Posts by Terry

25

The saga of Russell and Rutherford

by Terry in

i think little charlie russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal.

his mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.he seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.he was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities.

although the family was presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.why was this a big deal, do you think?

Terry

Not all that long ago, I had occasion to chat with a man who was the attorney for a large cabal (all related by blood) of Pentecostal TV evangelists. In the course of our conversation, he opened my eyes to a great many things, not the least of which was the poisonous inevitability inherent in becoming a prominent public spokesman for God's 'truth.'

He described the process.

"All those people reaching out to YOU with absolute love and faith is stronger than any drug. It ignites a fire in the ego. I've seen some really good people drown in admiration as their character begins to rot. They feel more than powerful. It becomes a sense of entitlement, greed, and invulnerability. The worst part is how willingly the humble poor folks, their members, just throw themselves into victimhood with a frightening joy! The transformation from Jekyll into Hyde is like a werewolf when the moon turns full."

He went on to tell me of how besotted with money, drugs, sex, and debauchery formerly strait-laced preachers become so easily, an inch at a time. He shook his head and described phonecalls in the middle of the night with cries for "Help" when these evangelists went a step too far and needed legal help to pull them out of a jam; the suitcases filled with cash, and the payoffs in sleazy motel rooms.

I spoke to him about the Ex-JW's who wanted to blow the whistle on the Watchtower organization and he dropped his head in shame.

"You don't know how sick of my life I've become. I am the keeper of secrets so disturbing I can't sleep well any longer. I want to be a whistleblower and just tell everything I know--and believe me--I could take the whole network of famous preachers down in a heartbeat because every last one of them has filthy secrets to hide. . . "
I urged the man to do so. He looked at me with his face drained of color and said, "I wouldn't live very long if I tried that--and they have made quite clear that I should understand it."

He told me about Robert Tilton, a local TV evangelist who had been taken down by an investigative report. Tilton had owned so many satellites used for TV ministry, NBC leased some of them for their broadcasts. His ministry required one million dollars per day just to break even! The hardest part of being Tilton's attorney was finding ways to hide all the cash.

Not only did this conversation disturb me, it caused me to reflect on the JW.org manifestation of a TV-style presence and the sudden appeals for cash. Lawyers and litigation are draining of resources like a gambling addiction in Vegas. The money flows in and goes away with such blazing swiftness--the chase after more and more funding gets out of hand to the point the ENTIRE ministry is only focused on the acquisition of $$$$.

How deep is the Watchtower cabal into that swirling whirlpool of eventual self-destruction? How many lawyers are on the 24/7 payroll? What are their legal expenses each day around the world?

All of this harkens back to Charles T. Russell and his lawyer J.F.Rutherford--comrades in duplicity--who were living in much easier times BEFORE taxation was even an issue. Just how much corruption eventually rotted away the veneer of a righteous group of "Bible Students"?

I think history shows the answer. The Bible Students fell away so rapidly and with such broken-hearted disappointment at what Rutherford had brought to fruition, they more or less doomed themselves to become starved of cash.

The attorney, just before he got up to leave, said something to me that stuck.
"Every effective minister will gain a following and one day the moment will come. Every last one of them will be at a crossroad. The most important decision of their life will be facing them. Do they go BIG and reach for the fame, fortune and power--or will they remain a minnow in a puddle, humble and unsung? It is an intoxicating test of character every last one of them fail--at least from my experience."

25

The saga of Russell and Rutherford

by Terry in

i think little charlie russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal.

his mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.he seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.he was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities.

although the family was presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.why was this a big deal, do you think?

Terry

I think little Charlie Russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal. His mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.
He seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.

He was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities. Although the family was Presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a Congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.
Why was this a big deal, do you think?
You might suspect Charlie had a feeling of being too special to follow other people's orders. Maybe he was reared like a little Prince destined for greatness.

Charlie must have been spoiling for a debate because an atheist got ahold of him and apparently left him dazed and confused for awhile.
It is here where young Charlie probably had to choose whether he was a retail merchant by trade or man of higher principles destined by God to educate the whole earth about God's soon-to-arrive Prince of Peace.

