9. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History has copies of the Book of Mormon in its library. [128]

Chapter 5. The Watch Tower Society Jehovah's Witnesses

Alcyone is a central, famous star in the constellation of the Pleiades... Alcyone, moreover, as far as it is investigated by science, turns out to be the "midnight throne", which is the center of the whole system of attraction and from which the Almighty governs his universe.

Charles Taze Russell[129]

1. Of all the totalitarian sects operating on the territory of our country, the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses most of all resembles the Communist Party

In terms of the time of its foundation, the sect "Jehovah's Witnesses" chronologically follows the sect of Mormons. It is also known as the Watch Tower Society (OSB). In the previous edition of the book, the following definition was given: it is a pseudo-Christian Arian apocalyptic millenarian (chiliastic) totalitarian sect. However, after reading the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses more carefully, I realized that this definition is superficial and does not reflect the essence of the sect. At this point, I would call the Watch Tower Society a pseudo-religious for-profit organization based on a quasi-communist ideology with elements of paganism and hiding behind a few Christian images and concepts. I will try to prove this point of view in the course of the following story.

Of all the totalitarian sects operating on the territory of our country, this sect most of all, even outwardly, resembles the Communist Party. Perhaps that is why it manages to achieve such notable success throughout the post-Soviet space. The structure of Jehovah's Witnesses is remarkably similar to that of the CPSU with its "democratic centralism." Instead of divine services, the Jehovah's Witnesses[130] hold "party meetings," "party studies" lessons, and "party congresses" (annual "Congresses of Jehovah's Witnesses"), and in the eschatological perspective they expect a very concrete earthly paradise (read communism), where there will be plenty of food and little work, where everyone will be taken "according to his ability" and given "according to his needs." Neither God (Jehovah) nor Christ has a place in this earthly paradise.

Jehovah's Witnesses are known primarily for their active propaganda activities. More often than members of many other sects, they go from house to house, pester people on the streets, hand out their leaflets and magazines, obsessively offer to study the Bible together and invite them to their meetings.

They are also known because of their specific feature - a fanatical refusal of blood transfusions. They trace the prohibition against the use of blood to the book of Leviticus and to the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where the Apostolic Council recommends that new Gentile Christians abstain from eating animal blood, in particular. In 1961, the leaders of the sect proclaimed blood transfusion to be the same as eating and declared it a mortal sin. [131] Because of the ban on blood transfusions, a lot of children died, whose parents-Jehovah's Witnesses refused this simple medical procedure, as well as people who were unconscious, because sectarian relatives flatly refused to consent to it.

However, human life has never been a priority for the leadership of the sect. Initially, Jehovah's Witnesses were forbidden to vaccinate themselves, which, of course, led to a large number of serious diseases and deaths. It was not until 1952, after many countries had banned people who had not been properly vaccinated and vaccinated, that the Watch Tower Society lifted its ban. No one took responsibility for the people who died at the whim of the sect leadership. On the other hand, organ transplants were banned, which deprived many people of their last hope of saving their lives. The Jehovah's Witnesses, who needed an eye corneal transplant, were forced to refuse the operation and agree to the loss of sight. In 1980, organ transplantation was allowed, and again the leadership of the sect did not even consider it necessary to apologize for forcibly imposing on people a point of view that was now recognized as erroneous. [132] Why did hundreds of people die, and many others became blind? This question still remains unanswered. Perhaps in the near future, the leadership of the sect will allow Jehovah's Witnesses to receive blood transfusions. [133] And again the sectarians will accept this change without a murmur, and again no one will demand an answer to the simple question: for what did our brothers and sisters die?

All members of the sect consider themselves citizens of a single theocratic state, the Watch Tower Society, with its capital in Brooklyn (a district of New York), where their Bethel center is located near the Brooklyn Bridge (not only the Brooklyn headquarters are called sects, but also the administrative centers of Jehovah's Witnesses in all countries of the world): a complex of squat gray-brown cube-shaped buildings, very boring and reminiscent of either warehouses or barracks. One of them has a turret with crenellated edges at the top, on which is written: "Watchtower". This is their brain trust, headquarters, world government. There sits the "divinely established" supreme body, the Governing Corporation, which the sectarians call Jehovah's "Faithful and Discreet Slave" (ViBR), his only representative on earth.

The governing body appoints authorized representatives in the large zones, who supervise committees in the branches, to which the overseers in the areas report. Subordinate to them are circuit overseers, who supervise the elders in the congregations to which the rank and file members are assigned. Such is the rigid structure of the sect's management. However, all the local administrative bodies of the sect do not make any decisions on their own—they are only a transmission link for "the implementation of orders and directives from Brooklyn.

Here is a quote from a pro-Jehovah's Witness source that characterizes the structure of the sect. Let us pay attention to its internal contradictions: