Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization[4] headquartered in Warwick, New York. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer and disseminate doctrines for the group and is often referred to by members of the denomination simply as "the Society". It is the parent organization of a number of Watch Tower subsidiaries, including the Watchtower Society of New York and International Bible Students Association.[5][6] The number of voting shareholders of the corporation is limited to between 300 and 500 "mature, active and faithful" male Jehovah's Witnesses.[7] About 5,800 Jehovah's Witnesses provide voluntary unpaid labour, as members of a religious order, in three large Watch Tower Society facilities in New York.[8] Nearly 15,000 other members of the order work at the Watch Tower Society's other facilities worldwide.[8][9][10]
"Watch Tower Society" redirects here. For related corporations, including the Watchtower Society of New York, see Corporations of Jehovah's Witnesses.Formation
- February 16, 1881
- (incorporated December 15, 1884)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
11-1857820[1]
Warwick, New York, U.S.[3]
- Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society (1881–1896)
- Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (1896–1955)
The organization was formed in 1881 as Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society for the purpose of distributing religious tracts.[4] The society was incorporated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 15, 1884. In 1896, the society was renamed Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.[11] Following a leadership dispute in the Bible Student movement, the society remained associated with the branch of the movement that became known as Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1955, the corporation was renamed Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.[12] In 1976, all activities of the Watch Tower Society were brought under the supervision of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.[13]
Operations[edit]
The corporation is a major publisher of religious publications, including books, tracts, magazines and Bibles. By 1979, the Watch Tower Society had 39 printing branches worldwide. In 1990, it was reported that in one year the society printed 696 million copies of its magazines, The Watchtower and Awake! as well as another 35,811,000 pieces of literature worldwide, which are offered door-to-door by Jehovah's Witnesses.[55] As of 2013, the society prints more than 43 million of its public issues of these magazines each month, totaling over 1 billion annually.
The Watch Tower Society describes its headquarters and branch office staff as volunteers rather than employees,[8] and identifies them as members of the Worldwide Order of Special Full-Time Servants of Jehovah's Witnesses.[9] Workers receive a small monthly stipend[56] with meals and accommodation provided by the society. The "Bethel family" in the Brooklyn headquarters includes hairdressers, dentists, doctors, housekeepers and carpenters, as well as shops for repairing personal appliances, watches, shoes and clothing without charge for labor.[57]
The Watch Tower Society does not file any publicly accessible financial figures, but reported in 2011 that it had spent more than $173 million that year "in caring for special pioneers, missionaries and traveling overseers in their field service assignments".[9][58] Donations obtained from the distribution of literature is a major source of income, most of which is used to promote its evangelical activities.[59]
Author James Beckford has claimed the status of voting members of the Watch Tower Society is purely symbolic. He said they cannot be considered to be representatives of the mass of Jehovah's Witnesses and are in no position to challenge the actions or authority of the society's directors.[60]
Property ownership[edit]
United States[edit]
The corporation was first located at 44 Federal Street, Allegheny, Pennsylvania (the city was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907), but in 1889 moved to "Bible House", newly built premises at 56–60 Arch Street, Allegheny, owned by Russell's privately owned Tower Publishing Company. The new building contained an assembly hall seating about 200, as well as editorial, printing and shipping facilities and living quarters for some staff.[61] The title for the building was transferred in April 1898 to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
In 1909, the Watch Tower Society moved its base to Brooklyn. A four-story brownstone parsonage formerly owned by Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher at 124 Columbia Heights was converted to a residence for a headquarters staff of 30, as well as an office for Russell. A former Plymouth church building at 13–17 Hicks Street was purchased and converted into the Watch Tower headquarters, with room for 350 staff. It contained an 800-seat assembly hall, shipping department and printing facilities.[62]
The Watch Tower announced: "The new home we shall call 'Bethel,' and the new office and auditorium, 'The Brooklyn Tabernacle'; these names will supplant the term 'Bible House.'"[63] In October 1909, an adjoining building at 122 Columbia Heights was bought.[64] In 1911, a new nine-story residential block was built at the rear of the headquarters, fronting on Furman Street and overlooking the Brooklyn waterfront.[62] The Brooklyn Tabernacle was sold in 1918 or 1919.[65]
Printing facilities were established in Myrtle Street, Brooklyn in 1920. The February 1, 1920, issue of The Watch Tower was printed by the Watch Tower Society at the plant. Two months later the plant began printing The Golden Age. In 1922, the printing factory was moved to a six-story building at 18 Concord Street, Brooklyn. In 1926 it moved to larger premises, a new eight-story building at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, at which time the society's headquarters was rebuilt and enlarged. In December 1926, a building at 126 Columbia Heights was bought. A month later the three buildings from 122–126 Columbia Heights were demolished and rebuilt for accommodation and executive offices, using the official address of 124 Columbia Heights.[64]
