3. Field Research
The number of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kazakhstan has been rising by 4 percent on average per year and reached 16203 in 2008 (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 2009, p.34). There is a widespread opinion that this poses a danger to national security as Jehovah's Witnesses have hidden political and commercial motives. This report seeks to find out whether Jehovah's Witnesses is a peaceful religious organization and whether government's persecution is justified. A member of Jehovah's Witnesses community, a priest and a sexton of the Russian Orthodox Church were interviewed to present their opinions about Jehovah's Witnesses. The results of the interviews will be described separately from each other. An interview with member of Jehovah's Witnesses is given first followed by an interview with a priest and a sexton of the Russian Orthodox Church.
It is always crucial to create a closer contact with the interviewee. For this reason it was decided to interview Olya who is a close friend of our family. Olya became a member of Jehovah's Witnesses 15 years ago due to the reason that she could not find any help in the Russian Orthodox Church. She was interviewed on March 1st. She was asked 11 questions including history of Jehovah's Witnesses, their main objectives and government's persecutions. Olya agreed to have her interview recorded. The interview took place at the interviewer's house and lasted more than an hour. The interview was semi-structured and was designed to gather a wide range of information from the perspective of a member of Jehovah's Witnesses. All of the questions were open-ended which allowed the interviewee to express her opinion freely. Olya is in her forties and is currently unemployed. She works as a housewife and raises cattle.
In the beginning Olya gave a brief history of Jehovah's Witnesses. Olya said that Charles Russell found Jehovah’s Witnesses during the 1870s. She adds, “Russell was a wealthy man who devoted all his property and money for the distribution of his teaching”. Jehovah's Witnesses base their studies on the Bible, which is in their own translation and is not one of the four officially recognized Bibles. Moreover, they use Watchtower magazine, which currently has a circulation of 39 million copies. This magazine has been published since 1879. Jehovah's Witnesses is a worldwide organization. Headquarter is located in Brooklyn from where all the main literature is distributed. Their literature is translated into 230 languages in the German city of Seltzers. All the rest of the literature is translated in the Russian northern capital of St. Petersburg.
Olya explained that Jehovah’s Witnesses are directed by the “Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses”, a group of elders who are already in their 80s and 90s who exercise the final authority on all doctrinal matters. There is a common belief among Jehovah’s Witnesses that Armageddon will begin as soon as these elders die. Armageddon is thought to be the doomsday after which God will establish His kingdom on earth and only the righteous will stay on earth. The unrighteous will be destroyed. Olya claimed, “less than 20-30 years are left before Armageddon starts”. Olya indicates that Jehovah’s Witnesses are “the only true Christians”.
Olya admitted that Jehovah’s Witnesses use private donations of their wealthy members for the distribution of their teaching. Sometimes Jehovah’s Witnesses inherit property of their elder members who have no relatives so that this property does not leave to the government. Olya, for example, has donated 1000$ when she received high revenue from the government. This money is used for distribution of their literature, organization of congresses and construction of temples. At one particular time up to 5000 members attend a single congress. Olya says that she has attended a congress in Kyrgyzstan.
Olya said that Jehovah’s Witnesses constructed their temple in Almaty themselves. Jehovah’s Witnesses distribute their teaching on a free basis. Jehovah’s Witnesses are divided into elders and students. Students make connections with God through their elders. Students are completely controlled by elders. For instance, the number of hours a student spends teaching Bible must be declared to the elders. Moreover, a student has to declare what kinds of books were used. Students conduct sermons according to places they live in. Simply put, the city is segmented into different parts and each part of the city has a Jehovah’s Witness who is responsible for it. Students have to attend meetings which are organized twice a week. It is obligatory since students may miss some important information.
Olya reported that Jehovah’s Witnesses respect Kazakhstani law and the government itself. However, Olya claimed “Satan rules the government”. Moreover, Olya admitted that they refuse to go to army and participate in elections. They claim that a person cannot defend his country. She quoted that “even if imprisoned, a Jehovah’s Witnesses will not go to army”. They explain their refusal to go to elections by saying that everything is already decided and there is no reason to participate in elections. Olya suggested that government is trying to control all religions as some of them are really dangerous. However, persecutions of Jehovah’s Witnesses are not justified as Kazakhstani authorities wrongly think that Jehovah’s Witnesses pose danger to national security. Furthermore, Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusion. They claim that blood is holy and a person does not have a right to transfuse it. Olya states “Jehovah’s Witnesses are not of the world”. Additionally, it is forbidden for a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses to marry someone who is not a member of their organization.