The fact that a young man would seek such an apotheosis is astonishing unless he was a preening Narcissist. I'm no psychiatrist, but I suspect he had delusions and perhaps burgeoning megalomania.
______

Russell was living at a time of great unrest. After the War of 1812, a Baptist lay preacher named William Miller had gotten a big reputation from juggling scriptures and dates resulting in a mad dash to escape the downside of Armageddon. The prediction of `1843/1844 must have caused a thrilling sensation in all Christian folks who took such things seriously.
I speculate that young Charlie Russell saw the effect of Miller's predictions on simple church folk to the extent they began leaving their own churches and preparing themselves for Christ's coming. This was truly a Big Moment!

Despite the 'Great Disappointment,' the true believers would not admit defeat or own up to being dead wrong. A great many clever and imaginative Christians had their own unique ideas. Some printed and published those schemes along with charts and dates and all sorts of crackpot speculations.
Keep your eye on these people!
They were stubborn and impervious to reason. If you got them in your corner with just the right kind of razzle dazzle you would have a strong core of solid gold as a foundation for whatever kind of ego monument you'd care to build.
_______
Civil War had damaged Christian's Puritan ideals of a shining city on a hill. People were eager for answers and quick solution to their very human woes. If somebody could convince them of a way out of their problems--that man stood to make a fortune!

This is where Charles Taze Russell emerged as a very wily and ambitious "Seeker" as well as an investor in such ideas.

Two things launched C.T. Russell's career as a future pastor, columnist, author, lecturer and entrepreneur of a worldwide movement. He was able to AFFORD his weird hobby, dabbling, cherry-picking, and eventual invention of a theology.
What if you ran your religious ideology like a business? Not like his competitors in the marketplace of ideas who were on a shoestring--but really put some money behind the marketing and distribution?

He partnered up with men who were high-profile and got in with the crowd of movers and shakers and began competing--not as a businessman selling clothing--but as a purveyor of religious crackpot ideas exemplified with dazzling bullshit.

He hired book salesmen (colporteurs) and publicized his work in a way nobody else could afford to do. He put his money where his mouth was and got in at the right time.

Russell had just the right personality, manners, courtesy and genteel style to win over women (who were the bulk of Christianity as far as becoming followers.)

His weird arrangement with Maria Frances Eckley to have a sexless marriage formed a beneficial partnership (she was a helluva editor and writer) and a terrific "photo op" when the two of them began working the crowds both in print and in many visits to homestyle Bible Student gatherings. This was a power couple like Jim and Tammy Faye Baker in later years. The glow of success and divine light was irresistable.
_______
The selfstyled Pastor Russell believed his own bullshit up to a certain point when his personal actions and treatment of others (partners and wife) triggered an awakening.
He became shrewd, cowardly, stealthy, litigious, self-aggrandizing, and cruel.
Throwing himself into a whirlwind of predictions, prognostications, pyramid schemings and, above all, churning out a revolutionary method of Bible Study (Studies in the Scriptures) he broke down the barrier for common folk by making study Topical and lending his slant to a pseudo-revelatory tutorial about End Times.

Being half-charlatan and half-assed spellbinder, Russell spent the last years of his life juggling lawsuits, marital scandals, newspaper exposes, and the disintegration of his slapdash prophetic fulfillments which were crashing and burning right and left.

The fact that he edited out all his Wrong predictions and changed the wording in reprints, indicates a guilty state of mind and awareness of his errors.

As he aged and grew frail, he had on staff both a firebrand lawyer with gigantic ego ambitious to outgrow his humble agrarian background and an autodidact with a photographic memory who had had plans to be a theologian.

Rutherford was the lawyer and Franz was the whiz kid with the photographic memory who had an invaluable talent. He could dip into the Bible and pull out anything you wanted him to produce and make it sound like it was prophecy.

When Russell died on a train in Texas on Halloween, Rutherford and his carefully placed minions knew exactly what moves to make both legally and strategically to produce an insurgency with the goal of commandeering Russell's shell of an empire and branding it as his own.

Rutherford was the polar opposite of Russell and he damned near wrecked everything by making enemies out of allies right and left. But, with Franz by his side, a wicked legal mind, and a bellicose temperament, he blazed a scorched earth policy across the entire Bible Student movement.

Rutherford was ruthless, diabolical and hellbent on being a Big Man who could make everybody bow to his unbridled power. He published a book (The Finished Mystery) under false pretenses (Russell's 7th volume) and got himself and the other Directors of the Society prosecuted by the Federal Government for being traitors to their country in a time of war (WWI).
Luckily for Rutherford and the others, the war ended soon after and the unnecessary expense of prosecuting a religious organization's lunatic administrators who had appealed on a "Writ of Error" turned on a whim and the case was dropped. None of these men were exonerated, simply released.

