Jeff, You wrote: Did the WTBTS, under the direction of the Judge, purposely put the witnesses out there as fodder in order to create these riots? Certainly! There's the testimony from the instigator in the book. The account matches the history. This was done in recent history at Stratton, Ohio. That case made the Supreme Court just like days of old except there was no riot.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20020110_hudson.html
Comments from "30 Years a Watchtower Slave" that surprised me.....
by AK - Jeff 44 Replies latest watchtower bible
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garybuss
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lovelylil
lookingglass,
some of what you said is true, but too bad the WT although they fight for certain freedoms for themselves as a relgious group, has denied certain freedoms for their followers. The biggest is freedom of choice in religion. No human being deserves to loose all their family and friends and be slandered by the WT as apostates, devil worshippers, vomit, depraved, and all the other labels put on them, just because they have a difference of opinion regarding religion. It is not like the WT went out and tried to get these laws past to help ALL mankind. They were only out for themselves and as a result, others did benefit also. But, this was not their original intention.
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Lady Lee
I've read the book twice.
I believe Schnell's account is factual. According to Dr. James Penton, the author of Apocalypse Delayed Rutherford used the same tactics in other places. We had a special pioneer couple in our cong who were there, being arrested, mobbed, and thrown into jail. They knew their actions were deliberate attempts to instigate trouble so that various issues could be tested in the courts under the guise of "religious freedom".
Penton states:
When, in the mid-1930s, the judge was forced off the airways as the result of pressure from both the business community and the churches in Canada and the United States, the Watch Tower Society produced phonograph records of his booming denunciations which were played on portable phonographs carried from door to door by willing Jehovah's Witnesses. In other instances,those same Witnesses would play Rutherford's talks over loudspeakers to whole communities, often of irate Catholics. In one instance, in the province of Quebec, they even went so far as to build an armor-plated sound car... (p. 71)
We also had Leonard Chretien as our DO for a while and he confirmed these stories. He too, experienced these media blitzes and subsequent jailings.
Quebec, Canada has always been a stronghold of the Catholic Church. Sending a group of people with sound cars and megaphones was a strategic ploy to instigate trouble..
It seems to me that if you want to teach people the Word of God you should approach them in a pleasant and friendly manner. You certainly don't drive up and down the street in an armored car blaring speeches about how the church is condemned by God. They certainly were not getting people on their side. They were hated because of the message and they way they were told to deliver the message.
However, Rutherford knew the law. If the JWs had calmly and quietly gone door to door there probably would not have been such a to-do about them preaching to people. But Rutherford did'nt want people to be calmly and quietly preaching door to door. He wanted to instigate trouble so he could take his "freedom of religion" stance into the courts. He wanted the legal right to sell books and magaizines door to door without a license.
The WTS has used the same tactics repeatedly in many other places in the world. They fully know what reaction they will get and are willing to sacrifice individuals for their "higher purpose"
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Lady Lee
One more thing:
As in Stratton, the WTS made a similar case in St. Therese Quebec, a small town just north of Montreal. Send the Witnesses out when you know it's going to cause trouble, make sure everyone knows about the "trouble" such "peace-loving" people are being subjected to and take it too the courts.
I personally enjoyed Schnell's book. His account of Rutherford's deliberate attempts to make a legal point of things rings very true to me.
I read the book a second time because so many people were saying it sounded bitter to them. I wanted to check that out. And I didn't find it the second time around either. But then I wasn't looking for the emotional factor, I was simply looking for the facts.
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Gamaliel
I had a table head at Bethel who was ambivalent about Rutherford on some days, but never got over his dislike of Rutherford during the majority of times the subject came up. He claims that Rutherford would announce in advance certain territories in NJ that were especially chosen to try to get them placed in jail for the night. Rutherford was the first person he remembers making the joke that they better take their tooth brushes along.
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Elsewhere
The WTS has used the same tactics repeatedly in many other places in the world.
They have learned the hard way that this does not work in predominantly Islamic locations... last time they tried it the JWs had their heads prominently displayed in the local out-door food market.
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Leolaia
Here is a letter from Da Judge himself:
Note especially the part about "exciting the roosters" and "rubbing it into the roosters" who incite mobs against them. Remember that Rutherford believed that his organization was the "true Church on earth" and that the time was very close for Armageddon. Thus, there had to be a great tribulation as prophesied in Scripture, and Rutherford seemed inclined to make this a self-fulfilling prophecy and did what he could to make it come true for his sect. Hence the endless screeds, the sound cars, the sandwich boards, the insulting cartoons about bishops and the pope, anything and everything that could "rile people up". To induce the JWs to accept persecution and even martyrdom, Rutherford published the article "Fear Them Not" in the 1 November 1933 Watchtower which makes all of this clear. Here is a scan:
Note especially the idea that even stopping the preaching campaign (i.e. distributing Rutherford's caustic magazines and books) during intense persecution was tantamount to denying the Lord and make one worthy of eternal death in Gehenna. This article, of course, played a major role in motivating German JWs to continue distributing Rutherford's political incendiary literature during Nazi persecution, an almost suicidal endeavor. The literature also repeatedly likened the present presecution by Catholics and Nazis (whom they viewed as run by the Catholic Hierarchy) with the martyrdoms of early Christians. Here is a cartoon from the Golden Age magazine (17 June 1936), about the JWs shocking the sensibilities of their persecutors (note the schoolboy being beaten for not saluting the flag):
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AK - Jeff
What I found reprehensible in the matter was that under 'freedom of press' laws, they could have carried on without any problem. That would have been quickly resolved in the lower courts. But Rutherford pressed the 'religious persecution' to the limits - as LL stated this seems to have started in NJ then Penn, the vivid accounts I recall from Schnell's books are in Ohio.
One has to wonder if the Watchtower Society would have been able to grow in the manner it did [and subsequently affect many of the people on this forum by it's influence] had they not done what Rutherford did. He was indeed a 'schemer' it seems, with a deliberate attempt to incite and invoke violence to get press and publicity.
I recall in my earlier days of youth in 'the truth', that we always held the local Circuit Assembly in a little town just 6 miles from the KH. There were adequate facilities in the larger town in which we lived - far better in fact. But the little town chosen was known to oppose witnesses. It was largely Catholic, and had been the site of several arrests of witnesses for violation of the 'Green River Ordinance' there. If I recall, that same ordinance was the issue in Stratton, Ohio [which is by the way just a few miles away from my home].
I always wondered why we chose a site that was obviously not favorable for witnesses. This was in the late sixties. I recall some of the older ones revelling in the fact that we were able to hold an assembly right under the shadow of the Catholic spires almost. There were no baptism facilites [they used a horse trough] - no motels, no restuarants in this little town. At the time I thought it was prob about expense - now I wonder if it was just part of the ole' 'let's stir up the Clergy' thinking.
Jeff
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lovelylil
Jeff,
Good points.
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AK - Jeff
Leo - I can always count on you having the 'right stuff'. Your library must be fantastic. Thanx
Jim- Where can I find your posted articles on this matter?
Thanx all.
Jeff
