Whereu, history tells a different story.. The mainline religions, both Catholic and Protestant, compromised woefully in paying homage to Nazism, idolizing the führer, saluting his swastika flag, and blessing his troops as they sallied forth to slaughter their fellow believers in neighboring nations. So-called Christians of all faiths—but not Jehovah’s Witnesses—were caught up in the patriotic fervor. The book Mothers in the Fatherland reported: “[Jehovah’s Witnesses] were sent to concentration camps, a thousand of them were executed, and another thousand died between 1933 and 1945. . . . Catholics and Protestants heard their clergy urge them to cooperate with Hitler. If they resisted, they did so against orders from both church and state.” How bloodguilty both Church and State became!—Jeremiah 2:34.
Yes, Catholics and Protestants have made a lot of mistakes throughout history and admitted to many of them.
I am not religious and can point fingers at churches "for falling short of the glory of God".
And, no, I'm not about the defend the actions of Catholics and Protestants because history has shown that they have often been wrong.
But again, you miss the whole point of the discussion and try and change the subject. I am not aware of any major church telling it's flock to remain neutral in WW2. And even if they tried, not many people listened.
It was ordinary people (Catholics, Protestants, Jews, atheists etc) who volunteered to put their lives at risk to stop Hitler and to put an end to apartheid.
Jehovah's Witnesses preferred a neutral stance and let others do the dirty work in the face of injustice. At the end of the day Jehovah's Witnesses also enjoy the freedom that was earned by taking a stand against the injustice.
There is no argument that you can put forward to refute this, is there?
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The irony of the situation is that the Witnesses are recognized in most countries as honest, clean-living citizens, exemplary in upholding law and order. (Romans 13:1-7) Yet they are often persecuted. Why? Since worship belongs exclusively to Jehovah, they refrain from bowing to representations of the State or hailing them. (Deuteronomy 4:23, 24; 5:8-10; 6:13-15)
Whereu if everyone took the same stand there would be no war.
It would be an irony if it were true.
My experience is that they remain within the letter of the law, but breaking up friends and families, IMO, cannot be condoned.
Also, were where Jehovah's Witnesses when their neighbours were suffering under injustice - Yeah right, keeping out of it.
Jehovah's witnesses do not own the monopoly on being persecuted. If you have being following the news you will have noticed the persecutions of Christians (ironically Catholics and Protestants that you appear to dislike) in places like Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq... to name but a few.
IMO, the day of reckoning (or judgement) if there is such a thing will be quite embarrassing to some.
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Whereu if everyone took the same stand there would be no war.
The reality is that there is injustice in the world, and just hoping that there isn't allows injustice to reign. Are you so stuck with Watchtower that you don't see this?
If everybody stopped stealing, there would be no theft.
If everybody stopped murdering there would be no murder.
If everybody stopped .... and so on.
If everybody loved their neighbour there would be peace.
The world doesn't work on "If", it works on reality.
Sorry, but this is true.
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