Jehovah's Witnesses decry 'smear campaign' in wake of suicide
By Anatoly Medetsky
Jehovah's Witnesses had nothing to do with the suicide of an 18-year-old Vladivostok man, the group said recently, responding to media coverage suggesting that the young man was a member of the religious group and that was why he took his life.
In a case that reflects the tensions surrounding non-traditional faiths that have emerged in Russia in recent years, the Jehovah's Witnesses say the media has unfairly blamed them for the death last week, and that the victim was not even a church member. Such reporting "is part of a smear campaign unfolded against Jehovah's Witnesses by the adversaries of religious freedom," said an August 21 press release from the group's Russian governing center in St. Petersburg.
Various media reported that the young man, Vladlen Ivanov, who jumped to his death from the roof of a 12-story building in Vladivostok August 18, was a Jehovah's Witness. The media referred to the words of the young man as relayed by witnesses, the neighbors of the family, and the title page of the Bible that the man held.
The Vladivostok newspaper cited elevator operator Vera Zuyeva, who was one of the first to try and talk the man out of the final step. She said his problems would work out fine with time.
"But he answered that everything will be fine only in Jehovah's kingdom," she said as quoted by the paper.
And the regional edition of the national Komsomolskaya Pravda ran the story under a headline stating straight: "A Jehovah's Witness stepped off 12th floor."
The panic about the religious group has prevented a more thorough discussion of a truly ghastly element of the story. The suicide might not have happened if it hadn't been for a crowd of gawkers watching from a nearby hillside and from the windows of a neighboring building.
According to the newspaper Novosti, they shouted: "[foul language]." The young man stepped off.
Media here linked the Jehovah's Witnesses to the suicide, though this was not substantiated. Authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church have accused the group of illegal actions and characterize it as a totalitarian sect in an attempt to fan public enmity.
This follows a pattern in contemporary Russia. The Orthodox Church, faced with a rising tide of conversions to non-traditional faiths, has responded by using allies in the government to restrict the rights of some faiths to organize, import missionaries from abroad, and even open bank accounts. In fact, the Orthodox Church has even tried to limit faiths with an ancient heritage in Russia, such as Moslems. Rival religious groups, which include everyone from Baptists to Hari Krishnas, have called these restrictions a violation of the Russian constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion.
The recent suicide and the media accusations that followed it have stirred up a fresh wave of hostility from the church and some media that dislike the group despite the fact that it has recently been reregistered in Russia.
"But proper documents are not an indulgence," the Vladivostok wrote.
"The fact that they are available by no means signifies that their holders always act within the law."
The Russian Orthodox Church, a longtime foe of the Witnesses, jumped at the chance to blast them again, charging that the young man killed himself because the group brainwashed him.
"It's their hallmark. It's their way of influencing people so that it blurs a person's brain," said Larisa Khairulina, a spokeswoman for the church. She said the church would publish this theory in its newspaper.
But the Jehovah's Witnesses deny any connection with the suicide. The young man had never been a member and never attended Bible study sessions, the group stated.
Especially galling to the Jehovah's Witnesses are suggestions that the group condones suicide. In fact, the church stated, it teaches that suicide is a sin. "Jehovah's Witnesses love and value their lives as a wonderful gift of our Creator," said the press release.
Jehovah's Witnesses are on trial in Moscow where prosecutors charge that they rouse religious dissension, destroy families, and urge seriously ill people to refuse medical treatment. The belief originated inn the United States in late 19th century, and Witnesses refuse blood transfusions, will not swear oaths of loyalty, and will not bear arms. But they urge members to obey the civil authority.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which the law names one of the country's three principal religions along with Judaism and Islam, has repeatedly called the group illegal. Last month, the church's Primorye Diocese asked the regional prosecutors to look into Jehovah's Witnesses, among two other groups, for allegedly using illicit tactics to convert new members.
The Orthodox Church says Witnesses violate the law with their practice of going from door to door, offering religious literature, and even proselytizing in public places and in transport. Jehovah's Witnesses said the practice is within the law and had been used in 200 countries around the world where the group is registered.