The Othering and Resilience of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Soviet and Contemporary Lithuania

Abstract

Abstract Social research data shows that Jehovah’s Witnesses experience social ostracism, distancing, marginalization, and labeling in contemporary Lithuania. This article searches for an explanation for these public attitudes by applying a sociohistorical approach to the analysis of the processes of othering and resilience of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Lithuania from the organization’s arrival at the beginning of the twentieth century to today, focusing on its relations with society and state. It is based on the document and literature analysis of organization and academic sources as well as interviews with Jehovah’s Witnesses conducted in 2020–2021. The article argues that the social history of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Lithuania illustrates the processes of othering and resilience since the arrival of the organization in Lithuania throughout the Soviet period and in the Republic of Lithuania, as since 1990 both society and state have been contributing to the process of othering, while Witnesses continue persistently to exemplify resilient religion.