This article is addressed to who wants to understand the reasons behind the apolitical stand of the Jehovah's witnesses.
If we want to understand for which reasons the Jehovah's witnesses are apolitical we must give a look to the history of the first Christians. Were the first Christians apolitical ? Yes, definitely: we have two important sources about it and they are Tertullian and Origen that lived both around the 2nd century after Christ.
Tertullian, in the work entitled "On Idolatry" - chapter XVIII: "Dress as Connected with Idolatry", says: "all the powers and dignities of this world are not only alien to, but enemies of, God; that through them punishments have been determined against God's servants... for avoiding it, remedies cannot be lacking; since, even if they be lacking, there remains that one by which you will be made a happier magistrate, not in the earth, but in the heavens". Also, in the work entitled "De Corona" at the chapters XI-XII, Tertullian explains the reasons of the unlawfulness of the military service from a christian viewpoint.
Origen, in the work entitled "Contra Celsum" - book VIII, chapter LXXV,says: "Celsum also urges us to take office in the government of the country, if that is required for the maintenance of the laws and the support of religion. But we recognise in each state the existence of another national organization founded by the Word of God... it is not for the purpose of escaping public duties that Christians decline public offices, but that they may reserve themselves for a diviner and more necessary service in the Church of God for the salvation of men".
Was Jesus Christ apolitical too ? The answer is yes because in John 6:15 is written: "Jesus, knowing they were about to come and seize him to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain all alone." The reason for which he refused is told later by him to Pontius Pilate, in John 18:36 in fact he says: "my kingdom is not part of this world".
The principle expressed in John 17:21, where is written: "in order that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in union with me and i'm in union with you", helps us to understand the apoliticality of the first Christians. How could Christians fight against each other if they have to be as one as expressed before ? How could they belong to opposed political parties if they have to be united as one out of the world as expressed in John 17:16 where is written "they're no part of the world, just as i'm no part of the world" ?
At the same time we want to keep in mind that the Jehovah's witnesses, like the first Christians, obey to two rules expressed respectively in Mark 12:17:"pay to Caesar the things of Caesar but to God the things of God" and in Romans 13:1:"be in subjection to the superior authorities" that means paying the taxes and obeying the government's laws when they're not in conflict with God's law. In this way their behaviour can be rightly likened to the one of good foreigners in a country that isn't their own.
Jehovah's witnesses are well known for their neutrality and for their criticized apoliticality but the reasons for which they're misunderstood are the same for which the first Christians were persecuted...