Is that as compared to PRE pandemic/defund the police/BLM riot levels? Or as compared to the more recent 'defund the cops' period levels? (diogenessister)
Interesting that you mention this since it seems to be religious pattern in the Bible Student's world. In a German issue of the Present Truth magazine of the LHMM of P.S.L. Johnson they state (translated):
“Our earlier experiences in the tribulation period were social inequalities, disobedience to authority, strife in the relations between capital and labor, class hatred abounded, deep-seated discontent prevailed, agitations and demonstrations for radical change continued, the poor were malnourished and cried out for bread, the underprivileged demanded money and various “civil rights” from the rich. For years these signs of impending catastrophe have become increasingly evident in the present order of things and more and more “men languish in fear and expectation of the things that are coming upon the world” (Luke 21:26). On this day we witness further outbreaks of trouble. We can name the following: Antifa, Black Lives Matter, defund the police movement (in the USA a movement to take funding away from the police - translator's note), the Covid-19 pandemic is causing great financial disasters, socialist idealism is rife in the world of politics, the governments of the world are in a bankrupt state, the hatred of many factions towards the Christian world continues."
I notice here that the word “civil rights” has been put in quotation marks. In the following list there is not a word about racism and discrimination, but the Trump vocabulary is used: Antifa (=anti-fascism) as a difficulty (in the concentration camp, by the way, the Bible Students secessionists also got the purple angle), “Black Lives Matter” is a problem and Covid 19 is not described as a health disaster but as a financial one. “Socialist idealism in the world of politics” is denounced. Interestingly, Russell still recommended socialism in Volume IV of Studies in the Scriptures and distinguished it from communism.
But what can one expect from an institution which, even in a convervative religious environment, clings to the old in a splintering off of a special community.
(You find the original document here: https://www.bibelstandarte.de/gw/gw99.pdf)
