An Honest Encounter At The Door!

 Imagine how field service would be different if Jehovah's Witnesses had to drop the facade of "we just want to talk to people" and instead were completely honest and candid about their doctrines and beliefs. A typical conversation in the ministry might go something like this.

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'A National Nuisance': The Banning Of Jehovah's Witnesses In Australia in 1941

  Interesting essay by Jayne Persian

http://uow.academia.edu/JaynePersian/Papers/82088/A_National_Nuisance_The_Banning_of_Jehovahs_Witnesses_in_Australia_in_1941
 

WT Compares Higher Education To Drugs And Alcohol.

 

 

How Exactly Did J.F.Rutherford Wrest Control For Himself Over The Watchtower Society?

By Terry Walstrom (JWN)

 

On October 31, 1916 Pastor C.T.Russell died on a train in Pampas, Texas. Shortly afterward, a direct long distance call was placed to Judge J.F. Franklin with the information: "The old man is dead."

Pastor Russell left a Last Will and Testament. In this legal document he made specific instructions for who the Directors of the publishing corporation should be: W. E. Page, W. E. Van Amburgh, H.C. Rockwell, E. W. Brenneisen and F. H. Robinson.

Russell's exact words: “the five whom I suggest as possibly amongst the most suitable from which to fill vacancies” as alternates.

The will, along with a number of letters and other statements about the administration of the Watch Tower Society, was printed in the December 1, 1916 edition of The Watch Tower. Inexplicably, the 5 names of alternates turns into 6 with J.F.Rutherford included as alternates:  A. E. Burgess, R. Hirsh, I. Hoskins, G. H. Fisher, J. F. Rutherford and Dr. J. Edgar.

Page and Brenneisen declined to serve. They were replaced by Hirsh and Rutherford from the alternates list. Hirsh was the first substitute named in Russell’s will, and therefor a natural first substitution, but Rutherford was only mentioned fourth, yet took the second vacant position!

What had Russell done about his controlling shares in the Corporation?

Russell’s portion of the shares that gave legal control of the Watch Tower Society was distributed to five loyal female Bible Students who would be “trustees for life.”

Alexander H. Macmillan, who served as manager of the Watch Tower administration, a de facto interim president along with P.S.L. Johnson (personal friend of Russell) had a lion's share of votes due to the purchase of those shares after incorporation.  These two men pushed Rutherford over the top at the election in January of 1917.

P.S.L. Johnson was an egotistical crackpot with wild ideas whom Russell had fondly tolerated.  The board and executive committee shipped him off across the Atlantic to "encourage the Bible Students". Upon arriving, Johnson sought to take control of the Society's finances and disrupted activities there in short order by claiming the HE should be the successor of Pastor Russell!

Russell's will made explicit that no NEW writings were to be published; only reprints of Russell's.

When the Editorial board sought to enforce this they were opposed by Van Amburgh, Macmillan and Rutherford.    Conflicts arose. Rutherford demanded P.S.L.Johnson return from London.

 In secret, Rutherford had supervised the writing of a new publication, the seventh volume of Russell’s series Studies in the Scriptures. The book, titled The Finished Mystery, was written by George H. Fisher and another Rutherford supporter, Clayton J. Woodworth, loosely based on notes and statements made by Russell. The plan was to release this as a posthumous Russell volume completing the series.

Rutherford had no patience for opposition to his plans. He sought a legal pretext to remove everybody but Himself as Director and sole authority!

How exactly did J.F.Rutherford wrest control for himself over the Watchtower Society?

According to the charter of the WTS, a Pennsylvania corporation, all directors had to be reelected annually in that state.

 (This had not happened since the headquarters moved to New York). Because of this technicality, the four ....claimed Rutherford...were not legally elected.

The removed Directors, Rutherfords opponents , objected that if the directors were not legally elected, neither was Rutherford.

 Rutherford responded that he was a legal officer! Of what?  Of a subsidiary corporation, called People’s Pulpit Association,  (later called The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society  which Rutherford used to publish The Finished Mystery.

This Association was legally incorporated in New York to allow the Pennsylvania corporation to operate in New York, and was wholly owned by it.  This was Rutherford's finesse.

The directors never took the case to court. Rutherford  had the directors and P.S.L. Johnson physically thrown out. Rutherford actually attacked Johnson physically. For some time, the vice-president, Pierson, sided with Rutherford’s opponents, but he eventually landed on Rutherford’s side.

Now, as sole Authority, all the Judge needed to do was find out where all of the bible student's local congregations were, obtain their addresses and gain control of them by pretending to send them a Circuit visitor to "encourage" their local work.

Little by little the Judge changed local operations, installed his own leaders and dropped all bible reading that wasn't using his own proprietary articles and books as reference.

The ‘ousted directors,’ Paul Johnson and their followers formed the Layman’s Home Missionary Society, and others formed a number of different Bible Student movements, some of which still exists and continues to reprint Russell’s writings with nothing new added.

The Proclaimers book follows up demonstrating how cowardly Rutherford turned out to be

when it came to defending his Finished Mystery publication publicly.

“When it had been learned that the government objected to the book, Brother Rutherford had immediately sent a telegram to the printer to stop producing it, and at the same time, a representative of the Society had been dispatched to the intelligence section of the U.S. Army to find out what their objection was. When it was learned that because of the war then in progress, pages 247-53 of the book were viewed as objectionable, the Society directed that those pages be cut out of all copies of the book before they were offered to the public. And when the government notified district attorneys that further distribution would be a violation of the Espionage Act (although the government declined to express an opinion to the Society on the book in its altered form), the Society directed that all public distribution of the book be suspended.” (p. 652)

Rutherford published statements in The Watchtower urging Bible Students to buy war bonds, participate in a day of prayer for allied victory and only stopped short of encouraging armed service.    (Jan S. Haugland  Master Thesis   September 26, 2000)

The Transformation Into Cult Religion: Jehovah's Witness Empire In 15 Steps.

 By Terry Walstrom\JWN

 

There are only 15 steps from a widely scattered readership of 2nd Adventist speculations published by Pastor Russell into a world wide monolithic control cult.
It reads like a Machievellian discourse of Absolute Power:


1.  Nine years after the death of Pastor Russell his publishing company was being operated by an editorial committee which would review articles pre-publication for the Watchtower society.
In 1925  the President of this society (Rutherford)  offered up an article of extreme controversy. It was titled The Birth of the Nation.  The editorial committee (Russell had created) would not approve it.  Rutherford would not permit changes.  He was outnumbered in the vote!

2. Rutherford removed all opposing members from the committee and published the article anyway! Dishonestly, the "Judge" pretended publicly that no such high-handed action by him had ever happened.  He allowed the names of the removed members to continue to appear as editors for the next six years!
Rutherford controlled absolutely the "faithful and discreet slave" throne of dictatorial supremacy. Inside the corporation he could plot the takeover of local congregations (called ecclesias) to wield his will there as well.

3.With no input outside of his own, Judge Rutherford next turned his attention to the independent local congregations begun by devotees of Pastor Russell (Russellites, International Bible Students).
Russell had been dead set against outside control for these congregations. No list of members existed. Local deacons and elders were elected by voting.  However, Judge Rutherford craved total control. He came up with a method of replacing local elections. It was subtle, clever and effective.
 Local congregations had been asked to register as service organizations with the Watch Tower Society.  This gave Rutherford the list of targets for takeover!


4. A Service Director (not subject to yearly election) was appointed to "visit" these target congregations.  Rutherford's man on the scene could usurp local control in this way by "helpfully" organizing the preaching work, assigning territory and encouraging participation in the field work in the congregation.

5.What pretext would Rutherford use to convince local congregations they needed such control?It was the colporteur work begun by Russell. It was to be enlarged and concern itself with all Watchtower books and magazines rather than the Studies in the Scriptures 7 volume sets as before.  Thus, the actual purpose of the door to door work was a ruse to link up Judge Rutherford with complete autonomy over local congregations under the pretense of making the preaching work more organized.

6.Little by little every targeted congregation had its own public discourses side railed and replaced.
Bible studies were disconnected and Rutherford's own Watchtower Studies (replacing the bible) substituted. Group control was sought and unified indoctrination. Rutherford wanted all congregations on the same page;  his page with his ideas.

7. The system of local elective elders was completely eradicated and replaced by something now called a Service Committee. These men took their marching orders from Brooklyn, NY.
"The Theocracy is at present administered by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, of which Judge Rutherford is the president and general manager."  Consolation p.25

 8. Rutherford  sought to create a famous brand name religion by  a method of churning publicity out of throwing people of conscience willy-nilly into dangerous situations. (Avoiding military service, refusing blood transfusions, ridiculing other religions, railing against political parties, refusals to salute the flag, decrying the cross, etc.)  JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES was the brand and it smacks of Rutherford's legal background influence. It was a legalist cult being built.

9.  Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom as having arrived in 1914 and warning of the impending event Armageddon was the "public face". There was a private face, however. Corporations acquire legitimacy by earning a profit. In the case of a religious corporation the "profit" must not appear as mere monetary gain.

10. The Watch Tower Corporation had to generate a kind of marvelous "machine" you could pour money into and make it disappear in the form of the preaching work while avoiding all taxes.
Watchtower rank-and-file members would be used as volunteer labor staying very busy appearing to be doing something important. What they were really doing was generating publicity which served to hide the actual purpose of the Watch Tower corporation.
CONSTANT EXPANSION was the key! This was a kind of maniacal pyramid scheme to grow and grow ahead of the curve of waves of cash.

11. Every once and awhile a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE would have to be run. This would be in the form of date setting. Date setting (determining when Armageddon was to arrive) was an Investment.

The publicity was golden.
The threat level was heightened.
The cash flow was extraordinary.
The need for more investment property increased. The grip of absolute power was made real.
The downside was practically nil!!
Weak members were eliminated and replaced by eager recruits.

12.To the rank-and-file there was no Bill of Rights. The could be worked to death grinding out book and magazine sales. In fact, they had no choice but to comply since their very identity as Jehovah's Witnesses depended on demonstrations of door to door sales and hours devoted.

13. An outside body of apostates could be created as a target for vilification that served to drain off anger as a target away from the Governing Body itself. This Apostate group would feel the brunt of frustrations and not the actual perpetrator's of date-setting fraud.

14. A mindset of cognitive dissonance would be reinforced because anybody who stayed would have to justify being made a fool of for believing in the Faithful and Discreet Slave nonsense in the first place.

15. Any slowdown in the worldwide conversions would be a bonus since it would "signal the end" of the preaching work was drawing near and that would mean Armageddon really was imminent!

In just fifteen steps a scattered readership of 2nd Adventists keen on End Times articles were transformed into 7 million cult adherents in the absolute grip of Governing Body authority!

Charles Taze Russell - Sermon - The Chief Source Of Persecution 1 Of 2 

 

 

Jehovah´s Witnesses Settle 9 Law Suits 

 

Family Night At Bethel With Joe And Barb Anderson 

 

Interview With Randall Watters Of Freeminds 

 

Interview With Don Cameron.

The Candace Conti Verdict Explained - Why The Watchtower Has Been Punished Over Child Abuse 

 

 

Some News Articles About the Oakland Case.

Jehovah's Witnesses Asked To Pay $28 Million In Child Abuse Case


Jehovah Witnesses Ordered To Pay Sex Abuse Victim $20 Million


Jehovah’s Witnesses Found Guilty In Unprecedented Molestation Case, Must Pay $21 Million



Jehovah's Witnesses Must Pay More Than $20 million In Fremont Sex Abuse Case



Calif Jury Awards $28M In Jehovah’s Witness Sex Abuse Case



Jehovah's Witnesses Must Pay $21M In Molestation




Jehovah’s Witnesses Told To Pay In Abuse Case


Calif Jury Awards $28M In Jehovah's Witness Sex Abuse Case



Jehovah's Witness Sex Abuse Victim Award,Not just For Catholics Anymore


Woman Molested By Jehovah's Witnesses Member At Age NINE Wins $28million In America's BIGGEST Religious Sex Abuse Payout


Jury Awards $28M To Woman Who Said Jehovah's Witnesses Allowed Church Member To Molest Her


Jehovah's Witnesses Must Pay $21M in Molestation


Jehovah's Witnesses Must Pay More Than $20 million In Fremont Sex Abuse Case




Calif Jury Awards $28M In Jehovah's Witness Sex Abuse Case


Jehovah's Witnesses Must Pay More Than $20 Million In Fremont Sex Abuse Case


Jehovah's Witnesses May Pay Millions To Sexual Abuse Victim



Candace Conti Awarded $28M In Jehovah's Witness Sex Abuse Case


Jehovah's Witnesses Must Pay More Than $20 million In Fremont Sex Abuse Case

The BRAND Is What Sells JW's And The Alternate Lifestyle.

 By Terry Walstrom\JWN

Jehovah's Witnesses don't have a message.  They have an alternate lifestyle.
For persons put off by teachings of eternal torment they offer eternal sleep or a Paradise Earth.

