Aha! Note that it said thousands of early Christians were CRUCIFIED?
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia 279 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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Leolaia
Hey AA, that's a great find! I just found this discussion of Macfadden's book; it looks very relevant to GAG #1:
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rebel8
FYI, the text from my brochures is not quotes, because of the "Quotes" lawsuit......they are paraphrased summaries of what the articles actually say.....with literature citations so the reader can verify them if he/she wishes to. In many cases, the quotes are much funnier than the summaries though, but too long to fit into the brochure. Hilarious!
O'Dean (& he's an elder in a church, too): "Judge Rutherford couldn't write these things unless he were used of God."
I am by no means a WT scholar, so I'm wondering if this quote is significant because it's unique? I can remember the contemporary teaching that the GB and writing committee was guided by God because they make their decisions after prayer, but I can't remember the literature coming out and saying so blatantly that a specific named person is led by God. It sounds as though he's being compared to the Bible writers who were (supposedly) directly inspired by God. Just struck me as curious.
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Leolaia
dilaceratus....You are certainly right about the competition with Father Coughlin, and the demogoguery of both seem to have been cut from the same cloth. I do wonder tho whether Rutherford went the anti-Semitic route earlier than Coughlin. Wikipedia at least seems to suggest that Coughlin aired anti-Semitic views starting in 1936, while Rutherford began to be quite explicit on matters in 1932 (in his Vindication books). Perhaps Coughlin also made statements about the Jews earlier as well and only took a strong anti-Semitic platform in 1936. The anti-Semitism in the Declaration of the Facts was occasioned by the Nazis more than anything else, tho we know that Rutherford had engaged with anti-Semitic views much earlier as a letter of his published in a 1924 GA suggests (I'll post that below), which anticipates some of Rutherford's views in the 1930s, such as that American Jews are not really "Jews" in the biblical sense.
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Leolaia
Come on, you guys could make more sport of this. There are so many gems in the first cartoon. No one interested in the connection drawn between the martyrdom of early Christians and the flag salute issue?
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under_believer
I'm confused by the reference to the Hierarchy "considering... the flag their own (since Roosevelt)". What is that all about? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but was there some Rutherfordian notion that the flag didn't belong to the Hierarchy, and that Roosevelt started such a concept?
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Leolaia
Rutherford believed that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy was plotting to take over the world through fascism. Hilter and Mussolini were Catholic puppets, and Roosevelt was becoming a puppet of the Hierarchy as well through his socialism (and the socialism of Father Coughlin). At the same time, the Catholics were propping up a populist nationalism, hence the "flag" dispute ... the flag being the central nationalist symbol. In other words, Rutherford saw the Catholics as turning American politics into National Socialism, otherwise known as Nazism.
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under_believer
So Rutherford was a conspiracy theorist, and used the Society and all its distribution channels as a mouthpiece to dispense his theories. Fascinating.
For me the blatant propoganda in the first composite cartoon is so utterly convincing--I'd like to believe that if, when I was still a Witness, I had read that, it would have knocked me right out of the organization. Though, to be honest, it's not terribly different than the propogandist techniques that the Society uses today (replacing "Rutherford" with "The FDS").
On another note, is the general crappiness of the art direction, especially in that first full-page cartoon, typical of the period, or was the Golden Age extrasupercrappy compared to other contemporary works?
And lastly--I referred to this in a previous comment and nobody seemed interested but I'm really curious. The martyr cartoon refers to early Christians being crucified. Was this prior to the Society's rejection of "stauros equals cross?" Or was this an editorial slip? Or were they using the word "crucifixion" to refer to being attached to an upright stake? -
VM44
The Flag issue resulted in a tremendous amount of persecution for the Witnesses before and during the World War II era. (also afterwards, but not to such a degree)
As Leolaia mentioned, Rutherford liked to make comparisons between children being punished for not saluting the flag and the early Christians being sacrificed in the arena for their beliefs.
This "righteous" persecution was a means of validating the beliefs of JWs. Rutherford said in essence, "See? We are being persecuted like the early Christiens! This is proof that we have been chosen by Jehovah today!"
This reasoning is emotional, not logical. But plying the people's beliefs using emotion is exactly what religious leaders do to keep people following them.
