TerryWalstrom

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Posts by TerryWalstrom

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  5

  My conversation with a crucified man

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  (what follows is an excerpt from my new book (available in a month or so:a funny thing happened to me on my way to armageddon)______.

  crucified by salvador dalihave you ever met anybody who’s been crucified?

  and no--it wasn’t a religious delusion on my part.

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  TerryWalstrom

  You are most kind. Thank you.
• 
  5

  My conversation with a crucified man

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  (what follows is an excerpt from my new book (available in a month or so:a funny thing happened to me on my way to armageddon)______.

  crucified by salvador dalihave you ever met anybody who’s been crucified?

  and no--it wasn’t a religious delusion on my part.

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  TerryWalstrom

  
  Russell Saunders
  
  
  
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  43

  Hidden history of the Watchtower religion

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  the deeper you dig--the less impressive jw’s become!___________________you may think you know the men who are vitally important to the birth of the religion--but chances are good you’ve been kept in the dark.. _____________.

  did you know?the 1st case heard by the supreme court of the united states concerning the watchtower society involved a director (an officer) of the watchtower, william franklyn hudgings.. a brief description of hudgings and his character.hudgings was an attorney, quack doctor, self-identified ‘scientist’, a pro-zionist, and religious enthusiast who over the years held various director and officer positions in the watchtower society, and the affiliated people's pulpit association and international bible students association.

  at the time of this particular case, william hudgings acknowledged being the corporate secretary of the people's pulpit association and acknowledged that his daily duties included the administrative charge of printing of the watchtower magazine, the bible student's monthly, the kingdom news, and other watchtower publications.. (hudgings was also re-elected to the watchtower society board of directors in january 1919.

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  TerryWalstrom
• 
  5

  My conversation with a crucified man

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  (what follows is an excerpt from my new book (available in a month or so:a funny thing happened to me on my way to armageddon)______.

  crucified by salvador dalihave you ever met anybody who’s been crucified?

  and no--it wasn’t a religious delusion on my part.

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  TerryWalstrom

  (What follows is an excerpt from my new book (available in a month or so:
  A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO ME ON MY WAY TO ARMAGEDDON)
  ______

  
  CRUCIFIED BY SALVADOR DALI
  
  Have you ever met anybody who’s been crucified?
  Well, I have!
  And no--it wasn’t a religious delusion on my part. His name was Russell Saunders and this is my memory of our conversation.

  You can meet a remarkable variety of people on a Friday night in Westwood Village (Los Angeles suburb) if you’re working at Billy Hork Galleries in 1980.

  For one thing, this gallery was next door to a highly popular French restaurant ( Moustache Cafe’) as well as a movie theater.
  Long lines of people waiting for a table or a ticket wandered into the gallery and likely as not encountered me and my penchant for exploratory chit-chat.

  I was an Art Sales associate at the time and there was supposed to be two of us on duty. However, the other fellow had a second job selling Ferrari sports cars and his cocaine habit often meant he didn’t show up for work. This was wonderful from my standpoint--I had every customer to myself!

  One of my hobbies was creating mixtapes of film music to play inside the gallery for Hollywood ambience.
  “Excuse me, can you tell me what music this is?” This was a common query.

  This particular weekend, a very fit older gentleman (61) approached and flashed a smile at me. (I was 33)

  “This is Victor Young’s music from SHANE.”
  It was a statement--not a question.

  Our conversation had begun on my favorite topic--Movie Music!

  “How’d you know that?” I smiled at the man's acumen.

  “I was Alan Ladd’s stunt double in that movie. It is considered one of the best fights of its kind.”

  “It certainly was--a classic, if you ask me. My name is Terry, and you?”

  “I’m Russell Saunders. I was a stuntman for many years. I doubled for all the greats.”

  _____ __________________

  In the next fifteen minutes, I confess to neglecting my duties as a salesman for the opportunity (once in a lifetime) to listen to this extraordinary man tell me his life story.

  ________

  “I grew up in Winnipeg. I was a diving champ and acrobat and I was particularly good at what we use to call ‘tumbling.’ I knew how to hit the ground without hurting myself.”

  “You obviously ended up in California.”

