For Immediate Release
Jehovah's Witnesses in the Public Eye SELTERS/BERLIN—In the last few weeks Jehovah's Witnesses have twice been put in the public eye—at an Enquete Commission hearing and before the Federal Administrative Court in Berlin. First, on May 11, 2001, in response to an Enquete Commission demand, Jehovah's Witnesses submitted a document containing their viewpoint on the subject "The Future of Civic Activities." In that seven-page document they stated: "The necessity of voluntary commitment for fellow humans is deepened through Christian understanding. Religious service and civil commitment therefore are directly associated . . . [Jesus] Christ himself emphasized the unselfish giving that is to be expressed by not expecting any service in return." The statement of the religious community can be retrieved from the Internet under the following address: http://www.bundestag.de/gremien/enga/enga kir.html More material on that subject is featured in a July 2001 issue of the internationally published magazine Awake! that deals with volunteerism, relevant to the United Nations proclaiming the International Year of Volunteers. This magazine is available free of charge for those wishing to read more on the subject. Second, on May 16, 2001, an official hearing dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses took place before the Federal Administrative Court. Since 1990, the Witnesses have sought to attain legal recognition as a corporation of public law. The judges returned the case to the lower Administrative Court. Now the lower court has to file a new hearing. The spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses, Werner Rudtke, pointed out: "Admittedly the court has returned the case to the OVG (Upper Administrative Court), but it was made clear that the accusations from the Senate of Berlin are unfounded. We regret the further delay, but we are confident that we will successfully finish the proceedings before the OVG." More than 170,000 Jehovah's Witnesses are in Germany. There are over 6 million worldwide, with almost 1 million baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses in the last three years. More information can be found on the Internet under http://www.jehovaszeugen.de Contact in the United States: J. Richard Brown, telephone:
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