{"id":9886,"date":"2025-02-03T21:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T19:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/?p=9886"},"modified":"2025-02-03T21:50:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T19:50:46","slug":"czech-ministry-of-culture-is-considering-revoking-the-religious-registration-of-the-jehovahs-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/czech-ministry-of-culture-is-considering-revoking-the-religious-registration-of-the-jehovahs-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Czech Ministry of Culture is considering revoking the religious registration of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Czech Ministry of Culture is considering revoking the religious registration of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, according to Czech Radio information. The ministry claims the organization has not addressed issues raised in an official warning last September, including pressuring members to cut ties with those who leave and restricting minors’ access to medical care, such as blood transfusions. Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses spokesperson David Kulla denies any wrongdoing and calls the potential deregistration discriminatory.<\/p>\n

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The Ministry of Culture is considering the possible cancellation of the religious registration of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses Religious Society. In response to public complaints, it has sent the organization a call to desist from illegal activities. It mentions damaging social ties, failure to provide adequate health care to children, and concealing some parts of its teachings. The Witnesses are resisting the ministry\u2019s actions and denying any illegal actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The religious society strongly objects to the Ministry of Culture\u2019s actions. \u201cThere is no legal or doctrinal reason for canceling the registration of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses,\u201d David Kulla, director of the public relations department of the Religious Society of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses (JW)<\/i>*<\/span>, told iROZHLAS.cz.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch a step would be discriminatory, illegal and would mean a gross interference in the religious life of thousands of peaceful citizens of the Czech Republic,\u201d the spokesman claims. According to the latest census, there are 13,298 members. The society speaks of 30,000 witnesses and sympathizers.<\/p>\n

In practice, deregistration does not mean a ban on practice. However, thanks to the consecration from the ministry, the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses can use a special legal entity \u2013 a church organization \u2013 to teach in its own theological schools and exercise other special rights. These include performing marriages, preaching in prisons, or the state-recognized secrecy of confession.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Culture took the first step against the organization in September 2024, when it sent it an official notice to cease and desist from illegal activities. This is permitted by church law if the ministry believes that a church or religious society is violating applicable regulations through its teachings or activities.<\/p>\n

The document shows that the Ministry of Culture, led by\u00a0Martin Baxa\u00a0(Civic Democratic Party (ODS)), accuses the Witnesses of five offenses that they were supposed to correct within three months. Both parties involved confirmed to iROZHLAS.cz that no corrections were made.<\/p>\n

The three complaints by the office concern alleged damage to social ties between individuals and families. They are based on the doctrine that if someone leaves a religious community, other Witnesses must significantly limit, and often completely cease, social contact with them.<\/p>\n

Another point accuses the organization of preventing minors from receiving adequate medical care. Among the better-known teachings of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses is the refusal of\u00a0blood transfusions, even in cases of life-threatening conditions.<\/p>\n

The ministry also sees the problem of concealing some parts of its teachings, which is prohibited by church law. The appeal specifically states that \u201cthe JW refuses to provide the ministry with clear answers to questions about its teachings. In some statements, it has provided the ministry with false or misleading information.\u201d As an example of a lie, the office cites Witnesses\u2019 claims that after a member is expelled, \u201cthe normal life of the immediate family continues, its members show love and spend time together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The religious organization claims that the ministry has withdrawn this accusation. \u201cIt thereby acknowledged that the JW was transparent towards the ministry,\u201d states a document titled \u201cSummary of Facts: The Czech Republic Follows Russia and Attacks Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses<\/em>,\u201d which the iROZHLAS.cz server received along with written answers to questions.<\/p>\n

However, the Ministry of Culture refutes this claim. \u201cThe Ministry did not drop the fifth point of the appeal. It deleted the sentence \u2018Furthermore, the NSSJ conceals parts of its teachings from its members\u2019 from the justification for this point, because based on communication with the JW, it found that this information is unfounded,\u201d replies Jana Mal\u00edkov\u00e1, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture. According to her, the rest of the text of the fifth point and the entire appeal remains valid.<\/p>\n

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Non-compliance is punishable<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have vehemently denied the agency\u2019s allegations of wrongdoing. \u201cWe were shocked<\/i>*<\/span>\u00a0that the ministry would accuse us of this simply because they clearly disagree with some of our religious beliefs,\u201d said David Kulla, director of communications for the NSSJ. He argues that the ministry has not submitted any court decisions or complaints to the police or other authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cJehovah\u2019s Witnesses respect the right of every person to change their religion or belief or to have no religious affiliation. They believe that the Bible directs believers to limit or cut off social contact with a person who has chosen to renounce their beliefs by separating themselves from the congregation. However, they do not force individual believers to follow this Scriptural direction, and congregation elders do not control anyone in this regard,\u201d Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses state.<\/p>\n

