiths get along with each other just look at the international world peace conference that was held in 1998!

All religious denomination where there and all were friendly with each other, but not so when it comes to these same religious leaders views about Jehovah's Witnesses- we are called a cult-sect-non believers in God, in fact we are hated by the religious leaders around the world and in many countries these religious leaders have used the governments to ban us and this is true today as we speak.

Just go to the sites that my fellow brothers and sisters have provided for details-there are too many to mention here on Y!A and keep in mind that in each and everyone of these cases all we had to do was renounce our faith and all would be forgiven, not the case with all other religious persecution as they would still have to endure what was happening to them because it wasn't the faith that was in question it was them and their actions.

Even during WWII Jehovah's Witnesses where put into prison in every country that fought in that war no matter what country they lived in and whose side that country was on. Why? because Jesus said we are to [LOVE] our neighbor as ourselves(Mark 12:29-31) Jesus answered: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, 30 and you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

NOW THAT'S BEING PERSECUTED BECAUSE OF JESUS' TEACHINGS- We are the only ones that fall into this category, for individual cases there are 1000's and if you take the time you will see the reason why they were persecuted was because of their following the teachings of Jesus Christ and not the adulterated teachings of Christendom's clergy!(2 Timothy 4:3, 4) For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories.

Because of these false religions we follow what is said in scripture(2 Timothy 4:2) preach the word, be at it urgently in favorable season, in troublesome season, reprove, reprimand, exhort, with all long-suffering and [art of] teaching.(Matthew 24:14) And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.

(Matthew 28:19, 20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded YOU. And, look! I am with YOU all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”

1.6 billion hours where spent in the door to door work last year and the Watchtower and Awake are the [TWO] largest distributed magazines in the world. This in itself testifies that we have Jehovah's Holy Spirit as backing.

There are many honest and innocent people that have their minds blinded by Satan but they need to wake up(2 Corinthians 4:3, 4) If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.

One more thought- All our preaching work is done on a voluntary basis and [all] expenses our out of our own pockets, we are more organized than any company or business in the world and [many] companies have tried to implement how our organization is ran but with them it cost them millions as there are 7.5 Jehovah's Witnesses averaging 10 hours monthly in every country of this world, something no religion or business has ever been able to accomplish!

I will only address my own persecution because that will take up enough space. I started going to Sunday meetings with my father as an 11-year-old. I attended them twice monthly on visitation rights with him. When my mother found out she was livid. After every visitation with my father my mom would ask "Did you go to the Kingdom Hall with your father?" I wanted to be honest so I told her the truth. Then a big argument would ensue. She would get all red-faced and scream at me. "A CATHOLIC PAMPHLET SAID THEY ARE A CULT!!!" "I AM YOUR PARENT. THE BIBLE SAYS YOU SHOULD OBEY YOUR PARENTS!!!" Nothing would shut her up. I used logic, argued back, nothing worked. When she said that a Catholic book said they were a cult I might point out that she didn't even attend the Catholic Church and said she was disillusioned with it so why was she listening to them now? Or I might say "So what if a book says something. A man wrote that book. Did you know what the Bible says?" Of course she didn't. When she'd yell "THE BIBLE SAYS YOU ARE TO OBEY YOUR PARENTS" I'd point out that the Bible also says "You must obey God before man." or that a scripture says "Parents do not be irritating your children."

On a visitaiton with my father he told me that words like "darn" and "heck" and "geez" were euphemisms for curse words. I happened to mention that to my mother once. She screamed "DID THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES TEACH YOU THAT? THEY ARE NOT!" So I got a dictionary and showed her that they were and she backed down. Then a couple months later we had the same discussion and she forgot that I had proved that they were and insisted that I was wong. After our fights, then it was time for her to select my punishment (as if the yelling wasn't enough punishment.) My brother was the one who initially sold me out for going to the meetings with my dad and I think my punishment was often doing his chores. So it really worked out for him. But you know what? I am a much more well-adjusted successful person than he is today, so I am the one who got ahead in life. Ironically, of all of us siblings I have helped my mom out the most as an adult because I take my Christian duty seriously and know that family should take care of each other.

Anyway, the abuse went on for 3 more years and then I rebelled at 15-yrs-old. Then my mom really had problems with me. She never failed to see the connection to how she treated me and my consequent behavior.

I wish that I would have stuck with it through my teen years but I did hold up for 3 or 4 years at a very young age and I am proud over that. I did my Bible studying with a flashlight at night.

As an adult, I have dealt with nasty comments and judgmental things but fortunately they can't go too far with that behavior at work because there are laws against harassment.

