Jehovah Witness Research Paper

Valeria Oceguera
Professor Adams
Race and Ethnicity- Soc 252
Final Project
The Jehovah Witness and Seventh Day Adventists
One of the services I attended were the Jehovah Witness and why I had decided to attend one of their services is because it’s a well known religious group but who they really are and what they stand for is what many people may not know. According to Knox, the Jehovah Witnesses began in Pennsylvania in the 1870’s and it started off with a small group of people who were studying the bible, the leader and founder of the bible study group was Charles Taze Russell and they started off as a small group but with time passing many people came to join them, they then decided to name themselves the Jehovah Witnesses (Knox 2011).
When I walked into Kingdom Hall, their place of worship, I didn't feel comfortable because how of the color, the walls and chairs were gray, the place of worship looked pretty plain, there were two big flat screen TV’s on each side of the room and a platform in front of the room between the flat screen TV’s. When I walked in everyone was really nice, they all walked up to greet me and asked me questions, “where are you coming from?” “what is your name?” “It's good that you came” they wanted to know about me. They were very welcoming, warm and before the service began they gave me a bible to follow along with them, and when they began the service they said that their topic for the day was “courage.”
The Jehovah Witness are worried and tired of the challenges their religion face in society and they ask Jesus for courage, they explained how they are persecuted at their workplace, school and in their daily lives because they are judged and they feel that people fear them. Russia banned the Jehovah Witnesses from practicing their religion and said that the witnesses, “ shuns political activity and has no record of even peaceful -- never mind violent -- hostility to the Russian authorities”(Higgins). The witnesses were banned from Russia because the government sees them as promoting violence when that is not the case, the witnesses and fear of what will happen to their brothers in Russia and prayed during the service for Jehovah to help them. The witness during the service said, “ some call us a cult, anti-government, some of our brothers are thrown into jail because of saying the word of Jehovah.” The beliefs of the Jehovah Witnesses talked about during service revolved around smoking, alcohol and the right to vote, the witnesses who smokes will be banned from the religion, witnesses can drink alcohol but need to put a limit and control themselves, and they are not allowed to vote.
The Jehovah Witnesses are strong believers in not accepting blood transfusion because blood is sacred, according to Wong, this can lead doctors and other clinicians to complicated situations “whether he should honour the patient’s wishes or perform his obligation as a doctor to do what he thinks is in the best interest of the patient.” This causes the doctor and clinicians to be confused on what they should do for their patient, they want to save their life but they also want to respect their decision on not accepting the blood transfusion if their lives depend on it (Wong 2012).
The jehovah witnesses believe and follow the rules of the watchtower, the watchtower is the place where the rules are made and it is the headquarters of the Jehovah Witnesses and is located in the United States.
The jehovah witnesses are a strong community, they talked about the reason they knock on doors, they believe that the end is near and knocking on the door is their desperation to save everyone, only those of part of the jehovah witnesses are seen as being the only saviours. During their service songs were sung about the kingdom of Jehovah and short videos were shown. The Jehovah Witnesses are believers in everyone being equal, they suffer from prejudice, discrimination and persecution, all they want is
respect.
The second place of worship I decided to attend were the Seventh day Adventists in Mamaroneck, the seventh day adventists believe Saturday is the only day that worship should take place.
The Seventh Day adventists began in 1863 and they try not to eat much meat because of what the bible says about meat causing some to be vegetarian (Sanchez, Gelabert, Bobadilla, Del Valle). When I walked into their church some said “Happy Saturday” to me. Their place of worship felt comfortable and approachable it was painted a nice white color with a high altar and they were benches with books of the songs and copies of the bible. The pastor came to greet me and during the service he announced how happy they were that they had a visitor and everyone welcomed me out
loud. During the beginning of their service they sang many songs and during the lecture they talked about how they believed they were the only witnesses, how they were the only ones who say the truth, and how people should worship on Saturdays instead of Sunday. During their prayer, they prayed for the people who were not Seventh Day Adventists and prayed for those people to know the truth to sooner convert, they mostly pray for others who are not part of their religion. The Seventh Day Adventists provide social support groups for other Seventh Day Adventists who may need it because they believe “religious social support and health suggest that greater religious social support is associated with better health.” (Lee & Charlemagne 2016).
The Seventh Day Adventists accept the LGBT community, which is good because not that many Christian religions accept the LGBT community, however, “the official position of the SDA Church is that being homosexual is not in itself sinful, but that the practice of homosexuality (i.e. same-sex sexual activity) is a violation of biblical teaching. Seventh- day Adventists believe that sexual intimacy belongs only within the marital relationship of a man and a woman.” (VanderWaal, Sedlacek, Lane). The Seventh Day Adventists believe that there are many churches and that the devil separated religions, that the Seventh Day Adventists are the only correct religion, and that the end is near and only them will be saved.
The similarities of both these religions would be they both believe that they are correct, they avoidance to meat, kind of being closed to other people who may not be from their religion, they both consider themselves Christians, they both believe that they dead will wake up and re-live eternally. The differences would be, their place of worship that has to do with the physical appearance of the place and their days of worships. Attending these two interesting places of worship made me feel good knowing about a different religion that was not Roman Catholic because I am Roman Catholic and it was nice to see something different. Both of these religions present different but similar religious, historical and social information that is interesting and worth knowing about to better understand the Jehovah Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventists.