I have had a little time to go over Barb's new 1174-page document on the "hidden" aspects of the origins of the Watchtower and the early writings of C.T. Russell, and his attempts to squelch Maria's role in the authoring of books, Watchtower articles and other writings.
I respect Barb in that she did not trash C.T., but just showed the flaws and good points of BOTH characters in the matter. This is not a "feminist" approach, but one worthy of being called "objective." I am sure some of the Bible Students will not care for this material, but it is OUT THERE and documented, and the BS have most or all of the originals themselves. Perhaps they have a vested interest in not talking about it. :-))
Anyways, below are some clips from Barb's INTRODUCTION that I will share, with her permission.
The foundation of their attraction to each other sprang from a subject this couple was passionate about—the widespread millennial fever then prevalent among confused masses of people witnessing the epic struggle between workers and capitalists during the rise of industrial America. Talk of the end of the world was everywhere.
Very significant. The backdrop is a fanaticism over the “need” for the return of Christ. Same with Adventism and many parts of Protestantism at the time. The Russells borrowed paradigms from those around them.
As in the case of other “prophetic” paradigms (see Leon Festinger’s When Prophecy Failshttp://www.freeminds.org/psych/propfail.htm), the FAILURE of Christ’s return did not discourage them from believing in the importance of their research:
The Russells pointed to civil unrest to prove a Biblical rapture was coming in 1881 when the expectation of believers was to be caught up to heaven and changed into spiritual beings. Far from being disappointed when rapture did not occur that year, they pressed on to gather more of the "little flock of saints" who "would become new creatures in Christ."
Setting the stage with a conflict between the two Russells, Barb says,
The year 1895 was a peaceful time in their relationship, but that peace did not last. In 1896 Mrs. Russell spoke out in disagreement, not only with the Pastor's religious views, but also about of some of his methods of conducting business. It was during this year Pastor Russell rewrote some of his wife's ZWT articles according to his own sentiments. However, she insisted he throw her articles out, not rewrite them. He refused. When he couldn't control his wife's viewpoint, he accused her of being a women's rights proponent. Consequently, she resigned her title of Associate Editor rather than compromise her beliefs.
Years later we find,
Over one hundred years later, this uniquely American religion continues the same legacy of defamation of the character of Maria Russell. Note these statements found in Jehovah's Witnesses 1993 history book thereby deceiving their followers about Pastor Russell's actions that led up to divorce: "...she [Russell's wife] parted from him because of her own desire for personal prominence," and, "She sought for herself a stronger voice in directing what would appear in the WATCH TOWER "9
The rift resulted in a divorce trial, where it was brought out:
During the divorce proceedings, Mrs. Russell asserted that she formulated and laid out the plans for each one of the first three volumes and chapters of the Millennial Dawn series of books and did at least half of the writing. In addition, she claimed she was almost finished with Volume Four when she left for Chicago. Pastor Russell vigorously disputed her claim. He observed:
I have no thought at all that Mrs. Russell would be able to write the three volumes, or the fourth volume, or any of the volumes. If she has that ability I have never found out; yet I was surprised at her testimony and thought that I myself should ask for alimony when I heard her testimony on the subject."
Yet two nieces of Maria testified that she wrote a significant part of the early Watchtower writings credited to C.T., and their comments are in Barb’s documents. Hardly “right” conduct for one who was credited at the time as being “THE faithful and discreet slave.”
That’s just a small part of the interesting information in this document! Neither Russell is demonized, but seen as people with agendas like all of us.
Randy
