The final and most important question concerning the Watchtower Corporation ???

by Finkelstein 35 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Phizzy

  I think that every religious movement that gets off the ground needs a good publicist.

  Thre Cult of Jesus would more than likely have remained a small insignificant sect of Judaism, and therefore disappeared like the Saducees in the 70CE holocaust, had it not been for bandy legged, myopic Paul, who was a great salesman.

  The same with the "Russellites", once charismatic Chazzer was gone, the whole thing would have gone into oblivion, had it not been that J.F Ratherfraud saw a good business opportunity, muscled in and took over the whole shebang, and then went on to Sell ! Sell ! Sell ! ,or as he put it "Advertise , advertise, advertise" he added the bit "the KIng and the Kingdom", but he really was meaning all the books and magazines.

  He even coined the word "Publishers" for those who would publicise his wares, not subtle at all was he ?

  So, yes, ever since Rutherford took over it has been about getting publicity for what in his day was a tiny group, by making their doctrines , actions and very existence controversial. (The action outside Churches on a Sunday is a case in point)

  It worked, and Freddie Franz knew it, so he formulated the Blood Doctrine to continue the publicity campaign, that cold-hearted man cared not how many died needlessly because of it, it would garner publicity, he said exactly that ! and publicity would lead to more paying members.

  N.H Knorr was , by his own admission, only interested in business, he said he would have loved to run a large Department Store if he hadn't been involved in the W.T. Even his Gilead Schools and Theocratic Ministry Schools were designed to make better salesmen and women.

  He ran the W.T exactly as he saw Corporate America was run, while he made sure that side of things functioned, he left doctrine to Freddie, especially if said Doctrine increased membership.

  A cynical view of W.T history ? I don't think so, I think that is how it was, and, sadly, still is.
• 

  emperorslaundrist

  I was thinkin' about this yesterday...

  Simple and unchanging doctrine doesn't require a publishing company. You need NEW INCREASING LIGHT through Gods ONLY APPROVED CHANNEL to justify using all that paper. Otherwise a religion can make do with a couple of books, word of mouth, maybe a newsletter at the most.
  
  A month or two ago I was reading the watchtower where they placed all the scriptures of the NT having to do with donations next to each other--- It blew my mind that in the 1st century money was collected to help real People!!! There was no organization to collect money for producing monthly parchments, to invest in real-estate, to give them legal representation to the Roman government. It's a heavy load to have to support the Watchtower Society.
• 

  Finkelstein

  For individuals such as J Rutherford, who was a professionally trained lawyer and not a trained bible theologian,

  grabbing the presidency and head writing position of the WTS. was a self endeavored personal uplift in power and control over

  an already established and growing religious publishing empire.

  All he had to do was further exploit and embellish what was done previously by C T Russell.

  Holding on to the doctrine that Christ has returned and is now looking at the people living to determine if they should be saved from destruction

  and to live on into eternity in a earthly paradise.

  The hyped notoriety created around himself had developed into such a frenzy state that when he gave public talk at a convention

  he entered as if he was a world renown Rock Star, completely surrounded by body guards and assistants.

  He was revered by the public who read his books and magazines to be kind of a idolized savior for all mankind,

  a person who was directly connected to god himself, unlike any other person in the world living at the time.

  Of course his true character, personality and behavior was hidden away from the eyes and ears of the flock of cultivated believers.
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  OTWO -- I would say it was founded on the odd doctrine selling the literature . . . . . It'll need to be abandoned one day soon, as print is going out of style.

  Is that what we see happening now???

  The printed page has easily been cut in half at WTS. Sure the mags are 1/2 (16 vs. 32 pages), but conventions used to have a publication release every day or at least every-other day when they were a week long. Now? Nothin'. Book on Acts. Book on Jeremiah. These are studied 6 paragraphs each week so they last and last and last. [Just like the "last days"].

  Brochures -- they'll probably be 1/2'd next since the new ones are just blank pages anyway!

  Tracts. That's the new publication for Field Service. Then direct them to the Internet.

  No need to sell literature anymore, the money is made by having assemblies, conventions, special events, Branch Visits, etc etc.

  They'll keep those Assembly Halls booked week after week, with each week bringing in the ca$h to line the coffers.

  Doc
• 

  whathappened

  Charles Taze Russell was the Co-editor of an Adventist magazine called "Herald of the Morning." When he and Nelson Barbour had a disagreement, poof, Russell went off and started his own magazine. The Watchtower Society was born. It is that plain and simple.

  The answer is YES.
• 

  Finkelstein

  Interesting as it is most people who were JWS back in the 1930's, 40's, 50's are getting few and far between.

  Most doctrines created during that era have been dropped or changed, things that were suppose to happen didn't, but the WTS still

  pushs on in selling Armageddon and the world's soon to come imminent end.

  As long as the push fear into people's minds and keep on implying that they know exactly what god expects and wants from mankind

  to make it through this great end of this system of things, then they have the capabilities to find ones to coercively lure toward their organizations.

  There's nothing like grabbing people's attention in purposing a life or death situation , you might even sell a few books at the same time.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  Is that what we see happening now???

