It is entirely possible that a person comes to believe their own propaganda. The deluded bloody fools mentioned above quite likely did so.
Remembering Rutherford
by Sea Breeze 156 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Sea Breeze
Thanks for that video post dropoffyourkeylee!
I have never seen that before. Rutherford seems to me like someone who just won the lottery and previously wasn't used to wealth. He is acting very childish..... drunk with new found wealth and power.... or maybe just drunk. -
minimus
Dis, I read your detailed long and interesting post. But really what’s the point? Rutherford didn’t appear to be drunk when he wrote his books? So what. He believed his own nonsense? He was sincere? The Watchtower has disavowed everything he has said. Rutherford had an ax to grind with everything and everyone. He instituted the thought that the demons control governments and we have to worry about the demons and be paranoid that we don’t get them going. The man had issues and he used scare tactics and he bullied. Not a good guy. I can totally understand why the Russelites wanted nothing to do with him. He was an egomaniac.
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Rocketman123
Adding to his ego was a lot of power and money that was available through what Russell left in the WTS.
Rutherford I dont think was even on the list of men made by Russell to whom should succeed him stated in his will.
Rutherford's ever present character is similar to which you can see in many men who are positioned in the organization in being bully, over aggressive, arrogant and power driven.
I guess that's what happens to men when they assume they have the power of god within themselves.
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minimus
Many religious leaders actually begin thinking that God speaks through them. With that mentality they can do no wrong in their minds and in the minds of the believers.
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Rocketman123
True Min and that's why so much harm can come from these men.
Jws are coerced and influenced to obey and follow these men because they say they have been chosen by god for their high level of righteous purity.
As long as people do so they usually wont relinquish that power, control and connecting money which there usually is.
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Rocketman123
One thing Rutherford knew what he had to do to keep himself in power of the WTS organization and its holding money is keep the bullshit ongoing and that is just what he did.
He realized that bullshiting equated to power and money and religious charlatanism was the answer to that.
His books were sold and distributed by coerced and allured followers who thought they themselves were being devotedly loyal to Jesus in spreading the message of the new Kingdom to come placing themselves in his righteous favor.
Well something else happened.
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Disillusioned JW
minimus, the main point of my long post is that I find it hard to believe many of the charges made against Rutherford on this site (such as him being abusive and guilty of charlatanism). I also mention he appears to me to have been sincere in much of what he wrote because many people on this site claim he was guilty of charlatanism, but that I see little evidence of him being guilty of charlatanism. I see (especially from the point of view of atheism being true) that he had many false teachings, but I also see he had many true teachings. At some point when I have access to a computer system which enables me to watch the videos posted on this site about Rutherford, I will watch them. After I do that maybe I will believe more of the charges that people on this site make against Rutherford.
You said "The Watchtower has disavowed everything he has said", but I don't agree with that. For example, in reading his book called "Enemies" and his book called "Deliverance!" I see numerous teachings in them which are the same as what the WT currently teaches (or least what they taught up till the time I stopped being a believing JW - I haven't read much literature that the WT produced after the year 2007 so I don't know how much their doctrines have changed since then). His extensive criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church in the book "Enemies" seem correct to me (in regards to what the church did and in regards to a number of their teachings not being in harmony with the Bible, but not in regards to Satan controlling the church [since I don't believe Satan exists]).
I also don't care if Rutherford was a drunkard, since to me that in itself is not a big deal. I believe that Rutherford contributed much good by what he wrote (such in exposing false teachings of most religions) and thus any drunkenness he might have had had no bearing on his teaching ability. We all do something what the Bible calls a sin and the Bible claims Jesus said "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" (Matthew 7:1-3 according to the KJV Bible)
I am also annoyed by the extreme extent of the sharp criticisms on this site about the WT (with hardly anything pleasant on this site about the WT and its religion, even though there good things about the WT and its religion) and other matters. Even if all of the accusations are true (and I don't believe all of it is) It is a mostly very unpleasant experience for me to read posts (including ones against liberal politics) on this site. I am considering becoming much more selective about the topic threads I read on this site.
To me a number of posts on this site in their criticisms of the WT (and its NWT Bible and its other literature and its religion) make a number of false assertions. I also notice that many of the people making posts on this site never had been JWs and there appears to be no believing JWs actively making posts on this site. Further, the few believing JWs who have made posts have been bullied into ceasing to post to this site. To me this site is thus extremely unbalanced in its content. I think this site would be extremely unpleasant to virtually all believing JWs (including those with some doubts who are wondering if maybe the JW religion is considerably wrong), and to such an extent that they would quickly leave the site and say the WT is right on warning JWs never to visit apostate/ex-JW internet sites and not to listen (or read) anything apostates/ex-JWs say.
minimus, were you ever a believing baptized JW? My impression is that you never were. If I am correct about that it might explain why it is hard for you to understand my perspective about some of what I posted about Rutherford.
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Rocketman123
but that I see little evidence of him being guilty of charlatanism.
What, ? the WTS is religious charlatanism at its core.
If there was ever a typical identifiable charlatan operating within the WTS it would be J Rutherford.
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Rocketman123
I think its interesting to examine how the JWS religion got its start, Rutherford is no doubt a key person to its evolving creation..
True it may be a bit disturbing to all that is revealed about the man particularly to practicing JWS, but honest open information to events and occurrences are necessary to arrive at the truth for those who really care about the truth.
