Early Church Fathers: Catholic Magisterium (The traditions of the Apostles and authority of the Pope.) The Bible was not available. Scripture existed in Latin, little understood by non-scholars.

What is Sola Scriptura?

Starting with the 16th century C.E. Protestant rebellion against the Catholic Church, instead of relying on a Pope for matters of direction and authority in Faith and Morals,

Sola Scriptura was put forth as a replacement: _Scripture is self-authenticating, clear (perspicuous) to the rational reader, its own interpreter ("Scripture interprets Scripture"), and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine._
________________________________________________________________________________

What source authority did C.T. Russell have?

1, Under Charles T. Russell, a loose federation of independent Bible Students began reading and embracing his topical explanation of the entire Bible. It was called STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES. Note: Russell’s commentary around scripture was a wedge allowing Russell’s ideas to come between the Bible reader and direct understanding.

2. Russell published and distributed an amalgamation of End Times sermons, exegesis, and opinions suggesting (as William Miller's Adventist followers had done) Christians would live to experience the return or Second Advent of Jesus Christ in a very short space of time.

3. Gradually, especially with the help of his wife, Russell took on an international celebrity status and charisma. He was increasingly looked upon as a kind of latter-day, final Prophet like Daniel.

Note: It was Maria Russell who invented what came to be the Central Doctrine of teaching authority. The “Faithful and Wise Servant” or Faithful and Discreet Slave doctrine turned Jesus’ parable into a prophecy fulfilled upon Charles Taze Russell + Maria Russell.

4. Self-aggrandizement warped Russell's personality. He rebuffed his wife's affections, divided fellow believers with various speculative chronology declarations, and began experiencing blowback in the form of criticism, lawsuits, and public exposure as a fraud.

5. Before his death, devout followers (Russellites) swallowed his End Times chronological claims: a. Jesus had returned (invisibly) in 1874, b. The resurrection of the dead had occurred in 1878, and c. Armageddon was due in 1914. All predicted with absolute confidence, and supported with the help of charts, pyramid measurements, and relentless speechifying.

(Note: Instead of Sola Scriptura (Bible alone) Russell’s charts and Pyramid chronlogy scheme replaced traditional Christianity and turned his followers into End Times speculators and conspirators.)

6. As each of Russell's preachments was laid bare by circumstance of FAILURE as unreliable, more and greater dishonesty became necessary for Russell and his followers to prop up his reputation or credibility for his adjusted predictions.

What source authority did J.F. Rutherford claim?

7. After his death in 1916, attorney J.F. (Judge) Rutherford jumped in and seized control of whatever remained of the WatchTower Corporation. The Judge sought to unify the stragglers any way possible.
(Note: What was Rutherford’s source authority? He transferred Russell’s chronology, pyramidology and personal interpretation books (Studies in the Scriptures) into a platform of teaching and used Maria Russell’s Faithful and Wise Servant as a kind of Apostolic succession.)

8. Rutherford urged ghost writers to concoct a "posthumous final volume" of Studies in the Scriptures under the title, The Finished Mystery. Vicious, anti-patriotic rhetoric landed Rutherford and his “directors” of the Watchtower in Federal Prison until the end of the war.

9. A Writ of Error freed the Directors and President of the Watchtower Society. He immediately began consolidating the remainder of the Bible Students with bold sermons in large venues such as MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE.

(Note: Rutherford presented his prison episode as a historic and heroic fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies for the next 40+ years.)

The Judge’s desperation to hold Bible Students in thrall is reflected in the fact this hinged on a brand new False Prophecy with an end date of 1925 in mind.

10. Each new dramatic scheme Judge Rutherford concocted alienated more and more of the original (Bible Students, Russellites, Age to Come) following Russell had acquired. The Judge turned to bolder speculations and maintained an iron grip on those remaining loyal to him who were hardening into confrontational extremists.

11. Rutherford attempted to lure Russellites into the fold by reassuring them Pastor Russell was editing the Watchtower magazine from heaven! He continued to promote the Great Pyramid and use the Studies in the Scriptures. As each flourish was met with skepticism and rebuttal, Rutherford radicalized, growing bolder, and by degrees, more unreasonably absolute.

12. When 1925 proved an embarrassing failure, the Judge went off the deep end. He became a tyrant with sweeping changes instituted solidifying his central authority. He began by sending representatives to all the independent congregations with "help" in organizing their study methods. Gradually he replaced the democratically elected leaders with his own puppets. Finally, he demanded every Bible student become a door-to-door book salesman with hourly quotas to fulfill, and various pressure techniques to ensure compliance.

At this point in Watchtower history, we will now begin examination of how Maria Russell's application of a parable about the "faithful and discreet slave" was used as a latter-day prophecy transferred to Rutherford, and eventually to an actual "governing body" within the organization.

___________________________________

By 1923, J.F. Rutherford claimed the mantle of authority for himself alone.
“In connection with his presence and the harvest work, the office of that “faithful and wise servant” is important and is made so by the Lord himself. The one who fills the office is made ruler over all the Lord’s goods during his incumbency in office. The office of that “faithful and wise servant” therefore is a part of the orderly manner in which the Lord carried on his work during his second presence.” Watchtower. 1923 3/1 p. 67-8, 72, Loyalty the Test

What source authority did a governing body have?

The Watchtower magazine’s first mention of a governing body came in 1944.

"In the year 1944 the Watchtower magazine began to speak about the governing body of the Christian congregation."

The Watchtower, December 15, 1971, page 755

“A Governing Body as Different from a Legal Corporation”

STOP RIGHT THERE! We are bracketing these two periods right before your eyes. 1944--1971.

