Dear Leolaia,
I was reminded of Manson when I read that, as well.
This Golden Age scenario stinks of Klan propaganda. The Black Legion were so violent, and so notorious, that even the Klan had to denounce them. My immediate suspicion is that the Golden Age correspondent hatched his ideas not using his Witness training, but borrowed them whole from Klan apologists. Someone more conversant with Klan and Black Legion history would be able to say whether this Catholic conspiracy excuse was common among Klan sympathisers.
[Dilaceratus]
dilaceratus
JoinedPosts by dilaceratus
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279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
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dilaceratus
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279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
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dilaceratus
Sorry, attempting to edit postings on a Mac only makes them worse, by doubling the number of line breaks (which then have to be manually removed), so deleting the bold from the body of the text concerning the Black Legion will not be happening.
I also missed including the block of text which explained that the "Buckpasser's shrine" references in the article were pointing to radio preacher and fellow anti-Semitic conspiracy nut Father Coughlin's church having been burnt by the Black Legion.
The disgusting and infantile nature of the Golden Age writers can be seen further on page 75 of that issue (page 11 of the pdf Chasson provided), which has even more hysterical innuendo about the Black Legion. The most stupid and nativist passage:
Who's Behind the Black Legion?
The Nation hints as to who's behind the Black Legion in Michigan, when it says:
[straightforward news account, to which the Golden Age editor appends:]
(McCrea, Crowley, Fitzgerald, Callahan-- Hm!) -
279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
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dilaceratus
***g36 11/04 p.81 Flag Saluting (Part 1) a five minute talk by Judge Rutherford***
In like manner there is a conspiracy today
formed by a certain religious organization, and
back of which is the Devil, to bring about the
destruction of those who will not obey an un-
righteous rule. They have hit upon the scheme
of displaying the flag and compelling the chil-
dren to salute it; and when children who are
taught to love and serve God refuse to slute,
they suffer the punishment. In Germany the
people are commanded to salute the flag and say,
"Heil, Hitler," which means, salvation proceeds
from Hitler; and that is a blasphemy of God's
name, because from God alone comes salvation.
In the United States the same religious or-
ganization that created the Nazis that have ter-
rorized Germany are trying to coerce the people
of America to be obedient to their ideas or else
suffer punishment. That religious organization
employed the wicked Inquisition in Europe and
Mexico to force people to obey its views. The
people should not forget the history of the wick-
ed Inquisition and the suffering it entailed.
Compulsory flag saluting leads to the same thing. -
279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
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dilaceratus
Some background from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan :
In the 1920s and 1930s a faction of the Klan called the Black Legion was very active in the Midwestern U.S. Rather than wearing white robes, the Legion wore black uniforms reminiscent of pirates. The Black Legion was the most violent and zealous faction of the Klan, and were notable for targeting and assassinating communists and socialists
***g36 11/04 p.74-75 Catholic Action Now and Previously***
A Surmise That Is Correct
Having had their eyeteeth cut, Jehovah's wit-
nesses are more alert mentally as to what is now
going on in Michigan and elsewhere in the
United States than are most. Paul E. Saddle-
mire, New York, merely by a process of reason-
ing, correctly labels the Black Legion, of Michi-
gan, in the following:
I suppose you have read by now about the so-called
"Black Legion", and that it is composed exclusively
of Protestants who are anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish and
anti-Negro. I may be mistaken, but I believe that this
so-called "Black Legion" is composed of Roman Cath-
olics who are acting as what are sometimes called
"agents provocateurs", the purpose, of course, being
to arouse the ire and fury of all Catholics, Jews and
Negroes throughout the land against the Protestants,
so that the Hierarchy would have a plausible excuse
for:
Openly arming masses of Catholics, Jews and Ne-
groes for united, simultaneous action, ostensibly for
self-defense, the Jews and Negroes thus being used as
catspaws to assist the Hierarchy to seize the control
of the United States Government when the signal is
given to strike. Wouldn't be one bit surprised if the
old Hag attempted to seize the national and state
governments before election time.
The burning of Buckpasser's shrine at Detroit by
camouflaged members of the Knights of Columbus
passing themselves off as protestants would serve to
arouse the indignation of all misinformed and duped
persons, be they Protestant, Catholic or Jew, and
would apparently give the Hierarchy the right to ac-
cuse Protestants of "religious persecution", which is
the very thing the Hierarchy has been guilty of
for more than fifteen centuries. Thus the siren of Rome
would be hypocritically passing the buck on those
whom it regards as "heretics" and unworthy of life.
As the Communists in Germany were catholics in
disguise, and remained that way until the government
was in the hands of Hitler, so here in the United States
the Black Legionnaires are Catholics in disguise, and
will remain that way until the government is in the
hands of a Catholic dictator. As "Communists" and
[75]
common end, overthrow of free government, so here in
the United States Black Legionnaires and "open"
Catholics are working together in the dark for a com-
mon issue, overthrow of free government. In both
instances the people as a whole were, then in Germany,
and now in the United States, deceived. Beware!
