Maybe this thread belongs in General Questions, but I thought the Great Debates crowd might be the best to ask. Anyway, in my travels across our great land, I have passed many Kingdom Halls, being the place of worship for Jehovah’s Witnesses. I have noticed that every one of them is completely without windows. Anybody know the reason why?
I am not a JW, but I think this is perhaps a myth, mainly perpetuated by people who are anti-JC. A quick Google search on “Kingdom Hall” and “windows” gave back several sites in which the windows to Kingdom Halls were mentioned http://www.thevoicenews.com/News/2002/0503/Front_Page/003.html]this site seems to be a small town paper’s story on the construction of a new Kingdom Hall. It mentions the windows and has a picture of the new Hall (it’s kinda ugly and bland - but it has windows) and this site mentions an incident in Greece in which the locals tried to run the JW’s out of town by breaking the windows of a Kingdom Hall. I’m assuming that the place had to have windows in order for them to be broken.
In no way am I implying that you are anti-JW, kindablue, it’s just that the only sites I found mentioning that Kingdom Halls don’t have windows had an obvious anti-JW slant and I am wondering if there is something up with that akin to the Mormon “magic underwear” thing. Perhaps there is some truth to the lack of windows (just a common architectural practice?), but the exceptions cited above lead me to believe that it is not universally mandated by the JW’s.
Fixed the first link: http://www.thevoicenews.com/News/2002/0503/Front_Page/003.html
A little more reading makes me suspect that the lack of windows is a common, but by no means universal, practice and that the reason for it is simply that they prefer simple, sparsely adorned buildings constructed by volunteers. It’s a modesty thing more than a scripture thing and the designs are kept simple partly due to the use of unskilled volunteers. That’s my guess anyway.
(disclaimer) While I grew up as a Witness, thanks to my father, I am no longer one. It has been 7 years since I have been to a Kingdom Hall, so policy may have changed. (/disclaimer)
At some point in the early 90s (if I remember right), the Witnesses moved to a donation-based system; that is, while a Watchtower used to cost a quarter, after the change, you donated if you could/ desired to do so. This move was seen by critics as a way to decrease tax payments for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society; of course, such a viewpoint was expressed to the members as a new revelation, not a financial move. In any case, after that change, Witnesses were encourage to donate more money to the Society for operating costs.
In my experience, Witnesses are not, as a whole, wealthy people. Until a few years ago, higher education was openly frowned upon, and most people raised in the faith married young, right out of high school or soon after. People who did have money were usually converts. That most of the members of the church did not have a lot of money meant that there was not a lot of money for the building itself. The KH I attended when I was younger was a small, older building. Eventually, money was raised (I assume through the Society, but am not sure) for a ‘quick-build’. If the Witnesses don’t buy an existing building, they hold a ‘quick-build’ and over the course of a few days, renovate or construct a KH. So, over the course of a weekend, we redid the building.
KH’s are always very plain inside; the most decoration you will find is a wallpaper border, some flowers, maybe some nice light fixtures or a Bible verse painted on the wall…Religious iconography is strictly prohibited per their translation of the Bible.
In other words, Beelbebrox is right; the average KH is built by its members, and while many Witness men do tend towards construction work of some form to earn a living, the women and children also help, to keep costs down.
A postscript, while I’m rambling on: I would be surprised if a practicing Witness were to ever appear on this Board…the Internet is viewed with suspicion since their are so many ‘worldly’ (read: non-Witnesses) on it, and while worldly people may be friendly, they are still bad and influential. One of their reasons against higher education is that, as a Witness, you want to limit your exposure to worldly beliefs and people, and thus reduce your chances of being tempted/ misled. Witnesses believe that any information written as criticism is apostate writing, and to be avoided. The average Witness is encouraged (again, IMO) to ignore/ remain ignorant of such criticism than confront and and try to disprove it.
aurelian, I’m going down the same road. I, too, was raised as a JW. However, for certain reasons, I now have no belief beyond that of there being a God. But, we won’t go into that.
To the OP, the practice of not puting windows in a KH isn’t universally accepted. In the KH that I went to, there was no windows in the main room, however, in the loby there were. And I’ve seen many different designs, some with windows, some without.
Oh, and to note that college thing…I’m going to JMU to study History and Political Science…it drives my mom nuts! 