This morning, after a few chores, I was sitting on the bench beside my driveway, talking on the phone with one of my expert witness partners. The call was all about the existing six cases I have on my current docket and the three new pending ones that could start any day now. The topic of those cases suddenly went from back burner to front burner in my consciousness as I’ve worked to unplug my consciousness from the case that just settled yesterday and upended my monthly schedule. I’m finding out that disengaging is a process and does not happen for me immediately, especially given all the preparation I have undergone. Nevertheless, it is happening and I was yakking away about the other situations that will need my attention shortly. While that was happening, I was working on a new Evil Eye ornament made for us by our neighbor Melisa as sort of a Labor Day house gift, when two people unknown to me came walking up my driveway. Because I was clearly talking on the phone in an animated manner, they did not try to interrupt me, but rather motioned at me with some sort of pamphlet. I took it and gave a polite wave and they retreated accordingly. Yes, indeed, after six years of living here on our glorious hilltop that I have occasionally likened to Heaven on earth and my personal Garden of Eden, I have finally been visited by the Kingdom of Jehovah. The booklet I was holding was none other than their latest Watchtower publication, titled An End to War: How?.
I know that some religions feel the need to proselytize. Several religions are known for active proselytizing, though the extent varies by denomination, region, and historical period. Christianity is generally considered the most proselytizing religion globally. This stems from the “Great Commission” in the New Testament, where Jesus instructs his followers to “make disciples of all nations.” Christianity has extensive missionary organizations, with evangelical Protestant denominations being particularly active. The Catholic Church also has a long missionary tradition, as do many Orthodox churches. Islam also emphasizes spreading the faith (da’wah), though approaches vary significantly. Some Muslim communities are very active in outreach and conversion efforts, while others focus more on education and community building. Historically, Islam spread through both conquest and peaceful missionary activity. Buddhism has missionary traditions, particularly in its early centuries when it spread throughout Asia. Today, some Buddhist groups actively share their teachings with non-Buddhists, though this varies greatly by school and region. Hinduism traditionally doesn’t proselytize much, focusing more on cultural and ethnic identity, though some modern movements like ISKCON (Hare Krishnas) do engage in active outreach and do so quite noticeably. Judaism generally doesn’t proselytize and historically has often discouraged conversion, though this varies among different Jewish movements.
The two big modern-day Christian organizations that spend a lot of time spreading the word and seeking conversions are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), which has one of the most organized missionary programs, with tens of thousands of young missionaries serving worldwide at any given time. Many of us have had lots of exposure to the Mormon faith, in my case by having a home in Utah, their spiritual vortex, for fifteen years, and for others, going to see The Book of Mormon, which has been playing on Broadway for fourteen years now and has had over 5,000 performances. And then there is the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are exceptionally active in door-to-door evangelism and are known for their persistent missionary efforts, despite being a relatively small religious group. Anyone who has lived in downtown NYC (especially on the East River side) has looked straight at the neon red sign over the building just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, which had a clock and simply says “Watchtower”. That was the headquarters and central printing facility for the organization for a century. It was sold for $340 million and repurposed as a retail facility for the hip Dumbo and Columbia Waterfront communities that now surround it. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, meanwhile, moved their act up to Warwick, New York, from where they continue their outreach mission.
Jehovah’s Witnesses in the general U.S. context make up only 1% of the US population (3,400,000), with 1,242,976 “peak publishers” in the United States (publishers are active members who report preaching activity monthly). California also has a population of Jehovah’s Witnesses of approximately 1% (400,000) as well. California is not one of the top five states with the highest concentrations of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Wyoming, Washington, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Georgia), but Southern California has a significant presence of the organization, based on the infrastructure that exists. There are multiple Kingdom Halls throughout the region, including congregations in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, and surrounding areas. There are numerous congregation listings in major Southern California cities like San Diego and Los Angeles including Spanish-speaking congregations serving the large Latino population. In fact, the organization once had a significant property called Beth Sarim in San Diego, which served as a winter residence for their leadership in the 1930s-1940s. The Watch Tower Society, the main legal and publishing organization used by Jehovah’s Witnesses, is a corporation now known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, chartered in 1884 as Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society. Its purpose is to spread abroad Bible truth, especially by means of the printed page. They are not to be confused with the Gideons organization, famous for providing free bibles for hotels, schools, hospitals and other public places. It too was formed around the same time (1899) and represents mainstream evangelical Protestant Christianity, believing in the Trinity and other traditional Christian doctrines. Meanwhile, Jehovah’s Witnesses is a nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist Christian denomination, stemming from the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell.
I suspect that we should understand that these organizations were formed as a direct result of the Gilded Age (1870s -1900) that Trump likes to reference. This was a period of rapid economic growth, industrialization, and technological innovation with massive wealth creation accompanied by significant inequality. Our national “father of American literature”, Mark Twain coined the term to suggest the era’s surface prosperity that masked deep underlying societal problems. That makes me wonder if we will be seeing more proselytizing around the neighborhood as our “Gilded…or perhaps merely Gold-Plated…Era” comes to an end.
I found the pamphlet quite interesting. The headings alone tell an interesting story: The Horror of War (on soldiers and civilians), How War and Violent Conflict Affect Us All (food shortages, physical and mental health problems, forced displacement, economic hardship, and environmental problems), Can We End War and Violent Conflict? (Economic development, Diplomacy, Disarmament, Collective Security), Why War and Violent Conflict Continue (Sin, Human government, Satan and Demons, Religion & War), How War and Violent Conflict Will End (God will eliminate human government, God will eliminate sin, God will eliminate Satan and his Demons), and, finally, Finding Peace Despite War and Violent Conflict. Apparently, all the answers are spelled out in the Bible, specifically Jehovah’s Bible. No one likes war except maybe floundering autocrats and dictators in need of galvanizing distraction. So maybe this is humankind’s true feeling starting to peek through the rubble of modern society.
Don’t expect to see me wandering the hilltop with Watchtower pamphlets, but I do now wonder if cause and effect is in play and we might return soon to yet another “Praise the Lord” moment in human history. Probably not on my watch, but maybe soon.