The enemy is at the door. -
279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
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dilaceratus
Not to step on Leolaia's toes here, but there are some stunners in the 1936 Golden Age scan Chasson provides (above).
[Note: It is extremely difficult to post effectively on this site using a Macintosh. Please excuse the horrible formatting.]
***g36 11/04 p. 71 Men Who Court Annihilation***
Le Roy Run by Priests
THE GOLDEN AGE would be interested to
know whether the 4,500 inhabitants of
Le Roy, N.Y., realize that they are living in sub-
serviency to two Catholic priests of the town. If
they do realize it, how do they like it?
Recently while Jehovah's witnesses were us-
ing sound equipment in the city to proclaim the
Kingdom message they were stopped by the
police, and told by the town clerk that if they
secured the consent of "Father" Mullett and
"Father" McGuire they could proceed with their
work.
In other words, two effeminately dressed men
are empowered by city officials to decide what
can be told to the people of Le Roy. The whole
city is down on its marrow bones before the Ro-
man Catholic Hierarchy.
"Every one to his own taste," said Rover, as
he licked up his vomit. If the people of Le Roy
want to prostrate themselves abjectly before
two representative of a foreign power, that is
their privilege. -
279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
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dilaceratus
"Krazy Klan Kult Konnection!
One can only gather that back then the KKK did not have bad reputation it deserved."
VM44,
This is not the case at all. Anyone quoting from a Klan publication in 1933 knew exactly who they were quoting from, and what they represented.
In the 1920s the "second" Klan became an active political force, winning state power in Indiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Colorado, and holding office in almost every state in the union. The Klan were a strong force at the 1924 Democratic convention. Their message was racism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism, with a sprinkling of populist reform. They gloried in their history of lynching, and continued the practice.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan
"However, as a result of these political victories, KKK vigilantes, thinking they enjoyed governmental protection, launched a wave of physical terror across Alabama in 1927, targeting both blacks and whites. The Klan not only targeted people for violating racial norms but also for perceived moral lapses. In Birmingham, the Klan raided local brothels and roadhouses. In Troy, Alabama, the Klan reported to parents the names of teenagers they caught making out in cars. One local Klan group also "kidnapped a white divorcee and stripped her to her waist, tied her to a tree, and whipped her savagely." [50] The conservative elite counterattacked. Grover C. Hall, Sr., editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, began a series of editorials and articles attacking the Klan for their "racial and religious intolerance." Hall ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for his crusade.[51] Other newspapers also kept up a steady, loud attack on the Klan as violent and un-American. Sheriffs cracked down on Klan violence. The counterattack worked; the state voted for Catholic Al Smith for president in 1928, and the Klan's official membership in Alabama plunged to under six thousand by 1930."
And then, further, from the same source:
"The second Klan collapsed partly as a result of the backlash to their actions and partly as a result of a scandal involving David Stephenson (at the time a member of the Republican Party, after previous active membership in the Socialist Party and then in the Democratic Party), the Grand Dragon of Indiana and fourteen other states, who was convicted of the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer in a sensational trial (she was bitten so many times that one man who saw her described her condition as having been "chewed by a cannibal"). According to historian Leonard Moore, at the heart of the backlash to the Klan's actions and the resulting scandals was a leadership failure which caused the organization's collapse....
"As a result of these scandals, the Klan fell out of public favor in the 1930s and withdrew from political activity."
The Ku Klux Klan was responsible (at least indirectly) for over 4,500 lynchings in the United States between the 1870s and the 1960s. More than three-quarters of the victims were African-Americans. Tens of thousands of others were beaten, sexually mutilated, or driven from their homes and livelihoods by Klan members.
That the WTBTS would choose to use an endorsement (of sorts) from a terrorist organization such as the Ku Klux Klan indicates the true intellectual and moral vacuum that existed within their organization at a time when their defining doctrines were being formed. That this article was released in the same year as the anti-Semitic and Hitler-flattering "Declaration of Facts" seems hardly coïncidental.
[Dilaceratus] -
13
J.Manuel Cano in Watchtower Literature
by GermanXJW ini have searched the watchtower library with no results.
but since cano was a bethel elder serving in walkill, even being sent abroad as a watchtower representative there could be a chance that there is a picture of him in the literature or that he was a model for some bible character.
would be hard to find but maybe someone has inside information?
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dilaceratus
Whether Mr Cano was an actual model for this picture or not, I don't believe an honest observer could claim to recognize anyone from this amateurish effort.
For instance--Did the model for the man seated on the horse actually lack the the last knuckle on all of the digits of his left hand? Given that Bethel is a work camp, it seems odd that they should hold onto a worker who would be unable to draw, type, operate machinery, or even properly push a broom. Still, with that hammish claw, it seems unlikely he would be a masturbator, so, despite his disability, he may have survived by attrition.
