by cabasilas 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I just got this in from ebay this week. It's a 1956 article by Father Neil G. McCluskey, S.J. on the Witnesses. I thought it interesting from a historical perspective so I've put it online. It's at:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/mccluskey.html
I might have said a few things differently but parts of it are a fun read.
Cabasilas
Thank you for presenting this rather unique historical perspective, Cabasilas.
I am curious about the wine vs. grape juice controversy he mentions as one of the near-schisms in the Bible Student history. There are still a number of Baptist churches that are duking it out on the same subject, but I hadn't heard about it being a significant argument among the Jehovah's Witnesses.
[Dilaceratus]
In the market place there will always be crowds of the simple, the illiterate, the dejected, the novelty seekers, the under-privileged and the genuinely hungry for God to buy the wares of the Father Divines, Brother Robertses, Prophet Joneses, Sister Aimees and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
What a condescending jerk in a penguin suit is this McCluskey! He mocks JW doctrines only on the basis of them being so different from orthodoxy. Like a pimply-faced school-yard bully who gets off on name-calling, McCluskey makes no attempt to qualify how the JWs have succeeded in twisting the scriptures to make their theology credible. No, in his eyes, you have to be stupid to buy all that.
McCluskey clucks away that JWs are all simple-minded. What an insult! If that were true, none of us would ever have figured out what was wrong with the religion now, wouldn't we?
INQ
I wondered about the grape juice/wine statement. I believe Russell as a tee-totatler would have permitted grape juice. And I'd wonder if Rutherford would have preferred wine. But, I'm unaware of this as a controversy. Anyone else?
For Inquisitor: I was troubled a bit by the closing myself. He does, however, say that the "genuinely hungry for God" are also attracted to the JWs. I missed where he "mocks JW doctrines only on the basis of them being so different from orthdoxy." His article is not a review of their theology but a description of them. He does note accurately that the religion does not appeal to the college educated.
Again, I'd have said some things differently myself.
In the mingled darkness and light of our world, even people thoroughly good and sincere can confuse the blurred truth with the real truth and the tawdry copy with the precious original.Ain't that the truth...
bttt
