Jehovah Witness Church Members Decry Marriage Restriction

Some members of Jehovah Witness have come out to condemn their church's stance against them marrying outside their faith. According to Jehovah's Witness' doctrine, members of the church are to only marry themselves and not from any other Christian faith. If they do, it's seen as an act of immorality. And people who marry outside the church are usually expelled from the church and treated as non-members.

The members say this has kept them unmarried for years and in some cases, get married to members who they are not attracted to.

Confirming the church's position to PM News, an elder in the church, Elder James Etop, says the church's position is in accordance with biblical instructions. He said that if members are allowed to marry anyhow their faith would be affected. He said the teachings from other churches are different from the ones they have and so they try to protect their members from being affected. He took the case of heaven and earth teaching as an example

"For instance, there is nothing like hell fire as propagated in many churches. Hell fire was mentioned just as an illustration by Jesus Christ when He was saying the parable of Lazarus and the rich man in the Bible. If a member marries such a person who believes in such doctrines which is against the teaching of the Witness, it will definitely affect his or her faith.” he said.

According to Etop, members are not literally compelled to marry one another but if they marry outside of the church, the church would not honor such a union or an invitation to the wedding ceremony.