By Brown Burnett
Special to The Commercial Appeal

More than 130,000,000 Americans voted in the 2008 Presidential election.

The 1,100,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the U.S. did not.

“We take the neutral stand in politics,” said Perry Alton, a congregation “brother” in Memphis. “We believe that men don’t have the answers to the world’s problems. Instead, we support the Kingdom of God as ruled by Jesus Christ.”

According to the Jehovah’s Witness website, this faith, founded by Charles Taze Russell around the turn of the 20th century in Brooklyn, N.Y., is now found in 236 countries, with 109,403 congregations and more than 7,000,000 members. There are 43 congregations in the Memphis area meeting in 13 Kingdom Halls (the faith’s name for their churches). Local “elders” estimate there are more than 4,000 Witnesses here.

“We are in all countries,” said Witness David Hilliard of Jacksonville, Ark. “There are some places we are not welcome, such as Russia, China and France. But there are Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the world.”

One of those places where they have not always felt welcome is the United States. Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose military drafts. Hilliard has known victims of World War II-era mob violence in Little Rock, and his father spent time incarcerated during World War II. Internationally, refusal to a participate in the military and denounce their faith sent thousands of European Jehovah’s Witnesses to Nazi concentration camps and Stalin’s Siberian gulags.

Their refusal to participate in wars and their indifference to all political systems have brought them animosity and stirred suspicion over the years, and today’s Jehovah’s Witnesses say misconceptions abound.

Many people think Jehovah’s Witnesses are not Christians because they do not celebrate Christmas or Easter, Hilliard said, but Witnesses do not acknowledge holidays of any kind, religious or secular.

They have only one official observance within their church, an observance of Christ’s death, which falls on what other Christians call Good Friday.

“We do this because we believe it to be the only day that Jesus said should be commemorated,” Hilliard said. “It’s just another day, really, except we will gather in our Kingdom Halls for a service. I go to work that day like any other day, and when I leave work, I go to the commemoration.

“We most definitely are Christians. We believe that Jesus is Jehovah’s son and that he rules over His kingdom.”

Their approach to the issue of blood transfusions also is a common misunderstanding, Witness members say. They do not accept nor give blood transfusions of any kind under any circumstances, even if it means death, but they do not reject medical help.

“We see blood as sacred and that the issue of eternal life is more important than extending life,” said Stuart MacDiarmid, a Jehovah’s Witness minister and a retired homebuilder in Henderson, Tenn. “There are other alternatives to blood transfusions, such as blood expanders, extractions from blood, cauterizations.

“We do not kill our children,” Hilliard said. “I’ve actually seen where we are accused of doing that because we disregard human life, which is absurd, of course.”

MacDiarmid had heart surgery years ago and had to confront the issue of blood transfusion, even on the way to the operating room. He stressed to his surgeon that under no circumstances should he receive transfusions.

“The anesthesiologist was trying to convince me while they were rolling me into surgery,” he said. Such concern about the issue of blood transfusions is actually a protection, MacDiarmid said, because it slows the whole surgical process down and requires more care during operations. He still takes heart-related medication.

Witnesses do allow blood testing for diagnosis, and they can also seek psychological counseling and psychiatric help when warranted.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses are extensively trained in many issues, such as marriage counseling and other spiritually related matters, but we also realize that we do not have the answer for everything,” MacDiarmid said, adding that counseling within the church is always the first place for believers to go to address such issues.

An area in which Jehovah’s Witnesses differ from other religions is the way their organization is structured. None of their ministers is paid; they are all volunteers, and no request is ever made for money from their congregations. Jehovah’s Witnesses’ financial lifeblood is unsolicited donations. There is no pope, president or bishop; instead, they are led by a group of elders in the headquarters in Brooklyn who are chosen within the denomination. Witnesses study the same literature at each meeting (one meeting during the week and one on Sunday) and follow the same format worldwide.

“My wife and I were in England a while back, and we attended a service over there,” MacDiarmid said. “It was identical to the one that was being held in Henderson. They’re the same all over the world. We study the same literature in the same order.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for the prolific printing and distribution of their literature.

They use only one translation of the Holy Bible, the New World Translation, which distinguishes itself from other Bibles by using the name “Jehovah” throughout instead of “God.”

Their free monthly publication, The Watchtower, is distributed door to door by volunteers and is used in their services.

Printed continuously since 1879, The Watchtower says more than 42 million copies are printed each month and distributed worldwide in 195 languages. Also, 166 million of their Bibles have been printed in 108 languages.

Bill Hyden, a 33-year-old doctoral student in journalism at Washington State University and a former Memphian, was a Jehovah’s Witness who left the faith when he was 11 years old.

He says he began feeling detached from the outside world, particularly when he did not participate in holiday-related activities in the public school system.

“I had nothing against them, and I still have family members who are Witnesses,” Hyden said. “But I wanted to see what was out there in the world and think and experience other things.”

The thing he remembers most about growing up as a Witness was how much reading and studying they did. He began reading their literature as early as 6 or 7 and said that their services are primarily educational experiences instead of worship experiences.

“I remember a lot of work. A lot of reading. But I’ll say this for them: They are indeed literate. I was reading beyond the level of my classmates at a very young age.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses say they are not pacifists and will defend themselves, physically, spiritually and legally. While studying journalism law at the University of Memphis, Hyden discovered new admiration for that faith when he saw how many court cases Jehovah’s Witnesses have filed to defend the First Amendment rights of expression and religion.

“As you can see at our conventions (more than 10,000 attended the two in Memphis this summer), we are a very diverse faith,” Hilliard said. “We believe that we have helped many minorities over the years in defending their freedoms through our actions.”

MacDiarmid says that despite the differences between Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions, they are really not that different in day-to-day life. They believe in the sanctity of marriage, they do not engage in vices such as consumption of alcohol and tobacco, and they do not condone sexual promiscuity and homosexuality.

“They are certainly not alone among religions that follow those beliefs,” Hyden said. “The thing that I remember most about Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I still see it in members of my family, is that they are a devout, extremely moral people.

“They truly walk the walk.”