For Christians disaffected by tepid sermons and rituals they offer a vital lifesaving field service ministry.
In a world saturated in sex and exhibitionism, loud rude music and apathy they offer modesty of dress, cleanliness and worldwide family.
They are seen by the world much the same way as the Amish only more modern.
People find their teaching quaint or laughable but think they are sincere and eager for positive change.

THIS IS A BRAND more than a religion.
When the average person looks at JW's they see loyalty. The religiosity has credibility even if the doctrines don't.
BRANDS establish personal public contact.  The individual JW walks up and knocks on your door. That person IS the BRAND.

We here on JWN are obsessed with the details of doctrine and teaching.  But, come on--smell the coffee!
90% of "spiritual" people don't give a flying fudge bar about all that!   Chapter and verse scripture quoting bores the hell out of folks!
JW's seem to handle a bible like Wyatt Earp handled his pistol anyway!

If you put the way JW's come across in everyday life on one side and the rest of the world on the other side THEY LOOK BETTER!
Think about that.
Religious people are accustomed to background noise about Armageddon and the end of the world. It is blah blah blah.
THE BRAND is scrubbed and friendly families knocking your door with a bible who are willing to die for God.

The Devil is always in the details. But, in this world, nobody bothers with the details.
Many many people are very put off by consumerism, fashion, popular music, obsession with sex, fall-apart family.
JW's are the BRAND that seems to offer solutions.
In a world of mealy mouthed Joel Osteens and Joyce Meyers Jehovah's Witnesses lay it all on the line and STAND FOR SOMETHING.

I know you are gnashing your teeth at all this because you know the substance of it is a load of horse shit.
But, what I'm saying is true. The details of belief take a distant second to the BRAND of Lifestyle.

 

Millions Now Living Will Never Die.

Pyramidology.

Millions Now Living Will Never Die.

The Infamous Murder Letter.

Don't Let Your Accountant Fire YOU When You Catch Them In Malfeasance.

By Terry Walstrom(JWN)

You own a business and hire an accountant to manage the finances.

Your checks start to bounce every once and awhile. You anxiously call your accountant: "What's going on? There should be enough in the

bank to cover these things!"

The accountant has 3 things by way of response that can be said:

1.I screwed up. I apologize. I'll make good on it. It won't happen again.

2.It's not MY fault all the other people are wrong.

3.Who are you to question me? I've got the degree in accounting. Keep your pants on.



If this happens just ONCE--you may shrug it off and keep that accountant no matter which reply was given.



But--here is the most important point that can be made: IF IT HAPPENS AGAIN..and again...and again...and again.....



it should not matter how many excuses or reasons the accountant gives you--should it?

Are you not justified in firing them, reporting them, losing all confidence in them, suing them?



The rank and file Jehovah' Witnesses are like the business that has hired the Governing Body to keep their spiritual account running in a healthy profitable way.

At a certain point....after many bounced promises...reversals...outright errors....obvious ass-covering excuses.....FIRING THEM is a no-brainer!

No business person could AFFORD to "wait on the accountant" to straighten out the mess. You could quickly be out of business and bankrupt.



Disfellowshipped people are, in effect, spiritually bankrupted because they TRUSTED when they should have demanded an accounting.



Have you ever hear this saying?

Fool me once---it is "shame on you."

Fool me twice---it is "shame on ME."



Don't let your accountant FIRE YOU for catching them in malfeasance!

What is needed is an exposure of the problems and a reckoning without all the excuses and muscle-flexing.

What Is The Actual PRODUCT Being Sold By Jehovah's Witnesses?

By Terry Walstrom(JWN)

Madison Avenue became famous for selling the sizzle rather than the steak.

The point of advertising was to create an appetite for a PRODUCT.

Sometimes, in order to create desire for the product, advertising consisted of imposing an embedded FEAR that could only be resolved by purchasing the solution: the PRODUCT.


Four Hundred and twelve Billion dollars annually is spent on Advertising in the U.S. ($412 Billion)

If Advertising were not effective we might ask why so much is spent doing it.

Planting an idea of a need that can be filled is core.

Imbedding fear of an outcome that may be resolved through a particular Product is prevalent.

Creating a need and then filling it is foundational.



The question I'd like to focus in on is this: What is the actual PRODUCT being sold by Jehovah's Witnesses?

When J.F.Rutherford was released from Atlanta penitentiary Rutherford announced that on Sunday, May 4, 1919 he would lecture in Clune's Auditorium on Fifth and Olive Streets in Los Angeles.

