Jehovah’s Witness Church members decry marriage restriction

Some members of Jehovah's 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.

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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.