We'll come back to it.

_____________________________

"How did this governing body make its appearance in recent times? Evidently under the direction of Jehovah God and his Son Jesus Christ."

Note: Give close scrutiny to the use of "evidently," the Watchtower's favorite weasel word!

"In the first century, a group of older men in Jerusalem made up a governing body that had oversight of the congregations and of the Kingdom preaching activity in general. The same pattern is followed within Jehovah’s organization today."

_______________________

(Notice please: "governing body" is written in lowercase letters, not capitalized as Governing Body. Over the years, as self-importance grew, the lower case became the upper.)

________________________

In reference to the above quotation: Let us ask: "IS THAT TRUE?" Did Jerusalem have 'oversight' of everything?

Was Jerusalem's leadership the only official and central authority back in the First Century?

Paul the Apostle didn't think so!

Saul converted to Christianity and (now Paul) went off preaching to Gentiles for 3 years on his own. He sought no consultation with Jerusalem.

Fourteen years after a first visit, Jerusalem had caused problems in Antioch which caused him to have to straighten out their errors of understanding regarding Gentiles. In this instance, the so-called governing body in Jerusalem was dead wrong! This is not much of a winning argument to support the Watchtower contention above, is it?

______________________________________________________________

Now, back to the 1940's and we find ourselves 2 years later, after the FIRST mention of the "governing body."

Watchtower Nov.14,1946 p.330 "Let God Prove to be True."

These are policy statements about the governing body.
THEY ARE AT ODDS WITH the facts.

The article itself was written by Fred Franz, Watchtower vice-president.

Please make careful note of the thesis argument Fred Franz is building.

His subject concerns the Authority of Jehovah's Witness governing body leaders. He wants to create a strong contrast between Catholics and Protestants Vs. Jehovah's governing body leadership and authority and he will use Romans 13: 1,2 to prove his case.

_____________________________

STOP!

Franz is contrasting the MAGISTERIUM of the Catholic Church with the PROTESTANT Doctrine of Sola Scriptura (Bible alone+Holy Spirit).

Rutherford’s Illicit Change of God’s authorization of Government authority?

Look closely: Romans 13:1. "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God."

Judge Rutherford had taken it upon himself to change the historic meaning from civil authority of state and government to Watchtower religion authorized under Jehovah God and Christ Jesus. This false interpretation began in 1929 and ended in 1962.

NOTE: In ’62, the Watchtower flipped the script back to the original “Old Light” interpretation which Christendom had held for over 2,000 years.

This meant the “New Light” in 1962 restored the “Old light”!

For 33 years, the Watchtower taught error WITHOUT AUTHORITY TO DO So!

______________________________________________

RECAP: The introduction of the governing body took place in 1944.Watchtower leadership was solely vested in President Rutherford. After Rutherford, his successor, Nathan Knorr shared responsibility with "oracle" Fred Franz, exercising monarchical control over doctrines and policies.

Let it be noted: Fred Franz claimed the Watchtower Corp. and Jehovah's Witnesses were NOT being run as a hierarchy.

The Bible was held out as the validating force (i.e. meaning Maria Russell’s doctrine of “faithful and wise servant”) rather than the human leaders acting as an interpreting body. That was the spin.

This was a False Claim of Authority

The Watchtower leaders claimed falsely: nobody within the organization was superior to any member. The only "head" of the organization, it was claimed, were Jehovah and Jesus. (Romans 13 had been twisted in order to claim such authority.)

What, then, was the so-called model of Authority for the administration of Watchtower?

They claimed it was the Early Church and they highlighted the role of the Jerusalem Council as a template for the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
_____

WAS THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL an actual basis of authority?

[Concerning Jerusalem's council in Acts 15, Barnes Notes, page 235 tells us:]

________________________________________

ON WHAT BASIS OF AUTHORITY did the Watchtower claim THEOCRATIC RULE?

The Watchtower, December 15,1971 page 754, “Theocratic Organization with Which to Move Forward Now”, says:

“The ‘faithful and discreet slave’ class of today has been appointed over all the Kingdom interests belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

When the above words were published, this was taught and believed.

But who authorized this understanding to be taught and believed?

There is only one reason. Worldwide, Jehovah's Witnesses were obligated to believe whatever the Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz told them was "Truth."

This phrase (faithful and discreet slave), at that time, was considered to be

ALL anointed and not just the few who were Society's officers.
Do you understand?

Members of Jehovah’s Witnesses didn’t realize Knorr and Franz were the real bosses. The members were being misled that ALL anointed worldwide were the FDS (faithful and discreet slave)

The elect anointed weren’t fooling themselves--Knorr and Franz were misleading them!

None of this was actually true.

How do we know?

44 years later all the previous revealed/ channeled "truth" interpretation was wiped out.

Yet another flash of UNauthorized "New Light" had turned to. . .garbage. (i.e. “Old light.”)

___________________

HISTORICAL SUMMARY for Watchtower “Authority”

In the July 15, 1906 (p.229) issue of Zion’s Watch Tower, Pastor C.T. Russell’s wife, Maria took the step of “identifying” her husband as the object of Jesus’ parable of the faithful and discreet slave.

______________

March 1, 1923, WatchTower quotes Russell as saying that some spoke of him as the “faithful and wise servant” and others spoke of the Society as such.

