Did Charles Russell run a brothel? (page 2)

Leolaia

I agree with slimboyfat. My impression is that Knorr "cleaned up" things in Bethel, such as letting men get married and trying to rid Bethel of gays in the 1960s and '70s; it is hard to believe that he would have "ran" a brothel of any sort. In fact, Randy Watters tells the story of a Bethelite who was caught visiting a brothel in Manhattan and Knorr publically humilated him and got him right out of Bethel. But it is still possible that stuff went on that he "turned a blind eye to"; RR relates a scandal from "many, many moons ago" about a kingdom hall in the Bronx that was used as a brothel (which according to him got some attention in the press) before the Society disfellowshipped everyone involved and dissolved the congregation. The purported Willow Street brothel however would have been something different, as that was in Brooklyn Heights.

hotchocolate

The reference is at 7:45. He says, "Rutherford replaced Charles Taze Russell, who was an alcoholic, and also ran a brothel." Confusing, but it seems he must have meant Rutherford. Rutherford was president till 1942, I wonder if Barbara Harrison was referring to this time. Either way, these guys seem to have more information than is provided in Visions of Glory, the fact that they name Rutherford specifically for a start. There doesn't seem to be anything further on their site (someone went crazy with the CAPS LOCK and underlining )

http://70.87.66.50/~watchman/articles/trueteachingsoffalsewitnesses.html

Thanks for your feedback though.. it was the first I'd heard of it.

x

Farkel

:He says, "Rutherford replaced Charles Taze Russell, who was an alcoholic, and also ran a brothel."

Methinks he dangled his participle. CTR was a teetotaler.

Farkel

Leolaia

I think I found some more reliable info on the "brothel" story. Seems to be more credible than the bare rumor. Courtesy of Barbara Anderson:

I have very little personal insight into the personality of Nathan Knorr although I became a Witness during his reign. But I do know that in the early 50s, Knorr put into operation the disfellowshipping arrangement in a way that was not known previously. It was because of a sexual scandal that involved Bethelites. There is a Kingdom Hall, the Brooklyn Heights Congregation, in the 107 Columbia Heights building, which building houses hundreds of Bethelites. Neighborhood Jehovah's Witnesses attend meetings at the Brooklyn Heights Congregation as well as many Bethelites. In and around 1953 or '54 (and I've forgotten the exact date, which my husband knows, but he's not home for me to ask), a number of young Bethelites who were assigned to the Brooklyn Heights Congregation were engaged in wife-swapping with couples who were not Bethelites, but who lived in the area. When the fat hit the fan, so to speak, Knorr was furious. That's when he used DISFELLOWSHIPPING and cleaned house. When I was in the Writing Department, I read the article in the Watchtower which introduced the disfellowshipping tenet to the members. It's quite an article to read, but what's not in the article are the details of the scandal that caused the article to be written in the first place. I remember there is an unspecific statement about immorality occurring amongst JWs and that's why, the Watchtower said, there was a need for disfellowshipping.
http://www.freeminds.org/women/knorrpolicies.htm

The article referred to is probably this one, which had this to say:

*** w56 7/15 pp. 439-440 Community or Congregational Interests ***
The congregations cannot take on any of the defiling interests, immoral practices or pagan customs of the old-world society. These are utterly rejected as unclean. Any who are guilty of misconduct as to sex relations, loose conduct in general, drunkenness, thievery, lying and defrauding are summarily cut off from the congregation by disfellowshiping to avoid community contamination. (Jude 4-10) No true Christian may have sex relations with any other than his marriage mate. Any other sex relations with the opposite sex naturally or with those of the same sex unnaturally are considered wicked, shocking and revolting. Such base practices are not a matter of private individual interest as some perverted ones try to claim, but since always two or more are involved in such acts these deeds are at once a violation of the congregational interests of moral cleanness, requiring immediate disfellowshiping. (Rom. 1:26, 27, NW) Jehovah’s witnesses remember the Biblical example where the tribe of Benjamin failed to cut away from their midst the sex criminals of Gibeah and thus brought community accountability or responsibility upon the entire tribe. The entire tribe was punished almost to the point of extermination, 25,000 men being put to death. (Judg. 19:1, 25, 27-30; 20:39-48) They also recall the case of the fornicator found in the Corinthian congregation, which brought divine displeasure for their failure to disfellowship until the apostle Paul urged such proper action immediately to save the entire congregation from total rejection.—1 Cor. 5:1-4.
When one violates the community interest or pursues a course of badness with respect to the congregational interests he commits a fault by which, if it is not properly dealt with, the whole congregation will become contaminated and accountable for God’s displeasure.

And the incident might be alluded to in this article:

*** w86 1/1 p. 13 Days Like “the Days of Noah” ***
Shocking as it is, even some who have been prominent in Jehovah’s organization have succumbed to immoral practices, including homosexuality, wife swapping, and child molesting. It is to be noted, also, that during the past year, 36,638 individuals had to be disfellowshipped from the Christian congregation, the greater number of them for practicing immorality. Jehovah’s organization must be kept clean! (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)

BTW, looking at the address on Google Maps, the building at 107 Columbia Heights is on a block bounded by Willow Street. There is a building that spans between Columbia Heights and Willow, but I don't know if it existed back in the 1950s.

Did Charles Russell run a brothel?

Leolaia

hotchocolate

Farkel

Leolaia

Lady Lee

mkr32208

Quirky1

hotchocolate

african GB Member

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