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Publishers & Pioneers. All Witnesses consider themselves ministers, but not all ministers are the same. Part-time workers are called "Publishers," and devote most of their free time to spreading the word. Full-time workers, the backbone of the organization, are known as "Pioneers." They are expected to work a minimum of 100 hours a month. Pioneers and Publishers doggedly ring doorbells of the areas assigned to them, lugging portable phonographs on which they play recorded harangues, giving away books (for a 35¢ "contribution"), and patiently explaining their Bible commentaries at the slightest spark of interest.
Witnesses are most in their element when they are challenging the kingdom of Satan—that is, the rest of the world. They refuse to salute flags or to involve themselves in politics. Most of them refuse to serve in the armed forces (on the grounds that they are ministers). Such behavior keeps them constantly in hot water. Last year two of them were executed in rightist Greece; last month the sect was banned as subversive in Communist Poland (TIME, July 17). Their history in the U.S. has been punctuated by Supreme Court decisions, injunctions, jail terms and mob violence.
Atomic Popgun. Last week, as the Witnesses met in New York City, 20 of their members coming from abroad had been detained at Ellis Island on suspicion of "extreme pacifism." But to the faith-filled, world-defying women and men who "come in the truth" for Jehovah, the internments, the slammed doors, the sneers, and the outright persecution seem to bring a surer sense of belonging to God's Kingdom than any amount of public honor and religious respectability.
Disregarding the snubs and slights, they applauded the announcement of a "New World" translation of the New Testament, prepared by Witness scholars to replace the "infected and corrupted" translations of all other versions. They turned out in force for a high point of every convention—the mass baptism of new members. In a 25-by-75-yard swimming pool rented for the occasion, 34 Witnesses, working in relays, immersed 3,381 bathing-suited converts in four hours.
Later the Witnesses thunderously approved a resolution to forswear subversion and "as long as this world lasts, render to Caesar what is Caesar's." The Witnesses, said Witness President Nathan H. Knorr, are "pointing neither east nor west, but heavenward."
"Jehovah's Witnesses are not pacifists," he shouted to the convention. "We are fighters, but using no carnal weapons . . . We merely sound the trumpet as the advance guards of the mighty heavenly hosts led by the Great Warrior, Jesus Christ. These legions of warring angels follow us with mighty weapons of warfare that will make the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb, and all other inventions of warfare by men look like the popgun of a child in comparison."
At week's end, after a final exhortation from President Knorr, the Witnesses headed home again, ready for more publishing and pioneering.
* Adapted from such passages as Isaiah 43:10, "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord."