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The Bible translated by Jehovah's Witnesses is recognized as extremist
The Vyborg City Court banned the publications of "Holy Scripture. New World Translation", "The Bible and Its Main Theme", "Science instead of the Bible?" and "How to improve health. 5 simple rules."
On August 17, 2017, the Vyborg City Court granted the claims of the Leningrad-Finland Transport Prosecutor to recognize as extremist the publications "The Holy Scripture. New World Translation" (that is, the Bible of Jehovah's Witnesses) of 2014 edition, as well as the brochures "The Bible and Its Main Theme", "Science instead of the Bible? and "How to improve health. 5 simple rules." The court's decision has not yet entered into force and can be appealed, according to the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia website.
The circulation of the Bible was detained by the Vyborg customs in July 2015. In February 2016, the prosecutor's office sent a lawsuit to the court to recognize the publication as extremist, its consideration began in April 2016.
During the consideration of the claim, at the request of the prosecutor, a comprehensive linguistic religious studies forensic examination was carried out. It was carried out by the experts of the ANO "Center for Sociocultural Expertise" candidate of pedagogical sciences Natalia Kryukova and candidates of political sciences Alexander Tarasov and Viktor Kotelnikov.
Most of the questions put to the experts concerned the presence of signs of extremism in the texts under consideration, in these questions the wording of the relevant legislation was reproduced. This is a violation of the rules for conducting a forensic examination, since only the court has the right to answer such questions. At the same time, it follows from the text of the conclusion that the main goal that guides the experts is to answer the questions posed by the investigation in the affirmative.
The obvious inconsistency, helplessness, blatant absurdity of their own arguments do not bother them. So, to the question of whether these materials contain substantiation and justification for the need to overthrow the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, the experts answer: yes, since it follows from them that Jehovah's Witnesses believe in the depravity of the existing state of affairs, the coming end of the world, the victory of Jesus over the devil who captured the world, destroyed all the rulers, "evil people and demons", the reign of Jesus and the beginning of a new world order. To the question of whether the submitted materials contain calls to violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, the answer is again in the affirmative: yes, since Jehovah's Witnesses believe in the inevitability of a change of power with the end of the world, and where there is a change of power, there is also the seizure of territories. Do these materials incite religious strife and hatred: yes, since they speak of God's chosenness of Jehovah's Witnesses and the falsity of other religions (they use the collective terms "Babylon the Great" and "great harlot"). At the same time, experts refer to the Old Testament episodes about original sin, the destruction of Babylon, the Canaanites and the apostasy of the Israelites after the death of Joshua, to the words that God favors the new Christian congregation and followers of Christians. When asked whether the materials contain statements about the natural, biological superiority of Jehovah's Witnesses over adherents of other religions, experts also answer in the affirmative, citing the same arguments. Among other things, experts considered criticism of the Catholic Church to be a sign of inciting religious hatred, consisting in the fact that in the brochure of Jehovah's Witnesses on science, in an article about Galileo, it is said that the Catholic Inquisition sentenced him to life imprisonment unfairly and Pope John Paul II admitted this. Do Jehovah's Witnesses in their materials call for genocide and mass repressions, the establishment of inequality, discrimination, the commission of crimes motivated by hatred - according to experts, yes: they believe that God poured fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, and that at the end of the world the world is in calamity. Actually, the entire examination is based mainly on a repeating set of fifteen quotes. Surprisingly, the experts did not find calls for terrorism (as opposed to mass repressions), obstruction of the electoral rights of citizens and the legitimate activities of state bodies in the texts they examined.
The CSE experts positively answered the investigation's question about the presence in the materials of Jehovah's Witnesses of manipulative linguistic and psychological techniques aimed at forming negative attitudes towards representatives of other religions. As such, they considered " a special form of presentation of material " (the use of inserts, links, illustrations with comments), the use of specific terminology ("wakefulness", "last days", "day of darkness and gloom", "little flock", "groom", " bride", "wedding", etc.), the formation of a positive stereotype in relation to Jehovah's Witnesses and the " image of the enemy " in relation to representatives of the sinful world external to them, " an appeal in the form of infection " (giving examples of a righteous and God-pleasing life), " substitution of concepts " (the texts contain a call to study the Bible in the translation of Jehovah's Witnesses, which, according to experts, is not the Bible), " a call in the form of persuasion ".
From the point of view of experts, the materials of Jehovah's Witnesses " contain information related to the obligation or inducement of "community members" to distance themselves from the institutions of civil society ," in particular, from family and marriage, since the view of Jehovah's Witnesses on marriage is stated there, while other points of view not recognized. At the same time, experts refer to statements that adultery is a sin and followers of Christ should not commit adultery. The authors of the examination in the reviewed literature also found " signs of the reader's inclination to refuse to perform the duties established by the legislation of the Russian Federation " - namely, to refuse military service, despite the fact that Russian legislation provides for the possibility of performing alternative service and Jehovah's Witnesses do it.
Finally, since there is a law in Russia prohibiting the recognition of the scriptures of world religions and their fragments as extremist, the investigation asked the experts whether these materials are the " Bible, Koran, Tanakh or Kanjur " and whether they contain quotes from these books. The answer of the experts was, of course, negative. From their point of view, the "Holy Scripture in the New World Translation" is not the Bible, since it differs from the synodal translation on the linguistic, ideological-thematic and intertextual levels. This is expressed in the fact that instead of the concept "God" the concept "Jehovah" is used in the text of the New Testament, the Tetragrammaton interpreted " in the form of Jehovah " is introduced into the text of the New Testament, the texts of the New Testament about the unity of nature and the equality of God the Father and God the Son " are changed so so that they can be interpreted in the opposite sense , "the names of the Holy Spirit are written with a small letter (which depersonalizes him and contradicts the references in the New Testament" as the Person and Person of the Holy Trinity "), with the same purpose" the verse 1 Peter 1:11 is distorted , the internal markup of the text is changed, and besides, the book does not indicate that it is the Bible, although other translations, in particular, the synodal one, contain such an indication. And since the New World Translation is not the Bible is, experts pointed out, which means that there are no quotations from the Bible in it.
The fact that there is a court in Russia that considers it possible to accept for consideration an expert opinion containing arguments of this level casts a shadow on the entire Russian judicial system as a whole and testifies to the deepest crisis in Russian legal proceedings.
We believe that recognizing as extremist both the Bible translated by Jehovah's Witnesses and their other publications is unlawful, and we regard such bans as manifestations of religious discrimination. The method chosen by the experts and adopted by the court to circumvent the law prohibiting the recognition of the sacred writings of world religions as extremist is a sad precedent, which in the future opens up the possibility of a ban on other translations and expositions of sacred books.
Let us recall that on April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local communities as extremist, the decision came into force.
Sources
- Report: Trial of the Bible in Vyborg // Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. 2017. August 17.
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