I was just looking back over some of my old inquiries and got curious about mainstream articles written about JWs back when the public was, perhaps, a little more aware of who they were. A critical booklet by Leslie Rumble, "The Incredible Creed of Jehovah's Witnesses," written during the presidency of Knorr, said:
The Witnesses of Jehovah constitute one of the most vigorous and spectacular religious propagandist bodies of the present day. Throughout the world an army of persistent enthusiasts tramp from door to door, urging people to adopt their teachings as a matter of life and death. They claim to have made over a million converts in recent years, chiefly in America; and they have been written up in the "Saturday Evening Post," "Collier's Weekly" and the "Reader's Digest" as a phenomenon of both national and international importance.
So, I went looking.
I have read this quote from a 1940 Reader's Digest: "Jehovah's Witnesses hate everybody and try to make it mutual." Does anyone have more information on that?
There is a November 2, 1946 Collier's article, "Jehovah's Travelling Salesmen" by Bill Davidson which can be found HERE. It contains one brief account I found interesting, regarding one of the board of director's meetings, in Cleveland:
A group of eight old-time pioneer Witnesses. lead by fifty-nine-year-old Roy D. Goodrich, of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a member since 1919, tried to get up on the floor and accuse the board of directors of hypocrisy and of "setting up a dictatorship to rule the Witnesses," and of "establishing the same sort of religious heirarchy as the Roman Catholic heirarchy they condemn."
Brother Goodrich and company were excommunicated by personal letter before the hour was out. They tried to plead their case by distributing handbills outside the stadium. The rebels were immediately surrounded by 200 Witnesses who deliberately cut the canvas bags of Watchtowers from the insurgents' shoulders..."
The article also mentioned Beth Sarim being used by the board of directors as a "winter vacation rest spot" to keep it from becoming moldy while awaiting the return of the prophets.
VM44 posted--"Armageddon Inc" by Stanley High, The Saturday Evening Post, September 14, 1940.
At ebay there is a 1956 Coronetmagazine for sale containing an article by Norman M. Lobsenz entitled "The Embattled Witnesses". Is anyone familiar with it?
Anyone have anything else? Just curious. I find these glimpses of the past rather interesting.
~Merry