most of the public and all of JWs view convention prosters as near idiots and fanatics. It does no good. I remember Goodrich (You may not know of him) and his sandwich board. That was in 1946 or 7. Don't remember which year exactly. Guys in scruffy jeans wearing top hats and tails handing out mimeographed tracts. Yes, I took one. The grammar was bad and the tract nearly unreadable. The bag head people shouting and carrying signs. Petacostals in seattle one year way back when, shouting and trying to pray with anyone. Other than annoying witnesses, this converts no one.
Old Goat
JoinedPosts by Old Goat
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43
Protesting
by zound inis watchtower baiting apostates with this new awake?.
"is protest the answer?".
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201307/is-protest-the-answer/.
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1969 "fact": You will never grow old in this present system of things
by Ding inawake!
"if you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things.
because all the evidence in fulfillment of bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years... therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers.
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Old Goat
I came "into the truth" in the late 1940s. (yes, i'm THAT old) I remember this article. It made me shake my head, and I was still a true believer when it was published.
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Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
Penton and Willis show up in footnotes. I don't think he lets his status as a Witness get in the way of scholarly standards. However, most of this is taken from primary sources. Very little of it, almost none of it, is taken from secondary sources. Looking through an early draft of their chapter three as found on their private blog, I find these footnotes as samples of their sources:
[1] J. L. Russell & Son to G. Storrs, Letters Received, Bible Examiner, April 1874, page 130. We do not know which of the Russells sent the letter. One researcher claims to have proof of contact between the Russells and Storrs as early as 1869. The proof is never forthcoming. We could not find it. The claim does not seem to fit the known facts. Consider this footnote a challenge to “put up or shut up.”
[2] G. Storrs: Visit to Pittsburgh, Pa., Bible Examiner, June 1874, page 259.
[3] Letter from J. L. Russell to Storrs and note appended by Storrs, Bible Examiner, November 1874, page 66.
[4] Parcels Sent to May 25, Bible Examiner, June 1874, page 288.
[5] Letters Received and Parcels Sent, Bible Examiner, November 1874, page 64.
[6] Margaret Russell Land’s testimony found in Souvenir Notes from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society’s Convention, 1907.
[7] George Stetson to his daughter Kate, March 23, 1875. The letter is found in the Thew-Stetson Archive at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.
[8] Storrs’ attendance: Charles Algernon Downs: History of Lebanon, New Hampshire, 1761-1887, Rumford Printing Co, Rumford, New Hampshire, 1908, page 430. Downs is our sole source for this. We would be happier with supporting documentation. School’s purpose: Convention on the Subject of a Seminary, The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine, December 1812, page 329.
[9] Emails from Jane Fielder, the school’s archivist, dated February 21 and 22, 2011. Ms Fielder searched the school’s records with no result but observed that the records are incomplete for those years.
[10] O. W. Muelder: Theodore Dwight Weld and the American Anti-Slavery Society, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2011, page 89. Storrs ministry in this period is well documented, presenting this record: Admitted on trial to the New England ME Conference 1825; Ordained deacon by Bishop Hedding at Lisbon, June 10 1827 and elder by the same at Portsmouth, June 15 1829; Appointments Landaff, 1825; Sandwich, 1826-7; Gilmanton and Northfield, 1828-9; Great Falls, 1830 and 1832; Portsmouth, 1830-1; Concord, 1833-4; Henniker and Deering supernumerary 1835; left the Methodists 1840; Without charge, Montpelier Vermont, 1841; Supplied Albany, New York, 1841-2. – See N. F. Carter: The Native Ministry of New Hampshire, Concord, 1906, page 428.
There is, as I said, almost no dependence on secondary sources. This is fresh, original research. I noted on another site that Penton said they were going where no one had previously gone. This is true. This is no rehash of what others have written, though they've obviously read it all.
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Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
breezy reading? some of it is funny. there's a fine sence of humor behind some of what they write. And they scold people in ways I find entertaining. Forinstance, chapter 2, entitled Among the Second Adventists, Millenarians, and Age-to-Come Believers: 1869-1874, has this gem:
"Some considerable nonsense has come from the pen of Ralph Orr, one time editor and writer with the World Wide Church of God (Armstrongites). Orr asserted that Wendell predicted the return of Christ for 1874 and that he was responsible for the 2520 year count for the Times of the Gentiles. He says that after the failure of 1874, Wendell “replaced” that date with 1914. None of this is true. Gomes and Bowman suggested that Wendell provided a Seventh-day Adventist influence. This piece of utter nonsense should bring a sense of shame to the authors and their publisher Zondervan, though it probably does not. Wendell influenced Russell only in the two ways he mentions, awakening Russell’s interest in prophecy and satisfactorily answering his questions about the injustice of the Hell-Fire, endless torment doctrine."
They address an academic audience but sometimes is ways you'd expect from someone comfrotable sitting in you living room and explaining the mysteries of the universe in terms you can understand. (Okay, so I exaggerated). I notice they trash Zydeck's book. They make detail tell an engaging story. In volume two, which they'll release later, they take up the mass circulation of Food for thinking Christians. There's a whole narrative concerning events in Newark taken from a New York Newspaper. It's entertaining and informative.
I hope people buy this book. I want to keep these two at their projects. No one else is doing this.
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Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
the proposed front cover with title is on the blog. Title is A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion's Watch Tower: 1870-1887. In fact it covers a much wider era, presenting biographies of Storrs, Stetson, Wendell and others that take one back much further. I've read volume 1 other than the last chapter in rough draft. I am in awe.
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24
Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
I just asked. said i was an old witness interested in the history. I taught history at the university level ages ago. That was a plus. They've been more cautious lately I think. They threw out three or four a few months ago. One of them was tosed out for publishing their photos on another blog.
The private blog has whole chapters in rough draft, photos, essays. It's a very rich blog. The rules are that comments must be to the point. They don't discuss theology. Not everyone is a witness. there are at least two professors from various colleges who aren't witnesses. Most are witnesses best I can tell. Many have some professional credential too. (Rare among witnesses). you can always ask. but i think they say 'no' more than they say yes.
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Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
I don't know how they react. I keep a low profile on their private blog. I don't want to be kicked off. They do have a witness following, including a really articulate blog contributor. He goes by the name Jerome. Obviously a long-time witness.
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24
Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
I've emailed her a few times. Her mom was a witness. Her master's thesis was on the witnesses. I haven't read it. I asked if she would share it and she ignored my request. Her personal blog can be funny, sometimes edgy.
I don't think Mr. Schulz needs much help with prose. On de Vienne's personal blog she said he'd been a newspaper editor back in the 1960s. I don't know for which paper. I worked with him ages ago at conventions. He was a newservice guy for a while. He had a very dry wit. We were both much, much younger then.
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24
Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
As I understand it, they are blood relations. I read and enjoyed her little novel. I wish she'd write another.
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24
Look at this ...
by Old Goat inone of the authors of the soon to be published history of the watch tower's early years posted a small part of it in "rough draft.
" take a look http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/ .
if you like their work (i think its superior, even in rough draft), give them some encouragement.. .
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Old Goat
I don't know where the footnotes are. When they post on their private blog they always include them. I think they were lost in the formatting. She mentions formatting problems. Schulz is a very long-term Witness, apparently from the early 1950s. He teaches history and literature. Dr. de Vienne was never a Witness. As she expressed it somewhere, she raises children and goats and teaches gifted students. I think they intend to self-publish.