Life Story

The battle belongs to Jehovah, as told by Philip Brumley.

The picture shows an image of Philip Brumley.

January 28, 2010 found me on a cold winter's day in picturesque Strasbourg, France.

But the last thing on my mind was touring. I was there as part

of a legal team assigned to defend the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses before the European Court of Human

Rights, or ECHR. At issue was whether the government of France was justified in demanding that our brothers

there pay an astronomical tax of almost 64 million euros or 89 million US dollars.

More important, Jehovah's name, the reputation of his people, and their ability to worship

him freely were at stake. What took place at that hearing confirmed that the battle belongs to Jehovah.

1. Samuel 17, 47.

Let me explain.

The controversy had begun in the late 1990s when the government of France levied an unjustified tax on the donations

that our France branch had received between 1993 and 1996. We sought justice before the courts in

France, but to no avail. After we lost in an appellate court, the government confiscated money from the

branch's bank account worth over four and a half million euros, or six million three hundred

thousand U.S. dollars. Our final hope rested with the ECHR. But before ruling on the dispute,

the ECHR required that we, on the dispute, the ECHR required that we and the government's legal team

attend a pretrial settlement hearing before one of the court's registrars, officials responsible

for the administrative and judicial activities of the court. We anticipated that the

registrar would pressure us to resolve the matter by agreeing

to pay a portion of the amount demanded. However, we clearly understood that paying even

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