NAME ONE USEFUL THING done by Russell, Rutherford, F.Franz (page 3)

shechaiyah

Terry, they did do one useful thing. Just one.

They applied logic and reasoning to Bible Study, which no Mainline Church does.

They study TOPICALLY; so they are more effective teachers.

Albeit heartless in other respects.

:) She--

GLTirebiter

I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but Rutherford being such an absolute prick did force some issues of religious freedom to be heard by the US Supreme Court, the decsions of which have benefited more than just JWs over the decades.

Sometimes this happened when they lost. In Prince v. Massachusetts the Supreme Court held that religion did not exempt Witnesses from child labor laws (the labor of selling Watchtower and Consolation magazines on public streets). In the court's words:

It is the interest of youth itself, and of the whole community, that children be both safeguarded from abuses and given opportunities for growth into free and independent well developed men and citizens..

Band on the Run

Working on it. I want a list with more than the case names but summaries and later impact. Wikipedia has an article. Knocking, the PBS, has an accurate list. Knocking seems factually true but I do not agree with their interpretations. Their list is about 30 cases. I want about five to ten.

I'm looking for a politcal science or history discussion rather than a legal profession one.

Terry

The question about did it benefit anyone else besides the Witnesses would be a wonderful term paper.

There is the objective question about Federal Ruling on Constitutional issues and then, sadly, there is the political.

Justices do not exist in a moral/philosophical vacuum. If they did, there would never need to be Senate confirmation battles over ideology such as in the Bork embroglio.

blondie

Hey, this reminds me of a story that was told in the WTS about an older sister who could always find something good to say about anyone. One frustrated elder said she couldn't find one good thing to say about Satan.

Older sister: You certainly have to admire his persistence.

(probably borrowed from some other religion)

Terry

Terry, they did do one useful thing. Just one.

They applied logic and reasoning to Bible Study, which no Mainline Church does.

They study TOPICALLY; so they are more effective teachers.

Uh-hem! Interesting opinion, young lady. May I respectfully point out that LOGIC has nothing to do with the Watchtower Society because

LOGIC is the art of NON-CONTRADICTORY reasoning. As far as the TOPICAL approach is concerned it provides DE-CONTEXTUALIZING opportunities for

private interpretation twists! The entire cherry-picking proof text nonsense that launched Jehovah's Witnesses is a radical and destructive process.

You only have to look at the nitwit hopping from Daniel to Peter to Revelation in "explaining" the End of the Gentile Times in 1914 to discover what lunacy passes for scholarship in this religion.

I will grant you that the JW teaching has a superficial appearance of explaining away difficulties for prospective listeners. But, dumbing-down is not the same thing as teaching fact!

Take this as an example: Each creation day was 7000 years long. According to Fred Franz's chronology chart the first 6,000 years of human existence ending in 1975. LOGICALLY (?) this meant Armageddon would come and the last 1000 years of Millennium would begin then!!

Check your calendar and see what actually happened in 1975.

I'll give you a hint. That was the year the Watchtower Society crapped its pants!!

Please rethink your opinion in light of the facts.

The JW's are only effective teachers is the students abandon rational thinking a refuse to perform due diligence in investigating their claims.

donny

And it's funny that as I read this interesting thread, there is an ad on the right hand side advertising Herbert W. Armstrong, another kook who came out of the ashes of the Second Adventists. I believe he also held 1975 as being a year of some significance.

Terry

I once knew an award winning insurance salesman who was the top guy in his company year after year. He was a little Chinese guy whose body was twisted out of shape by crippling arthritis. He told me he had fallen off a balcony as a child and it had damaged nerves and broke a lot of bones.

Every day he would have to go in for heat treatments so that he could get movement back into his body.

He was difficult to understand too, but, very very enthusiastic about what he was saying.

I asked him (His name was Philip Moh), "Philip, why are you able to sell so many more policies than anybody else year after year?"

He laughed and said, "People know I can't talk them in to anything. I'm not very persuasive. I'm humble and easy to underestimate. They listen politely. But, what I say makes a lot of sense."

I didn't think that was much of an explanation. I pressed him further.

"But, Philip WHY do they BUY from you?"

He thought about it for a few minutes quietly. Finally, he looked at me and said, "I tell them it makes me feel bad that people leave their family unprotected if they should die. My own father died when I was 6 and we lived as beggars in China. I tell them it is a privilege to travel 6000 miles to help them do something for their family my own father could never do for me and my mother."

I thought about what he said.

I think Jesus was probably a little bit like Philip Moh. He traveled a long way to help people and he was much underestimated. Nothing special to look at and was probably very sincere.

I guess Jesus sold a lot of policies, too. :)

rebel8

I don't think any of these people did ONE THING to benefit mankind.

1. Miracle Wheat. Hence the problem of hunger was solved.

2. The Golden Age Magazine claimed they cured skin cancer in 1908. Hence many lives have been saved since then.

3. Golden Age also informed the world intestinal worms were responsible for diseases such as appendicitis. Many unnecessary surgeries were averted!

NAME ONE USEFUL THING done by Russell, Rutherford, F.Franz

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