@Saintbertholdt
That was an excellent article. Thanks so much for all the work in transcribing it and posting it here.
I want us to look at that moment and understand that the person before us is acting out of an integrity that is uniquely their own, and that's a part of their tradition...and the integrity of that tradition was tested by fire.
I agree that it is an individual demonstration of integrity and it took some bold cojones for JW's in nazi Germany to do as they did. But remembering the shenanigans that Rutherford was up to at the beginning of the nazi take over German society, with his apologetic letter to Hitler and his anti-Semitic denouncing of Jews--I have a hard time believing that JW actions in Germany reflected anything from Rutherford's leadership.
German JW's called themselves Bible Students, and they wore the purple triangles because of their dedication to God and Christ. These Ernste Bibelforscher, or Earnest Bible Students as they were called in Germany suffered because of their Christian integrity not because Rutherford's rebranding of Bible Students as Jehovah's Witnesses.
Meanwhile their "Generalissimo" was enjoying a lavish lifestyle in mansion in San Diego, with his own young nutritionist nurse and two 12 cylinder Cadillacs in the garage and plenty of expensive scotch to survive the California heat. In fact Rutherford thought little of the Ernste Bibelforscher representatives in the WT Branch in Germany and blamed them for his own failures and political indiscretions.
Today's JW's have indeed a heritage of integrity keeping, but this integrity is as individual as the WT seems to imply whenever they could be sued for an individual JW's actions.
If those still under WT control would understand the little regard the WT has for them, with their fake gushing of "love towards the friends," and how they've been denied the personal mediation of Christ on their spiritual behalf, the vast majority of JW's would, stop donating and try to make a quick exit from this disdainful cult.
The WT religion doesn't deserve any credit for the courage and integrity of those Ernste Bibelforscher, or Earnest Bible Students who suffered in nazi Germany.