  “Oh yeah. I was chasing a diving scholarship. I was best friends with Steve Reeves, Vic Tanny, and Jack LaLanne, working out at Muscle Beach. Talent scouts were down there all the time and one of them spotted me doing my tumbling routine. I taught acrobatics to several actors and ended up doing stunts as a double.”
  __________

  _______________

  Saunders was solidly built, medium height, and he had one of those classic faces which had “leading man” imprinted in the bone structure :)

  He rattled off a list of movies and actors which impressed me mightily.
  He stunt doubled for :

  Errol Flynn, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, Charles Boyer, Red Buttons and Richard Widmark, Alan Ladd, and the list goes on and on....
  King Kong, The Thing from Another World, The Three Musketeers, Spartacus, Shane, Singing in the Rain, Hatari, Logan’s Run, The Goonies, etc.
  
  
  
  
  ________
  
  
  

  We got around to the subject of Art this way.

  On one of the walls of the gallery hung Salvador Dali’s lithograph of his painting "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" (1951)
  
  
  Saunders tugged at my sleeve, pointing at the portrait with pride and a large smile.

  “That’s me!”

  I did a double take. “You’re joking?”

  “Nah. I answered an ad in the newspaper for male models to pick up extra cash between films. It was for Salvador Dali. He needed a man of excellent physical proportions he could hang on a cross and experiment with various lighting schemes. He took one look at me and my resume’ and I was hired.”

  Naturally, I pumped him for personal information on Dali--insight you couldn’t ordinarily get from reading a magazine or formal Art journal.

  “Let me tell you about Dali,” he began, “He was a real piece of work. Unique in every way. Dali was in Hollywood working with Hitchcock on SPELLBOUND in 1945, and designing dream sequences. He told me how uncomfortable it was for him being in Hollywood because he was accustomed to being the center of attention back in Spain, of being ‘far out’ and weird, but he felt commonplace and ordinary in California around movie people!”

  Saunders revealed how Dali had strapped Saunders to a gantry so he could see the effect of the pull of gravity on his body. All sorts of strange ideas were explored. Dali saw himself as the first artist to paint pictures that could combine science with religious belief and called this Nuclear Mysticism.

  “Dali worked on his sketches for years. He invited me to travel back with him to the Dali Castle in Spain--by ship--he hated the idea of flying. How could I refuse? Even if I would lose out on Hollywood revenue--the opportunity and the experience were too fascinating for me to refuse.

  Dali lived like an Emperor...always with an entourage!

  He was very pleasant as a conversationalist and host. He was surrounded by sensuality, debauchery, and extravagance that put Hollywood self-indulgence to shame. He was great friends with Picasso and his conversations about the atom bomb were out of this world. I had the time of my life. I flew back and forth for parts of 3 years working with Dali on this project.”

  I would have loved to go on talking to Saunders but there were customers asking me if they could purchase art…”PLEASE!”

  I was forced to do my job!

  I suggested to Saunders that he sign the litho hanging on the wall but he wanted no part of that. He was offended, in fact, at my suggestion that he do so.

  “Not for love or money would I do that. Everybody has taken advantage of Salvador Dali over the years. The people he loved and trusted, business associates, his own atelier, and there is no way for me to know what is legitimately approved and what is counterfeit.”

  I apologized for my venal brainstorm saying, “Actually, I wanted it for myself. I would buy the litho and keep it as a remembrance of our conversation.” He understood, he said, but there was no persuading him. My loss!!

  I was called away to assist other customers and when I looked up again, like the Lone Ranger, he had vanished.

  I could have kicked myself for not asking for more details! I wanted to know about Dali’s one true love--his wife--Gala. What might he have revealed? I’ll never know.

  I did research years later. I wanted to know what became of Russell Saunders. What I was able to find was this.
  Russ Saunders passed away in L.A., CA, on July 2001 at the grand age of 82. That was another 21 years he had lived following our conversation in Billy Hork Galleries.

  He was still working in the business at that time, having just finished working on the comedy classic Airplane!
  While his work in films was almost always uncredited, his image in Dali’s painting holds a particular significance for me.
  I would never have known had he not told me, how many hours he spent ‘crucified’ by one of the greatest painters in history, Salvador Dali.

  How many people on earth can make a claim like that?

