Expert: Brandon Harper - 8/8/2006

Question
is it ok for a jehovah's witness to date or marry someone of a differnt religion? and if its not ok, and that jehovah's witness continues dating that person, what would happen?

Answer
Crystal,

You asked: "is it ok for a jehovah's witness to date or marry someone of a differnt religion?"

I understand your question to relate to whether it is okay according to the doctrine of Jehovahs Witnesses. The short and direct answer is no, it is not okay.

If you mean to ask whether it is okay for one of Jehovah's Witnesses to ignore organizational doctrine, then, yes. It is okay for any of Jehovah's Witnesses to ignore any doctrine they want to ignore, so long as they are willing to endure possible penalties.

You asked: "if its not ok, and that jehovah's witness continues dating that person, what would happen?"

Paul wrote: "A wife is bound during all the time her husband is alive. But if her husband should fall asleep [in death], she is free to be married to whom she wants, only in [the] Lord. But she is happier if she remains as she is, according to my opinion. I certainly think I also have God’s spirit." (1 Corinthians 7:39-40)

The Watchtower Society interprets Paul's counsel to widows who wish to remarry as a principle applying to everyone considering marriage. They further interpret "only in the Lord" to mean "only among Jehovah's Witnesses" which changes the actual text of the Bible. They impose this organizational interpretation because they teach that only Jehovah's Witnesses are true Christians, therefore everyone else is not "in the Lord." Lastly, although the context shows that Paul was giving opinion, not setting out organizational doctrine, they view this as a hard and fast rule for "true Christians," which is a euphemism for "Jehovah's Witnesses."

Possible penalties would depend largely on the "offender's" family and the number of "privileges" the "offender" has in the local congregation/organization. "Privileges" is a euphemism for "work." "Offender" and "wrongdoer" are euphemisms for persons who did something of which the Watchtower Society disapproves, whether or not the Bible teaches the action in question is wrong.

The organization often uses euphemistic references. It is a convenient way to associate dissimilar terms with each other in the minds of adherents. This allows the creation of congregationally enforcible policy that is worded in such a way as to be unactionable in courts of law.

If a person ignores counsel from congregation elders to cease a relationship with a person who is not a JW, any privileges they have can be removed, such as pioneering, handling the sound system, working behind the literature counter, etc. If the offender is a ministerial servant or elder, they will lose that position.

If the person continues to reject counsel from the elders, depending on the offender's attitude toward the elders any further penalty can potentially be imposed from inability to comment at congregation meetings to disfellowshipping, although disfellowshipping over this issue is rather rare.

I hope this has sufficiently clarified the point for you.

Respectfully,
Brandon Harper