JWs and the Roman Catholic thing

by Band on the Run 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Band on the Run

  My father learned to hate Catholics at home (A Russian Orthodox mining town) and at Bethel. He seemed to have no fervor pouncing on a Protestant. Preaching against Catholics at work put him on notice that he would be fired if he continued. His colleague's wives actually called my mom and described the somatic symptoms their husbands were experiencing. They begged her to intervene. He would not watch TV or even hear his beloved Yankees play. Countless hours were spent with WT lit while he outlined how Catholics deserved to die. In fact, a nun was raped in the local church. The whole neighborhood was beside itself. How could God allow it? My father remarked to a friend of my mom whose husband worked at the church that she absolutely deserved to be raped for being a nun.

  Can anyone explain why the hatred of Catholics and the almost love of Lutherans,etc? One factor could be the unity and size of the Catholic Church. Attacking the beliefs of every reformed church would be too much.

  Was my father atypical? His family came from a region in Europe where tensions between Eastern Rite CAtholics and the Russian Orthodox Church are heightened.

  Someone posted to get even with the KH folk by placing cheap rosary beads around the KH doorknob. I laughed so hard.
• 

  blond-moment

  Judge Rutherford, apparently had a special hatred for Catholics. Since he really is the founder of the JWs (having hijacked it from Russell) you can see his fingerprints all over it.
• 

  glenster

  See the parts about Rutherford and Catholics on the pages at the next two
  links.
  http://glenster1.webs.com/gtjbrooklyn6.htm
  http://glenster1.webs.com/gtjbrooklyn6a.htm
• 

  dropoffyourkeylee

  a couple of observations:

  Rutherford had a personal vendetta against Catholicism, which almost took a life of its own with an on-air radio rivalry between Rutherford and Father Coughlin. Father Coughlin and Rutherford hated each other and many of the Rutherford barbs against Catholics were digs at Coughlin. Not defending Coughlin; he was definitely strange.

  Another aspect of the Society's anti-Catholic stance in the early days was the roots of the Russell movement came out of Adventism, which in the 1800's was mostly a Protestant phenomenon in the Northeast US. Adventism inherited the anti-Catholic feelings that were pervasive from the colonial period thru the 1800's
• 

  blondie

  Rutherford and his crew went to prison due partly to Catholic Judge Manton.

  According to Wills, Rutherford emerged from prison in 1919 bitter against the world and the collusion he saw between the clergy and military that had secured his imprisonment. Soon after his release he coined the term "Satan's organization" to refer to this supposed conspiracy. [177] In Watchtower articles Rutherford was similarly scathing towards big business , politics and the League of Nations . [178] Rogerson describes Rutherford's attitude towards the clergy—his avowed enemies—as "unadulterated hatred". [70] His attacks on clergymen, particularly those of the Catholic Church , from the late 1920s were strong enough to attract a ban on his broadcasts by the NBC radio network , which condemned his "rabid attack upon organized religion and the clergy".

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Franklin_Rutherford

  http://www.gtft.org/BibleStudents/FHRobisonJailed.html

  The case went to trial on June 5, with Isaac R. Oeland and Charles J. Buchner, a Roman Catholic, as prosecutors. During the trial, as Brother Rutherford observed, Catholic priests frequently conferred with Buchner and Oeland.

  Circuit Judge Martin T. Manton, an ardent Roman Catholic, refused a second appeal for bail on July 1, 1918. When the federal court of appeals later reversed the judgment of the defendants, Manton cast the one dissenting vote. It is noteworthy that on December 4, 1939, a specially constituted appellate court upheld the conviction of Manton for abuse of judicial power, dishonesty, and fraud.
• 

  botchtowersociety

  It goes back a lot farther than Rutherford. JWism is an American religious movement stemming from millenarian/restorationist/adventist movements of the 1800s started by the likes of William Miller and others. JWism's antiCatholic roots run deep in Protestant American culture.
• 

  rebel8

  ^exactly. There are lots of Protestants with at least as much anti-Catholic seething hatred as the dubs have.

  Not that this makes it ok or anything.
• 

  Band on the Run

  Oh, I read a lot of colonial and Federalist history. Catholics were considered beyond the pale socially. They were outcasts with Jews. In fact, I read English history, too, and popery is all over the place. People note that a majority of the Supreme Court is now Catholic. No one said anything when it was 100% Protestant. It was unthinkable for a Catholic to serve on the Court until recently. JFK's triumph must have paved the way.

  It seems that when I read church doctrine history there is a Catholic timeline; I rarely find any detailed analysis of Lutherans, Baptists, Mennonites, Presbyterians, or Anglicans. Wikipedia helps some. I find it all very confusing. Luther and Calvin confuse me. I expect we aren't allowed to study religion in public school. I sense that it explodes with Luther.

  If anyone knows a good read on these Protestant groups, I'd appreciate it.
• 

  dropoffyourkeylee

  One of the books which started my exit was:

  The Encylopedia of American Religions, editor J Gordon Melton Volume II, 1989

  for some reason, though simply an encylopedia, it opened an entire new understanding about the JW religion and its roots for me
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  Did you know: Eastern Orthodox considers the Roman Catholic Church the first protestant church? The Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Anglican church actually are truer to the original church than the RCC. I just found this out in the past two years.