Product Description
More than any other religion in recent history, Jehovah'sWitnesses have quietly and positively impacted the blackcommunity. Yet, some are concerned that the needs of AfricanAmericans, and Black Witnesses specifically, have beenoverlooked. Others argue that the predominantly white Governing Bodyis insensitive toward black plight.

This book deals squarely with these and other issues facing today's black Witnesses. Dr. Firpo W. Carr, an active Witness himself for over 35 years (and full-time minister for over 20 of those years), has traveled to black communities in major cities across the United States--from Harlem to Oakland--in an effort to carefully study and critique black Witnesses. The results have been discribed as "riveting."

Though the focus of his study was in the United States, he traveled to Cuba to study black Witnesses and their history on the Communist island. Fidel Castro elected to air Carr's 45-minute lecture on racism nationwide.

On both ends of the sociopolitical spectrum Carr's works have been widely accepted and admired. Legacy, "Africa's leading magazine on social issues," the original Black Panther Party, and many others have recognized and published Carr. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Misguided
I'm sorry but there are no racial issues in the Christian congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, despite what these other two reviewers may say. Jehovah's Witnesses have congregations in over 230 lands, of all national creeds, races, languages, and cultures. Just because there is only one black brother in the governing body in New York means nothing. It just is that way. Those brothers are chosen based upon spiritual matters, not fleshly ones. My wife and I are the only white couple in an otherwise all black congregation in Maryland. Race is not an issue. For us, or our brothers and sisters. Just because someone writes a book about something, doesn't make it so.

Jesus wasn't black either, nor was he white, he was a Jew, from the line of David. A middle eastern man. Sure a man of "color", but not technically black by the accepted vernacular. Black panther and nation of Islam connections just aren't there. I've been a witness for 20 years, and this book is the very first I have ever heard of such a thing. Jehovah's witnesses do not get involved with political issues, popular movements, revolutionary actions, or other (false) religions such as Islam. If you want to read an interesting book, with controversial topics, then this book may be for you. If you want the truth, the facts, or the real history of Jehovah's Witnesses, then I would pass on this one.

A Must Book for Every Witness and nonWitness to Read
Having read Firpo Carr's last book on Black Witnesses, I found his latest book better than I expected. Gone is the lashing out at "apostates" and in is reasoned discussions about real issues that concern the Watchtower today. Carr does criticize "apostates" in this book, yet he clearly has a number of disagreements with the Society and would technically therefore also be an apostate. I have never known a person who openly tried to change the Watchtower (and I have known many, including Ron Frye, Jim Penton, Don Nelson, Raymond Franz, Jerry Bergman, Barbara Anderson, Greg Stafford, Bill Bowen, and many others) that was able to stay. Sooner or later they all left due to pressure (or were forced out). Carr has argued, in my opinion effectively, for many needed changes in Watchtower policy including a more realistic stand on a number of issues facing Blacks in the Society. The Watchtower is the only White mainline church that the majority of members are minority (see Kosmin and Lachman One Nation Under God Harmony Books. NY). As Carr noted, one Black member on the governing body is progress, but to be truly representative of the Watchtower membership over half of the members should be minorities. Carr is advocating some fairly drastic changes in the Watchtower and, although he may be a rare exception and not end up being forced out, this will surely cause him problems. It is obvious that he has read much apostate literature, which alone could cause him problems. I wish him luck (sorry, good fortune). Also, his information on the Watchtower's connection with certain radical Black power groups and the radical Nation of Islam may upset some. The suggestion that Jesus was a Black man and other ideas may also not settle well with some.

A Book That Fills A Long Neglected Niche
Firpo Carr's "Jehovah's Witnesses: The African American Enigma--A Contemporary Study" is a work that those interested in issues concerning Jehovah's Witnesses and African Americans cannot afford to ignore. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed this work. Carr's use of the Society's own publications and other secular materials demonstrates his refined research skills and requisite caution with meticulous details. I learn something new about the Witnesses everytime that I pick up this book. But I now want to critique the writer on his style and substance.

Style

Firpo is an excellent writer. I found the publication hard to put down, found myself laughing to the point of tears and was utterly thrilled and delighted by Carr's "hypothetical Awake! article" (pp. 26-28) about Benjamin Banneker. Carr also avoids redundancy and makes use of the rich English language with facility. Most important, however, is the substance contained in Carr's book.

Substance

Carr's new work is not all style and no substance. The monograph is as substantial as it is polished vis-a-vis its style. The author deals with such potent issues as Afrocentricity and Watchtower publications, Samuel Herd's (a black man) Appointment to the Governing Body, the old "colored" branch office of the Society, the intriguing relationship between the Nation of Islam and Jehovah's Witnesses, and the heated issue of beards on white men and black males. Carr's treatment of these issues is balanced, penetrating and honest. He does not seek to criticize the WT Society or the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Carr does seek to deal with certain (real or imagined) overlooked needs of black Witnesses. After reading Carr's first volume of this series, I eagerly await volume 2 of this invaluable contribution to African American and religious studies.

Edgar Foster
Student at the University of Glasgow ... Read more

Product Description
Jehovah's Witnesses are possibly one of the most persecuted Christian organizations in the 20th century. How the Witnesses shape their response to persecution is invariably associated with the social reality they construct in their rhetorical practices. This is a descriptive analysis and interpretation of the social reality constructed by the discourse of the Jehovah Witnesses, utilizing a qualitative-interpretive approach for exploration into a social reality. The purpose is to determine how the textual and contextual reality of Jehovah's Witnesses influences their lives and courses of action, how discursive practices are fundamental to their understanding of themselves and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Two and a half stars!A dry and boring read!
The author writes for a very narrow audience, those who are academically minded and who want a discourse on what the paradigm ofJehovah's Witnesses apparently is.