A.H. McMillan wrote in the book FAITH ON THE MARCH:

The advertised subject of his talk was: "The Hope for Distressed Humanity." Newspaper advertising called attention to our illegal conviction with the promise that the reasons for it would be explained. That was the test case. If nobody came to that meeting, we were done.

1500 people are reported to have shown up to hear what Rutherford said the following Monday.

Bolstered by the interest of others, Judge Rutherford came up with a plan to create a new magazine that would be published twice monthly alongside the Watchtower: The Golden Age.

Two things are noteworthy here.

The Watchtower had been the creation of Pastor Russell centered on promoting the date 1914 as the end of religion, government, civilization and such at Armageddon and the rapture of the saints to heaven. 1914 came and went. In 1916 Russell died LEAVING NO SUCCESSOR because it was only a matter of time until the extended time of grace ran out.

Rutherford had jumped in and swallowed up the publishing house hoping to capture Russell's broad base of customers who paid for the magazine through prescriptions. He made the strategic error of completing THE FINISHED MYSTERY as though it were Russell's own last volume in a popular series of Studies in the Scriptures sold by traveling salespersons called colporteurs.

This book got Rutherford thrown into prison for 80 years along with the other directors. They served nine months, the World War ended and public outrage over the anti-Government rantings of Rutherford no longer seemed to matter. Federal prosecutors did not want to risk losing a retrial.

The Watchtower's usefulness in supporting 1914 was problematic. The reframing of attention from a failed prediction (attributed to Russell) to something entirely the product of Rutherford's mind and interests seemed profitable.

What would this PRODUCT BE?

A.H. Macmillan makes the process of reasoning very clear.
WORLD-WIDE PREACHING IS THE GOAL


So the idea began to take hold, "Now we have something to do." We were not going to stand around any more and wait to go to heaven; we were going to work.

The clear demonstration of growing interest that was manifested in our message at Clune's Auditorium the preceding May made us realize the people did want to hear why we were so opposed, and what kind of hope we had that could make us persist in spite of it. Then we began to realize a truly world-wide preaching campaign was ahead of us. The response at our convention also demonstrated that our people were eager to go ahead with it. With this thought of increased activity in mind we set out to move headquarters back to Brooklyn, New York. It took some work to refurnish Bethel and equip our offices there, but by the first of October, 1919, we were beginning to operate. The Watch Tower was beginning to look as it had before. Rutherford's articles were being printed again, and our people began to respond with voluntary contributions in a fairly liberal way. It was remarkable how the Lord was providing just what was needed and thus we were able to spread out and increase our activity.

At the Cedar Point Convention, Rutherford publicly announced:

The door of opportunity is opening before you. Enter it quickly. Remember as you go forth in this work with the new magazine you are not soliciting merely as the agent of a magazine, but you are an ambassador of the King of kings and Lord of lords, announcing to the people in this dignified manner the incoming of the Golden Age, the glorious kingdom of our Lord and Master, for which true Christians have hoped and prayed for many centuries. You are an angel of peace, bearing to a war-torn, sin-sick, sorrowing and broken-hearted world the glad message of salvation. How wonderful is our privilege!

Clearly the product was magazine sales! A.H.MacMillan nails the beginning of the Advertising campaign.

Here, clearly defined, is the first official expression of the world-wide preaching work as it is now actually being carried out. Here, in its issue of July 1, 1920 The Watch Tower was pointing to the commission that has served as the dynamic stimulus for all of Jehovah's witnesses from that time forward.


After our convention in 1919 The Watch Tower really began to emphasize the service for everybody. At first, a group of about seven thousand within the congregational organization carried on the bulk of the witness work. These had been active in distributing the seventh volume and now this small group reorganized and began to press forward again in their ministry.

A rallying cry that became a false prophecy was launched.

Satan's empire is falling; millions now living will never die....

Rutherford turned end times speculators into magazine salesmen.

Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom!
Suddenly, as these words filled the auditorium, a platform length banner was unfurled that echoed the stirring phrase: "Advertise the King and Kingdom."

Jehovah's Witnesses' Land Sell-Off Has Brooklyn Dreaming Big.

Behold: The day of the biggest real estate sale to hit Brooklyn in decades is nearing and a swelling crowd of potential beneficiaries is salivating. At stake are 34 mint-condition properties in Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo that the Jehovah's Witnesses spent decades accumulating and now are considering selling as they ponder a headquarters move upstate. All told, the portfolio spans 3.2 million square feet—more than the entire Empire State Building—and is worth well over $1 billion.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111016/REAL_ESTATE/310169968#ixzz1cLEk4ibg


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