Jehovah's Witnesses: A Contemporary Sectarian Community

Abstract

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to show how a sectarian group with a definite ideology and value system employs various insulating and isolating mechanisms to retain its members and to shield them from the harmful influences of the larger society. Some of the mechanisms we shall discuss are: (1) the importance and the manner of proselytization, (2) the significance of the sect's value system and ideology in providing an alternate frame of reference, (3) the importance of one's social contact with sect members, and (4) the insulting function of the sect's normative system. We do not imply that other sects do not employ some of thees mechanisms as well but note that Jehovah's Witnesses are peculiar in that they make use of all of these in a combination that effects ideological and social isolation of the sect from the secular world, resulting in a sectarian community.</p>