Interesting Point Regarding "Persecution" from Rogerson's Book

by lepermessiah 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  lepermessiah

  I am reading "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" by Alan Rogerson, and he makes a great point in his book.

  This is something I always firmly believed happened after having serious doubts about JFR, but the WTBS always whitewashes the events and make it sound like the Witnesses of the time were just innocent martyrs.Other books and articles have confirmed this, but I love how the book puts it very simply.

  Rutherford was one of the biggest scum-balls of all time - and the desire for "persecution" goes on!

  The cycle of events from 1930 onwards was ominous. Throughout

  the United States, for instance, arrests, trials and persecutions

  continued on a scale greater than that of 1918. Undoubtedly the

  Witnesses themselves contributed to these attacks by persistent

  provocation. One of their characteristic actions when a township

  threw out some of their 'publishers" was to gather hundreds of

  Witnesses from the neighbouring territories and stage a mass

  'witness' in the town in question. They regarded the persecution

  as further proof that they were the true servants of God in a

  hostile world.
• 

  Terry

  Rutherford created a brand name religion: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.

  What distinguished his brand from all other brands?

  The members were everything the other brands were not. Sort of like Seven Up being the UN-cola.

  Definition by negatives.

  No holidays.

  No birthdays.

  No blood.

  No voting or serving in the armed forces.

  No cross.

  No Trinity.

  No Soul.

  No Hell.

  And so on.

  Rutherford used publicity about court cases, incidents of persecution and contrarian conflicts to boost public awareness and get PUBLICITY.

  Like marketing any other "product" public awareness garners sales.

  Basic curiousity about who these contrarians were and what they believed created a marketing vacuum.

  The price that was paid was always at the street level with the negative impact striking the individual publisher where it hurt most.

  Faith without works is Dead could have been inscribed on the tombstones of all who died for the cause.
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  dgp

  If I went to Bethel and claimed that the Governing Body is a bunch of assholes, would I leave in one piece?

  If Jehovah's witnesses were in power, would I get away with preaching that they are wrong?

  What happens to an active witness who dares to say the organization isn't right?

  While persecution was wrong, I think we should look at it in the right context.
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  lepermessiah

  If I went to Bethel and claimed that the Governing Body is a bunch of assholes, would I leave in one piece

  Yes, because you could take all of those old geezers, no problem......
• 

  jookbeard

  great little book and one of the very first Non WTS books about the WTS I ever read and my local library stocked it, shame he never went on to be a prolific author and pursued more works on the WTS, wonder if he is still alive? Google offers very little about him
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  wobble

  Alan Rogerson's book was great in many of the points it made, I believe it is out of print now.

  When our local library had it on the shelf I got it out and read it, but still did not wake up, I guess, from memory, he does not tackle the doctrinal errors in a way that would have woken me up at the time.

  A bro. who was leaving the country took the book out of the library, and never returned it, quite deliberately, as he decided it was so damaging in its content. the library did not bother to replace it. Pity. I hope they catch up with him and fine him 20 years worth. (Fat chance)

  Wobble
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  transhuman68

  Another interesting book is '30 years a watchtower slave' by William J Schnell, printed in the seventies. The author describes how they were instructed by the WTS to break local by-laws so as to be arrested and create publicity by crying "persecution". The book has a lot of information about the Bible Students, as they were then known, in Germany.