Watchtower leaders are not a particularly fertile bunch. (Russell, Knorr, Franz and many GB members being without offspring, as far as we know) But to the extent that they have had children I thought it might be interesting to investigate how many Watchtower leaders have managed to keep their own children in the religion. They have not been slow in handing out advice to others about bringing up chilren to stay in the religion, but how successful have they been? We know that Rutherford's son Malcolm left the religion early in his life, but what about more recent leaders? Albert Schroeder had a son at bethel, is he still a Witness? Lyman Swingle also had a family, did they remain Witnesses? What about the others? Maybe we could make a chart.
How successful are Watchtower leaders at keeping their own children in the religion?
by slimboyfat 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Momma-Tossed-Me
I for one would love to see this chart if it is born.
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blondie
The son Judah Ben Schroeder attended Columbia University for International Law. Possibly because of this, Watchtower at that time eased up on the rank-and-file about attending higher education; would go back to denouncing it some years after Judah Ben had graduated. Last heard, Judah Ben was working for his father-in-law's auto leasing company in Michigan which provides cars for Watchtower's District and Circuit Overseers and other VIP "worthies."
http://www.christianwitnesses.com/id396.html
- In the summer of 2001, Public Affairs Office shut down by hard-liners because of liberals within the department supporting changes to blood and abuse policies. Judah-Ben Schroeder (son of Governing Body member, Bert Schroeder) lost his job in Public Affairs. He later left Bethel.
http://books.google.com/books?id=f4mZYgEACAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/11497/1/Judah-Schroeder
Charles Taze Russell = 0 children
Rutherford = 1 son, Malcolm, an adult when he came in
Knorr = 0
Fred Franz = 0
Henschel = 0
Leolaia has access to ancestry databases, perhaps, she can track them down if we don't know by oral history.
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blondie
I knew quite a few of the "anointed" in this area through my family and personally. I saw a hole pattern, parent in, child out, grandchild in....they did not have family studies back then, the focus was on not having children since they were going to heaven soon, children didn't even attend the meetings and slept in a bedroom off the living room. Model studies with people did not start until the 1940's; otherwise it was come to the meetings and here's your territory and send them off by themselves.
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blondie
Lyman Swingle, Secretary-Treasurer for Jehovah’s Witnesses’ corporation, director for 55 years
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK—Lyman Alexander Swingle, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, died today in Brooklyn, N.Y., USA.
Lyman Swingle was born November 6, 1910, in Lincoln, Nebraska, the first of five children. He was already an ordained minister of Jehovah’s Witnesses when he began working at the organization’s world headquarters in Brooklyn Heights in April 1930. On October 1, 1945, he was appointed to the board of directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. He remained on the board until October 2000. He was Secretary-Treasurer from 1983 to 2000.
On June 9, 1956, Lyman Swingle married Crystal Waldrop. They shared a mutual devotion to helping others find spiritual satisfaction. In the last two decades, millions of children came to recognize the warm, sincere, grandfatherly voice of Lyman Swingle heard in his readings from the publication My Book of Bible Stories on audiocassette.
At the international convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1946, Lyman Swingle first announced that the journal Consolation would get a new name, Awake! That journal now has a circulation of 20,000,000, in 83 languages. A hallmark of Jehovah’s Witnesses, this journal is published to bring enlightenment to entire families and report on news while examining religion and science.
Lyman Swingle’s friends and associates will long remember him as a loyal, hardworking, humble man who loved his family and offered his light and easy wit to conversation.
A memorial service will be held Monday, March 19, 2001, at the Brooklyn Heights Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Lyman Swingle was preceded in death by his wife, Crystal, and one brother, Thomas. He is survived by his sister, Betty Thomas of Ellensburg, Washington; his brothers Francis and Leroy Swingle of Salt Lake City, Utah; and two children, BelleMarie Blount of Mobile, Alabama, and Judy Harrison of Houston, Texas. He is also survived by numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.