Rutherford also liked creating great issues as a means to motivate his followers, and to make his work (Rutherford's, not the Lord's) appear to be the most important work in the world.
Here is an article from Time magazine concerning the Witnesses and saluting the flag, the "Devil's Emblem".--VM44
Education
"Devil's Emblem"
Monday, Nov. 18, 1935
Six weeks ago when a Lynn teacher ordered her third-grade class to comply with Massachusetts' new patriotism laws and salute the flag, 8-year-old Carleton Nichols Jr. swallowed hard, remained in his seat while the class rose. "Please, Miss Brooks," he blurted, ''my father says I am not to salute the Devil's emblem." Carleton Nichols Sr. explained that as Jehovah's Witnesses he and his son could not serve both Jehovah and Country. Jehovah's Witnesses, otherwise known as the International Bible Students Association, count 2,500,000 followers in 34 nations (TIME, June 10). Strictly literal-minded, they believe that Biblical prophecies govern man's fate, that formalized religion, financiers, politicians and such emblems as the U. S. flag are agents of Lucifer, who is grooming himself for a terrific last-ditch fight with Jehovah. Leader of the sect is big, militant Judge Joseph Frederick Rutherford, onetime Missouri circuit judge, who campaigned for William Jennings Bryan in 1896. Pleased with publicity in Lynn, Judge Rutherford boomed to all little Witnesses: "Whom do you choose to serve, Jehovah or Satan the Devil?" Promptly the Lynn school board expelled Carleton Nichols Jr., found itself embarrassed by the State truancy law. By last week 28 Witnesses of Jehovah had popped up in U. S. public schools. In Lynn aging Cora Foster, who had taught in local schools for 40 years, faced dismissal after confessing that she, too, was a Witness. In nearby Saugus seven young Witnesses were expelled. In Weymouth high school Witnesses Charles & Harold Newcomb, who claim to be descendants of Betsy Ross, staged a sympathy strike against "the Devil's emblem." In Norwalk. Conn., a 13-year-old Witness was barred from all school activities except classes. Suspended from the Lakewood, N. J., high school, a 16-year-old was given a week in which to reconsider his scruples. When a teacher snapped, "Why don't you salute the flag?" frightened Alma Hering of Secaucus, N. J., mumbled, "It's contrary to my religion." was quickly expelled together with her sister Vivian. In Canonsburg, Pa. an irate teacher lost her job when she lectured the school board: "If you weren't so dumb, you would do a little investigating and become Witnesses yourself." Same day four Canonsburg teachers faced charges of whipping four recalcitrant young Witnesses. Meanwhile: Dr. John A. Spargo, onetime Socialist, now Nutley, N. J.. school superintendent, warned: "If a child does not love and respect the flag, instead of forcing him to salute it, keep him from doing so until his attitude changes." Poet Carl Sandburg mourned: "Such regimented oathtaking has in the past never achieved constructive good. It is failing today in Nazi Germany. It failed in Prohibition America. It failed in the reconstructed States of the South. It failed with Joan of Arc and with Galileo."
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Leolaia
GAG #5: CATHOLICS DESTROYING AMERICA
Text:
*** g35 11/20 p. 105 Destruction of American Government ***
The destruction of the American Government by Roman Catholic Fascism or Jesuitism has proceeded far under Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Jesuit offices, where plans for taking over the government of the United States are worked out in detail, are located at Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway, New York. In the Roman line-up the departments are called orders, companies, societies, sons, servants, fathers, congregations, institutes. In the American government line-up the departments go by the nations of boards, corporations, administrations, commissions, councils, authorities, committees, banks, divisions, co-operatives, foundations, advisers [sic], projects, agreements, corps, works, co-ordinators, offices and acts.
It is difficult to popularize a tyranny, and, as everybody knows, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is the most perfect example of tyranny the world has known.
The job of the Jesuits is to make it seem desirable, even necessary, that the government of the United States, as of all other lands, should be turned over to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy....
The writer of the article, a university man of high standing, conceals his identity under a nom de plume, David Wilkie. The article takes down the screens and lets the honest reader see just how the Jesuits are planning world control by Fascism, and how they are succeeding.
