The Jehovah's Witnesses' stance towards ecumenical and interfaith dialogue is an uncompromising one, regarding all manifestations of religion outside the Society as "false religion" and part of Babylon the Great. The article discusses the history of the Watch Tower Society's stance towards Roman Catholicism, and the formation of the Evangelical Alliance in 1846. Under Rutherford's leadership a new understanding of Christian apostasy and other faiths emerged, based on the Protestant writer Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons. The second part of the article turns to the present-day dialogue movement, arguing that the key Christian ecumenical themes of baptism, eucharist and ministry, are of no concern to Jehovah's Witnesses. Interfaith dialogue involves harmful associations, and ecumenical and interfaith worship run counter to the Witnesses' ways of worshipping God. Finally, attention is given to Hans Kung's global ethic, which the Watch Tower Society contrasts with its own "global solution" to the world's problems.