  Sort of. Conventions were book sales guarantees. By offering the books at conventions, they were multimillion sellers. People felt the need to come for whatever would be new. Now, they are still making money (or they would reduce/cancel them) but they have cheapened the handouts to skinny brochures or maybe a single book for the three days. Some folks are tired of the event and the idea of a new brochure just doesn't draw them in.

  We already know next year's convention will be held to fund the missionaries coming home for a visit, and a hefty profit for WTS on that. This probably means they didn't change anything for 2013, but they saw the profit margin was very thin.

  I was surprised that the rumored 2-day event didn't happen yet.
• 

  A.M. Number 1

  I believe that it would be impossible to separate the Watchtower MAGAZINE from the Jehovah's Witness religion. In fact, the way I see it is that the whole point of the religion, much like a pyramid scheme, is to get other people to do the religion. The biz is getting other people to work the biz. Going out preaching is specifically to get other people to go out placing magazines. Then you get still other people to place magazines, and they get other people to place magazines, and they get other people to place magazines, and they get tired of writing this.... Ever see a JW household that is not covered top to bottom in magazines and WT books? It's like the disease is a virus that lives in the ink that is printed in the magazines. once you get infected, you are driven to proliferate the virus. You may even start dating a non JW with plans to convert them, all so the virus can be spread into still more households. Families are built just to be storage facilities for the ink-borne virus, or what is the other word for virus? A creature that lives off of a host... can't think of it right now. But it's sort of like the scary creatures on SG 1 Stargate.
• 

  steve2

  I've always understood that young "industrious" Charles T Russell invested a significant sum of his own inheritance from his father's haberdashery business in setting up the Watchtower corporation. There's no evidence that Russell was solely or primarily interested in generating a publishing business guaranteed to keep churning out profit. He kept pouring money back into the corporation to keep up with the production demands.

  The fact that it turned out to be so profitable - back then - is a neat byproduct of Russell and his followers publicizing an alluring message via the printed word - the main way of conveying information in the 19th and 20th centuries. Russell seemed to be a sincere even if religiously proud and whacky man. By contrast, Rutherford's interests and intentions were more obviously linked to milking the corporation for his own enjoyment. Look at the way he posed for the camera with well-heeled foot resting on inside front door of the latest 1930s sedan and his penchant for living in luxury whilst the rank and file limped along with the bare essentials propping up his publishing empire.

  But back to Russell: If your message "catches on" and more and more people read it, you'll need to keep increasing production, but the increased interest would drive the production rather than the desire to generate profit.

  The way something "ends up" is not necessarily a result of intention.
• 

  Larsinger58

  I think the main focus was increasing membership, which in and of itself meant more sales since all the members used the "products."

  But I think there was a conscious attempt to piggy-back on CT Russell's death and legacy by putting out the "7th Volume" which they claim was the "postumous work" of Russell and in the prologue clearly indicate the purpose of the book was to prove that Russell himself was, indeed, "the wise and faithful servant" prophesied about in the Bible.

  So for 10 years rom 1917 to 1927, that worked. The official doctrine of the WTS was that the "faithful and wise servant" was none other than Russell himself. But then that got old and they they pulled the same ruse they did with 1975, and now claim it was the brothers themselves who ran ahead and called Russell the "faithful and wise servant", emphasiizing that doing so was "creature worship." Of course, this is a blatant lie. Russell never called himself the "faithful and wise servant" and so the rank and file would have followed that primarily. When Rutherford on his own put out the "7th Volume", it officially identified Russell as the "faithful and wise servant," so members had no choice but to accept this new doctrine. After ten years, needing to put that title onto the governing body, they dismissed the idea that Russell specifically was this "faithful and wise servant" and then blamed the members on coming up with that idea. It's unbelievable! Things like this show the incredible dishonesty and manipulation and mind control the WTS imposes on its members. Most members are not checking the facts, so they just accept the revised history.

  Plus others have it right, that Rutherford loved the fame and notoriety. When Russell was in charge, he signed off on the Watchtower articles but not the publications. It was the policy not to glorify individuals who had provided this material. Rutherford changed that entirely and every book that came out he took personal credit for. It was embarrassing. When he died, the WTS went back to anonymous publications.

  I think the rule is that the more magazines you place and the more publications that are out there, the more members are converted, so one feeds the other.

  Also, as a side note, rember Russell refused to accept contributions to maintain the WTS because of a rich donor that funded the WTS. That donor was the Jewish underground, who likely wanted a new Christian sect led by a charismatic leader to promote Zionism, which indeed, Russell did! In fact, his magazine was called "ZION's Watchtower." So I don't think in the beginning it was about the money, but after getting going and having all the publishers placing magazines and books, it was clear this was potentially very profitable, even from the standpoint that they had a standing clientel to purchase their books, the witnesses themselves, each of whom would want a personal copy.
  
  It was the WTS' connection with the Jewish underground that led Hitler to lock up Jehovah's witnesses during WWII, thinking they were spies and agents of the Jewish underground. So it was 100% political. But why wouldn't Hitler associate the WTS with Freemasonry and the "Illuminati" when CT Russell is buried next to a seeing-eye pyramid honoring him, erected by the WTS! But see how hypocritical that is? They rale against using the "cross" because its a pagan symbol, but put up a Satanic pyramid to honor Russell! ???