Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Going to church the Jehovah Witness way

(I thought it would be interesting to use Sundays to focus on Rensselaer's churches and to see how many Sundays I can go before I run out of material. Indiana is richly endowed with religious denominations, with influences from North and South, East and West. This is part of that series of posts.)

Rensselaer has a small Jehovah Witnesses hall on West Maple Street. According to the sign in the front, there is a public meeting at 9:30. The local hall does not have a website.
The Jehovah Witnesses are adventists, that is, they expect the imminent return of Jesus. The official website of the Jehovah Witnesses explains:
In themselves, recent world happenings are bad, but what they signify is good, namely, Christ's presence. The conditions mentioned above started to be evident in that widely heralded year 1914! It marked the end of the Gentile Times and the beginning of the transition period from human rule to the Thousand Year (Millennial) Reign of Christ.
The Witnesses have a number of practices that have brought them into conflict with others, such as their refusal to accept blood transfusions:
Thousands of physicians around the world are now successfully treating patients without using blood transfusions. In a spirit of respect and cooperation, Jehovah's Witnesses desire to share some findings in regard to transfusion-alternative strategies.
The official website has nothing on the history of the group, but you can find it on Wikipedia.

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