In 1946, property surrounding the Adams Street factory was bought to expand printing operations. When completed in 1949, the factory occupied an entire block, bounded by Adams, Sands Pearl and Prospect Streets. Five more properties adjoining 124 Columbia Heights were purchased for a 10-story building.[66][67] In the late 1950s a property at 107 Columbia Heights, across the road from 124 Columbia Heights, was bought.[68] In 1960 a residential building for staff was constructed there.[69][70] More residences were built at 119 Columbia Heights in 1969.[70]
The Watchtower detailed further expansion in the 1950s and 1960s: "In 1956, a 13-story building was constructed at 77 Sands Street. Then just across the street, another (10-story building) was purchased in 1958. In 1968, an adjoining 11-story new printing factory was completed. Along with the factory at 117 Adams Street, these fill out four city blocks of factories that are all tied together by overhead bridges. Then in November 1969, the Squibb complex located a few blocks away was purchased."[70]
The Watch Tower Society bought the Towers Hotel at 79–99 Willow Street in 1974 for accommodation,[71] which is connected to the society's other Columbia Heights properties via tunnels.[72] In 1978, a property at 25 Columbia Heights underwent renovation for use as offices.[70] In the early 1980s properties were bought at 175 Pearl Street and 360 Furman Street for factory and office use.[73] A building at 360 Furman Street was bought in March 1983 and renovated, providing almost 9 hectares of floor space[71] for shipping, carpentry and construction.[74] The Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street was bought in 1983 as a residence building.[75]
97 Columbia Heights, the former site of the Margaret Hotel, was purchased in 1986.[71] It was ideally located next to the WTBTS residences at 107 and 124 Columbia Heights and it could easily tie in with the main complex on the other side of the street by means of an under-street tunnel. An 11-story residential building was erected on the site to house 250 workers.[76][77] A property at 90 Sands Street was bought in December 1986. A 30-story residential building[71] for 1,000 workers was completed on the site in 1995. A 1996 publication listed other Watch Tower residential buildings in Brooklyn, including the 12-story Bossert Hotel, 34 Orange Street (1945), the Standish Arms Hotel at 169 Columbia Heights (1981), 67 Livingston Street (1989), and 108 Joralemon Street (1988).[71]
Two properties known as Watchtower Farms, at Wallkill, 160 kilometres (99 mi) north of Brooklyn and totaling 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres), were bought in 1963 and 1967. Factories were erected in 1973 and 1975.[70] In 2012–2014 the Watch Tower Society added an office building, residence building and garage.[78] In 1984, the society paid $2.1 million for a 270 hectare farm at Patterson, New York[79] for a development that included 624 apartments, garages for 800 cars, and a 149-room hotel.[80] Other rural purchases included a 220 hectares (540 acres) farm near South Lansing, New York, and a 60 hectares (150 acres) farm near Port Murray, New Jersey.[79]
In February 2009, the Watch Tower Society paid $11.5 million for 100 hectares of land in Ramapo, New York, for an administration and residential complex.[81] The site was reported to be planned as a base for about 850 Watch Tower workers, creating a compound combining residential and publishing facilities currently located in Brooklyn. A Witness spokesman said the land was currently zoned for residential uses, but an application would be made to rezone it, adding that "Construction is several years in the future."[82]
A year later, the Watch Tower Society announced it planned to move its world headquarters from Brooklyn to a proposed eight-building complex, replacing the pre-existing four-building complex on a 100-hectare Watch Tower property in Warwick, New York,[78] 1.5 km from its Ramapo site.[83][84] A Watch Tower presentation to Warwick planning authorities said the complex would house up to 850 people.[85][86] In July 2012, the Warwick planning commission approved the environmental impact statement for building the Warwick site.[87][88] In July 2013, Warwick approved building plans of the multiple building complex of the new headquarters, including four residence buildings of 588 rooms for about 1,000 people.[89]
In August 2011, a 50-acre property was bought in Tuxedo, New York, with 184,000 square foot building, for $3.2 million, six miles from the Warwick site to facilitate the staging of machinery and building materials.[90] The Watch Tower Society bought a 48-unit apartment building in Suffern, New York, near Warwick, New York, for housing temporary construction workers in June 2013.[91] In December 2014, the society bought the 250-unit Rivercrest Luxury Apartments in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York. The sale price was not released, though taxes on the sale indicated a transaction of $57 million. The current leases will not be renewed.[92]
Criticism[edit]
Critics, including Raymond Franz, Edmond C. Gruss and James Penton, have accused the Watch Tower Society of being authoritarian, controlling and coercive in its dealings with Witnesses. Franz, a former Governing Body member, has claimed the society's emphasis of the term "theocratic organization" to describe the authority structure of Jehovah's Witnesses, which places God at the apex of its organization, is designed to exercise control over every aspect of the lives of Jehovah's Witnesses[187] and condition them to think it is wrong for them to question anything the society publishes as truth.[188][189]
The Watch Tower Society has been accused of employing techniques of mind control on Witnesses, including the direction to avoid reading criticism of the organization,[190][191] frequent and tightly controlled "indoctrination" meetings, regimentation, social alienation and elaborate promises of future rewards.[192][193] Apart from life stories, all Watch Tower Society magazine articles and other publications are written anonymously and correspondence from the society does not typically indicate a specific author or personal signature.[194]