For Jehovah's Witnesses, this book is valuable only in the sense that this book shows the understanding that a non-believer walked away with after attending quite a few meetings and after having quite a few discussions with Jehovah's Witnesses.He doesn't get everything right, but then neither do "believers."

It also bothered me that he accepted some of the negative statements made by apostates (non-Jehovah's Witnesses who are actively against the religion, whether they were once believers or not.)

If you enjoy academic language, would like to know an outsider's understanding of how Jehovah's Witnesses view the world, and know the meaning of words like etic and emic then this is the book for you.Otherwise, at a price of [item price], you are better off ordering this book through Inter-Library Loan.

A Noble Effort, But . . .
While there are commendable aspects of _A Qualitative
Analysis_, there are some surprising weaknesses
contained in the book as well. While I can overlook
Cronn-Mills' less than precise and not wholly accurate
explanation of the Witnesses' pneumatology in the
following terms, "The Spirit is merely Jehovah's
power, force, or energy" (44), I find it much more
difficult to ignore other errors. For instance, he
writes that the Witnesses believe that "Lucifer" was
created by Jehovah through "Michael" to watch over the
Garden of Eden until he began to nurture and
eventually acted on a desire to have his own
worshipers. Cronn-Mills continues: "So, while Jehovah
*slept* on the seventh day, Lucifer found and
capitalized on Adam and Eve's fatal flaw--free will"
(44).

I think that most Witnesses of Jehovah reading the
aforesaid comments could quickly and immediately
discern errors in Cronn-Mills' presentation. There are
other slips, but I will resist the urge to nit-pick.
Yet, before closing, we must mention the threefold
distinction mentioned in _A Qualitative Analysis_ that
Witnesses putatively advocate or teach. That is, the
threefold division of Satan's world, the Witness
world, and Jehovah's world (i.e., the new world
order). I think that many Witnesses, probably most,
would take issue with this portrayal of our beliefs.
Witnesses do not make a sharp distinction between a
so-called "Witness world" and Jehovah's world.

Cronn-Mills needs to reanalyze and rework this
explanation of Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that
Cronn-Mills' work is worth reading, if one is
interested in rhetorical and social science issues as
they appertain to religion. His attempt to be fair is
noble. His scientific research is also sound. But some
of the theological details are unfortunately explained in an
inadequate manner. Furthermore, there are a number of
typos in the book and the writing style employed in
the study is at times difficult to decipher. I am not
talking about technical language as such but the
writer's style of communication. Then again, he may
not be a native American English speaker or writer.
That would account for what seem to be textual idiosyncrasies in
_A Qualitative Analysis_. Finally, the issues of
social interactionism and groups constructing their
own reality through discursive pratices or rhetoric

are issues that could be treated in another essay or
monograph. Suffice it to say that Cronn-Mills'
"construction of reality" theory needs to be
approached with a certain "hermeneutics of suspicion"
by the Christian who endeavors to be faithful to God,
His written Word, and the very reality of God.

Edgar Foster
University of Glasgow ... Read more

Product Description
Counting the Days to Armageddon is work is of vital importance for all concerned with the Jehovah's Witness movement. It provides a thorough examination of their eschatological development, treating Watch Tower theology objectively but sympathetically. Crompton also speculates about the future direction of Jehovah's Witness teaching.The book begins with a brief consideration of the biblical foundations of doctrines of the last days, particularly the books of Daniel and Revelation. There follows an outline summary of some of the main aspects of the history of this doctrine within the Protestant mainstream during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and an outline of the Adventist teaching of William Miller (1782-1849) in the U.S.A.During the time following the failure of Miller's expectations of the end of the world, his ideas were developed by Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916), prime mover of the Watch Tower movement. Counting the Days to Armageddon explores the way in which Russell amended Miller's ideas, and also the distinctive way in which he handled the Dispensational categorisation of history of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) to create an extension of historicist speculation on the application of prophecy to the modern world.The response of the Watch Tower movement to the failure of Russell's expectations in 1914 is explored, and the new body of doctrine which has replaced Russell's is examined. The ways in which these doctrines have been modified in the past suggest ways in which future doctrine may develop, especially in response to the protracted delay of Armageddon. What is envisaged, in the light of the history of Watch Tower doctrine, is no dramatic collapse of the movement but rather an increasing emphasis upon other, less vulnerable areas of doctrine together with a greater turnover of membership which may, in due course, undermine the movement's stability. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Clear insight in inextricable development of doctrine of JWs
Crompton offers one of the best descriptions available of the development of the doctrinal system of Jehovah's Witnesses. The author has succeeded in approaching a controversial subject strictly analytical and offers deepinsight on how the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses have developed fromRussell's adapted version of Millerism right into the contemporaryframework where controversy is largely avoided or at least toned down.Interesting aspect is the way the author estimates the future of theWatchtower-Society (and its doctrines). When the leadership of the Societytakes his view in account and applies the offered possibilities, it willremain existing deep into the 21st century. ... Read more

Product Description
This PowerPoint® presentation enables users to discover a clear, down-to-earth understanding about what Jehovahs Witnesses believe and how to witness to friends. The presentation includes 125 slides and extensive leader notes. Includes many photos. Compatible with Macintosh and PC. ... Read more