Lessons from the Watchtower's Canadian Experience during World War II

https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/canada/Remembering-a-Legacy-of-Faith-From-Canadian-Labor-Camps/

https://www.e-know.ca/regions/east-kootenay/kootenay-park-conscientious-objector-camps/

Juxtaposing these two articles on Canadian Jehovah's Witnesses during WWII reveals something of how this group perceives itself and how it is perceived and misunderstood by those outside it.

Don't misunderstand. They're not Christians but to the shame of Evangelicals when it comes to ethics, antithesis vis-à-vis the world, and in many cases money and power, the Watchtower Society puts Evangelicals and Catholics to shame. They've captured a great deal of the spirit of New Testament life even while missing the very heart and soul of that life – the doctrine of Christ and our means of union with Him.

At one time other Restorationist groups and even a good number of Fundamentalists understood these ethical principles and lived them but not so today. And yet the Watchtower struggle is informative because for faithful Christians (who hope for a larger movement in the future), their struggle will effectively become our struggle – not a common cause but a common experience.

No one is suggesting Canadian Labour Camps can compare to Dachau, Flossenbürg or the other German concentration camps – let alone the more notorious death camps in Poland. And yes, Witnesses and others died in such places while no one in Canada was executed.

The point is not to smear Canada vis-à-vis Germany, the Soviet Union or any other nation, but rather to suggest that for the faithful (in this case the ethically faithful as opposed to the doctrinally faithful), there has always been persecution even in the so-called free lands or liberal democracies. Being a Christian requires a price to be paid and even the liberal societies will persecute the faithful – if in fact they're being faithful. In some context it may be mild persecution and often its cultural as opposed to judicial but there is nevertheless a life of grief and cross bearing awaiting those who would follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth.

It also reveals the bestial nature of these 'free' societies. They are evil systems and in the case of the liberal democracies their power and terror often falls heavily on the classes and people exploited by the capital-driven machines. Their power flourishes when the domestic population works and consumes and works in order to consume. But internationally their systems require cheap labour, abundant resources, and places to operate outside the confines of Western law. And so for the people in these nations (colonies whether they are referred as such or not), the price paid is a bit harsher.

It goes without saying that those who flourish in such evil systems are given over to their values, ethics, and ideals. They are not bearing the cross or living as strangers and pilgrims. Those that do – suffer and pay a price of some kind or degree.

Canada isn't thought of as a persecutor, nor the United States. These lands are 'beacons' of freedom and maybe when compared to Saudi Arabia or North Korea they seem to be. But make no mistake they're not Christian nor particularly friendly to the followers of Christ – especially as we reject nationalism and thus even meet hostility from the mainstream and Evangelical churches. And one must wonder aloud – what if the threat of nonconformity was larger, more than just handfuls of resistors? How would these states respond? It would be necessary for them to clampdown as these groups would be perceived as a threat.

In other words as Evangelicals and others  speak of being free from persecution – is this due to the inherent tolerance and goodness of the system or is this simply because so very few are actually willing to live as Christians and stand for New Testament ethics? Were they do so they might find the response from Ottawa and Washington quite different and then maybe (just maybe) their illusions about these governments and the supposed goodness of their political orders might come into question.

Sadly that's not the path these Evangelical groups or their nations seem likely to take. Their story is not going to be one of gradual realisation and repentance but one of death, fire, and tragedy – and ultimately real or functional apostasy. It's already happening.