The magazine then adds: Both statements were true; for Brother Russell was in fact the Society in the most absolute sense, in this, that he directed the policy and course of the Society without regard to any other person on earth. In fact, a biographical issue of the WatchTower published after his death on October 16, 1916, stated: Thousands of the readers of Pastor Russell's writings believe that he filled the office of “that faithful and wise servant,” and that his great work was giving to the household of faith meat in due season. His modesty and humility precluded him from openly claiming this title, but he admitted as much in private conversation."
(Emphasis added)

____________

In 1931, J.F. Rutherford renamed the Bible Students, Jehovah's Witnesses single-handedly.

Watch what happens next (which will be UNDONE later).

In 1932, Rutherford eliminated the bodies of elders (then elected by the congregations), stating that the arrangement was “not according to the principles of the great Theocrat, who rules his sanctuary from the top down.

1938 all congregations worldwide were invited to adopt an agreement authorizing the Brooklyn headquarters to appoint any and all persons serving in responsible positions in the congregations.
Hold on! This is a coup! (coup= an illegal seizure of power of governance.)

The term “Theocratic organization” has been used since the December 1, 1939 Watchtower in particular.

Repeatedly, all were urged to submit to “Theocratic order,” which in actuality meant to accept what came from the headquarters as if it came from God.

Whoever was the President/ Vice President was now a dictatorship disguised as Theocracy.

_____________

We already learned "governing body" appeared in 1944.

_________________________________

Review:

Pastor Russell was the sole decision maker and practitioner of doctrine.. His wife, Maria, invented the “faithful and wise servant” i.e. Faithful and Discreet Slave doctrine.
Judge Rutherford was the sole decision maker and practitioner of doctrine who arrogated a change in Romans 13 to seize power.
Nathan Knorr and Franz pretended a “Theocracy” led by worldwide anointed were the decision makers and inventors of doctrine as directed by Jehovah.
Franz and Knorr published a false prediction of 1975 which embarrassed and refuted the silly Theocracy and caused an upheaval in the other members of the Board of Directors.
Another coup was staged wresting power away from the Presidency/ Vice Presidency.

Note: How was it a coup? The power of Knorr and Franz was wrested away by others without their consent!

_________________
All along, Jehovah’s Witness leaders had denied the Organization was like the Catholic Church as a hierarchy. In fact, the use of Theocracy was meant to refute that notion.

1986 court testimony: Jehovah's Witnesses are admitted to be a hierarchy.

______________________________

Crisis of Conscience, by Raymond Franz, demonstrates the official transformation from individual to group n 1976 ifor Governing Body:

_____________________________

Maria Russell’s doctrine had now been twisted into a springboard to MEDIATORship.

As such, they took over the role of Jesus Christ toward humanity, as MEDIATOR.

1 Timothy 2:5-6New King James Version (NKJV)

5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time

But Wait! The Governing Body says “NO!”

Watchtower 1989 Aug 15 pp.30-31:

"Consequently, 1 Timothy 2:5, 6 is not using "mediator" in the broad sense common in many languages. It is not saying that Jesus is a mediator between God and all mankind."
_______

For all these years, the justification for the Governing Body (FDS) being allowed to tell us what to think, how to act by the authority of BEING SELECTED by heaven and APPOINTED over ALL Jesus' belongings.

This explanation has been removed!!

We can only wonder how the GB expects to justify the 100+ years of meddling abuse!

On what demonstrable authority do they seek such control?

It rests on false pretense and gullible willingness of 8 million members.

______________________

WHAT LESSON about AUTHORITY was LEARNED about governing by Jehovah’s Witnesses?

On WHOSE AUTHORITY were false prophecies able to pass muster in the leadership if Jehovah, Jesus and holy spirit had actually been using the Watchtower leaders?

"At a session three weeks later, April 30 [1975], President Knorr surprised us by making a motion that henceforth all matters be decided by a two-thirds vote of the active membership." Crisis of Conscience (Commentary Press Fourth Edition 2004) Ray Franz p.85

It is revealed 4 years later.

GET READY. . . WAIT FOR IT . . . WAIT FOR IT . . .

Watchtower March 1st 1979 page 23, paragraph 15:

“Because of this hope, the “faithful and discreet slave”has alerted all of God’s people to the sign of the times indicating the nearness of God’s Kingdom rule. In this regard, however, it must be observed that this “faithful and discreet slave”was never inspired . . .”

Oh, really?

Reread that paragraph and focus on the phrase: “. . .the nearness of God’s Kingdom rule.”

The article was published in 1979. God’s Kingdom rule was a “nearness” according to the writer of the article.

What about this?

100 Years of Kingdom Rule—How Does It Affect You?

8 By 1919, the “good news of the Kingdom” had taken on added meaning. (Matt. 24:14) The King was ruling in heaven, and he had gathered a small group of cleansed earthly subjects. They eagerly responded to Jesus’ rousing instructions: Preach the good news of God’s established Kingdom in all the earth! (Acts 10:42) For example, close to 20,000 Kingdom supporters convened for an international convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, U.S.A., in September 1922. Just imagine their excitement when Brother Rutherford delivered the talk entitled “The Kingdom” and declared: “Behold, the King reigns! You are his publicity agents. Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.”

_________________

How about this?

We have a mixed message, do we not?

First, there is confusion about WHO or what really runs the Watchtower organization (President? Faithful and Discreet Slave? Anointed worldwide? Governing Body? Legal Board of Directors?

We have a mixed message about Jehovah’s holy spirit as well!

Preservation (1932) pages 193-194 (Watchtower Bible and tract Society publisher)

“By His spirit, the holy spirit, Jehovah God guides or leads His people up to a certain point of time, and thus He did until the time when ‘the comforter’ was taken away, which would necessarily occur when Jesus, the Head of His organization, came to the temple and gathered unto Himself those whom He found faithful when He, as the Great Judge, began His judgment in 1918.”

What’s going on here?

The Watchtower Organization was NEVER LED BY the AUTHORITY of holy spirit!

According to the Organization’s own words we get our answer:

Preservation (1932) page 151:

“After the holy spirit as an advocate or paraclete ceased to function in behalf of the consecrated, the angels are employed in behalf of those are being made ready for the kingdom.”

"God uses angels to teach His people now on earth." The Golden Age 1933 Nov 8 p.69

"No man can properly interpret prophecy, and the Lord sends his angels to transmit correct information to his people." Watchtower 1936 Feb 15 p.52

Okay. That was 1936. What about 1987? Another modified adjustment is made!

"Christ used his authority by actively leading his congregation on earth. He did this by means of the holy spirit, the angels, and the governing body made up of the 12 apostles and the elders of the Jerusalem congregation. Jesus stated that he would be with his disciples right up to the conclusion of the system of things, where we now are. In the following article, we will see how he is still the active Head of the Christian congregation and how he is leading his "sheep" today." Watchtower 1987 Aug 1 p.15

"To this day the Governing Body follows similar guidelines. Each article in both The Watchtower and Awake! and every page, including the artwork, is scrutinized by selected members of the Governing Body before it is printed. Therefore, you can read The Watchtower and Awake! with confidence." Watchtower 1987 Mar 1 p.15
____________

How about 6 years later? ARE YOU CONFUSED? Well so are the leaders of the Watchtower Organization!

"Those who make up the one true Christian organization today do not have angelic revelations or divine inspiration. But they do have the inspired Holy Scriptures, which contain revelations of God's thinking and will." Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993) p.708

________

DESTROYING the Governing Body’s claim of authority

If Jehovah’s holy spirit is leading the Governing Body, if Jesus is ruling through the appointment of the Governing Body, how is the following situation even possible?

"Shocking as it is, even some who have been prominent in Jehovah's organization have succumbed to immoral practices, including homosexuality, wife swapping, and child molesting." Watchtower 1986 Jan 1 p.13

____________

Destroying Governing Body authority with a note of irony.

"The reasons that people give for abandoning the churches are many and varied. Some in West Germany do it in order to be relieved of paying the church tax. More often, however, the reason involves changes in Roman Catholic teaching in recent years. These have confused many persons who thought that they had the true apostolic religion. As one Catholic priest in the United States put it: “If the things the Church has said in the last ten years are true, then everything it said for the last 2,000 years is false.”"

Watchtower 1975 Jun 1 p.324

There you have it in their own words. Everything the Watchtower has claimed to have the ‘authority to teach and practice’ for the last 100+ years is false!

___________

Terry Walstrom 6/7/2016

40

What Religious Trajectory Are The JWs Following?

by millie210 in

i was reading another thread and the comments got me thinking.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5656910430732288/pictures-tell-thousand-words.

comments such as oldskools: more like digital colonialism channeled through one of the weaker and less important institutions western society has to offer.. .

some have compared the orgs future path to the world wide church of gods.

TerryWalstrom

I would call the Watchtower strategy:
REBRANDING through a reboot.

Brilliant tactics allow them to avoid trying to defend refutable doctrines of the past.

They can muster intense loyalty today in a new way: instead of setting End of the World chronology DATES, they create videos patterned after Tim LaHaye's

LEFT BEHIND series. (The Bunker series)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind

So many members have fallen out of love with the sterile emotional environment of the old Watchtower chain gain, we now have smiling Governing Body faces, emotional video appeals, animated propaganda and a kinder, gentler rhetoric.

By REBRANDING Jehovah's Witnesses/ Watchtower as JW.ORG, they've come up to speed in the age of technology.

The greatest threat to the Organization is lawsuits and Ex-JW pushback.

They're hoarding cash like crazy for lawsuits by creating a sense of austerity. Further, the focus on the evil of Apostacy is bombarding the rank and file day and night.
Additionally, instead of confrontation style preaching, the public cart offering disengages the publishers and diminshes liklihood of controversial debate.

4

CASSIUS CLAY / MUHAMMED ALI and Jehovah's mighty Lawyer

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

hayden covington cut short a legal presentation (draft case) for a jw brother from oklahoma (sam salamy) in 1967-mid trial because he had received a phone call from muhammad ali’s legal team who offered a quarter of a million dollars if he could get muhammed ali off in his ‘draft dodging’ court case.. only jw's whose families had enough money could afford to hire covington on reputation alone.

sam salamy ended up paying covington ten-thousand dollars and got convicted anyway.. hopping into the limelight, lawyer covington took the lazy way out suggesting muhammed ali should accept a guilty sentence and seek to make a deal with the prosecutor, morton susman, united states attorney.

in fact, he talked ali into requesting that the judge sentence him immediately!.

TerryWalstrom

The amazing quality Ali had was in communicating with persons of any age or state of mind in a cheerful, relaxed, tongue-in-cheek ebullience.

He adored children and they took to him like the Ice Cream man.

With haters, he struck just the right tone of bullet-proof confidence. He never showed fear--although if anybody had cause to fear assassination, it was him.

In my opinion, Muhammed Ali was allowed to fight way past the point of endangerment. His skills, speed, dexterity, and health were on a decline steadily in the final five years of his career. Greedy promoters (Don King) extracted the last drop of juice from him with a venal indifference to his future.

The worst sight I have beheld was when his former sparring partner, Larry Holmes beat the living shit out of Muhammed Ali. Holmes was crying as he did it! But, Ali was indomitable and would not go down. He refused to go down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJtlDvKku50

In fairness, Ali had done the same thing to Floyd Patterson when that amazing fighter was fighting past his prime.

