by Lee Elder 26 Replies latest jw friends
To FredHall:
Haven't you heard of Mt. 7:1? You are no more faithful to the teachings of your, um, religion than anyone else upon whom you look down your nose and engage in judgement - making yourself on the same level as the law giver. Hypocritical.
And as I remember, the only thing in Jesus experience over which he became angry was hypocrisy. Boy are you in for it.
Francoise
bttt
An old post, but what I find interesting is the claim that Woodworth was instrumental in produciing the JW blood policy that caused so many unnecessary deaths, I had always thought that Franz was the man behind that policy.
Clayton J. Woodworth was also responsible for the Watchtower ban on vaccinations!
Only after Woodworth died was the vaccination ban lifted.
--VM44
"Jehovah's Witnesses--Proclaimers of God's Kingdom," devotes page 634 to C.J. Woodworth (includes a picture of him and states he was editor of the Witness magazines Golden Age and Consolation). His arrest and sentencing for espionage in 1918 , pages 650-653 (picture of the whole group sent to prison, including Woodworth). Finally, pages 66-67 state he is one of the compilers of the book, "The Finished Mystery" released by the Watchtower Society in 1917.
Here are two anecdotes about C. J. Woodworth:
Karl Adams told me of an incident he thought rather humorous that happened when C. J. Woodworth died in 1951. At that time, Karl was manager of the Editorial Dept. (Writing Dept.) and Woodworth worked in the department having been the editor of the "Golden Age" and "Consolation" magazine until the magazine's name was changed to "Awake!" in 1946.
Karl said he was standing by a window in the 124 Columbia Heights building on the 8th floor where the Writing Dept. was located. He was looking out at storm clouds in the distance when he saw a large bolt of lightening and within seconds he heard the almost deafening sound of thunder which, he said, caused the building to tremble for seconds. Just a minute later the phone rang and someone called to tell him that Woodworth had just died. Karl told me he replied to the caller, "When I heard that thunder, I knew Clayton just passed on." I knew what Karl meant by that because Clayton was a forceful and demanding personality and so when he left this earth it was with a big bang.
Another time I was with Lyman Swingle in his office in the Treasury Dept. (Swingle was made the overseer of Treasury after Grant Suiter died.) where I was looking through cabinets in Swingle's office which still contained files full of material from when Grant Suiter occupied that space. We were talking about the old days when Lyman pulled out his wallet from his pocket where he extracted an old, beat-up letter written by Rutherford to C. J. Woodworth. In the letter, Rutherford told Woodworth that he was sick of reading about hemorrhoids in every issue of the Consolation and ordered him not to discuss that subject ever again in the literature. Apparently, it was common knowledge that Woodworth obsessed about hemorrhoids.
I'm not a totally straitlaced person, but Lyman, who was a decent sort, was rather crude and course, and it was interesting to see how much he enjoyed that letter, heartily laughing about the contents, obviously delighted because he and I both knew that both Rutherford and Woodworth were his kind of people and he thoroughly identified with them.
I found it interesting from research and my discussions with many old Bethelites that those who ran the early organization (Rutherford's days) were not very distinguished nor sophisticated, but tough men with foul mouths who, for the most part, loved their liquor. However, the common consensus among those who shared their stories with me was the belief that those were tough times and Jehovah needed people like this to get the organization through those hard depression and war years and the persecution of the Witnesses.
Barbara
We had a CO with the name of Woodworth years ago, can't remember his first name. Don't know if he was related to C.J. or not. He's also dead now.
Ken P.
Barbara,
Thank you for posting those stories about Woodworth. I did not know he was known for a "forceful and demanding" personality.
But he was subservient to Rutherford, he had to be as Rutherford had the ultimate, absolute power over everthing.
Woodworth's subservience to Rutherford even carried over after Rutherford died as can be seen from what he said on the stand in the 1943 Moyle court case:
--VM44
From the Olin Moyle Trial Transcripts:
Direct examination of Clayton J. Woodworth, editor of the Consolation magazine (which used to be the Golden Age, and later became the Awake!)
Q. How old are you Mr. Woodworth? A. 73
.....
Q Then you do admit, do you not, that Mr. Rutherford did administer rebukes? A. Yes, sir.
Q. And you know, Mr Woodworth, that he did administer rebukes to you, don't you?
A. "What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?"
The Court: He didn't ask you that. Answer the Question.
The Witness: Occasionally.
Note: Clayton J. Woodworth was only ONE YEAR younger than "Judge" Rutherford!
See the thread: Clayton J Woodworth, "Son" of Rutherford! http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/85697/1.ashx
Clayton Woodworth was incredibly ignorant person with regards to science. This is most aptly shown by his allowing the article "Gravitation and Electric Energy" to be published in The Golden Age.
In that article it is stated that there is no universal force of attraction, that electric energy is reponsible for the earth moving in its orbit around the sun, and that the earth's rotation is caused by electrons from the sun striking it.
The article was so bad that it truly fit into the "Not Even Wrong" category!
Along with ignorance, arrogance must also be included with Woodworth's characteristics. For whatever than arrogance could explain his belief that everyone else is wrong, and that his own fringe beliefs in science, health and the Bible were the correct ones?
--VM44
"Gravitation and Electric Energy" can be read here.
http://www.watchtower.cc/gravitation_and_electric_energy.htm
--VM44