This also contradicts information from the Ministry of Culture, which writes in the appeal that the religious community punishes failure to comply with the rules regarding the interruption of intercourse. The same should be done if a believer receives a blood transfusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents, not religious communities, are solely responsible for the health of their minor children. When children need medical care, Jehovah\u2019s Witness parents immediately take them to a doctor or hospital and strive to provide them with the highest quality medical care,\u201d the company said. They simply ask doctors to treat their children using medical procedures that do not involve blood transfusions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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If the Ministry of Culture were to cancel the registration of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, it would mean the liquidation of their church organization and, consequently, all of its assets. This mainly concerns 148 Kingdom Halls, places where believers meet for worship.<\/p>\n

The funds obtained from the liquidation, very likely in the hundreds of millions of crowns (100 million Czech Koruna = 4 million American Dollars), would be legally required by the state to use to support other church organizations.<\/p>\n

iROZHLAS.cz contacted\u00a0Zden\u011bk Vojt\u00ed\u0161ek, a religion expert who studies sects and new religious movements, for a statement. He was also the first to report on the case of the threat of deregistration in December last year on the professional website\u00a0N\u00e1bo\u017eensk\u00fd infoservis, of which he is also the editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n

Vojt\u00ed\u0161ek has previously pointed out that until the administrative proceedings are initiated, the NSSJ can dispose of its property as it wishes, for example by transferring it to an association. The Witnesses reject this procedure, claiming that they are not doing anything illegal.<\/i>*<\/span><\/p>\n

But the religionist speculates that it may be a leverage against the ministry: \u201cIf the Witnesses\u2019 property were transferred to another religious society, as the law requires the liquidator to do, it would rightly be perceived as a huge injustice on an international scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that case, according to Zden\u011bk Vojt\u00ed\u0161ek, it would not be very important whether the witnesses could or could not transfer their real estate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Following the example of Norway<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The deregistration of a church in the Czech Republic is unprecedented. Since the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have not made any corrections by the set deadline, the Ministry of Culture can initiate administrative proceedings to cancel their registration. However, the law does not set any time limit for this, and the ministry has not yet started the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ministry is currently evaluating the documents it received from the NSSJ members carefully and is thoroughly investigating the situation, which will leave no reasonable doubt,\u201d the ministry said through a spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Zden\u011bk Vojt\u00ed\u0161ek hopes that the dispute will not end with the organization being removed from the church register. \u201cIn 2024, the doctrine regarding what could possibly be classified as a disruption of social ties under church law changed. This is something that could restore some trust between state authorities and the religious community,\u201d says the religious scholar.<\/p>\n

Abroad, deregistrations have already occurred for similar reasons.\u00a0Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses lost their church registration in Norway in 2022. Unlike in the Czech Republic, they received an annual state subsidy of 16 million Norwegian Kroner, or about 1.4 million American Dollars, for their activities. The legal battles over the revocation of registration continue, and the appeal of the Witnesses will be heard by a court in Oslo in February. As in the Czech Republic, state authorities were primarily interested in the separation of former members from their families and friends.<\/p>\n

But the religious community often compares the Czech situation to Russia, which has\u00a0banned the teachings\u00a0and labelled the organization extremist. Believers there must practice in secret, otherwise they face severe penalties. According to data from the US government\u2019s\u00a0Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2020, the Russian state imprisoned ten Witnesses, held 38 in custody, and sent 26 to house arrest. The accused receive long sentences, and human rights organizations draw attention to the mistreatment of prisoners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They turned a blind eye<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses were granted registration in the Czech Republic in 1993, and the process was not without controversy. Specifically, it involved lying to authorities about three questions. These are similar allegations that the Witnesses are facing in their current dispute with the ministry.<\/p>\n

As religion expert and co-founder of the\u00a0Society for the Study of Sects\u00a0Prokop Reme\u0161 explains, the authorities considered the refusal of civilian service to be the main problem. The ban on transfusions and military service was also not liked, but after consultations, the ministry wanted to turn a blind eye to the transgressions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was assumed that if they answered that they taught it, they would get the registration anyway,\u201d Reme\u0161 describes. \u201cTo their great shock, they wrote on all three questions: \u2018No, the NSSJ does not teach this.\u2019 Everyone knew that they taught it. Up until then, they had preached how important it was not to lie and not to deny one\u2019s faith, and suddenly they turned a blind eye,\u201d the religionist recalls his surprise at the time.<\/p>\n

However, the ministry eventually approved the entry into the church register. Procopius of Reims points out that persecution benefits this religious society, and their lying, on the contrary, outrages ordinary believers. \u201cIn the congregations themselves, this caused great disillusionment with the leadership, which told them that they would rather go to prison than lie,\u201d explains Reme\u0161. \u201cIn 40 years of totalitarianism in our country, the number of their members has increased fifteenfold. A large number of people left the Witnesses because of the lies, and because they are not persecuted, they have had practically the same number of members since 1995.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this reason, he is not a fan of the idea that the organization should now lose its registration. \u201cOnce they lose their registration, they will start acting like martyrs again and attracting people,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Czech Ministry of Culture is considering revoking the religious registration of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, according to Czech Radio information. The ministry claims the organization has not addressed issues raised in an official warning last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-czech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9889,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions\/9889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}