This video re-enactment of the 1975 debacle is
troubling on several levels, as many have stated here in this discussion. It
seems the most disturbing, offensive area we all agree on is the blatant
dishonesty, in view of all the recorded articles proving that the WT leadership
created this teaching and endorsed it right up to its abject failure.
Of the 7 GB members, Mark Sanderson being the
youngest would have made him about 10 years old in 1975; therefore, it had no
real impact on him a young kid at the time. However, the other six men range in
age from Samuel Herd around 82...down to Geoffrey Jackson about age 62 and
various ages in between. These men would all have full knowledge of the
teachings from GB 1.0 and lived through the feelings and reactions in the
congregations.
What I find disturbing is how galling it is that
they can try to distort the facts that are irrefutable as to the origin of this
teaching. Are these men that claim a special spiritual enlightenment and a
future “brother” of Christ so far fallen in their decency? Seriously, can they
look themselves in the mirror each morning and really feel no shame for these
fabricated and fraudulent videos?
On another note depending on where you lived and
how much a “true believer” you were, 1975 did receive a variety of responses.
Some continued living their lives as usual working, raising families, waiting
to see what would actually happen.
I
remember a brother, a friend of mine telling me when he was a kid, his father
bought a new house in early 1974.
The response from the congregation including his PO was scathing, along the
lines, “Are you crazy? Aren’t you listening to the talks and counsel coming
from the organization? You will never live in that house it’s only going to be
a distraction, where’s your faith? A few short years later that chastised
so-called “faithless” brother became the new Presiding Overseer, raising his
kids in that nice new home. The original PO who was involved in the
ridiculing fell away due to the 1975 fiasco.
Also,
I personally know of two family men each with young children at the time (11-14
yrs. old) who felt compelled due to their faith and interpretation of things to
sell their houses in 1973. The end never came. Over the years, they both
exhausted their savings by renting and day-to-day expenses and were unable to
re-enter the housing market. One is deceased the other is 87 years old still
paying rent from a measly government pension.
The GB
leadership whether today or 80 years ago has a lot to answer for; they have
indeed ruined a countless number of lives of people who were mostly sincere and
believed they were doing God’s will.
