How could have Rutherford been a 'drunk'? (page 6)

hillary_step

WholeWheat,

there are accusations that Rutherford was a drunk on various exJW web sites.

No, in all fairness he pre-dated the ability to be drunk on XJW web sites. Whoever said that he was is imagining things...lol

Best regards - HS

These are not the accusations that you listed or were responding to. Do you really think someone can't be in charge of a publishing company because they are a drunk? Richard Nixon was a drunk and he ran the country.

wholewheat

professor,

I have never read that Nixon was a drunk. There is a difference between a 'drunk' and an alcoholic. All drunks are alcoholics, but not all alcoholics are drunks. Have you ever seen someone drunk? I am not talking about a 'buzz' or a 'warm fuzzy', I am talking about 'drunk', which means intoxication above the legal limit...out of control. This is what Rutherford has been accused of. Even if Rutherford drank fifty beers at one setting but maintained, and did not change his mood or behavior he could not be called 'drunk'. Drunks cannot maintain their behavior nor control their mood changes, although some first stage alcoholics can. So, I feel that the name 'drunk' is an unfair title given to Rutherford even if he may have been an alcoholic.

larc

Whoewheat, Does it really matter how much and how often Rutherford drank? It is known that he did drink, and he drank the best wiskey available. He violated the law of prohibition to do so. He smoked the finest cigars money could buy. He wore 100 dollar silk shirts in 1940. He spent his summers in Europe and his winters in a mansion in San Diego during the depression while the rank and file were barely surviving during the Great Depression. He had two top of the line Cadillacs, one in Brooklyn and one in San Diego. No leader of your religion, before or since has lived in such splendor. He lived like royalty while the faithful barely got by. Now, everything I have written is common knowledge, except the silk shirt information. How do I know that? Because my mother's aunt was a part of Rutherford's staff, and my mother relayed that information to me. If you would learn about my mother's aunt, do a search at the top of the page, on the term, Berta. I think you will find it to be very enlightening.

COMF

How could have Rutherford been a 'drunk'?

By drinking alcohol to excess.

onacruse

Rutherford may well have been a heavy drinker (the evidence I've seen convinces me that he was), and perhaps even an alcoholic (though I don't feel like making that judgement). However, now that he's dead, what's the point? To me the real issue is that alcohol abuse remains a serious problem (as others have posted). When I was at Bethel I worked in the janitorial dept and so had a somewhat unique opportunity to see what the choice of beverage was and how much was consumed. A rather ingenius TX bro I worked with thought that we should recycle the glass/cans. Every week we sent out at least 6 55-gal drums of crushed glass and aluminum, virtually all of it being alcohol containers. Part of the reason for the institution of "floor elders" was to monitor the increasing problems they were having with overdrinking and rowdy behavior.

In the many years since then, several mothers of newer Bethelites asked me things like "Has the drinking back there always been so bad?" and "How can I help my (usually) son to keep it under control?" I really didn't have a good answer, for I knew from personal experience that it was/is cultured by that environment, and the problem continues.

Some years ago I read The Addictive Organization (Harper & Row, 1988). The authors show the remarkable correlation between membership in a highly authoritarian structure and addictive patterns (including alcoholism) frequently manifested by those who are fervent supporters of that structure. The authors present this purely as a sociological study, and only incidently discuss religious groups per se (they never even mention JWs).

I finally had an answer: alcohol is a problem for many JWs precisely because they are JWs! And the tighter they are (in the one sense), the tighter they are likely to get (in the other sense).

My best wishes for those that are caught in this vicious spiral :-(

Craig

larc

Welcome Craig. I have to say, for your very first post, it was very powerful. I hope you contribute more of your thoughts and observations.

onacruse

Thanks Larc. I will post again, so long as I can find serious threads like this one! Everbody needs to have their fun, and I do get a good laugh from a friendly flame. But I'm seeing that some posters (as Simon reminded) use language, and include some content, that diminish the experience. Guess I'll just have to work through it.

However, I divert from the subject!

homejah

I remember reading a program of the 1941 St. Louis Assembly. The member wrote Rutherford on some of the titles. He was not on schedule and wondered why. Not until I read Penton's book the reason why Rutherford missed those assignments.

avishai

Now, I know there's a pun in there somewhere, but I just for the life of me can't see it. Someone help me out here.

Rectum? It killed him!

How could have Rutherford been a 'drunk'?

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