So in my book I'm going to state the Russel only had a formal education through the seventh grade. I just want to be accurate.
Question....Did Charles Russel Ever Finish High School?
by new boy 17 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
hoser
This thread reveals the social stigma our society places on people who lack formal education. IMO Russel was a successful entrepreneur in his religious book publishing and distribution business despite his lack of schooling.
-
-
vienne
This will appear on Separate Identity, volume 2:
In 1913 a survey of Indiana Churches done by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions found that “thirty seven per cent of the ministers have had no more than a common school education.”[1] Liston Pope’s analysis of clergy education in Gastonia County, North Carolina, illustrates my point:
The policy of the Baptist churches has been even less exacting. The denomination has never erected an educational requirement for its ministers, or maintained an informal standard, or insisted on a course of study. In 1869-70 there were only two college graduates in the Baptist Association which included most of the churches in Gaston County. In 1903 few Baptist preachers in the county had even a high school education and college men were almost unknown. The tendency in more recent years has been to give preference to better-educated men, but only 56 per cent of them at present have college degrees and only 18 per cent have completed a seminary course.
The newer sects in the county are led by ministers almost wholly uneducated. Several of them find it necessary to have some more literate person read the Scriptures in their services. Others did not go beyond the fourth or fifth grade in the public schools; none have college degrees. Most of them are on sabbatical leave from jobs in cotton mills. There are no established educational requirements for preachers in the sects with which they are affiliated, though there are trends in that direction.
As compared with Presbyterian and Lutheran standards, Methodist demands have been relatively low. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, did not establish a college degree as a prerequisite to ordination until 1934, and it was possible until 1940 to circumvent this requirement. Less than half of its preachers in Gaston County at present have had seminary training; most of them now have college degrees, but several older men, representative of past standards, have only a high school education or less.[2]
Criticizing Russell for what was common among several denominations is pure hypocrisy. Bible Students saw Russell as ordained. Prentis Gerdon Gloystein [January 6, 1887 – April 19, 1956], writing to The Twin Falls, Idaho, Times described Russell as the “duly elected-ordained pastor” of several Bible Student congregations including the largest of these. Gloystein wrote as one “intimately acquainted with Pastor Russell, having lived for a number of years in his home town ... besides being an associate worker with him at his present headquarters in Brooklyn, N. Y.”[3]
-
new boy
I guess your are right, formal education doesn't really matter if you can built an organization with with millions of followers in years later.
Come to think about it, Hitler didn't have a formal education either and look at the organization he built with over 90 million followers. I guess great minds think alike.
Point well taken
-
smiddy3
Isn`t history full of people with a limited education who have made there mark in the world with there achievements ?
-
Joliette
I dont know why, but I busted out laughing when I read the title. Didnt he say that he was the faithful and discreet slave from the bible but he didnt graduate from high school?
-
vienne
None of God's prophets finished high school, not even Jesus. What ever Russell's faults, that's probably not one of them.