"Peddlers of Paradise" Nov. 1940 American magazine article

by cabasilas 10 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  cabasilas

  I just got this in from ebay. This is the complete article "Peddlers of Paradise" as it appeared in the November 1940 American magazine. (A condensed version the article appeared in a 1941 Readers Digest.) This is an interesting report on the JW movement as it appeared on the eve of World War II.

  Some background: The American magazine was a major literary magazine of the time. Some info on this journal can be read at:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Magazine

  The file is about 3.8 MB and can be downloaded from this filesharing site:

  http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=cde0286eb2a98ceb87f953a77ca4e5bc
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  SirNose586

  Very entertaining slam of the oldschool witnesses. There was a lot I didn't know about the movement at the time.

  Stellar find; too bad most dubs would be too turned off by the title to take a peek.
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  Gregor

  Thanks, I really enjoyed reading that. I especially appreciated to perspective given by the writer of JWs being down and outers grimly looking forward to seeing all their enemies destroyed. Also, the transparent exploitation of them as a no cost sales force for the mountains of liturature cranked out in Brooklyn.
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  RisingEagle

  Thanks, I really enjoyed that article. I noticed the ad near the end of the article was for Squibb tooth cream. I wonder if that stuff was made at the Squibb building the jdubs eventually purchased.
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  Tatiana

  Thanks for posting this. Very good read. A lot more info about the books published and the money collected, and I wish they'd try to find out today where all the money is going. I see back then they were interested in that too. Almost 70 years and we still don't know???
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  sacrebleu

  The article reminds me of Jim Jones and his followers.

  So tired, so overworked and downtrodden, but still believing. So sad.

  My mom was lured by the "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" campaign. That's what got her to start listening to her brothers and sisters-in-law. She died December 1, 2004. That religion split my family and hers also. Her stupid brother preached a funeral and used the Scripture, "let the dead bury the dead" that caused strife and hatred in her family for years.

  Such a wicked, wicked waste. And what's really sad is that IF a JW read that today, all they would notice is the way the poor people were so "persecuted."

  Thanks for the great post.

  sacrebleu
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  tooktheredpill

  Cabasilas:

  Thanks a lot for the article!!! It clarifies a lot of stuff that has been "sanitized" in the "Proclaimers" book (Like Beth-Sarim, etc.)

  It's good to have scans of the original articles.

  I've found a lot of good stuff in tha Time magazine website, but there are no scans I'm trying to find a scan of this magazine from 1935: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883470-2,00.html.

  The article mentions this:

  "the Bible Students have concluded that three "cosmos" divide history. Cosmos I began with Adam, ended with the Flood. Cosmos II ended in 1914. The Bible Students once predicted that Cosmos III would end with the Kingdom of God in 2874 but currently they are more concerned with Judge Rutherford's prophecy that a universal war is looming."

  If the kingdom of 1000 years "would end in 2874", then it started in 1874!! You can show anybody that in 1935, the JW's didn't know that Christ kingdom started in 1914!

  Any help will be appreciated!

  TTRP
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  Atlantis

  Cabasilas:

  Many thanks my friend! Great find!

  Cheers! Atlantis-
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  hillbilly

  the JW's produced several books (I cant think of the titles offhand) but I think one was J W's and the Divine Purpose... I seem to recall about 3 of them all told. The last was written in the early 80's maybe.

  Looking at contempory reports from the "outside" sure gives one a little counterpoint to work with .... compared to the party-line stuff the WT publishes.

  the only news the JW's ever quote is the same old " we cleaned up your towns' auditorium and created a 3 day paradise", press release.... hand fed to some local cub reporter

  LOL, can you say "spin doctor" ... I love those wacky JW's

  ~Hill
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  TD

  Cabasilas Great find! Many thanks

  tooktheredpill:

  I'm trying to find a scan of this magazine from 1935:

  I've got that one. I'll post it this evening if nobody else does first