Rutherford went on a holy crusade to punish everybody everywhere and he became a tyrannical monster throwing people of faith into the fire to create martyrs and publicity for his new-fangled religion with the awkward new name: Jehovah's Witnesses. What else would a Lawyer and part-time judge think of but "Witnesses"?

These first two men were larger-than-life and totally driven by inner demons. They surrounded themselves with ardent supporters and cronies who would march into the furnace for them. They built an empire off the volunteer army of true believers by keeping the carrot of heaven or paradise in front and the stick of Armageddon to create fear of ferocious destructions at the hands of an angry, vengeful God.

Every wrong step made, and each faulty explanation given--each silly prognostication and preposterous prediction, drove the weak members out and solidified the cognitive dissonance of the staunch loyalists who remained on.

We all know the rest of the story. One day we joined them and one day we left it all behind with a hole in the center of our life like a festering holocaust in our spirit.

Russell, Rutherford and each who followed, became contaminated with the same cancerous ideology of doom and fealty--an absolute belief based on nothing more than the psychotic ravings of self-centered mandarins full of themselves with ambitions to rule as kings and priests over the earth. This elite band of brothers is a festering pimple on Jehovah's ass admired by one and all.

11

Defining What is the Truth about the Truth of the Jehovah's Witnesses Religion

by Finkelstein in

in an endeavor to clearly define the truth about the truth of the jw religion, whats your personal perception of what you understand of how this religion came to be, in its inherit beginning and how it was able to sustain itself over the years ?

from my own perspective i think the strategic actions by its founding leaders to draw attention to their own published works such as the singular endeavors starting from c t russell and onward.

the self proposing recognition by people such as j rutherford, that god had specifically (1919) chosen " his " organization exclusively, is really where and when this assuming man made power began and continued to flourish.. but the real significant thing that created attention to the public's eyes and imagination was when both russell and rutherford proclaimed that christ had returned and he had started to divide and choose who was going to be saved from destruction and live on in a earthly paradise and who was to be killed at the soon to come day of judgement.

Terry

24

Whatever happened to "YOU'RE WELCOME"? Has "NO PROBLEM" replaced it?

by Terry in

jw
friends

wherever i go, i say "thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "no problem!".

have i aged to the point i'm now an old fuddy duddy who doesn't "get it"?.

is it counted mannerly to avoid, "you're welcome" in favor of "no problem"?.

Terry

That's a good likeness. Those damned clouds!

24

Whatever happened to "YOU'RE WELCOME"? Has "NO PROBLEM" replaced it?

by Terry in

jw
friends

wherever i go, i say "thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "no problem!".

have i aged to the point i'm now an old fuddy duddy who doesn't "get it"?.

is it counted mannerly to avoid, "you're welcome" in favor of "no problem"?.

Terry

Okay. No problem!

24

Whatever happened to "YOU'RE WELCOME"? Has "NO PROBLEM" replaced it?

by Terry in

jw
friends

wherever i go, i say "thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "no problem!".

have i aged to the point i'm now an old fuddy duddy who doesn't "get it"?.

is it counted mannerly to avoid, "you're welcome" in favor of "no problem"?.

Terry

Wherever I go, I say "Thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "No problem!"

Have I aged to the point I'm now an old Fuddy Duddy who doesn't "get it"?

Is it counted mannerly to avoid, "You're welcome" in favor of "No problem"?

If so, why? Further--do you prefer being assured you have not been a problem

rather than being told how welcomed you are?

Are manners dead?
Or . . .

is it a manifestation of the lack of parenting?

Am I at fault? Should I just relax and go with the flow and forget the world of yesteryear?

84

I COLLECT QUOTES. . . Here are some of my favorites

by Terry in

jw
friends

please post your favorites too.

my favorite quotations:.

you cannot change what you refuse to confront.. sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.. don’t think of cost.

Terry

Great stuff! Keep them coming.

"When you leave the Kingdom Hall and JW's behind, you gain your freedom. Freedom to be, say and do. . . what exactly?

Ask yourself: "What do those bastards expect me to say and do? What do they think will become of me?"

There is your roadmap. Just head in the opposite direction!"

