Attempt to Develop a Marxist Critique of the Jehovah Witnesses.

This post was originally intended as a comment for the Political Activism Against Cults Facebook group. A link to this blog posting has been shared on the PAAC Facebook group.

“The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world… Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.” – Karl Marx

The Jehovah Witnesses are a fundamentalist Christian restorationist denomination with anti-trinitarian doctrines distinct from Nicene Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million members in 2020. Jehovah’s Witnesses are directed by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a group of anointed elders located in Warwick, New York, United States. This body establishes all of the religion’s theology and doctrines based on their interpretation of the Bible. The Jehovah Witnesses utilize their own version of the scriptures called New World Translation (2013 Edition). They believe that the destruction of the present world system (its political, religious and commercial subsets) at the battle of Armageddon is imminent, and that the subsequent establishment of God’s Kingdom over the earth is the only solution for all the social and economic problems faced by humanity. The Jehovah Witness organization (The Watchtower) emerged from the International Bible Student Movement founded in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell, who also co-founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881 to publish and distribute the movement’s publications.

The parable of the “faithful and discreet slave” (Matthew 24:45-47; Luke 12:42-44) is used by the Watchtower organization’s Governing Body to back the claim that their predecessors where appointed by Jesus Christ in 1919 to lead his people. Jehovah Witnesses claim that in doing so, Jesus Christ liberated his people from captivity in “Baylon the Great” (false religion) and created the conditions for the restoration of the first century Christian congregation. The modern Governing Body inherits the authority of the “faithful and discreet slave” in a manner similar to that of Apostolic succession in the Catholic Church. 

There is no divine direction from “Jehovah” (a caricature of the Abrahamic deity). In reality, the Watchtower religious corporation is a man made and man managed entity. Its theology was and continues to be formulated by men. The “Holy Spirit” is not involved in the organization’s management or in the process of formulating theological teachings. The International Bible Student Movement founded by Charless Taze Russell in the 1870’s advocated a version of restorationism (or Christian primitivism); the belief that Christianity should be restored along the lines of what is known about the apostolic early church, which restorationists see as the search for a purer and more ancient form of the Christian religion. Fundamentally, “this vision seeks to correct faults or deficiencies (in the church) by appealing to the primitive church as a normative model.” (Anthony L. Dunnavant, 2004). Russell sought to restore the Christianity of the first century by grounding his theology on Bible exegesis. In this sense he based his methodology on the principles established by the Reformation, notably Martin Luther. The context for the emergence of Russell’s restorationism was the period following the Great Awakening beginning in the late eighteenth century and lasting until the middle of the nineteenth century in the United States. The trend was a Christian fundamentalist reaction to the secularization of society resulting from the political and cultural influence of liberalism and had an economic basis as a reaction to the negative societal effects of industrialization. 

“Marxist materialism, reduced to its essentials, involves commitment to the following propositions: 1. The material world exists independently of human (or any other) consciousness. 2. Real, if not total or absolute, knowledge of the world is possible and has, indeed, been attained. 3. Human beings are part of nature, but a distinct part. 4. The material world does not derive, in the first instance, from human thought; human thought derives from the material world.” – John Molyneux, “Marxism and Religion” (2008)

Jehovah Witnesses call their belief system “The Truth”. They contrast their viewpoint with what they call in derisory terms “Human Thinking”. They assume that their theology is derived from divine revelation through the Bible and that it does not originate with man. This is the fundamental fallacy of Jehovah Witness thinking. The material basis for religious faith is alienation. Alienation results from the experience of oppression, exploitation, poverty and social inequality in capitalist society. Alienated people seek security, a sense of identity and belonging in context of a religious congregation and its beliefs. The Jehovah Witness congregation provides a sense of identity and security to its members, but on a conditional basis. The Jehovah Witnesses maintain congregational cohesion through the enforcement of harsh discipline, shunning and peer pressure to conform to the organizational culture. They also enforce strict sectarian adherence to their teachings by means of systematic propaganda in their website, on videos and in the Watchtower Magazine. There is no freedom of thought, criticism or inquiry among Jehovah Witnesses. Their hostility towards Science and Higher Education derives from an attempt to shield members from being exposed to information that contradicts the Watchtower Organization teachings and interpretation of the Bible. On an individual basis, indoctrinated Jehovah Witnesses tend to experience cognitive dissonance when exposed to information that challenges the ideology of the organization. The ideological discomfort is triggered by the Witness belief system clashing with new, contradictory information (usually Scientific fact, as in the case of evolution; or historical fact as in the date for the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonian forces in 587 B.C.E.). Adherence to the doctrinal system is maintained through systematic confirmation bias. The effort to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports their prior organizationally mandated beliefs and values. 

