Judging others

By ROBERT W. PLYLER

  On Friday, Jamestown’s Robert H. Jackson Center will host a panel discussion at 10:30 a.m. on one of the most significant decisions ever written by Justice Jackson in his years as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

  The Case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, U.S. 624 was announced by the court on June 14, 1943. Present at the Jackson Center on Friday will be the Barnette sisters, whose names are the focus of the decision’s title, along with Bennett Boskey, who was Law Clerk to Chief Justice Harlan Stone, and Shawn Francis Peters, who is the author of the book Judging Jehovah’s Witnesses: Religious persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution.

The book explains in detail the circumstances leading up to the milestone decision, along with the author’s evaluation of the principal figures involved, including Justice Jackson. John Q. Barrett, Professor at St. John’s University School of Law will moderate the discussion.

  Professor Barrett is the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Jackson Center. The sisters, whose name was Barnette in 1943, now use their married names: Gathie Edmonds and Marie Snodgrass.

  In that famed decision, Jackson wrote, ‘‘One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.’’ Our nation does well to note and celebrate the milestones in the achievement of our country’s tradition of freedom.

Background to the struggle

  Shawn Francis Peters has written a history of the conflicts between a variety of local and state governments and the members of the religious group which call themselves Jehovah’s Witnesses. The book focuses on events from the conflict, in the period of the 1940s.

  His isn’t a book you would pick up for light evening entertainment. It is intended to serve as a history, so it expounds upon individual event, after event, after event, where a book aimed at popular sales would frequently generalize and combine.

  Jehovah’s Witnesses are a relatively small religious organization. On their official website, they claim to number 6 million members, living in 230 different countries. They claim to have existed for many thousands of years, stretching long before the birth of Christ.

  In many countries, the group is called ‘‘Bible Scholars’’ or ‘‘Bible Students.’’

  The group’s modern history begins in the 1870s, with a small Bible study group in Allegheny, Pa. Today that city is the part of the city of Pittsburgh which is north of the Allegheny River. Charles Taze Russell was the prime mover in the group.

  Peters’ book begins in the early 1940s. By 1940, Hitler’s Germany had risen up and conquered first most of Poland, then Denmark and Norway, and then the countries of the Netherlands and Belgium. At that time, France was viewed as the greatest military power in the world, and the principal winner of World War I.

  Hitler’s troops over-ran the northern half of France in a few weeks, while the French people themselves formed a pro-German puppet state for themselves, in the southern half of their country.

  England was then the only major power still opposing Hitler, and England’s cities were being bombed savagely, nearly every day. Italy joined the war on the German side, and Spain was governed by a Hitler-like dictator. Canada was already fighting the war, but the United States remained officially neutral. Many Americans feared that a German invasion of our country was inevitable.

  Although the infamous Holocaust — in which 6 million Jews and more than 5 million members of other Nazi-hated groups were deliberately murdered — was still mostly in the future, rumors of the Nazis and their beliefs and behaviors were leaking out of Europe. Some rumors were accurate, while others were wildly distorted.

  In his book 1984, author George Orwell predicted that in the future, the Earth would be controlled by dictatorial governments who would control not only people’s behavior, but their very thoughts, as well.

  Orwell predicted that these governments would need to keep their countries always at war, because in war, people often react out of fear, rather than in rational thought. That very thing began to happen in the United States, in the period we’re discussing.

  Among the rumors arriving from Europe was the true one that one reason for Hitler’s successful conquests was the presence of what is called ‘‘A Fifth Column.’’ That is a group of people inside a country at war, who help their countries’ enemies overcome their own governments.

  Ultra-conservative figures such as Marshall Petain in France and Vidkun Quisling in Norway who aided the Germans in controlling their own countries, proved the veracity of these beliefs.

  The United States, badly weakened by the Great Depression and astonished at the collapse of Europe, became a hotbed of rumors of spies at work in our own country. Anyone whose behavior differed from the average was in danger of becoming a suspect in this great panic.

  Members of Jehovah’s Witnesses are often unpopular with people whose beliefs differ. This is true, in part, because the members of the faith have been outspoken in criticism of other religions, especially the Roman Catholic faith. Also, Witnesses are encouraged to teach their religion on street corners and other public sites, and to go from door to door, encouraging others to adopt their beliefs.

  This can be a simple handing out of printed material, but has been known to include actions such as setting up record players in front of people’s homes and playing recorded lectures at high volumes.

  In 1940, witnesses decided that they could not recite the Pledge of Allegiance, because they believed that the pledge made the flag into an idol, a graven image, as forbidden by the Bible. Children who practiced the Witnesses’ faith quietly resisted the pledge which typically began the school day.

