Citation

Lawson R. Sociol. Relig. 1995; 56(4): 351-377.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Association for the Sociology of Religion)

DOI

10.2307/3712195

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses share common roots; both began as apocalyptic sects with premillennial expectations; both rejected political participation as contaminating and distracting from their God-given purposes; both expected to be the object of persecution from the state; and both held theological positions that put them out of step with demands of the state, such as a refusal to bear arms in wartime. However, over time they followed very different trajectories in the matter of relations with governments. While the Witnesses increased their intransigence and endured considerable persecution, Adventists increasingly compromised their original positions, prizing governmental approval.If, following Stark and Bainbridge, the degree of tension with state and society is invoked as the measure of a religious group's position on the church-sect continuum, Witnesses are found to be an "established sect" while Adventists have traveled a considerable distance from sect towards denomination.This paper sets out to account for these differing trajectories. In doing so, it focuses on the evolution of the relationships of these sects with governments, paying particular attention to these relations in times of war and heightened nationalism. The data lead to an interpretation that finds several related, interacting factors. These include the degree of organizational openness, ideological rigidity, apocalyptic urgency, the intensity with which they indoctrinate converts, and the extent to which they have faced persecution. These factors together shape the group's relations with the state and society, and consequently also its position on the church-sect continuum.