Karma is a bitch!

4

CASSIUS CLAY / MUHAMMED ALI and Jehovah's mighty Lawyer

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

hayden covington cut short a legal presentation (draft case) for a jw brother from oklahoma (sam salamy) in 1967-mid trial because he had received a phone call from muhammad ali’s legal team who offered a quarter of a million dollars if he could get muhammed ali off in his ‘draft dodging’ court case.. only jw's whose families had enough money could afford to hire covington on reputation alone.

sam salamy ended up paying covington ten-thousand dollars and got convicted anyway.. hopping into the limelight, lawyer covington took the lazy way out suggesting muhammed ali should accept a guilty sentence and seek to make a deal with the prosecutor, morton susman, united states attorney.

in fact, he talked ali into requesting that the judge sentence him immediately!.

TerryWalstrom

Hayden Covington cut short a legal presentation (Draft case) for a JW brother from Oklahoma (Sam Salamy) in 1967-mid trial because he had received a phone call from Muhammad Ali’s legal team who offered a quarter of a million dollars if he could get Muhammed Ali off in his ‘Draft Dodging’ court case.

Only JW's whose families had enough money could afford to hire Covington on reputation alone. Sam Salamy ended up paying Covington ten-thousand dollars and got convicted anyway.

Hopping into the limelight, Lawyer Covington took the lazy way out suggesting Muhammed Ali should accept a guilty sentence and seek to make a deal with the prosecutor, Morton Susman, United States Attorney. In fact, he talked Ali into requesting that the Judge sentence him immediately!

It was this tactic which frustrated and upset Ali's first-hired attorney, Quinnan A. Hodges of Houston. It is also the reason Ali's handlers refused to pay Covington when all was said and done.

(Attorney M.W. Plummer and Attorney Chauncey Eskridge are the real legal heroes of the Ali story).

But first:

How was Covington's plan supposed to work?

Federal District Judge Joe E. Ingraham sentenced Clay to five years in prison and fined him $10,000. This was the maximum penalty for the offense, which is a felony.

The judge's sentence was pronounced immediately at Clay's request.

"I'd appreciate it," the 25-year-old boxer said, "if the court will do it now, give me my sentence now, instead of waiting and stalling for time."

Prosecutor Morton Susman and Hayden Covington had worked out a deal, but IT WAS NOT BINDING on the Judge! The Judge double-crossed him by refusing to grant probation.

New York Time news article: "Both Mr. Covington and Mr. Hodges asked Judge Ingraham to put Clay on probation. Failing that, said Mr. Covington, the former champion should not be given a sentence more severe than those given in similar cases. "That's 18 months," he said."

______________________

Follow this link:

https://books.google.com/books?id=K7gDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=Quinnan+A.+Hodges+and+muhammad+ali&source=bl&ots=ycWXV3cKtq&sig=skAogRLT8Ei4i4Q1YDBrD6o2SPM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBWoVChMI9YGxmZSDyAIVjhOSCh1CWQvF#v=onepage&q=Quinnan%20A.%20Hodges%20and%20muhammad%20ali&f=false

____________________________

How then, did Muhammad Ali avoid serving even ten minutes of incarceration?

The appeals process allowed his competent attorney M.W. Plummer to pursue the real problem in the case:

Ali's Draft Board didn't consider him to be sincere as a real minister

2. Ali failed the Army's intelligence test and did not qualify to serve

The Supreme Court in Clay v. United States reversed his conviction in 1971. (Ali’s birth name was Cassius Clay.)

“[T]he Department [of Justice] was simply wrong as a matter of law in advising that the petitioner’s beliefs were not religiously based and were not sincerely held,” the opinion said. Even though Ali prevailed 8-0 before the high court, Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong later reported in The Brethren that the justices initially voted against him, finding that he wasn’t really a conscientious objector and that he should go to jail. Apparently, one of Justice John Marshall Harlan’s law clerks loaned the justice a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Harlan read the book and changed his views on Black Muslims.
________________

Ali was the most famous person on planet Earth for many years.

He was larger than life, provocative, irrepressible and charismatic.

Had Ali not suffered brain damage and subsequent symptoms of Parkinson's disease, he could have had a powerful political influence on the world at large.

Instead, he became a historical icon and legendary boxing figure only later eclipsed by the ferocious legacy of Mike Tyson.

________________

What possible connection could this man have had with my life?

At around the same time I was facing imprisonment for being a conscientious objector (Vietnam War) Cassius Clay was converting to Islam and changing his name.

Clay/ Ali was a highly controversial figure at the time.

Although he never spent as much as ten seconds inside a jail cell, the enormous publicity of his situation brought intense public awareness to bear on the subject of refusing induction into the armed forces for reasons of conscience.

Covington was representing a Witness who would become a dear friend of mine in prison, a Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector who could afford his ten thousand dollar fee. Sam’s father owned several shoe stores in Oklahoma which Sam inherited upon release after his father died.
Sam himself died suddenly of a heart attack at a backyard barbecue after he had finished parole, married and carried on as a faithful JW.

The irony is this, most JW's ended up serving two years or more while Ali received NO prison time at all.

How did this help me?

When I was sentenced to SIX years (under the Youth Corrections Act) I entered jail in a situation where prisoners looked upon conscientious objectors through the lens of Muhammed Ali.

They already understood and did not automatically consider the matter a case of cowardice. That was a big help to me. The hard time JW's were given was less severe, I believe, because Ali was a strong masculine figure seemingly in the same situation.

