Ah. So THAT was your point! I mean, it was just insane, to read all that stuff, but now that I think of it, you make a very excellent point.
I was reading a Watchtower from 1945 or so that reported on the first "blood transfusion"--a person DRINKING blood, at a time long, long before the circulatory system was even discovered. Yet this was presented in such a way that the uninformed would've had no idea. The position they took regarding this issue in the years thereafter--as evidenced in the early '50s Watchtower responses to readers who wrote in about the issue--was that of the schoolyard bully who made a rule and would just dare anyone to break it.
It makes sense, then, that the DF'ing arrangement, along with the Society's admonition to those who they kicked out ("Get out and die with Satan's system" were the exact words, as I recall), showed up not that long after the blood doctrine.
It has become abundantly clear to me that those 'taking the lead' were seriously, SERIOUSLY unstable people who probably needed a padded cell where they could write this stuff on the walls in crayon if they wanted. But not to be in charge of a worldwide religious entity. I can't believe I trusted them as long as I did.
Anyway, thanks for your series of threads, dude. Excellent stuff.
--sd-7