  __________
  © Terry Edwin Walstrom
• 
  43

  Hidden history of the Watchtower religion

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  the deeper you dig--the less impressive jw’s become!___________________you may think you know the men who are vitally important to the birth of the religion--but chances are good you’ve been kept in the dark.. _____________.

  did you know?the 1st case heard by the supreme court of the united states concerning the watchtower society involved a director (an officer) of the watchtower, william franklyn hudgings.. a brief description of hudgings and his character.hudgings was an attorney, quack doctor, self-identified ‘scientist’, a pro-zionist, and religious enthusiast who over the years held various director and officer positions in the watchtower society, and the affiliated people's pulpit association and international bible students association.

  at the time of this particular case, william hudgings acknowledged being the corporate secretary of the people's pulpit association and acknowledged that his daily duties included the administrative charge of printing of the watchtower magazine, the bible student's monthly, the kingdom news, and other watchtower publications.. (hudgings was also re-elected to the watchtower society board of directors in january 1919.

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  TerryWalstrom

  Thanks to all!
  
  Here are some scraps found here and there...
  _________
  
  
  
  
  
  ____________
  
  

  Richard Barber's life story as published in (WT 1965)

  "The prisoners were being transferred to Atlanta penitentiary. Brother Frank Horth, Sister Van Amburgh and Sister Fisher and Sister Agnes Hudgings, a stenographer, and myself hastened over to the station. Brother Rutherford there gave me some instructions. If we were harassed too much by the police, we were to sell Bethel and the Brooklyn Tabernacle and move to either Philadelphia, Harrisburg or Pittsburgh, as our corporation was in Pennsylvania. A price of $60,000 was suggested for Bethel, and $25,000 for the tabernacle. When the train was ready, Brother Rutherford took Brother Horth and Sister Hudgings on the train with him. They rode for a distance while Brother Rutherford dictated a letter of instructions to Brother Horth, assigning him to sell Bethel and the Tabernacle. Arriving back in Bethel, Sister Hudgings made copies of this letter of instructions for us. The Tabernacle was sold, if my memory serves me aright, for only $16,000. Later Bethel was sold to the government and all arrangements made except the transfer of cash, when the armistice was signed; but providentially the sale of Bethel was never accomplished."
  
  _______
  
  C.T. Russell was plagued with what he thought were haemorrhoids, but he died of cystitis. I don't know how accurately this was diagnosed, but the swelling of the prostate is often involved. All of which to say, I find an interesting irony in the fact Russell had ass problems, and Rutherford died of rectal cancer. Knowing Hudgings had invented an 'assflusher' makes me slightly wonder why the preoccupation with that particular region of the human body in the Watchtower Organization?
  
  It seemed to attract assholes, you might say.
  
• 
  43

  Hidden history of the Watchtower religion

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  the deeper you dig--the less impressive jw’s become!___________________you may think you know the men who are vitally important to the birth of the religion--but chances are good you’ve been kept in the dark.. _____________.

  did you know?the 1st case heard by the supreme court of the united states concerning the watchtower society involved a director (an officer) of the watchtower, william franklyn hudgings.. a brief description of hudgings and his character.hudgings was an attorney, quack doctor, self-identified ‘scientist’, a pro-zionist, and religious enthusiast who over the years held various director and officer positions in the watchtower society, and the affiliated people's pulpit association and international bible students association.

  at the time of this particular case, william hudgings acknowledged being the corporate secretary of the people's pulpit association and acknowledged that his daily duties included the administrative charge of printing of the watchtower magazine, the bible student's monthly, the kingdom news, and other watchtower publications.. (hudgings was also re-elected to the watchtower society board of directors in january 1919.

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  TerryWalstrom

  Blondie is quite right about the tactic of shattering a "hard fact" into snippets of information buried in dull contexts and ensconcing the shards hither and thither.
  Why?
  Plausible deniability. Nobody could claim they kept such and so secret. Why no--here it in this chapter...and this one...and this one :)
  Here's the thing, if you don't suspect the Brothers of the GB of duplicity, you'll never spot it as it is occurring. However--once you start to smell a rat, it suddenly comes into focus everywhere you look.
  I used to make excuses for them, but the more prevarication and sneakiness you find the more impossible it is for an innocent excuse to seem plausible.
• 
  43