  Classmates often ridiculed or even beat up these children. School districts saw the refusal, not as a demonstration of faith, but as a disciplinary matter. Patriotic organizations, volunteer fire departments, and other adult organizations, saw the refusal to pledge as an indication of support for Hitler.

  Perhaps the greatest irony of theentire situation was that Jehovah’s Witnesses were one of the groups included in the more than five million non-Jews whom Hitler’s Holocaust was exterminating, and for the exact same reason. Witnesses would not return the famed ‘‘Heil Hitler’’ salute, because they believed it constituted a worship of an idol.

The Gobitas decision

  In 1935, Lillian and Billy Gobitas of Minersville, Pa., accepted the teachings of the Witnesses, and stopped saluting the flag. The school applied a number of punishments, and eventually expelled both children. Ironically, the district then began to prosecute their parents for failing to send their children to school.

  The Gobitas parents sued the school district, saying the rules requiring the salute were a violation of their children’s rights to practice their religion without government interference, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The family won the first suit, only to have the district’s superintendent appeal the decision to a higher court.

  This pattern of a Gobitas win followed by a school district appeal continued until 1940, when it reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court disagreed with all the lower courts, and supported the district. They further insulted the family by getting the spelling of their name wrong. Hence the decision is officially known as The Gobitis Decision.

  Justice Felix Frankfurter, writing for the eight-judge majority, ruled that the constitution gives law-making power to elected bodies such as state legislatures, city councils, and school boards. He said the encouragement of patriotic feeling was a worthwhile and appropriate goal for the school, and that pledging the flag was not a religious act, so the religious rights of the Gobitas children and those of other Witnesses were not infringed.

  Sadly, many Americans took that decision to mean that the Witnesses had been declared by the the Supreme Court to be agents of the Nazis. Even police forces habitually refused to provide protection for Witnesses, because they incorrectly believed that the Witnesses were enemy agents.

  In the year 1940 alone, nearly 1,500 Witnesses suffered a total of 335 separate mobbings in 44 different states. Women were stoned with bricks. Men were tied by their wrists in a row, and pulled along by motor vehicles, never allowed a moment’s rest nor a sip of water until they were long out of town, leaving their homes and possessions behind.

  Although neither their real behaviors nor the crimes of which they were suspected were in any way sexual, one Witness was dragged from his home and castrated. Often, members of the organization were threatened with lynching.

  It is not uncommon in modern times, to hear the belief stated that Middle Eastern countries can never achieve a democratic system of government, because of the strength of the feeling that seems to exist there that if someone disagrees with you, you don’t mind your own business and live happily next to them, you try to kill them.

  The case of Abdul Rahman is often quoted to support that belief. He is the man from Afghanistan who within the past month was threatened with death for converting to Christianity. It might do well for us to remember that within the lifetime of my sister, Americans were being threatened with death because their religion differed from that of the majority, and not in rare, isolated incidents.

Subsequent results

  In 1943, Congress passed a law, informing local and state governments that Congress reserved to itself the right to decide how the flag was to be acknowledged. This was followed shortly by the Burnette decision by the courts that individuals could practice their beliefs unless these beliefs seriously impacted the public health and safety. A few children sitting through a pledge ceremony doesn’t seem to threaten either health or safety.

  Justice Jackson was given the responsibility of explaining the points of law which were considered by the court in arriving at that decision. His decision is often hailed as a major lynch pin in the development of human rights in our country. ‘‘None who acts under color of law is beyond the reach of the Constitution,’’ he wrote.

  The simple truth is that a democratic system cannot exist if we are unwilling to protect those who differ from ourselves. Every time we have a national election, tens of millions of Americans believe it turned out wrong.

  Fortunately, so far, few of us feel the right to take up arms to ‘‘fix the error.’’ One of the greatest presidents in our history was John Adams, our second president. He was the first president to try for re-election, but to be voted out of office.

  When defeat came, he was still, for several months, the head of state, and commander in chief of the army. Many people in many countries have decided that they were needed in power, and would stay, regardless of what the voters said. Adams packed his things and returned to Massachusetts. Bless him.

  I hope those who can be free at 10:30 a.m. on a Friday will find their way to the Jackson Center to hear this discussion of the issue, and to meet the author of this book. The Jackson Center stretches along Prendergast Ave., between Fourth and Fifth Streets, in downtown Jamestown.

  If the issue of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Pledge of Allegiance is of interest, Peters’ book is clear and well-written. It’s very easy to understand. Peters clearly believes the Barnette decision was a wise one, but he lays out both sides of every argument and supports his arguments with extensive examples and analysis.

  Judging Jehovah’s Witnesses was published by the University Press of Kansas in 2000. It has 300 pages in paperbound edition, and sells at one bookseller for $11.67. The ISBN number is 0-7006-1182-7.

The Post-Journal

April 22, 2006

Vol. 179, No. 305

Section C, Page 7