Reference>>> Religious fundamentalism – why is it growing and what is the alternative?

“In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” – Karl Marx

Jehovah Witness teachings stress an extreme form of Objective idealism. According to Wikipedia:  “Objective idealism posits the existence of an objective consciousness which exists before and, in some sense, independently of human consciousness, thereby bringing about the existence of objects independently of human minds.”  Jehovah Witnesses affirm in a fundamentalist manner that Jehovah God exists before man and the universe, “causes to become” and constitutes an autonomous consciousness. Jehovah is creator, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. He has no beginning and no end. Their faith in the existence of Jehovah is absolute and implicit. Their belief that He manifests materially is also absolute. They point to scriptures such as Luke 12:22 “Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples: “That is why I say to you, stop being anxious about your lives as to what you will eat or about your bodies as to what you will wear…” to encourage an anti-materialist reliance on divine action to meet human needs. It is said that absolute adherence to the ideology of the organization determines a state of authentic Christian being, and assures salvation into the “New System” to be established after Armageddon. Implicitly, the Jehovah Witness mindset denies the agency of human action. All of this constitutes a denial and inversion of objective reality, because there is no “Jehovah” to determine being or provide for material needs. The Jehovah Witness radical denial of materialist reality constitutes a dangerous form of false consciousness. Tragically, as is the case with the blood teaching (which bans members from obtaining blood transfusions), members of the religion have sacrificed their lives upholding falsity. 

“…Mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc…” – Karl Marx

Jehovah Witnesses are told by the organization, that they must trust in Jehovah’s promise to care for their material needs if they seek His Kingdom first. In the Bible, this requirement is based on the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 6:31-33. The Jehovah Witness position implies that there is a “Jehovah” to care for the said material needs. The anti-materialist position of the Watchtower organization is harmful in that it is based on a denial of reality. Material needs are fulfilled through the collective labor of workers in context of an organized economic system, and not by divine intervention. “Jehovah” is only an idea. An idea requires a human brain to formulate it. Ideas can not exist independently of matter. As Alex Grant of the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency explained: “A human brain requires a body. A body requires food. Food production requires the existence of an organized economy and the application of human labor”. Material needs can only be met by action in the material world, not by the intervention of ideas.

“Marxists take as their point of departure not the religious beliefs of the movement’s leaders or of its supporters, or the doctrines and theology of the religion concerned, but the political role of the movement, based on the social forces and interests which it represents.” – John Molyneux.

Jehovah Witnesses are forbidden to involve themselves with patriotic ceremonies, serve in the armed forces, join a political party, hold or express political opinions, run for a political office, or exercise the right to vote. The Watchtower organization cites John 15:19, John 17:16, John 6:15 and James. 4:4 to support its ban on Jehovah Witnesses participation in politics including voting or joining a labor union. This doctrine is called “Christian Neutrality”. The organization maintains that the solution to social and economic problems is not to be found in political or union action; but rather in the earthly establishment of  Kingdom rule by Jesus. The Jehovah Witness position in effect demobilizes its working class followers politically and serves the interests of the preservation of capitalist injustice, violence and exploitation insofar as it prevents its eight and a half million followers from taking organized action against capitalism. The majority of Jehovah Witnesses are working class and poor Latin Americans and Africans living in underdeveloped, neo-colonial societies. The political role of the Watchtower movement is that of neutralizer of working class collective action towards its own emancipation. The organization bans its members from expressing political opinions in the congregation or in public, but it endorses, in context of its defense of creationism and denial of natural selection; an attack on Marxism. It is said by organization representatives from the Kingdom Hall podium that Marxism and “Hitlerism” are both subsets of “Social Darwinism”, which is in turn a variable of the natural selection “teaching” formulated by Charles Darwin. The man is considered to be an “agent of Satan”. In the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Jehovah’s people where persecuted and deported to Siberian gulags under the influence of “Marxist-Leninist ideology”. In Nazi Germany, during the Holocaust, Hitler interned Jehovah’s people in concentration camps in the interests of Nazism. This confused and circular position conflating Darwin, Marx, Stalin and Hitler is based on a caricature of evolutionary theory and historical falsification. For example, it ignores the fact that there was a Marxist opposition to Stalin in the Soviet Union led by Leon Trotsky. The conflation of Karl Marx with Stalinist persecution serves to prevent working class Jehovah Witnesses from investigating for themselves the perspectives of authentic Marxism or the history of the Fourth International.

By Jaime Goldstein. Autumn 2020.