  Hidden history of the Watchtower religion

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  the deeper you dig--the less impressive jw’s become!___________________you may think you know the men who are vitally important to the birth of the religion--but chances are good you’ve been kept in the dark.. _____________.

  did you know?the 1st case heard by the supreme court of the united states concerning the watchtower society involved a director (an officer) of the watchtower, william franklyn hudgings.. a brief description of hudgings and his character.hudgings was an attorney, quack doctor, self-identified ‘scientist’, a pro-zionist, and religious enthusiast who over the years held various director and officer positions in the watchtower society, and the affiliated people's pulpit association and international bible students association.

  at the time of this particular case, william hudgings acknowledged being the corporate secretary of the people's pulpit association and acknowledged that his daily duties included the administrative charge of printing of the watchtower magazine, the bible student's monthly, the kingdom news, and other watchtower publications.. (hudgings was also re-elected to the watchtower society board of directors in january 1919.

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  TerryWalstrom

  To my way of seeing things, the above information completely UNDERMINES the claim to being a prophetic fulfilment of Faithful and Discreet Slave because the TIMELINE demonstrates emphatically: NONE of the claimed "pure" teachings originates with the Governing Body.
  
  
• 
  43

  Hidden history of the Watchtower religion

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  the deeper you dig--the less impressive jw’s become!___________________you may think you know the men who are vitally important to the birth of the religion--but chances are good you’ve been kept in the dark.. _____________.

  did you know?the 1st case heard by the supreme court of the united states concerning the watchtower society involved a director (an officer) of the watchtower, william franklyn hudgings.. a brief description of hudgings and his character.hudgings was an attorney, quack doctor, self-identified ‘scientist’, a pro-zionist, and religious enthusiast who over the years held various director and officer positions in the watchtower society, and the affiliated people's pulpit association and international bible students association.

  at the time of this particular case, william hudgings acknowledged being the corporate secretary of the people's pulpit association and acknowledged that his daily duties included the administrative charge of printing of the watchtower magazine, the bible student's monthly, the kingdom news, and other watchtower publications.. (hudgings was also re-elected to the watchtower society board of directors in january 1919.

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  TerryWalstrom

  The deeper you dig--the less impressive JW’s become!
  
  ___________________
  You may think you know the men who are vitally important to the birth of the religion--but chances are good you’ve been kept in the dark.

  _____________

  Did you know?
  
  The 1st case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the Watchtower Society involved a Director (an officer) of the Watchtower, William Franklyn Hudgings.

  A brief description of Hudgings and his character.
  
  Hudgings was an attorney, quack doctor, self-identified ‘scientist’, a pro-Zionist, and religious enthusiast who over the years held various Director and Officer positions in the WatchTower Society, and the affiliated People's Pulpit Association and International Bible Students Association.
  At the time of this particular case, William Hudgings acknowledged being the Corporate Secretary of the People's Pulpit Association and acknowledged that his daily duties included the administrative charge of printing of the WatchTower magazine, the Bible Student's Monthly, the Kingdom News, and other WatchTower publications.

  
  (Hudgings was also re-elected to the WatchTower Society Board of Directors in January 1919.)
  Although not charged in a later trial involving RUTHERFORD and the Directors, Hudgings was the WatchTower official who applied for the copyright on THE FINISHED MYSTERY book.)
  
  Because of his importance to the running of Society, Hudgings was subsequently a key figure in the trial in which Rutherford and all but one of the Society’s Directors faced prison on charges of sedition and obstructing the military draft in violation of the Espionage Act of 1917.
  
  You're about to discover WHAT HAPPENED CHANGED WATCHTOWER HISTORY
  
  
  In the course of J.F. Rutherford’s espionage trial, Hudgings was charged with Perjury.
  The Court was attempting to demonstrate the culpability of J.F. Rutherford in directing members of the armed forces (who were Society members) to disobey their commanding officers). All that was necessary was to get the secretaries and Hudgings to answer a simple question or two as to observing Rutherford sign or stamp official documents.

  
  Hudgings, his wife and various secretaries refused to answer truthfully when questioned.
  The Judge (Howe) gradually became so infuriated with the duplicity of the Bethel secretaries and the waffling of Hudgings, Howe responded (overreacted) by shouting at Hudgings, "I am not going to allow you to obstruct the course of justice here."

