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In 1984, authors Merlin Brinkerhoff and Marlene Mackie concluded that after the so-called new cults, Jehovah's Witnesses were among the least accepted religious groups in the United States. [14] Legal challenges by Jehovah's Witnesses prompted a series of state and federal court rulings that reinforced judicial protections for civil liberties.
A chart of active Jehovah's Witnesses by year, 1931-2015. For 2024, around 300,000 new members were baptized. The Watch Tower Society reported that Jehovah's Witnesses conducted about 7.5 million home Bible studies with non-members, [1] including Bible studies conducted by Witness parents with their children.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe death is a state of nonexistence with no consciousness. There is no Hell of fiery torment; Hades and Sheol are understood to refer to the condition of death, termed the common grave. [170] They consider the soul a life or a living body that can die. [171]
Countries where Jehovah's Witnesses' activities are banned. In addition to the published figures for individual countries, statistics are also published collectively for countries where Jehovah's Witnesses operate covertly under ban, [7] [8] including several Islamic and communist states.
In all, Jehovah's Witnesses brought 23 separate First Amendment actions before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1938 and 1946. [36] [37] Supreme Court Justice Harlan Fiske Stone once quipped, "I think the Jehovah's Witnesses ought to have an endowment in view of the aid which they give in solving the legal problems of civil liberties." [38]
Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, Inc. was established to organize and administer the congregational affairs of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States. [14] [15] It filed for incorporation on August 21, 2000, in New York State as a “domestic non-profit corporation” in Putnam County, New York. [16]
In 1990, 68 Jehovah’s Witness elementary students were expelled for refusing to participate in daily flag-raising ceremonies. In Ebralinag, et al. vs. Division Superintendent of Schools of Cebu, the court ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses are permitted to refrain from saluting the Philippine flag and singing the national anthem.
Former headquarters of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in Brooklyn, New York. Jehovah's Witnesses operate 87 branch offices worldwide, [24] under the oversight of headquarters representatives who visit each of their assigned branches every few years, auditing operations, counseling branch committee members, department heads, and missionaries, and reporting back to the Governing Body.