Jehovah's Witnesses
beat a hasty retreat after UN affiliation exposed
The elderly and reclusive
leadership of the New York-based Jehovah's Witnesses
fundamentalist religious sect beat a hasty and unusual retreat
last week after being accused by followers of hypocrisy for
secretly affiliating to the United Nations, an organisation it
condemns in virulent terms.
Stephen Bates
The Guardian Weekly
18-10-2001, page 23
The decision to abandon
its NGO status came within two days of the Guardian's revelation
that it had been associated with the organisation it damns as the
scarlet-coloured beast from the Book of Revelation for the past
nine years.
The Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society of New York, as the sect, which has 6m members
worldwide, is formally called, denounced the UN as "a
disgusting thing in the sight of God and his people" in a
publication circulated to followers only three years ago.
Yet NGOs affiliating to
the UN are supposed to show that they support the ideals of its
charter, demonstrate an interest in UN issues, have the ability to
reach large and specialised audiences, and have the commitment and
means to conduct effective information programmes about UN
activities.
In fact the Witnesses'
leaders have spent 80 years attacking the world body and its
predecessor, the League of Nations, as Babylon the Great, the
harbingers of world domination.
One Witness said: "There
is a glaring inconsistency which has emerged between the WTBTS's
frequent portrayal of the UN as an evil organisation and its
behind-the-scenes attempts to curry favour with that organisation.
By no stretch of the imagination could the WTBTS be considered to
share the ideals of the UN charter unless you suppose that
destruction of the UN by God is consistent with that charter."
News of the affiliation
caused consternation among followers and former members alike, who
bombarded the UN for confirmation. Loyalists claimed that the news
had been spread by apostates and even tried to claim that the UN's
website, listing 1,500 affiliated NGOs, must have been forged or infiltrated.
In a written statement
Paul Hoeffel, chief of the UN's NGO section, said: "The
organisation applied for association . . . in 1991 and was granted
association in 1992. By accepting association . . . [it] agreed to
meet criteria . . .including support and respect of the principles
of the charter of the UN. In October 2001 the Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society of New York requested termination . . . [the UN] has
made a decision to disassociate [it] as of 9 October."
A UN spokeswoman described
the sect's attitude as "really strange" and questioned
why the organisation had ever thought the Witnesses qualified for
affiliation, given the vehemence of the sect's denunciation of the
UN. NGO affiliation does not attract financial support but does
confer status, and critics believe that the WTBTS affiliated in
order to give it respectability with sceptical governments, such
as France's, which have refused to recognise the sect.
The row is the latest to
rock the sect, which is governed from Brooklyn by a secretive
group of elders. Followers who criticise their decisions are often
"disfellowshipped", which means that other members,
including even family members, are instructed to shun them.
The extreme literalness of
their interpretation of the Bible has led to controversial
instructions such as ordering members to refuse to accept blood
transfusions even at the risk of death. A decision, taken by a
vote of eight to four by the leadership last year, apparently
after a divine revelation, modified this to allow the acceptance
of blood components so long as there was subsequent repentance.
Disaffected former
followers have also been outraged at the sect's procedures for
dealing with allegations of child abuse. These insist that there
must be two independent witnesses - an almost impossible
stipulation - before accusations are investigated. Private
instructions to elders in Britain suggest that documentary
evidence should be burned.
While worried followers
were told by their elders that the accusation of affiliation to
the UN was rubbish, the Witnesses' British spokesman, Paul
Gillies, insisted: "We do not have hostile attitudes to
governing bodies, and if we are making representations on issues
to the UN we will do so. We believe what the Book of Revelation
tells us, but we do not actively try to change the political
system."
The Guardian Weekly
18-10-2001, page 23