  Here is where Fate steps in:
  
  Thanks to this fit of temper, a Writ of Error was filed by Watchtower lawyers. At the end of WWI, the accumulated Writ of Error overturned the prison sentences of Rutherford and the others! They were subject to a fresh trial.
  (Note: the strong feelings toward patriotism during the war had subsided enough for the court to forego the expense of another prosecution effort.)
  
  Note: President J. F. Rutherford and his seven WatchTower co-conspirators were NEVER ACQUITTED of the criminal charges which they were previously convicted, despite the fact that the WatchTower Society has repeatedly claimed such, and despite the fact that that FALSE CLAIM has been picked up and repeated by reporters, authors, and scholars for decades -- including a British historian as late as 2014.

  
  On July 8, 1918, Judge Howe ordered that Hudgings continue to be committed until Hudgings was willing to purge the contempt charge by admitting he was withholding honest testimony before the court. Unwilling to acknowledge that his testimony had been less than truthful, Hudgings languished in jail for months.
  
  In 1925, after the public failure of another Watchtower “date certain” prophecy, Agnes Hudgings fled from WatchTower HQ, disassociated herself, and filed for divorce.**
  Only a few years thereafter, William Hudgings also left WatchTower HQ and disassociated himself from the WatchTower Society.
  
  What became of Hudgings?

  William F. Hudgings was fined and sentenced to 6 months in the workhouse in 1930, prosecuted in New York for practising Medicine without a licence. He wrote two books; one on Einstein and the other on Zionism.

  He died in 1936.
  ____________

  
  NOTE: What was important about Hudgings?

  He infuriated Judge Howe by playing dumb, causing an outburst eventually resulting in Rutherford and the Watchtower Directors release from maximum security prison.
  
  Stop a minute and consider this:
  If it weren’t for that Writ of Error--Jehovah’s Witnesses might never have existed! Remember, the Watchtower officials were sentenced to serve 20 years in prison!

  
  ** Agnes Hudgings divorce complaint alleged that her work as Joseph F. Rutherford's secretary led to her suffering a nervous breakdown only a few months after her marriage in February 1917. Agnes also claimed that living in the communal setting of Brooklyn Bethel adversely affected her health. Agnes further claimed that when he was angry with her, William F. Hudgings would not speak to her for days and even months at a time -- writing notes when communication was absolutely necessary. Agnes further claimed that her husband would sometimes leave Bethel without informing her, and thereafter, not inform her where he had been. Agnes also claimed that her husband frequently called her vile names. Finally, she claimed that he told her that he did not love her, and that he wished that he had married another Bethelite female.

  
  

  _________________________________
  
  Ready for another historic figure in Watchtower history?

  Joshua. W. Sykes Pentecostal minister
  
  What follows is most intriguing and suggestive as to the enormity of his influence on President J.F.Rutherford’s doctrinal innovations between 1916 and 1942 and perhaps, Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz afterward.
  Here is his story.
  _______________________________

  
  
  

  J.W. Sykes was one-of-a-kind in the Pentecostal movement, but he was considered quite a maverick who went his own way with heretical teachings repugnant to the Pentecostal faith.

  
  

  Joshua Sykes’ congregation was integrated, unlike Pastor Russell’s public speeches / sermons where blacks and whites both could attend, but only in separate sections--Sykes's members were sitting side by side in the Pentecostal church. This was considered dangerous and inflammatory at the time.
  Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes practiced racial and gender "integration" as early as 1908 -- having both African-American and female assistant preachers, staffers, and members. (The WatchTower Society was not fully integrated until the 1970s.)

  During WW1, the Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes forbid his followers from being employed in any kind of employment having to do with the manufacturing of military equipment, supplies, and materials. (It took the WatchTower Society until WW2 to do the same.)
  
  

  Let us note the development of Sykes’ teachings and how Jehovah’s Witness’ teachings seemed to be an echo of them!
  
  

  Sykes proclaimed he was an anti-Trinitarian chosen by "Jehovah" to gather together and prepare "a people" for the imminent Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

  J. W. Sykes served 15 months in federal prison, and three of his associates served 10 months in prison for ‘obstructing the draft’ by means of his public teaching and preaching.
  Rutherford and his WatchTower gang served less than 9 months in prison for sedition.
  