I attended a funeral at a Lutheran church a couple of years ago for an in-law. I ask the clergy the details of how the service would be conducted because I just wanted to attend out of respect but not join in with praying or kneeling or whatever. The Clergy person respectfully explained what it would consist of. Then the Clergy told an in-law about our conversation. The in-law took the story and ran with it. She made up a lie and said that I called the Clergy member at her (lady minister) home and told her off and got her all upset. I supposedly told her how I wanted the funeral directed. My husband barely spoke to me for a week and when he did it was to be nasty to me. I didn't know what was up. Finally he told me and I told him no such thing happened. He called the minister and the minister said "No that never happened. We had a nice conversation and she was very gracious." My husband called his sister to set it straight with her but I was sworn to secrecy not to confront the aunt about this nor could I get the word out to other family that I hadn't done this. Here is the ironic thing. I had only been around this in-law a handful of times and never had any bad blood with her. She made up this lie simply because of bigotry toward my religion.

There have been many so called "Christian churches" that have suffered persecution throughout history. That does not mean they are all the 'only true Christian church." JW's think that if someone disagrees with them it constitutes persecution. The only persecution JW's experience comes from their own persecution complex.

The other Witnesses have answered quite nicely. You should find plenty there. So, I will do like at least one other did. (Sorry, forgot name of other) and give you my personal example.

I have been a Witness for Jehovah for over 35 years, I have seen much cruelty from the world in that period of time.

Mine started when I was in school, Like most Jehovah's Witness youths I faced much opposition and teasing while at school. In fact, school for me was intolerable. I found myself getting beat up every day. Which was extremely hard for me, because I was plenty big enough to defend myself. I was raised on a farm and learned hard work at a young age, and add to that I was always the tallest person in my grade and usually the grade above me. Yet, I found myself getting beat up at least once a day, many times 2 or 3 times per day and one day I got beat up 6 different times. I continued this way for years, then finally, I was told by a Circuit Overseer that when Jesus told us to turn the other cheek he was talking about an insult type of slap, not a bodily injury type of slugging. And that when Jesus told us to be peaceable, he said as far as it depends upon you. Well, that does not mean that we can not protect ourselves when we are getting the crap kicked out of us. I was very happy to hear that, I stopped the next fight with a bear hug and carried the guy who was hitting me into the principles office while he was still hitting me on the top of the head. The fights stopped after that for 3 years, then they ganged up on me. 16 to 1. Somehow, and I always gave Jehovah the credit for this one, because I have no idea as to exactly how it happened, but I was the one who walked out, while the 16 others were working their way back to their feet.

Fast forward 2 and a half decades. I am now a father of 3 beautiful daughters. I was married to their mother for 14 years, She studied, got baptized and then turned against the truth, about 7 years into the marriage. This made the next 7 extremely hard. Raising children is hard enough, raising them to love Jehovah in this system is even harder, but when you have someone filling their little heads full of lies it is nearly impossible.

The separation was extremely hard. My ex went to the courts and lied and had a restraining order put against me, she went to the elders and lied, of course they knew she was lying, but still it made it hard to face everyone in the hall for a few weeks, knowing she was saying all of this against me. Not sure if everyone knew me well enough to know I did not have a secret life I was hiding. But the hardest was when she left the state and took the kids and courts refused to hold up their legal obligation, She committed a felony by moving the children out of the state, not to mention she cleaned out my personal bank account with a forged check. 16 months before I was able to find her, when I did, it was my oldest daughter who contacted me. She had been pimped out by her mother so that her mother could get more drugs. My heart was beyond broken. I was fit to be tied and had homicidal thoughts, it took a lot of prayer to cool my temper down. But I was able to, with Jehovah's help of course.

Fast forward to just last month. I had gained custody of 2 of my 3 daughters when my ex went to jail in '07 for dealing drugs. She plea bargained and got off with probation and at the end of her probation if she did not get into any more legal trouble her record would be cleared. Somehow she managed not to be caught again, when this happened she called DCFS (Department of Child and Family Services) and told them that I was physically and sexually abusing my 12 year old daughter. Luckily, my oldest daughter is now grown and can avoid her mother, but my 12 year old was taken into the states custody. Even thought he call came in from 2500 miles away. The state used my religious beliefs against in court. basically, that I was teaching my daughter that God existed and created everything which they claimed was against "factual proof of evolution". Exactly, what factual proof they have I would love to know, since none exist. But that was enough for the court to take her out of a loving home, where she was being well cared for adn loved, and sent her across the country to a woman who has been in jail, convicted and served probation for selling drugs out of her home while minors, (my daughters) were present.