Vladimir Zagadych and Dvoreckii Sergei work in the Ascension Cathedral in Almaty. Both of them have great knowledge not only in the sphere of religion but also in politics and state governance. That is why it was decided to interview them. A semi-structured interview with open-ended questions was conducted on March 7th. Interviewees were asked several questions which were mostly based on their opinions about Jehovah’s Witnesses. Interview took part at the Ascension Cathedral in Almaty and lasted more than two hours. Semi-structured interview was done in order to help interviewees feel free in their answers. Interviewees agreed to have their interview recorded.
In contrast to what Olya said, Dvoreckii described Jehovah’s Witnesses history in another way. Dvoreckii said that Charles Russell founded Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1870s. Charles Russell was a very wealthy and “scandalous” person. He was not only accused of fraud many times but also sued for criminal liability. However, he could always get away with it as judge Joseph Rutherford was his close friend. Russell had no religious education and this fact was proven during court. Even so, he managed to write Bible in his own translation which is now used by Jehovah’s Witnesses all around the world. This translation is very poor in quality.
Dvoreckii reported that the main idea of Jehovah’s Witnesses is in “absolute contradiction to Christian Church”. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in soul, paradise and hell. They do not observe the Bible fully. Moreover, they claim “Christian Church is of Satan”. Zagadych and Dvoreckii claimed that Jehovah’s Witnesses is not only commercial but also political organization that has nothing to do with religion.
According to Dvoreckii Jehovah’s Witnesses spread their teaching through magazines such as “Watchtower” and “Awake”. Huge corporations such as P&G and Coca Cola sponsor Jehovah’s Witnesses because assets of these corporations belong to members of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses is a very wealthy and powerful organization. Zagadych claimed that otherwise they would have already been banned because of their “destructive” nature. Jehovah’s Witnesses attract new members by using aggressive marketing tools. In most cases, they achieve their goals because of people’s ignorance of religion.
Zagadych supported the idea that religion is the main cultural and organizational factor of any country. Any state is based on religion. In order to divide a nation it is crucial to take religion away from people. Zagadych quoted that Jehovah’s Witnesses have “anti-systematic, anti-social and destructive nature”. This can be explained by the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to go to the army and participate in elections. Furthermore, they claim that “Satan rules the government”. Jehovah’s Witnesses control wills of their followers. In addition to this, Jehovah’s Witnesses promote the interests of the US. Zagadych reported that US Department of State gives a green light to every kind of religious organization. This can be explained by the fact that US puts pressure on Switzerland which in turn puts pressure on countries which restrict activities of religious minorities. Recently Russia has banned Jehovah’s Witnesses in their country. Right after that Russia faced huge criticism throughout the world, mostly from the USA. Former U.S. secretary of State Madeleine Albright alleges that Russia restricts freedom of religion. Russia in turn responded to this allegation by stating that it is protecting its citizens from radical extremist sects.
Zagadych and Dvoreckii claimed that sects like Jehovah’s Witnesses bring not only a huge amount of money but also political power to the US government. Jehovah’s Witnesses send huge sums of money that they get through private donations back to their headquarters in Brooklyn. Moreover, as members of Jehovah’s Witnesses get to positions in the government they start promoting interests of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Zagadych quoted that “there are already plenty of members of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kazakhstani senate and majilis”. In 2008, when Kazakhstan tried to implement new law on religion; it has been rejected several times. Moreover, Zagadych said that these members tried to create Protestant party in Kazakhstan in order to get more places in Kazakhstani parliament, therefore, influence government’s decisions in every sphere. Zagadych indicated that Kazakhstan is a very rich country due to its natural resources. Jehovah’s Witnesses carry the politics that will ruin the government in order to get all natural resources.
Dvoreckii and Zagadych claimed that Jehovah’s Witnesses carry destructive nature. They claimed that level of alcoholism among Jehovah’s Witnesses is very high. Additionally, not only psychological diseases but also suicide rates are on the increase. There were many cases of infant murders among Jehovah’s Witnesses. This can be attributed to the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses have a “depressive” ideology, feel isolated from the rest of the world and feel that the whole world is against them.
Both Zagadych and Dvoreckii suggested that government’s persecutions of Jehovah’s Witnesses are justified; however, they claimed that this was not the best solution. One of the best solutions would be to ban activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses completely like in Russia. Although both Zagadych and Dvoreckii admitted that Kazakhstan may not sustain international pressure because of banning Jehovah’s Witnesses, they admit that Kazakhstani citizens must organize a special campaign and gather signatures in support of banning Jehovah’s Witnesses. Kazakhstani citizens must force the government to protect them. This kind of campaign will be a justification for government’s ban, thus, government will be able to justify its action on the international arena.
To sum up briefly, semi-structured interviews with representatives of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Russian Orthodox Church were conducted. Interviews are completely different from each other. Several important points from this part of the report will be used in analysis. These include: Jehovah’s Witnesses’ political and commercial motives, their attitudes towards government and their teachings.