1941 Watchtower Convention Resolution Condemning Moyle -- PDF!

cabasilas

Background:

When Olin R. Moyle wrote his letter of resignation to J.F. Rutherford in 1939 he really hit the Judge's nerve. For those who haven't read Moyle's letter, it can be viewed here:

http://www.freeminds.org/organization/rutherford/olin-moyle-resignation-letter-to-joseph-rutherford.html

Rutherford's reaction to Moyle's letter was to publicly defame Moyle before the Bethel family and in the columns of the Watchtower magazine. Moyle eventually sued the Watchtower Society and was awarded $15,000 in 1943. A good overview of the Moyle story is up at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olin_R._Moyle

Moyle was also named and condemned at an International Assembly of JWs. Recently, on another thread started by RR, someone quoted this statement from the September 15, 1941 Watchtower pages 285-286, describing a resolution adopted against Moyle at the 1941 Assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses in St Louis, Missouri. This was the last convention directed by Judge Rutherford before he died:

This same day a sharp judgment of the great Lawgiver against
the "evil servant" class (Matt. 24:48-51) was expressed at the
beginning of the afternoon’s sessions. An ex-army officer of the
United States appeared on the platform and asked and was granted
the privilege to present a Resolution concerning one Moyle.
Said lawyer proved unfaithful to his position of trust in the
Lord’s organization, slandered and abused the Bethel family at
Brooklyn, quit his post of duty, and thereafter sued the Society
and its board of directors and others for $100,000 for libel because
the facts were published in The Watchtower for the protection
of Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the land. The Resolution
condemned such course of action and such recourse to worldly
courts as unscriptural, unwarranted and unjustified. Put to a
vote, the Resolution was adopted with a unanimous "Aye" by the
vast assembly of more than 75,000. Thereafter copies of the
Resolution were given free to all, to take home with them.

I made the comment on that thread that I'd really like to read this resolution, which as far as I know has never been published elsewhere. I was contacted by a lurker on this Forum who offered to send me a copy of this Resolution from their personal collection and given permission to share it here at JWN. With help from Atlantis this Resolution along with documentation is available as a PDF.

For those interested, the PDF of the Resolution from the 1941 St Louis Convention condemning Moyle can be downloaded from this filesharing site:

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?
f=81dce6a7646d1cb7feb38c25c8fb49c4

Again, thanks to both my lurker friend and also to Atlantis for help in producing this PDF!

Lieu

JR was quite vindictive.

yknot

Great Colaboration Yall

Kudos Cabasilas, Atlantis and Awesome Lurker!

undercover

cabasilas

One thing that struck me in reading the Resolution from the Convention is that Moyle is portrayed as writing his letter against the officers of the WT Society, the Board of Directors, and the Bethel family. While that's partially true, the letter was actually more of a condemnation of J.F. Rutherford. I guess it removed some of the onus of such an unfavorable letter about JFR to spread it around equally to everyone at Bethel. It's just that it gives an inaccurate statement of what Moyle was trying to say.

valency

My Windows program will not allow that download. Is there some way to post it onto here so we could read it?

VM44

Very good! Thanks to cabasilas and also to the unknown lurker who provided this document.

"E.D. Orrell, one of Jehovah's witnesses, in attendance at the Theocratic Assembly of jehovah's witnesses in the interest of The THEOCRACY, offered a resolution which received the undivided attention of the Assembly,..."

Who was E.D. Orrell? Even though he "offered" the Resolution, I doubt very much if he was the author of it!

From the website SECRET JW LEGAL CASES - PAGE 4 OF 4 at http://jwemployees.bravehost.com/NewsReports/2034.html we learn a little about this person.

