Hat tip to Kess who shared this with me on Facebook.
Norway will no longer fund the Jehovah’s Witnesses
Norway will no longer fund the Jehovah's Witnesses (onlysky.media)I
n a move that’s both long overdue and shocking, the Norwegian government said it would no longer provide funding to the Jehovah’s Witnesses because of the religious sect’s cult-like practices.
Norway’s odd relationship with religion
Norway, which has a national Church but no longer has a national religion, is one of those countries where religion is literally supported by taxpayers; the more members you have, the more money your preferred religious (or Humanist) organization receives. Any “religious” group with 50 registered members are allowed to apply for state subsidies, and more than 800 groups receive that kind of funding.The law is very open regarding the kinds of religious or non-religious groups that can receive that money. However there are some lines in the sand:
That makes sense. A group that endorses violence shouldn’t get taxpayer money, nor should any group hurting children or violating human rights. Sure, there are atheists who might argue that any form of religious indoctrination is child abuse, but these rules are theoretically limited to things that are irrefutable and not up for debate.
More specifically, groups that receive those subsidies can’t force people to remain members. They can’t ban interactions with non-members. They can’t make children pledge a lifelong commitment to them. If they cross those boundaries, then their groups might lose that government funding.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway
According to the Norwegian government’s Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, in 2021, there were 12,686 registered Jehovah’s Witnesses in the country. That number meant taxpayers were on the hook to give the Witnesses more than NOK 16 million (roughly $1,778,793 in U.S. dollars) in support. About $140 per member.Last year, the government said it would begin looking into the Witnesses after two former members and a separate (anonymous) whistleblower sent letters explaining that the Witnesses were in violation of the rules. It’s not that the JW beliefs were secrets or anything. It’s more likely that government officials needed to act deliberately and get their paperwork in order before they could take any kind of action. Those letters got the ball rolling.
Some of those claims were debatable. For example, the Witnesses say members can’t get involved in politics, and that means JWs never vote in elections. One former member argued that since voting in an election could lead to expulsion by the Witnesses — which means members couldn’t interact with you — that qualified as a violation of the rules. The Witnesses responded by saying they had every right to set their own policies, and if someone wanted to vote, they were freely deciding to leave the fold. There was nothing coercive about it.
But there were other concerns that the government took very seriously.
The concerns about the JWs
In a written statement from the state administrator in Oslo and Viken, there are two Jehovah’s Witness beliefs that are particularly egregious as far as the law goes:- The Witnesses engage in the practice of Disfellowshipping. That means former JWs who leave the religion are effectively excommunicated. Members are told not to have any interactions with them. The idea here is that the former members will get so lonely or depressed that they’ll eventually come crawling back. There’s no shortage of families that have been torn apart because of this.
The state administrator wrote that Norwegian law requires all religions that receive government subsidies to practice a “right to free withdrawal.” If there’s a serious obstacle to leaving a religion, that’s arguably a violation of the law. Disfellowshipping, the administrator wrote, “can cause members to feel pressured to remain in the faith community.” - A similar policy applies to children. If a child in a JW family “makes it a habit to break the moral standards of the Bible and does not repent,” the Witnesses teach, they are also to be treated as pariahs. That means a young teenager (baptized or not) who quits the religion is subject to exclusion from religious members.
While their immediate families don’t have to kick them out of the house, the state administrator said the Witnesses believe that child can no longer “have contact with other close family (including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) or friends.” That puts pressure on the child to remain in the fold — a violation of their own rights under the law. (“We consider social isolation as a form of punishment against the child.”)
They Jehovah’ed themselves out of nearly $2 million.
The Witnesses say they plan to appeal the decision. (On what grounds? Who knows.)
