Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
September 19, 2002

This fall, focus on family

UNITED STATES—Over the next three months, nearly 12,000 congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses across the country will invest additional time and energy on bolstering healthy families and strengthening family ties. Their two main journals, The Watchtower and Awake!, will again provide thought-provoking material for use in this endeavor.

The October 8 issue of Awake! features the cover series “Single-Parent Families Can Succeed.” The U.S. Census Bureau report shows a shift in numbers that makes this information timely: “The number of single mothers increased between 1970 and 2000, from 3 million to 10 million; over the same time frame, the number of single fathers increased also, from 393,000 to 2 million.” Many single parents who were consulted during the compiling of the Awake! articles recommended such factors as sound home management, commitment, balance, and communication as ingredients for success in building a strong family unit. Awake! will be offered without cost in communities country-wide in order to fortify one-parent households for the challenges they contend with.

Then the November 1 issue of The Watchtower, the signature magazine of Jehovah’s Witnesses, will follow with the article “Maintain Your Conduct Fine Among the Nations,” which will be discussed in all congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses during the week of December 9-15. The article’s first main section, “The Christian Family,” quotes from the book The New Inquisitors: Freedom of Religion and Religious Envy, with the observation about Jehovah’s Witnesses: “For [them] the family is something to be especially protected.” What do all families need protection from? The Watchtower explains: “Families are scenes of spousal violence, parents abuse or neglect their children, and children rebel, get involved in drug abuse and immorality, or run away from home.”

This written material supplements a full year of efforts to bring family-fortifying information into every household in the United States by means of the public service announcement series, Love Builds Happy Families. The third and latest release was Teach Your Children, already airing in 26 states.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have long held that the family is the oldest human institution and stable families are vital for the stability of society. In 1978 The Watchtower urged building respect in the family “because strong families constitute a solid foundation for a united society.” Jehovah’s Witnesses believe and teach that this fact is as true today as ever. They spend more than three million hours daily around the world in various aspects of their community service.

Contact: J. R. Brown, telephone: (718) 560-5600