Years ago I was having a conversation with another elder about Rutherford and the Golden Age magazine. We were both good students, and well aware of what an asshole Rutherford had been, and how outrageous many of the things written in the Golden Age were.
After commenting on them, and joking aloud how you NEVER hear Golden Age quoted today and that Rutherford seemed to just be the biggest jerk, the brother said to me, in all seriousness, "Well, it just goes to show you that Jehovah can use anyone to accomplish his purpose."
This guy is bright - stepped down as an elder and got his Master's degree in psychology, but remains a faithful Witness til this day.
How do you deal with reasoning like that?
S4
Rutherford and Golden Age Magazine - Proof of What?
by Seeker4 10 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Seeker4
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AlphaOmega
WOW...
How do you deal with reasoning like that?
Maybe by asking "How do you know that the leaders today aren't any different?"
or...
"How do we know that future JWs won't feel the same about the current leadership?"
Just a thought.
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Mary
"Well, it just goes to show you that Jehovah can use anyone to accomplish his purpose."
This guy is bright - stepped down as an elder and got his Master's degree in psychology, but remains a faithful Witness til this day. How do you deal with reasoning like that?With great difficulty. When I was talking about the Borganization to my Dub sister last week, she conceded that Rutherfraud was a drunken asshole. I said to her "and you really think that Jehovah was using someone like Rutherford to 'spread the Good News'?" She evaded the question, and just said that we found out the truth about the hope that's in the bible by going to the meetings.
Rrrrrrgh! I was momentarily speechless but told her that was bullshit. If and when the topic comes up again, I'm going to ask her how using this moron accomplished Jehovah's purpose. I mean, given all the insane drivel that Rutherbooze came up with, what exactly did it accomplish?
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Seeker4
In that kind of reasoning, it doesn't matter how bad the leadership is. It just shows that Jehovah can work with the worst jerks running the WTS.
It's idiocy.
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snowbird
You don't - can't - deal with such reasoning. JW's are captivated by and enslaved to the belief that the WTS and "Jehovah" are one and the same. Don Cameron nails this mentality so accurately in his book - CAPTIVES OF A CONCEPT. Just the other day I mentioned in a thread that one elder I knew and respected referred to WTS literature as holy! I was simply astounded!
I am so glad that now I can step back as it were and take a long, objective look at the WTS. I no longer believe that anything connected with the WTS is automatically beneficial. The information is out there for all to see. Rutherford and the Golden Age Magazine are proof that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. The truth will always prevail.
Snowbird
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Brain Dead
Rutherford certainly knew where the seat of power was in the publishing house and obviously knew of the marketing potential that it had, it doesn't take a smart man to
gain power it just needs an aggressive one.
It still amazes me how these guys kept and were able to hold on to that power with all their false prophecys they presented, I suspect I was due to controlled information.
and when a group of followers left, there was always someone left behind to sell and bring in new stock.
This organization was developed on false pretense and coercion, you might say the proof is in the pudding or perhaps up on top of the tower !
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jwfacts
My question is "what makes a JW so certain that they are right and every other sincere person with faith in their religion is wrong?"
A person will not see through it until they want to, and most do not want to leave their comfort zone.
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AllTimeJeff
You can't deal with that kind of thought process. If you were to ask logical questions, as you well know, you would be labeled a potential apostate and marked, if not DF'd on the spot.
This is why I believe cognitive dissonance is real. Otherwise smart people will believe two contradictory things, and what makes it viable is this idea that "Jehovah" uses @$$holes to get his work done. Immoral and drunk @$$holes I might add.
Rutherford was pathetic. And they still hold him in such high regard. They could come clean about him, but that would mean abandoning there long held ideas that the bible prophesied that Rutherford would exist...
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M.J.
"Jehovah can use anyone to accomplish his purpose."
Yeah, just like he used Pharaoh in Exodus to accomplish his purpose. -
bob1999
""and you really think that Jehovah was using someone like Rutherford to 'spread the Good News'?" "
What gets me is they think they are "spreading the Good News". Which Good News?
They are always changing it. Before 1995 the Good News was something very different than the Good News of today. And what about the doors of heaven? You see the good news has changed again as of May 2007.
The truth is, they have never spread the real "Good News". That is, the Good News that's in the bible. You know, the Good News that doesn't change.