Germany shooting: Who are Jehovah’s Witnesses?

The killing of six Jehovah’s Witnesses and the injuring of eight others by a gunman at a congregation in Hamburg has put the little-known international Christian denomination in the public eye. The attacker, a disgruntled former member of the faith, took his own life before the police arrived. Police said the gunman, 35-year-old Philipp F, had left the community about 18 months ago “but apparently not on good terms”. Let’s take a closer look: Origins The religion has its roots in the Adventists movement in the United States during the 19th Century. According to Britannica, this movement was characterised by its core belief in the imminent return of Christ. The Adventists movement began in the 1830s after Baptist preacher William Miller prophesised that Christ would return in March 1843. According to Study.com, Miller gained around 50,000 followers. But Miller kept pushing the predicted date back – first to March 1844 and then October 1844. With each failed prediction from Miller, the Adventist movement splintered further and further. The denomination itself is an offshoot of the International Bible Students Association, which was formed in 1872 in Pittsburgh by minister Charles Taze Russell, according to Britannica. Russell propounded a theology that rejected the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and denied the divinity of Jesus and that hell was a place of eternal torment.

Until 1931, Jehovah’s Witnesses were called Bible Students, as per Study.com.

The word Jehovah is derived from the letters YHWH (the name used to refer to God in the  Old Testament). Practices and beliefs According to the BBC, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that other traditional Christian denominations have veered away from the true teachings of the bible. Jehovah’s Witnesses instruct their followers to focus on the text of the Bible and ignore “mere human speculations or religious creeds.” They further believe the Bible to be the Word of God and that its 66 books are both divinely inspired and historically accurate. Meanwhile, Christian sects have labelled Jehovah’s Witnesses a ‘cult.’ The religion has its headquarters in New York’s Warwick.

They have around 8.7 million active followers in 239 countries worldwide, according to the denomination’s website.

Members are known for their evangelistic efforts including knocking on doors and distributing literature in public squares. However, in the US, Jehovah’s Witnesses suspended door-knocking in the early days of the pandemic’s onset, just as much of the rest of society went into lockdown too. The organisation also ended all public meetings at its 13,000 congregations nationwide and canceled 5,600 annual gatherings worldwide — an unprecedented move not taken even during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which killed 50 million people worldwide. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not call their place of worship a church, but “Kingdom Hall.” This is because they believe the Bible refers to worshippers – not the building – as the church. The building or hall where congregants meet to worship Jehovah (the God of the Bible and His Kingdom) is therefore known as “Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not use the cross in worship because they believe the Bible indicates that Jesus did not die on a cross, but on a simple stake, and that the Bible “strongly warns Christians to flee from idolatry, which would mean not using the cross in worship,” the denomination’s website states. Each congregation is supervised by a body of elders. About 20 congregations make up a circuit and are occasionally visited by traveling elders known as circuit overseers. The denomination’s practices include a refusal to bear arms, receive blood transfusions, salute a national flag or participate in secular government. Jehovah’s Witnesses have struggled to have their beliefs and practices accepted in some parts of the world. The group has faced court proceedings in several countries, mostly over its pacifism and rejection of blood transfusions. The denomination was banned in former communist East Germany in 1950 which like most Communist-run countries was in general hostile to religion. Russia also banned the group in 2017. The Russian Orthodox Church has depicted the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a dangerous foreign sect, allegations the group denies. In Germany The first German branch was founded in 1902 in Elberfeld in west Germany – before the “Watch Tower Society” was renamed Jehovah’s Witnesses. There are 175,558 members in Germany, meaning about 1 in 500 Germans are Jehovah’s Witnesses, according to the denomination’s website, which was updated in January. In total there are 2,003 congregations and 884 places of worship, called Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The denomination was not granted legal recognition however until 2005, in the city of Berlin.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 received the same legal status that is granted to major religions in Germany, which meant they are viewed as a single religious entity. Prior to gaining this status, their national headquarters in Germany and thousands of congregations in the country were considered independent religious associations. Defying the Nazis About 1,500 Jehovah’s Witnesses died during the Holocaust out of about 35,000 who lived in Germany and Nazi-occupied countries at the time. More than 1,000 died in prisons and concentration camps.

Members of the faith were persecuted by the Nazi regime because they remained politically neutral.

They also refused to sign a document renouncing their beliefs and disobeyed the regime’s orders by continuing to meet for worship, doing public ministry and showing kindness to Jewish people. On 27 January, 2021, the German State Parliament commemorated the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ courageous stand against Nazi abuse. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was hosted online and was viewed by more than 37,000 people from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. There have been several attempted attacks against Jehovah’s Witnesses in various countries in recent years. In 2009, an 82-year-old man tried to shoot Jehovah’s Witnesses in a Kingdom Hall in Bielefeld, Germany, in revenge for his daughter joining them in 1967. The attack failed because no shot was released from the automatic pistol. On 25 December, 2022, a couple attempted arson with explosives at a Jehovah’s Witness’ Kingdom Hall in Thornton in the US state of Colorado.

They were both previous members who were no longer welcome. No one was injured.

Speaking about the shooting, David Semonian, a US-based spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in an emailed statement early Friday that members “worldwide grieve for the victims of this traumatic event.” “The congregation elders in the local area are providing pastoral care for those affected by the event,” he wrote. With inputs from agencies

Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.