  During WW1, at a time when Judge Rutherford was publicly straddling the fence and publicly beating around the bush regarding the military draft and fighting in the war, all while privately sending out secret "anti-draft" messages to its members, the Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes was plainly and publicly teaching his followers that they could NOT join the military nor fight for the United States in the ongoing WW1.
  When Rutherford realized he was facing real imprisonment, he backpedaled and compromised. Read his self-serving press statement:
  
  

  "The charges that I am in any way antagonistic to the United States government are false. I stand squarely with President Wilson in this great crisis and have no sympathy with anyone who does otherwise." -- J.F. Rutherford via April 1918 press release.
  
  

  During WW1, at a time when Judge Rutherford had no issues with the displaying of the American Flag, nor had any issues with saluting the American Flag, nor had any issues with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, nor had any issues with standing for the National Anthem, Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes was teaching his followers that they could NOT perform any of those patriotic acts.
  However, it was not until January 1926 that Joshua Sykes decided that these prohibitions should be forced onto the children within his cult. When local schools began expelling the children of Sykes cult as they gradually refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the ACLU came running to Sykes rescue.

  Pay careful attention to the following...
  The ACLU proclaimed that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance was against the religious tenets of Sykes' church. The ACLU proclaimed that although the members of Sykes' church respected the Flag of the United States, as well as respected the laws and Constitution of the United States, they believed that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance was a form of "idolatry" forbidden by the Bible.
  
  The ACLU successfully negotiated a settlement with that local school board by the start of the following school year -- within a matter of months. It was not until 9 years later, in 1935, that the ACLU and Judge Rutherford formed a partnership to repeat what the ACLU had done for Sykes' cult.

  
  

  Pause and consider that one!

  
  During WW1, at a time when Judge Rutherford was advising WatchTower Society headquarters staff and members to purchase Liberty Bonds, the Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes was forbidding his members to do so.

  Interestingly, during WW1, the Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes was forbidding his members to support the American Red Cross -- financially or otherwise. The WatchTower Society did not get around to that until the latter 1940s.

  
  

  During WW1, the Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes was teaching his followers that they were NOT citizens of the United States, but were citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. It took the WatchTower Society until the 1950s to teach its members a watered-down version of such. Sykes actually meant it. The WatchTower Society just gave the teaching unpracticed lip service.
  Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes and WatchTower Society President Joe Rutherford turned their religious followers into anti-government and anti-societal wingnuts who made careers of wildly attacking every human government, attacking every societal institution, and attacking every other Christian religion.

  
  Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes and WatchTower Society President Joe Rutherford BOTH dumped their wives to live alone in California, while they BOTH made "mistresses" of headquarters female staffers. The only difference between the Pentecostal Preacher Joshua Sykes and WatchTower Society President Joe Rutherford was that Sykes did not keep his adultery a secret from his members, but rather spiritualized the matter, just as Rutherford spiritualized many other less controversial matters in his own religious cult.
  
  Prior to WW1, the ANTI-TRINITARIAN Pentecostal Preacher J. W. Sykes was teaching his followers to distinguish between"Jehovah God" and his Son, "Jesus Christ", and to openly and regularly refer to the "Father" as "Jehovah", and not just "God". By the 1920s, Joshua Sykes was making even more widespread use of the name "Jehovah", such that whenever some unidentified religious group or religious nut would make repeated use of the name "Jehovah", they were assumed to be part of Joshua Sykes' cult -- not the "Bible Students". Judge Rutherford did not make a major issue of the use of the name "Jehovah" until after Joshua Sykes died in 1929.

  
  

  ________
  
  

  Both Hudgings and Sykes are probably people you only just now heard about. The impact each had upon the religion of the Watchtower is worth considering, don’t you think?

  The Watchtower religion was not the creative and innovative movement most members consider to be totally unique in its teachings.
  
  Russell and Rutherford used a buffet lunch attitude in picking a bit of this and that. Today we’d call it cut and paste theology.
  
  Was Jehovah using THEM as his mouthpiece alone in all the earth at a special time in history as they claim? Or, is it more likely the doctrines are bottom of the barrel scrapings? Scraps, throw-aways, and outright steals from other people’s intellectual property? The Watchtower theology, if considered dispassionately, is merely the weird taste of quirky men who raided other’s trash bins for ideas.