Was the model for the man standing second from the left in truth a little person dressed in the garb of a man of more average proportions? Or did he, in fact, lack an elbow joint in his right arm? And what sort of birth defect caused the proportion between his mouth and chin to be in excess of the distance between his mouth and eyebrows? Again, that Bethel is a mental freakshow is not in dispute-- but that its inhabitants from which their model pool is drawn show such disfigurement is novel to me.
Did the sixth man from the left (in the background) actually have no chin whatsoever, and a neck that was thicker than his head? I once saw a man in the last stages of gnathic cancer who bore a resemblance to this fellow. Are there many at Bethel who are inveterate users of dip?
I cannot believe that the gentleman facing forward, holding the spear, and supposedly Mr Cano, required a model at all. Notice the lack of interesting or even differentiating detail of any sort, and the gross cartooning the artist has resorted to with the left hand, as it so awkwardly and unbelievably grasps its sword. The only real resemblance I see to the photos of Mr Cano is that the face is somewhat mushed up and crooked, but the butchery elsewhere revealed in this painting make that a given.
We might speculate wildly, however, that the artist was a bosom friend of Mr Cano's, and shared his predelictions, as I notice that all of the gentlemen in the painting seem to have remarkably sleek and hairless legs and arms.
Even by the bleak Watchtower standard, this drawing is miserable. That it was used as a cover to a magazine allegedly offered to the public speaks of both its publisher's incompetence and grave disinterest. -
279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
-
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dilaceratus
Interestingly, Rutherford's drought was only the Minor Fulfillment of Zechariah! While there actually was a bad drought in Spain in 1924, there were worse in 1947. And 2005. The 1947 drought must have had to do with Franco's election. And surely the 2005 drought was in response to Pedro Almodóvar quitting the Spanish Film Academy.
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279
Golden Age Goodies
by Leolaia inrecently i had the pleasure to examine a stash of 1920s and 1930s golden age magazines, among the rarest of watchtower publications.
i thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread in which i share with you some of the amazing, ridiculous, hilarious things contained therein.
hence, this is the first post of a series of excerpts, scans, etc.
-
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dilaceratus
Dear VM44,
Not surprisingly, there is almost nothing in the Jehovah's Witnesses history that is not lifted from another source. Woodworth's views on vaccinations and germs were part and parcel with the Naturopaths:
(http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Naturopathy/immu.html)
Naturopathy attributes illness to the violation of "natural laws" and claims that standard medical practices merely suppress symptoms. Benedict Lust, who brought naturopathy to the United States and was its most influential advocate during the first half of the 20th century, was strongly opposed to vaccination. His Universal Directory of Naturopathy, published in 1918, states:
The contemporary fashion of healing disease is that of serums, inoculations and vaccines, which, instead of being an improvement on the fake medicines of former ages are of no value in the cure of disease, but on the contrary introduce lesions into the human body of the most distressing and deadly import. . . .
To understand how revolting these products are, let us just refer to the vaccine matter which is supposed to be an efficient preventive of smallpox. Who would be fool enough to swallow the putrid pus and corruption scraped from the foulest sores of smallpox that has been implanted in the body of a calf? Even if any one would be fool enough to drink so atrocious a substance, its danger might be neutralized by the digestive juices of the intestinal tract. But it is a far greater danger to the organism when inoculated into the blood and tissues direct, where no digestive substances can possibly neutralize its poison [2].
Lust's rant against vaccination was part of his more general disbelief that microorganisms cause disease, a fact that had been discovered by 19th century innovators such as Pasteur, Koch, and Lister. This germ theory -- perhaps the most important medical discovery every made - became the cornerstone of medical and public health efforts that ultimately saved billions of lives. However, it refuted the naturopathic view that individuals brought disease upon themselves through their own bad behavior, which naturopaths refer to as the "real cause of the ailment." It would be interesting to know how Lust would regard the fact that vaccination has eradicated smallpox worldwide.
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2. Lust B. The principles, aim and program of the nature cure system. Reprinted in Cody G. History of Naturopathic Medicine. In Pizzorno JE and Murray MT, editors. Textbook of Natural Medicine. London: Churchill Livingstone, 1999, pp 17-40.
What is most curious is Woodworth conflating these crazy ideas into religious dogma, which is a serious leap.
[Dilaceratus] -
11
"Watchtower Killers"---The Great Watchtower Deception
by sf inas i was reading one of the 'newbies' threads, at the end google has this ad for a site we've seen discussed here before.
yet, i never really went and read the site {i do tons of reading, so it isn't easy to read everything i'd like}.. for others interested:.
http://www.energeticsolutions.com.au/great_watchtower_deception.html.
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dilaceratus
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
I doubt this holds up to a rational contemplation, in this case. If the enemy are "Jehovah's Witnesses," then your friends include the Third Reich and the Ku Klux Klan. If your enemy are those who attempt to persuade others of fraudulent and absurd claims without a basis in fact, then one can cheerfuly find enemies among the Jehovah's Witnesses, Nazis, Klan members, and the authors of that silly website.
