JW article "Armageddon, Inc." in the Saturday Evening Post

Wild_Thing

Has anybody ever seen the article in the Saturday Evening Post called "Armageddon, Inc"? I can't post it due to copyright issues, but if you have access to a library or university archives, it is definitely worth it! It was printed in 1940, but other than the references to the "Judge" it reads like it was printed yesterday! It is 7 pages long and covers the history of Russell and Rutherford and has several pictures ... some quite hilarious. One of them is a picture I have seen on the internet of Rutherford with his "bodyguards".

The article begins:

F
OR conscientious cussedness on the grand
scale, no other aggregation of Americans is a
match for .lehovah"s Witnesses. Defiance of
what others cherish and revere is their daily meat.

And I can't resist posting this picture. Hilarious! If you can't tell, the old lady is holding a hearing horn up to her ear. The caption below says : "How's that again? The officer is having a difficult time telling this Witness she can't distribute literature without a permit."

Gordy

Have a look at this link

www.reachouttrust.org/articles/jw/jwarmag1.htm

Wild_Thing

Thank you, Gordy. Yes, that is the article! It doesn't have the pictures, but just the words are worth having. Rutherford was like a worshipped celebrity. I think he should get full credit for starting the JW cult ... not Russell. It makes me nausous! I wonder how many JW women secretly wanted to throw their panties at him.

Wild_Thing

Guess what! I found it online ... the original with all the pics!

http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/armageddoninc.html

Gordy

Sorry I can't get the above to appear any bigger

Anyone know how?

OnTheWayOut

Fascinating that in 1940, JW's were totally recognized as a profit-making
organization.

Also fascinating that another publisher said he could charge less than
WTS and make a profit on the literature they placed. It also helps that
the distributors of the literature had to pay for it first and work for free.
That worked great until they stopped forcing the payment first and hoped
to pressure the free workforce to keep paying anyway.

I thought about their "pay-for-the-literature-first" policy. That's the only
reason they were able to say, NO COLLECTIONS TAKEN. They collected
thru the literature, and the Brooklyn Org. wasn't making money off the local
Kingdom Hall donations, so what did they care? The assemblies are still
profitable, so they just have to push JW's to go, and make cheaper literature.

Great story observation about Russell and Rutherford's wives. Divorce and
"I don't know where his family are." Same org. today that would DF a man
for such actions.

New Worldly Translation

Interesting article, thanks for posting it

The part about the phonographs with a 'surprise' compartment for watchtowers and a drawer for sandwiches made me chuckle.

The catholic-forum site is a great resource for JW history. I'd never seen it before but it's got some good early stuff there.

sass_my_frass

Oh they would have loved that article. "Persecution, see!? It proves we're god's chosen!!"

Undecided

I remember those phonographs well. I could barely carry one. You had to wind up the spring to make it run. It had a 78 rpm plastic record that would break if dropped.

Something funny happened one day when my dad played it to a black family. My dad was darked skin and had a good tan in summer. He had talked about where he was raised in Virginia during the conversation.. One of the housholders said to him, "What are you Virginia Nigers gona think of next". He came back to the car laughing.

Ken P.

JW article "Armageddon, Inc." in the Saturday Evening Post

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