Expert: Gordon Cook - 6/16/2010

Question
I would like to know what civil liberties others enjoy as a result of what Jehovah's Witnesses have done in the courts.  It is my view that the time was right for civil liberties to be accepted and that any group could have performed the same function.  What actual freedoms do I, for example, assuming that I was a US citizen, have that I wouldn't otherwise have?  Would I have otherwise had the right to hand leaflets out at a train station?  This may not be your area of expertise.  It certainly isn't mine, although I have been one of Jehovah's Witnesses.  It seems to me that Jehovah's Witnesses have simply won the right for others to behave similarly to what they do.

Answer
The Watchtower Society is proud of its extensive use of the world's court systems, claiming it has benefited the preaching work and freedom of speech for people in general.

"Legal cases involving the Witnesses have numbered many thousands, and hundreds of these have been appealed to higher courts. This has had a profound effect on the law itself and has often fortified legal guarantees of basic freedoms for people in general. But this has not been the main objective of Jehovah's Witnesses. Their principal desire is to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. Legal action that they take is not because they are social agitators or legal reformers. Their objective is to 'defend and legally establish the good news,' even as was true of the apostle Paul." Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom p. 678

It is interesting to examine the lengths the Watchtower is prepared to go.


Jimmy Swaggart Case

In 1988, Jimmy Swaggart was taken to court in the case Swaggart Ministries v. California Board of Equalization. This regarded paying tax on profit derived from sales of religious material. (http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1989/1989_88_1374/argument/ April 6th 2007) Realising a ruling against Swaggart could result the sale of Watchtower publications being taxed the Watchtower Society filed a Brief of Amicus Curiae (friend of the court) for United States Supreme Court Docket # 88-1374. This was to support Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. With the decision looking likely to go against Swaggart, the Watchtower Society initiated the 'voluntary donation' arrangement in the United States before the ruling.


Bulgarian Government

On March 9th 1998 the Watchtower Society and the European Commission of Human Rights brokered an agreement with the government of Bulgaria. For Jehovah's Witnesses to be recognized as a religious organization in Watchtower Society Bulgaria the Watchtower Society had to ensure that "members should have free choice in the matter [of blood transfusions] for themselves and their children, without any control or sanction on the part of the association." They guaranteed that Witnesses are free to make their own choice on the use of blood, with blood transfusions removed from being a disfellowshipping offence. This was quite deceptive, as taking blood became an automatic offence to be disassociated instead, making any freedom of choice quite meaningless.

While using the worlds courts to gain freedom of speech for the organization the same can not be said for its own members. Any open disagreement with any doctrine of the Governing Body is grounds for removal from the Organization, with members strictly forbidden from speaking to such members.