____________

_____________

I confess to being a boxing fan. As horrible as boxing is, it was the only "manly" sport I ever knew and shared with a male figure in my life, my Uncle Jack, when I was a boy.

Ali was outrageously self-promoting and played no small part in giving pre-Civil-Rights black communities a sense of public pride in his accomplishments and confrontational style.

He was simultaneously a complex personality sometimes badly manipulated by his mentors and an incredible hero to people of color all over planet Earth.

I'm sorry to hear of his death and his many years of suffering in silence when he was the most outspoken personality of modern times.

R.I. P.

4

Terry's HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES

by TerryWalstrom in

once upon a time in hollywood.

i lived in los angeles in the 70’s and 80’s.

the idea was to create a career involving art.

TerryWalstrom

My Jehovah's Witness life was a tiny world. I was suffocating in a drab, gray existence. I was a mule hitched to Jehovah's plow.
I was blinkered.
Once I broke away, moved away, allowed experiences and people (non-JW) into my everyday existence, I pushed up through the concrete like a flower through a sidewalk.

4

Terry's HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES

by TerryWalstrom in

once upon a time in hollywood.

i lived in los angeles in the 70’s and 80’s.

the idea was to create a career involving art.

TerryWalstrom

It was a different world, different times and a different life. I sometimes think the whole thing was a dream :)

4

Terry's HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES

by TerryWalstrom in

once upon a time in hollywood.

i lived in los angeles in the 70’s and 80’s.

the idea was to create a career involving art.

TerryWalstrom

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

I lived in Los Angeles in the 70’s and 80’s. The idea was to create a career involving Art. Before the big leap to the coast, I was an artist living in Fort Worth, Texas. There I worked awful, dispiriting jobs with zero opportunity. After all, I was in a religious organization ( only later did I realize it was a cult) which discouraged higher education, careers, material possessions, etc.
The idea was to make good my escape to another part of the planet! The planet California!

At first, I lived in Cucamonga, at the foot of Mount Baldy close to the Kaiser Steel plant where my Uncle Wally “worked.” Notice the quote marks?
Wally was a union employee. Union regulations required Wally to simply BE THERE in case something went awry during the night. Wally loved his “job.” All day long he would frolic until time for “work.” Then, he’d arrive at the Kaiser plant, punch the clock and go down to the furnaces and . . .go to sleep!
Yep. He was paid an incredible salary to sleep. He got 6 weeks of vacation each year and mucho benefits! He was my hero!
______________
I applied for many art-related jobs.
Hanna-Barbera animation studios, Universal Studios, Columbia Pictures and finally, art manufacturing companies. Did you notice the word “manufacturing”?
That’s right.
I was hired as a kind of hack artist working in a long row with other artists painting the same images over and over. Our paint was acrylic (water soluble) on canvas, masonite, and 3-dimensional sculptures attached to a canvas.
This was Production Art.
These paintings were sold all over the U.S. to furniture stores, Banks, health spas, corporate offices--wherever people with no taste could be convinced the artwork was “collectible.”
Was it “collectible”? Sure, the way dust on your furniture is collectible.

It was good-looking schlock!
However, I made great friends in that studio. These were friends who would last a lifetime.
In fact, the lead designer started his own legitimate art business and invited me to be his art production manager!
One proviso, however! I had to move from Cucamonga (smog infested suburb) to the South Bay on the coast of California.

“Yes, please!”
Redondo Beach, for me and my wife and three children, was paradise on Earth compared to Fort Worth, Texas!
As the years passed, I progressed from a Master Inker in that Etching Atelier (RnR Graphics) to working in a Beverly Hills Art Gallery (Billy Hork Gallery) and finally as an art consultant in Culver City close to MgM Studios.

I was an art consultant with Creative Galleries where hundreds of celebrities from the movie industry passed through on a regular basis. This was amazing to my smalltown mind :)
Many remarkable experiences came my way.
_____________

One day, two men walked into Creative Galleries and came back to my office. They looked harried and slightly upset.

“Excuse me, I’m Joe Kroesser and this is my partner, Mel Johnson. We work down the street at MgM Studios as set decorators on the TV show, CHiPs. I hate to bother you, but could we please use your telephone? “

As you may have guessed, this was l-o-n-g before cell phones.
I handed him the phone and he handed it to his partner, Mel. As Mel spoke on the phone, Joe settled in and we began a cozy conversation.

“Our car broke down in front of a little used Auto place a couple of blocks away. We called the studio and requested another vehicle and waited over an hour and nobody showed up. So, Mel and I decided we’d walk down here and get done what we needed to get done; which is getting what we need for a scene the Director wants to shoot in the morning.”
I could hear his partner Mel shouting at some poor secretary in the background.
Joe continued, “It’s lunch time at the studio and nobody wants to do a damned thing because of Union rules! But--this has turned out great for Mel and me. The show (CHiPs) crashes a lot of cars as you might imagine, and it is a budget buster. So, I suddenly had this bright idea! I talked to the owner of that little car lot. I said to him, ‘Hey, how many cars do you have and would you like to rent them to the studio?’ And the owner tells me and we agree on a figure which is HALF what we’re spending!”

As it turned out, Joe Kroesser was a real hustle-bustle kind of guy. He had so many ideas for making money on the side he couldn’t contain them all!

Joe and Mel had set up several side businesses as a kind of 'broker." Here is how it worked.
They formed West Coast _____(fill in the blank)___ Corporation.

If they needed cars, for example, they’d rent old junkers for West Coast Car Rental Corporation. The cars were purchased by MgM Studios--NOT from the actual source--but from Mel and Joe unbeknownst!
Mel and Joe made a profit above and beyond their salary naturally.

