> good post!
Thank you.
Russell was even worse than you suggest, though. Read the following carefully:
"I have already transferred everything I possess except my personal clothing to the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY." - 1906WTWR 07 15 219
"Mrs. Russell's request that the monthly allowance be increased from $40 to $100, which was allowed by the Court, but which we were unable to comply with .. The dear friends concluded to surprise us on the return home by clearing off these obligations. They handed us receipts aggregating over $9,000, showing a payment of Mrs. Russell's alimony into 1913, with Court costs, attorneys' fees, etc. Our heart returned thanks to the Great Giver of every good gift for this, a fresh manifestation of his loving care and for such evidences of brotherly love. . What shall we render unto the Lord our God for all his benefits to us? We will take the cup of salvation. We will partake of the blood of the New Covenant. We will call upon the Lord for grace to help. We will pay our vows unto the Most High. -'Psa. 110:12-14'." - 1909WTWR 07 01 199
Note (1) C.T.Russell owned 99% of the shares in the WTBTS (proof below), and so controlled it.. he could have awarded himself remuneration (there was no prohibition in the company's constitution or applicable law against so doing) had he wished to extract the money, whether it had been transferred to the WTBTS as a gift or as capital.
Note (2) So - donate or otherwise transfer your funds to the WTBTS to escape paying alimony.. Sadly for this swindler and common cheat, the Court was not fooled by this or by Russell's protestations of impecuniosity, else it would not have increased the alimony from $40 p.m. to $100 p.m.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, Russell's shameful actions are directly contrary to the words of Jesus at Mark 7:9-13: "And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye."
Jesus is referring to the tradition of selective corban, where a person dedicated his possessions to the temple precisely in order to avoid his obligations to pay for the care of his relatives.
When the Courts saw through his deceit, the artful Russell contrived to get "the dear friends" (i.e. duped followers) to pay off the alimony on his behalf..
This excerpt from Russell's obituary in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper of November 1, 1916 sets it out admirably:
"A year after this publication, The Watch Tower, had been established Russell married Maria Ackley in Pittsburgh. She had become interested in him through his teachings, and she helped him in running the Watch Tower. Two years later, in 1881, came 'The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society,' the agency through which in later years 'Pastor' Russell's sermons were published (as advertisements) in newspapers throughout the world. This Society progressed amazingly under the joint administration of husband and wife, but in 1897 Mrs. Russell left her husband. Six years later, in 1903, she sued for separation. The decree was secured in 1906 following sensational testimony and 'Pastor' Russell was scored by the courts. There was much litigation then that was quite undesirable from the 'Pastor's' point of view regarding alimony for his wife, but it was settled in 1909 by the payment of $6,036 to Mrs. Russell. The litigation revealed that 'Pastor' Russell's activities in the religious field were carried on through several subsidiary societies and that all of the wealth which flowed into him through these societies was under the control of a holding company in which the 'Pastor' held $990 of the $1,000 capital and two of his followers the other $10"
In 1913, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in its January 25 issue on p16 placed financial statements made by the Secretary-Treasurer Van Amburg, proving Russell's control of the WTBTS - as well as the former's assertion: "We are not responsible to anyone for our expenditures. We are responsible only to God."
So we see Russell was a liar, a cheat, a swindler, a pedophile (or close to it), a bully (who tried again and again - with no success - to use the Courts to silence those who exposed him, e.g. The Brooklyn Eagle, Revd. J.J.Ross, Mrs. Russell), a racketeer and a rascal of the first water, happy to obstruct justice at every turn (for example, packing off a key witness in his divorce trial to Australia shortly before her attendance in court was required). In his defense - contrary to some claims, he has not been proven to be a perjurer.
The most shocking thing of all is that notwithstanding these he was, in my studied opinion, probably the best President of the Watchtower ever!
--
Focus
(History Class)
http://www.freeminds.org/history/part1.htm
http://www1.tip.nl/~t661020/wtcitaten/part1.htm
http://localsonly.wilmington.net/jmalik/TheList.zip
http://www.concordance.com/watchtower.htm
http://www.intrex.net/tallyman/the_list.html
http://www.3dom.freeserve.co.uk/main.htm
Edited by - Focus on 28 February 2001 11:36:27
