Comments on New World Society Assembly

NOT everyone was pleased that Jehovah’s witnesses got together in such numbers in Yankee Stadium last July, but whether they liked it or not, almost everyone agreed that something of importance had happened. Newspaper editorial comments from widely separated places provide this sampling:

“The eight-day world assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses brought to New York City area nearly 150,000 members of this durable sect—men, women and their families from all over the world who live their faith vividly. . . . Their methods of evangelism are forthright and to some are exasperating, yet the same driving missionary zeal which marks all their efforts reaches forth into the tiniest, darkest corners of the globe.

“The Witnesses probably have borne more abuse and had more opposition than any other religious group since the fatal stoning of Stephen in the time of Christ. Yet time after time, the U. S. Supreme Court and other courts have upheld them in their Constitutional rights to believe what they will, to worship as they wish, and to seek converts in their own ways even if these ways annoy others.

“A minority sect? Surely—and yet America tries to lean over backward to protect minorities. Aloof and difficult to integrate into what we like to call our co-operative society? Doubtless—yet the Christians of ancient Antioch also were firm of purpose, wary of losing their integrity by adjustments.

“One looks at New York’s Yankee Stadium on the first day’s rally of the Witnesses, and sees 82,861 of them—a bigger crowd than ever turned out for a baseball game—with 48,000 more assembled across the Hudson hearing the proceedings by loud-speaker. Such an impact is memorable, inescapable, tremendous, and we remind some other populations that this is America, this is democracy, this is freedom of worship and assembly—our Constitution illustrated and our common heritage bulwarked.”—The Columbian, Vancouver, Washington, July 24.

In a different vein was the report from Allentown, Pennsylvania:

“It took only a few hours, perhaps only a few minutes for Allentonians and others along the course of Route 22 during yesterday to see a cross-section of the American people. In the persons of Jehovah’s Witnesses who passed through this city on their way home from the world conference in New York last week that cross-section was provided.

“All sorts and conditions of men, women and children riding in all sorts of motor cars and with attached trailers hurried through this city en route home to every State except those of New England. There were whites and blacks and, apparently, American Indians and peoples of oriental background, of both yellow and brown races. For the most part they were family groups, quietly happy in the possession of a religion that engrosses them and to which they have dedicated their lives.

“There was no attempt to travel in caravans but they formed a caravan which must be stretching at this very moment over more than half a dozen states due west and southwest of us.

“Wherever they go they proudly and joyfully advertise their cause but in the quiet, orderly fashion to which they have become disciplined. They are a splendid people who are growing in numbers and influence. And wherever they go they are welcome. By their behavior they create such goodly opinion that they are urged to return. And that does not go for all conventions and gatherings.”—The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania, July 28.

Over near Trailer City this editorial was published under the heading “Religion Shows Great Strength”:

“Many times the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses have involved members with the forces of temporal law. Members have been arrested and jailed for governing their lives according to their beliefs rather than according to the laws which have been set up by men for men. Some of the Witnesses are intolerant of the beliefs of other religions.

“Looking back upon the long history of man, however, we must remember that there have been many times when the men of God have been arrested and jailed, and today we regard the arresting officers and the jailers as the true criminals.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses are sincere in their beliefs. They live their religion. We think the coming convention in New York is a tremendously dramatic demonstration of the impact which the religious life has upon these tens of thousands of people, and we are proud that Middlesex county is to have some part in assuring the success of the convention.”—New Brunswick (New Jersey) Home News, July 17.

Just after the assembly started, another New Jersey paper had this to say:

“Members of the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) are ardent believers in the Bible as ‘God’s word of truth.’ In their zeal and fervor members of the sect at times have come into conflict with constituted authority. Their dynamism strikes admiration, however. Their devotion points an answer to the oft-expressed question of whether religion has failed mankind. Of course it hasn’t, but mankind seems often to have failed to find the ideals of true religion.”—Paterson (New Jersey) Morning Call, July 20.

In Parkersburg, West Virginia, a two-column-wide editorial headed “Yankee Stadium Filled by ‘Witnesses’” said:

“Epic dramatic spectacles, whether in the realm of sports, religion, or politics, or just in the movies, are dear to the American heart and for that reason the filling of Yankee Stadium by a throng of 82,861 Jehovah’s Witnesses, with a total of over 100,000 for the convention finale, is impressive. . . . The spectacle was recorded with a full-column story and large picture in the New York Times and was extensively chronicled also in the New York Herald-Tribune. When it is realized, however, that Jehovah’s Witnesses claim a world-wide membership of only 466,265 Witnesses, with but 132,797 in the whole United States, the magnitude of the Yankee Stadium feat becomes apparent.

“As was noted in the Herald-Tribune they take their name from Isaiah 43:12, ‘Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God.’ The Witnesses, objecting to the ‘World’s Wars,’ believe that God will soon destroy all the evil of earth in a universal war—Armageddon—according to Milton G. Henschel, a director of the Society.

“When any religious meeting gets bigger than a huge sports throng in any country, it is certainly worth chronicling, and it is for that reason we take due notice of the Witnesses’ achievement. Is there a possible pattern for those of other faiths in the way of arranging large, impressive religious dramas? . . . Certainly a revival of religion is not amiss in America—a pointing out and dramatizing of the brotherhood of man, under the fatherhood of God. . . . For that reason the Witnesses, regardless of one’s attitude toward their specific beliefs, may well have set a valuable example.”—The Parkersburg (West Virginia) News, July 25.

Well the Witnesses might have set an example, but the example was not just in the size of the meeting. It was in Christian brotherhood, in zeal for God and desire to serve him. Jehovah’s witnesses would like for others to take up such action, but past experience has indicated that only a few individuals, not whole organizations, will do so. That is the difference. That is where the assembly was outstanding. It is the loss of the zeal of true Christianity among the religions of so-called “Christendom” today that makes those who still practice it seem unusual and worthy of note.

Not everyone liked the assembly. Not all the editorials got the attendance figures right or spelled “Jehovah’s witnesses” correctly. But whether they liked it or not, they recognized that something of importance had occurred, and they corroborated the statement made by the Watch Tower’s president before the assembly: “True faith in God is not declining.” It continues to grow. As thousands more recognize the difference between its strength and zeal and the apathy of the old world’s religions, they forsake the old ones and come to unity with it. Then they likewise grow in strength and zeal. By joining with them, you can do so too.