Positive Guardian Article About JWs in Russia

[Stoffer]

Most of the time we expect to see negative news reports about Jehovah's Witnesses, even in the most respected journalistic sources. However, The Guardian has written a very fair article about us and the Russian ban in this article (dated 25th April 2017):

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-putin-persecution

 

It has the title, "Why Putin’s persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses should worry us" and really appeals to the general public who think that our case in Russia has little or nothing to do with them.

 

Quote

Their persecution around the world is a horrible testament to the relish we take in the bullying of small, alien and defenceless groups. In Russia it is yet another testimony to the ruthless and brutal dishonesty of the Putin regime. All authoritarian regimes loathe minority religions, perhaps because religious groupings are one of the most powerful ways of imagining a world that might be different.

 

Tolerance is a late and perhaps unnatural development in human history but that only increases its value. Freedom of religion means freedom to be wrong or it means nothing at all. And in the case of the Witnesses, with their astonishing stubborn patience in the face persecution, we can see how the content of their beliefs really doesn’t and shouldn’t affect their right to hold them.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2017 by Stoffer