by Room 215 2 Replies latest jw friends
Hi all,
For an organization that extols the virtues of a strong family-- and rightly so -- it's astonishing how murky the family histories of the first two presidents are. Russells domestic headaches with his wife are controversial and to this day far from fully documented by historians.
Ditto Rutherford, and that includes his parenting of a son by the name of Malcolm, I believe.
Has any historian done any extensive work on these aspects of the Society's history?
Not being an expert, I can only go by what I am able to glean, but one 'fact' about Russell surprised me a year or two ago. I hadn't known of it before but I was reading through the Watchtower of the early 1900s and came across a leading article written by Russell himself in which he defends himself in the light of his wife Maria's legal disputes with him.
He makes reference to the state of his marriage and his conduct during their time together and then states that the marriage was never consummated. This, of course, is highly unusual, to say the least, and hardly the conduct of a man respecting the institution of marriage. It may go some way to understanding why he and Maria had an unhappy mariage. It also adds extra poignancy to the charges at the time raised against him of his conduct with a Bethelite young woman assigned as his 'housekeeper'.
As for Joe Ratherflawed, well! He lived apart from his wife and child and when he lived at Beth-Sarim, she still did not join him. This is alluded to in the whitewash of his reign in the Proclaimers book.
Thus we have the two major leaders of the organisation of JWs who have private lives that are not 'beyond reproach' and would disqualify them from office in the modern-day organisation which they founded.
Cheers,
Ozzie
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous
: Has any historian done any extensive work on these aspects of the Society's history?
Not to the extent that you'd like, but there are several books in preparation that cover much of their personal relationships. It'll be a couple of years before they're done.
AlanF