Right then and there, Joe suggested to his pal Mel they start West Coast Art Sales Corporation.
They would buy the art from Creative Galleries and sell it to themselves. Then, they would pretend to rent it from their "front" company. After the art was used for the scenes they needed it for---they would return the 'rented' art to themselves and resell it.

They did this not only with art but everything else the show needed to set a scene.
I asked Joe if it was “legal.”
He crafted an amazing smile and proceeded to explain it to me.

“Everybody who works in the movie business has two jobs. First their own and second, a side business. The studios have “creative” bookkeeping to hide the millions and millions of dollars that cycle through from advertisers, product placement specialists, jewelry dealers, photographers, modeling agencies, talent agents--you name it. When a show like ours is a sudden success, a huge budget is awarded the line producer and he has to make all of it disappear! If he doesn’t spend his budget, the money is decreased for the next season.”
I felt like a kid at the circus talking to the Ringmaster about the highwire act as I sat and listened to Joe Kroesser.

His partner, Mel, was not as loquacious but he was just as friendly and real as Joe. For some unaccountable reason or another, the three of us became fast buddies. Joe liked working with people who could advise him in areas he didn’t know. My specialty was art.

In the course of three years, Joe referred his Studio pals to me, to acquire art from me as a commissioned sales Art Consultant. I started making pretty good money! I met all kinds of actors, Tv people, Directors, etc.
I met a wide range of people.
In no particular order, the ones who come to mind, Spielberg, Tobe Hooper, Cheryl Kearney, David Hardberger, Bo and John Derek, Tim Conway, Peggy Lee, Anne Ditchburn, Geoffrey Lewis, Tom Laughlin, Karl Malden, Richard Chamberlain, Paul Henreid, Harry and Susan Sukman, Robert Cornthwaite, Kenneth Tobey, Keenan Wynn, Gordon Mills, Robert Nelson, Dick Zimmerman, Alan Rich, John Travolta, Marylu Henner, Dustin Hoffman . . and I’ll remember more later but have blanked out for now :)

Most of these names won’t mean anything to people who aren’t my age. They meant something to me, however. I’m a fan--a maven--a kind of nerd who KNOWS these things. I could probably tell a separate story about each one of those people if somebody was fool enough to ask me :)
_______

On my 35th birthday in 1982, Joe surprised me with a stretch limousine and chauffeur heading to MGM studios in Culver City, to observe in person an episode of CHiPS as it was shot on the soundstage.

Joe K. provided me with a V.I.P. pass.

My driver puttered up to the gate next to the guard shack. The electric window purred down and I flashed my pass. The guard gave me the once-over and nodded. We glided on down between the various shooting stages toward a very large barn-shaped metal building.
My little Fort Worth, small town kid inside was eye-popping at everything I had seen on the silver movie screen all my life till now--I was actually inside the dream bubble myself!

I was cautioned by Joe in advance. As a set decorator and he knew how the system worked. "Whatever you do--don't acknowledge anything said to you. Especially if you are told to get out. Looky-loos annoy the hell out of everybody. Professionals hate 'em.”

Joe had impressed upon me: “One false slip and they’ll have you tossed out on your ass or arrested. You don’t want that to happen on your birthday--right?” I nodded like a dental patient.

"When the assistant Director kicks everybody out--just stand there looking very important. You most likely won’t be challenged."

“Why, Joe?”

“Producers are like little gods in their own mind. They consider themselves indispensable and very important. To NOT be recognized is an insult. More than one A.D. has been sacked for crossing one of these self-important shits.”

With much trepidation, I sucked up my courage and followed his instructions to the letter.

Would it work? I was all by myself. Joe would not be with me to vouchsafe my passage.
Once inside the soundstage I looked around and it was teeming with Union workers everywhere in a spill of snakelike coils of wires, cables, lights, curtains, hustle-bustle, and noise.
Joe had advised me to stand about ten feet behind the line-of-sight of the cinematographer and to remain motionless. It was imperative I not cough, sneeze, make any motions or speak!

The A.D.(Assistant Director) was supposed to have been a friend of Joe’s named Denny Salvaryn. Yet, here on the set itself was a tough, no-nonsense woman with a utility belt and a clipboard, sounding like the Drill Sergeant in Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET. Was she an AAD assistant to the assistant director?

I had on a suit and I hid my trembling hands behind my back, had my eyebrows arched, and an insolent Elvis sneer on my lips. I stared imperiously at the A.A.D. and looked straight through her as she aggressively marched up to all the non-essential personnel and barked at them. I could hear “Clear out--clear the set for a take.”

Finally, she stopped, swung her body around like a territorial Bengal tiger might do and her eye landed on my solitary figure.

Big gulp! “Steady on big fella, you can do this. You can do this.” I advised myself.

I feigned boredom and attempted to exude jungle cat ferocity, but--I'll tell you straight out--my widdle heart was pounding away like a blacksmith with a hot hammer!

The A.A.D. eyeballed me non-confrontationally and never said a word. I’m guessing she knew from experience, anybody who wasn’t supposed to be there would get the hell out.
Was I about to be tossed out? I prayed it just wasn’t worth the marginal danger to her career to ask me if I was supposed to be standing here. . . was it?
Nope, she pivoted off to the right and passed me by within a comfortable zone of deference between us. She was as scared of me as I had been of her!
I WAS IN!!

The guest Director that week was John Astin (Gomez) of Addams Family fame. It was a Halloween episode being filmed in January!! One of the guest stars was Cassandra Peterson (Elvira Mistress of the Dark) and the sound stage was filled with the weirdest assortment of actors and supernumeraries you could imagine! Highway Patrol parties looked like fun!