  
  

  Ever hear of the famous 20th century Evangelist, H. A Ironside?
  This preacher had been using a peculiar phrase to identify his followers.
  He used the term “Jehovah’s witnesses.”
  Ever hear of that phrase as occurring BEFORE 1931?
  
  Judge Rutherford didn't even have sufficient imagination to capitalize the "w" in "witnesses".
  No--instead even *borrowing* the use of the lowercase "w" in "witnesses", just as H. A. Ironside had already been using in his multiple Biblical commentaries and published sermons that Ironside had authored at least as early as 1909, and as was the "Jehovah's witnesses" notation in Ironside’s personal Bible next to Isaiah 43:10.
  
  This surely was the whisper of “Jehovah’s witness” in Rutherford’s ear!
  
  

  The deeper you dig--the less impressive JW’s become!

  
  

  
  

  
  _______________________
  
  

  
  

  
  Thanks to these resources:

  www.apostolicarchives.com/Joshua_W_Sykes.html
  jwemployees.bravehost.com/NewsReports

  THE INTERNET'S BEST WATCHTOWER SOCIETY HISTORY http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/jwinfo.html

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  9

  A Wide-ranging discussion both fascinating and sometimes enlightening

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  rubin is a gay atheist formerly affiliated with the young turks, ben shapiro is an orthodox jew who mainly comments on politics from a conservative pov.

  dr. jordan b peterson is a professor of psychology at the university of toronto, a clinical psychologist, a public speaker.____none of these men is interested in discussing politics in this discussion, rather in centering on the overlap between rational, secular belief and any underlying religious truth which may be hidden in mythos.i know that sounds like the most boring thing possible--but--i assure you it is riveting.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ophwshr798&t=3112sif you watch through to the last hour, the topic is brilliantly deconstructed with an honesty and intelligence rarely witnessed in live events..

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  TerryWalstrom

  Dave Rubin is an honest thinker. He's willing to be wrong when facts strike down his firmly held beliefs. He had to pull away from the ideology of The Young Turks when it became clear to him what they were really about.
  
  Ben Shapiro is a wunderkind with a very fast and facile mind. His debating skills are deadly. He comes off as a babyface - but that's not his fault :)
  
  The striking thing about this video, IMHO, is how people who are different can argue volatile subjects without rancor or slimy tricks and name-calling because they are searching for something genuine.
  
  I see Jordan Peterson as spontaneous-- a person who thinks as-he-is-speaking. He doesn't have a prepared canned speech. The thoughtful way he reasons strikes me as intellectually honest.
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  3

  Oblivion

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  she danced in stolen dresses        to a chopin polonaise            in moonlight bright pentameters                suggesting shakespeare's plays.

  her bare feet on cold concrete    told her story to the crowd        hustling brusquely past her            as grand music played aloud.

  she dreamed the dreams of millionsto be known and rich and fairyet slowly it was fadingand nowno longer cared..     the wind swept in at midnight        her borrowed time ran slow            the lady in the stolen dress                 stopped moving to and fro.

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  TerryWalstrom

  I don't really try to sit down an write a poem. In fact, when I have TRIED I just give up blankly. What happens is sort of peculiar.
  I'll hear somebody say something--a phrase, perhaps. Or, I'll be reading something and an odd mix of words rubs together and ignites a starter fire inside of me.
  
  I'm going to say it is what passes for "inspiration."
  In this particular case, I was watching a documentary about somebody--I can't recall who--and the phrase "they danced in stolen dresses" caught my ear and burned.
  A smolder led to me jumping up and writing the phrase down.
  I had no ideas. At all. I began playing chess online with that phrase nagging away.
  
  I had to stop and open my laptop and create a document with that phrase as a mock-up title--a placeholder.
  
  The damned thing wanted to be written. It wouldn't let me do anything but get out of its way.
  After I thought it was done--I let go of it and went back to playing chess.
  Later, I read it again. A few places seemed out of sorts.
  Replacements and switcheroos. Editing.
  Re-read.
  "Feeling feeling..."
  After about ten bits of tidying up I let go of it.
  The last thing to change was the title.
  I realized the poem was not about dancing in a stolen dress. It was about the compulsion artists have they must surrender unto. Usually, it leads nowhere.
  Nowhere = Oblivion.