Was CT Russell a CHILD MOLESTOR? (WTS says: Child Molestation NOT IMMORAL)

by Gamaliel 39 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Gamaliel

  Her age at the time of her marriage is a major proof too. Barb will have it all in her book, but it will be a couple of years, I suspect, before we can read it. She has great responsibilities with her aged mother, which prevents her from writing full time as most authors are able to do.

  Mulan, I'll be contacting Barbara as soon as I finish her Visions of Glory book. I'm embarrassed to say that I just started it. I hadn't been able to get a copy until very recently and I didn't realize how much great work she'd already put into this subject in her first book. Her suspicions are "spot on" as far as I can tell, so far. Even without her book, I'd think that most anyone would see Russell's abusiveness from the court records, but a suspicious person can even see some of it in Russell's own defensiveness in the WT. The 1906 judge did not have to be all that insightful to understand the abuse and he didn't even need the charge of "adultery" to give the case to Maria. I don't see how JFRutherford could have missed this either when reviewing this case for the pamphlet in Russell's defense (in the 1915 "Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens"). The idea that Rose moved in at 10-years-old sounded suspicious to me when she was identified as as Russell's stenographer. She had her own desk in the Watch Tower Offices on Arch Street, too. If I remember, Maria used to help Charles with stenography and later quit (in a huff). But Russell was not even in favor of high school education, so I had the impression that either Maria had taught Rose stenography, or she had learned it in school. But these ideas were from my notes from 1979, and it wasn't until a month ago that I noticed the "typo" in the court transcript about Rose's age. I go to Pittsburgh in July and had planned to try to request the old marriage license between EC Henninges, WTS Secretary Treasurer, and Rose Ball. Seems that Barbara may already have done this. Barbara also must have seen the dates for Joseph's (CTR's father) marriage to CTR's sister. My notes had it that CTR's father married CTR's wife's sister, but I must have had the order wrong: Charles married his father's [second] wife's sister. I have to assume Barbara had seen the paperwork, or that this was common knowledge I had glossed over. Gamaliel
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  Gamaliel

  Lady Lee,

  Actually the idea of Maria both supporting her husband while taking legal actions against him sounds exactly like any abused wife. They are caught between two worlds. And the women I know who have been the wives of religious leaders are even more torn between the two extremes than most. They may be angry at the husband but they want to maintain faithfulness to God - hence the polarities.

  That sounds right. She also could have made some valiant attempts to save a marriage that never worked. So she had no choice but start being brutally honest. It may also be that she didn't defend him in quite the words that Russell says she defended him. Russell knew how important his reputation was and he kept a very tight control on what was published. I've been suspicious of some other letter support that Russell published, and he may have taken editing liberties with what Maria actually said. The possibility that she completely made some of this stuff up seems very remote. Gamaliel
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  Mulan

  I'll be contacting Barbara as soon as I finish her Visions of Glory book.

  I think you are confusing two Barbaras. I think the author of Visions of Glory was Barbara Harrison, who died last year. Sorry about that.

  Barbara Anderson is the woman who was in the Dateline show last year, who had been at Bethel in the 90's. The other Barbara was at Bethel a LONG time ago.
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  Lady Lee

  I doubt she was making it up either. When we look at the time frame for this it was extremely rare for a woman to discuss sexual abuse (of a child) or that her husband was sexually active (in some fashion) with other women. The typical response would have been to feel great shame and that she some how was not doing her duty to be a proper and full wife to her husband. Any discussion of sexual matters would have been highly unlikely unless there was an absolutely good reason for it. We are talking about a woman who was raised in the Victorian era where discussion of sexual matters was a sin nevermind taking thouse discussions into a court of law and discussing them publically

  The borg will do anything to stamp out this fire. While a JW I had heard of this but listened to the party line that it was just gossip. Now after everything I know about sexual abuse and spousal abuse I tend to lean to Maria's story much more than his
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  Mulan

  For sure he was involved with Rose, but she wasn't a child. That part can be proven.
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  Lady Lee

  so his palying around with Rose is sort of like the guy who adopts a kid, tells her what to do for 10 or more years cuz he's her father-figure and then starts fooling around with her. Hmmmm seen this scenario not too lately and it let a pretty bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. My way of seeing this is that it is still incest even if he did wait until she was an adult. So he might not have been a child molestor but really is this any better? I have never heard of a case of this kind of relationship where it didn't start before the child became an adult. I do know a few cases where it started when the girl was a child and continued - in one case until the woamn was 30 years old

  We will never know in this case but I have to wonder why she went so far from what she knew to be home
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  Mulan

  I do know a few cases where it started when the girl was a child and continued - in one case until the woman was 30 years old

  I have always had the view you have here, about Celine Dion and her husband. It seems incestuous, because he was a father figure to her from age 11, and when she is 18, they fall in love? Gross.

  As to the Russell/Rose issue, I think the record shows she was not a child when she came to work for them. That's the point.
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  Lady Lee

  if that is the case then I am mistaken

  so who went to live with them when they were 10 yrs old?
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  Gamaliel

  Mulan,

  You are absolutely right, of course. I had never read the book by Barbara Harrison, and just assumed it was by Barbara Anderson, but I knew it had something about Rose, so I just picked it up and I only read that one chapter (Chap 2). I'm sorry to hear Barbara Harrison died, she did an excellent job on the subject. I had hoped to let her know how much I appreciated it. Barbara Anderson is the one who worked on Proclaimers then. I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

  Gamaliel
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  Gamaliel

  LadyLee,

  It's starting to sound to me like no one came to live with them quite that young. Sounds like Chuck needed to impute youth to impute innocence.

  Gamaliel