The A.D. blew her whistle like a volleyball coach and deathly silence reigned supreme. I prayed I wasn't standing in the wrong spot.
Director John Astin nodded and the whistle blew again. It must have been the signal for "ACTION!"

The sound stage came alive with noise, movement, and a tiny Indian Runner motorcycle ridden by a "little person" in a CHiPS uniform. My eyes were as big as UFO's. The male star, Eric Estrada was dancing with Elvira and the scene was shot about five times in a row from several angles and distances.
Hurly burly and madness--silence--back on the marks--rinse and repeat. It was pure magic!
_____________

That was among my favorite all-time memories. It was a wonderful birthday present.

I was invited by Set Decorator Joe Kroesser another time.

It was in Agoura. This is where Joe himself lived. He told me Agoura flat and sprawling and had been used a lot in Westerns in the past. Among the TV shows shot there had been a favorite of mine as a kid, SKY KING.

On this day, a small airport was the scene.

Evel Knievel Jr. was going to do a wild stunt by jumping over a WWI biplane (flown by legendary stunt flyer, Frank Tallman) on his motorcycle.

There had to have been at least 200 people standing around waiting to shoot this scene. Why weren't they shooting already? What was the problem? The director was super angry.

Joe told me.

Eric Estrada was holding production up! He had a really big ego by this time. He acted like King of the World. All because of Saturday Night Fever's popularity.

The show's writers saw the extraordinary interest in Disco becoming a national sensation. So, they wrote a silly episode around Estrada in a similar disco dance routine as had made John Travolta a superstar. Overnight, as they say.

It worked like dynamite!

Eric Estrada was launched as the superstar and the CHiPS budget was quadrupled!

Since Estrada knew he was responsible for all that money being thrown at the production, he took full advantage. He became the male Prima Donna!

On this particular day, about 45 minutes late, a limousine pulled up in the muddy ruts of the airfield. While hundreds of crew members stood with their jaws agape, Estrada and a very, very Bimboesque (worse for wear) blonde stumbled out as "Ponch" marched her in front of all the men's envious eyes. She was wearing high heels in the grass and mud and each time she pulled her heel unstuck she would--um--bounce a little. (Or a lot!)

Frantically, make-up artists ran over and seized Ponch and dragged him into a trailer. About half an hour later, he emerged looking exactly the same--but--in uniform.

The biplane engine roared to a start. Evel Junior revved his engine on the motorbike. A practice run-through was commenced. The timing and coordination were choreographed to the half-second! Every single element was planned to perfection for the jump to work. The cycle had to hit the ramp at a precise instant to gain altitude enough to clear the overshoot. The cycle would go over the top of the biplane exactly as it crossed low enough to the ground to allow it to pass.

Let me cut to the chase!

The signal to begin was a loud starter pistol. At the "Bang!" the clockwork stunt commenced, worked the miracle and ended before you could say, "Bob's yer Uncle."

Estrada had a single line on camera. Then, he and his arm candy paraded once again back to their limo and zipped off to--each of us had our own imagined destination in mind.

When I watched the scene play out on TV some years later, it looked like nothing!
In fact, it looked easily as though it could be faked. But--it wasn't!

A fortune was spent on all that nonsense. Lesson learned. It didn’t matter what risk or details went into a scene; if it didn’t play that way onscreen--it was a waste of time and money.
TV productions burned money like you wouldn’t believe!
____

From 1977-83 Joe made a great living with his double-dealing "props for sale" side business. It was great fun knowing him.

He invited me to his house. It was quite lavish. He was a lonely divorced man living alone in a sprawling ranch house. He threw parties and invited attractive women. He tried to live the Hollywood life and trade on his "fame."

Well, it didn't seem to do him all that much good with the ladies. Sure, he could get a beautiful date, but he’d oversold his connection to fame and fortune and you could easily see the expression on her face. She would search the room for Eric Estrada or somebody--anybody important!
You see, everybody who has even the slightest connection to Hollywood, the movies, TV, the studio will live in that magnified dream bubble of extraordinary expectations. If and when FAME arrives, it can disappear before they even know it has gone forever.

We all know what happened to Estrada when his stardom turned to cow plop.

He became a self-joke. He'd pop up in TV commercials as a parody of his CHiPS character. He was about 50 pounds heavier.
Joe and Mel were parted when Mel Johnson died suddenly. Here and gone.
Joe became disconsolate and his drinking added a lot of weight to his already portly figure.
I didn’t hear from him for awhile. One day there was a message on my answerphone. I could hear the loneliness in his voice. He rambled on for a few seconds and said he’d call back. He never did. I left California in 1983 and never saw him again.

He went on to work on about ten more TV shows, but only one movie. He had referred to MOTEL HELL as a “major motion picture” on his business card and resume’ and I had to laugh at that.
He was a colorful character and I still think of him now and then.

Such are the people, events, and memories of my California days all those years ago!

I try and tell these stories from time to time just to remind myself of the details. It’s more for my enjoyment than yours, I guess.

___________
End

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Missing: my history of Topics and posts going back 10 years?

by TerryWalstrom in

i've noticed a comprehensive revision to this board in reference to the history of topics and posts.there has been a total reboot.are my 1700 topics gone forever or is there a repository someplace?thanks.

TerryWalstrom

Simon, don't bother about it. It's not an inconvenience to me the way it is. I had simply forgotten I'd used two different e-mail addresses to sign in.

Thanks

TerryWalstrom

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