Soon after three blasts rocked a convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) on Sunday, October 28, in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, rumours began to spread that the attack was anti-Semitic in nature and a retaliation to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. But the community that came under attack are not Jewish. Though the JWs identify themselves as Christians, most Christian denominations don’t consider them so because of differences in religious doctrine.
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not consider Christ–as mainstream Christians do–an Almighty God. They also do not worship him. Mainstream Chrisitianity believes in the Trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. To them, these are three components of one God head. For JWs, this view is a “corruption” of original Christian thought. In their own words, JWs “follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and honour him as our Saviour and as the Son of God (Matthew 20:28; Acts 5:31) Thus, we are Christians. (Acts 11:26) However, we have learned from the Bible that Jesus is not Almighty God and that there is no Scriptural basis for the Trinity doctrine.—John 14:28.”
The Bible verses mentioned earlier that JWs cite as proof for their beliefs, speak in various ways of God, the Father as supreme. Here, it is important to understand that concept of Trinity and why they do not accept it. For mainstream Christians, the Trinity is both components of one God and each operate in their individual capacities. This is why Chrisitans believe that Jesus is both divine as the Son of God and is a Saviour who was also physically born on earth for the sake of leading people to Salvation. They further believe that Christ’s crucifixion was the penalty for humanity’s sin that he bore in order to ensure this Salvation. Biblically, Christ himself surrenders his fate to the will of the Father who is considered to be above all.
In that regard, both mainstream Christians and the JWs agree that God the Father is supreme and also share their faith in the sacrifice of Christ as the Son of God. Like mainstream Christians, they believe that salvation is possible only through Christ’s sacrifice and that he is the heavenly king of God’s Kingdom. But the JWs do not believe that Christ himself was to be worshipped. They do, however, value his teachings and that of the apostles, as the true doctrine of Christianity and that human intervention after Christ have led to doctrinal corruption. Further, they consider him the “Foremost Witness for Jehovah and the central figure by whom Jehovah God will accomplish the salvation of mankind,” as mentioned on their official website.
Why did many think Jehovah’s Witnesses are Jewish?
Simply put, many were perhaps confused by the name ‘Jehovah’ which has its roots in Jewish faith and mysticism. The name goes back to the Tetragrammaton–the four Hebbrew letters, Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh that are commonly vocalised as Yaweh or Jehovah. It must be noted that early beliefs in establishing ways to refer to the god-head without saying his actual name also influenced the idea of the Tetragrammaton.
This idea is immensely complex and has varied interpretations not only within the Jewish faith, but also in mystical traditions such as the Hebrew Kabbalah and can also be seen in later esoteric western magical practices such as the Hermetic Qabalah, Golden Dawn and Thelemic Order. Similarly, when it comes to organised religions, both Jews and Christians use the names Yahweh or Jehovah to refer to God the Father. The Old Testament of the Bible particularly refers to him many times by this name.
Regardless, the JWs do not consider themselves Jewish. What does complicate matters is that the notion of Israel plays a significant role in the faith of Jews and Christians. Similar to those in the Jewish faith, many Christians too hold the belief that Israel is God’s ‘Chosen People’. These overlaps open up far too many centuries of doctrinal changes, erasures and historic wounds to explain here. It is enough to note for the purposes of this article that Zionist beliefs—the idea of Israel as a homeland for Jews and by extension, Christians are present in both religions. In the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses, they profess to hold a neutral stance on Zionism.
These overlaps and lack of awareness outside of these communities have no doubt helped fuel the confusion in the wake of the Kalamassery blasts that the intended targets were Jews. Further, many right-wing social media handles were quick to paint the bomb blasts as an attack on Jews done in solidarity with Palestine.
The rumours were heightened by a controversial solidarity meeting for Palestine, held in Malappuram, two days before the blasts, where former Hamas chief Khaled Mashel virtually addressed the gathering. The meeting that was held on Friday, October 27, was organised by the Solidarity Youth Movement, the youth organisation of Jamaat-e-Islami. However on the evening of the blasts a Kochi native who identified himself as Dominic Martin posted a video taking responsibility for the attack. He further claimed that he was a former Witness who was disillusioned by the groups “anti-national” ways.
Jehovah’s Witnesses controversies
Apart from doctrinal differences, Witnesses believe in political neutrality to the extent of not exercising electoral rights. While they claim not to deny the authority of elected governments, they believe their loyalty is to the kingdom of God. This has led to persecution, particularly in Nazi Germany. In India, in 1985 three children from the sect faced expulsion in schools for refusing to sing the national anthem. The matter was dragged before the Supreme Court at the time with the court ordering that the school must readmit the children.
On the other hand, their unscientific biases against blood transfusions and their political neutrality has led to controversies. Concerns of authoritarianism have been raised several times such as a case in 2002 when a Kentucky native in the US attempted to raise alarms about child sexual abuse. At the time, William Bowen–the whistleblower–and several other Witnesses were punished with “disfellowship”. They were completely cut off from the organisation, The New York Times reports.
During a five-year study beginning in 2015, on the pattern of child sexual abuse, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia uncovered decades worth of cases that had been covered up by JWs in the country. In 2017 the organisation themselves provided the Commission with details of 1,800 cases, relating to more than 1000 perpetrators, most of which had not been legally reported.
The Commission also discovered that the organisation dealt with complaints “In accordance with internal, scripturally based disciplinary policies and procedures. We found that at least until 1998, individuals making complaints of child sexual abuse were required to state their allegations in the presence of the person against whom the allegations were made. The ‘two-witness’ rule applied – that is, wrongdoing could only be established on the basis of testimony from two or more ‘credible’ eyewitnesses to the same incident,” their report says.