_______

I like to print quotes on little slips of paper and carry them in my pocket to glance at during the day. You'd be amazed at how often one comes in handy in a conversation.

29

Is this a site controlled by atheists?

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

under the exterior of being an ex- witness site, is this site simply converting atheism?.

i pose the question, because many come here in distress and insecurity with the realization that the w.t is wrong but still retain a belief in god.

my personal opinion is the threads on god are not challenged by an atheists personal animosity to believers, they are challenged and become confrontational because the atheist wants an elaboration and factual proof to a believers faith.. is this unreasonable?

Terry

You can't control chaos!

That's what strikes me as hilarious, the idea that this world is under the "Control"

of a secret group of men. Ha ha ha ha.

As far as this Discussion Group is concerned, you can start a topic which

says, "White is White" and you'll get arguments and probably an accusation of

racism.

There is no control, only opinions.

84

I COLLECT QUOTES. . . Here are some of my favorites

by Terry in

jw
friends

please post your favorites too.

my favorite quotations:.

you cannot change what you refuse to confront.. sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.. don’t think of cost.

Terry

Please post your favorites too

______________________

MY FAVORITE QUOTATIONS:

You cannot change what you refuse to confront.

Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

Don’t think of cost. Think of value.
______

Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.

Too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know.

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

_______

If a person wants to be a part of your life, they will make an obvious effort to do so.

Think twice before reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.

Making one person smile can change the world – maybe not the whole world, but their world.

Saying someone is ugly doesn’t make you any prettier.

_________

The only normal people you know are the ones you don’t know very well.

Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.

As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have more friends and more important to have real ones.

Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. The miracle is to make a single friend who will stand by your side even when hundreds are against you.

Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go and move on.

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.
___________

Don’t choose the one who is beautiful to the world; choose the one who makes your world beautiful.

Falling in love is not a choice. To stay in love is.

While you’re busy looking for the perfect person, you’ll probably miss the imperfect person who could make you perfectly happy.

Never do something permanently foolish just because you are temporarily upset.

_________

In life, if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything.

When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.

Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

There isn’t anything noble about being superior to another person. True nobility is in being superior to the person you once were.

Trying to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

__________

You will never become who you want to be if you keep blaming everyone else for who you are now.

People are more what they hide than what they show.

Don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do.

Being alone does not mean you are lonely, and being lonely does not mean you are alone.
________

Anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you. It takes someone really special to stay in your life and show how much they love you.

When you have to start compromising yourself and your morals for the people around you, it’s probably time to change the people around you.

When someone tells you, “You’ve changed,” it might simply be because you’ve stopped living your life their way.

___________

Someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right.

When you’re up, your friends know who you are. When you’re down, you know who your friends are.

Don’t look for someone who will solve all your problems; look for someone who will face them with you.

If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair, you’re fooling yourself. That’s like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn’t eat him.

___________

Many people are so poor because the only thing they have is money.

Learn to appreciate the things you have before time forces you appreciate the things you once had.

You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.

It’s better to know and be disappointed than to never know and always wonder.
____________

There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.

If you tell the truth, it becomes a part of your past. If you lie, it becomes a part of your future.

What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a while.

You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.
___________

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.
_______________

51

Lost on how to respond...

by babygirl30 in

jw
friends

so an old friend of mine from the congregation hit me up today.

the story goes like this when we were jw's:.

- this guy used to be madly in love with me but i didn't see him as anything more than a friend.

Terry

He's in a cabin in the wilderness all snowed in.

Firewood is exhausted. The icy wind outside is cutting through the cracks in the logs. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of starving wolves is getting louder. The sun is setting and windows are frosting over blanking out the whiteness drowning its afterglow.

"This is the happy place to die. Come join me while you can. It won't be easy. But it's a righteous death."

You sit in your warm home in the city sipping wine. You got out in time, before winter's bitter lesson arrived to humble the arrogant and silence the voices of fools.

How do you answer him in his sad delusion; in his coffin of rainbows and sad smiles?
His eyes are wide open in blindness. His ears are slammed shut to the music of lost freedom.

He'd never listen to you reply.

"I've only just begun to live a life worth living. Why would I rejoin you in a death not worth dying?"
Will you tell him?
Or is the only truth he can bear the fragile poetry of doom his prayers recite for all mankind?

Let him go. Let him go. Only a brighter morning awaits you in the dawn.

For him, there awaits the darkest of darknesses. . .