NEW YORK v. ORRELL and NORTH CAROLINA v. ORRELL ( times at least 3 ) were criminal court cases which involved a WatchTower Society "Agitator" named Eugene Dallas Orrell. Gene Orrell was a 29 year-old unmarried man when he joined the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1921. By only 1923, Orrell had managed to sufficiently distinguish himself amongst JWs to get invited to work at WatchTower world headquarters. There, Orrell quickly rose in the ranks all the way to "Bethel Servant" by only 1931-2. During that period, Orrell's living quarters were in the room adjacent to Judge Rutherford's private office. Bonnie Boyd and her mother were the only other persons who lived in that Seventh Floor complex of offices and apartments. Orrell related that Rutherford and he were "very" good friends, and occasional drinking buddies, in addition to their having an excellent working relationship. In fact, although his name has all but been forgotten, Gene Orrell was one of the most active WatchTower Society workers inside and outside Brooklyn headquarters from the late 1920s up until Judge Rutherford's death in 1942. In addition to being "Bethel Servant", Gene Orrell was used by Rutherford out in the field where and whenever a "loyal soldier" was needed. Orrell lectured all over the United States, and even performed special projects in the cities of Chicago and Philadelphia. By the late 1930s, at a time when there were many legal battles brewing, Orrell was serving in both Carolinas as a "Servant To The Brethren", or what would be a "District Overseer" today. Interestingly, however, when only about 50 years old, Orrell gradually dropped out of sight after Rutherford's death, and little if anything was heard of Orrell between then and his death thirty years later. I can't even locate anything which would indicate that any of his large family also were JWs. Gene Orrell's resume also includes being one of the three WatchTower Society "headcrackers" who were "miraculously"acquitted of felonious assault charges alleged to have occurred in the riot which developed during the infamous Rutherford speech at Madison Square Garden in June 1939. WatchTower Attorney, Olin Moyle, was so certain that Orrell would be convicted that Moyle recommended that Orrell plead "guilty" rather than go to trial. Interestingly, Orrell wanted to contest the charges, and Rutherford agreed, and arranged for Orrell to have a separate attorney. As it turned out, Orrell's assessment of the situation was better than Moyle's, who was an experienced trial attorney who had won before SCOTUS. These were part of the circumstances that led up to the Rutherford-Moyle blowup. In the summer of 1940, Gene Orrell was arrested at least three times in North Carolina (there were very likely many more). One of those court cases was especially interesting. Orrell, and some other JWs under his command, were arrested for distributing WatchTower literature without first securing a city permit, which cost only $1.00 per day, or $5.00 per year. This was before SCOTUS ruled that distributors of religious literature could not be required to obtain such permits. Thus, JWs all over the U.S. were testing such permit requirements, and were losing case after case in the local courts. What makes the Orrell case so interesting is that the local Superior court "miraculously" overturned Orrell's initial conviction. That local Judge ruled in Orrell's favor that the $1.00 city license requirement was "unconstitutional". That same Judge told Orrell that Orrell still should have went ahead and paid the $1.00 fee to obtain the city permit, even if such did violate Orrell's constitutional rights. That local low level Judge showed more common sense than did "Judge Rutherford". That Judge explained to Orrell, "I don't think that any true witness of Jehovah would make himself a nuisance. I do think they could advance their cause more graciously and effectively by complying with ordinances." Curiously, a different judge that handled Orrell's arraignment, when Orrell was initially arrested, later told a reporter that Orrell had told him that he was a Reserve Officer in the United States Army. It is not known whether Orrell stated this in open court, or whether this was something Orrell told the judge away from the proceedings, but in either case, that certainly gives one something to ponder. In fact, Gene Orrell was a WWI Veteran who, as an Officer in the U.S. Army, had been decorated for bravery

VM44

From the Watchtower article descibing the Saturday, August 9th day of the Assembly:

"The the scales fell from the listener's eyes as Judge Rutherford identified the 'northern king' as the ruling power which is totalitarian and represented in the Axis combine and opposing jehovah's Theocracy and its servants;.."

Were these "Judge Rutherford" worshipping people insane back then?

Mickey mouse

Bookmarking. Thank you.

Black Sheep

Well done guys and girls.

1941 Watchtower Convention Resolution Condemning Moyle -- PDF!

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