EdenOne, I am devoting my one post to you, so I expect more than mere craven gratefulness in return, lol:
your point about the "noo light" is how Russell cheated those other pastors? Ok, point taken, you're right, I was wrong. Can we move on now?
Good. Yes, of course we can.
So I deduced right - you'd misunderstood what scandal I was referring to. Indeed, that one article contained the makings of two or three scandals involving Russell. One of those was "noo light" in the so-called "apostate" (i.e., truth-telling) community.
Remember, this is a fellow who'd been hinting like anything in his scribblings that he was God-appointed as the Faithful & Discreet Slave (he made it so drippingly obvious in ZWT and SiS that even his most moronic reader couldn't have failed to get the hint), and here he is setting-up, using financial chicanery and complex dealing which the layperson wouldn't even begin to comprehend, four unsuspecting local priests, all highly opposed to him, to be trustees for real estate he's using in order to conceal his wealth and thus swindle his wife, therefore scoring a double victory.
What sort of person is that? He's laughing at anyone stupid enough to believe he is "discreet"! Secretive, sly, underhand and cunning, yes - discreet, anything but!
Now, you put forward as evidence of something that Maria had placed flowers at Russell's funeral in 1916.
You put that forward for a reason.
You know, and I know, and furthermore you know I know what that reason was.
I've already explained why she did this, and why nothing is to be deduced from it other than it was almost exactly a century ago, when society's mores were different.
But I'll give you better evidence of Maria's true feelings towards Charles T.
I have proof that at the beginning of April 1913 Mrs Russell was in Canada, sitting in Court ready to give evidence against her husband.
In what matter?
In his attempted libel suit against his most determined adversary, the great Rev'd J. J. Ross!
Yes, Maria was going to testify on behalf of her husband's greatest enemy, the Rev'd Ross's, basically that Ross's scandalous pamphlet about Russell was true.
Russell had been blustering about it being lies, and that had it been printed in the States he'd have taken action, etc. - so the astute Reverend Ross sent Russell the money for the trip to Hamilton in Ontario, received once Russell returned from the West Indies.
I guess Rev'd Ross sent Maria money for her to come too, but that is purely a guess. The fact remains that she was not obliged to come - there was no Canada->USA subpeona - and she chose to come.
Russell came too, and the lawsuit was duly thrown out with a "No Bill" decision - it refused to consider a case for criminal libel against Rev'd Ross. So there was no need for Maria to testify. Alas, as it would have provided even more evidence.
Now, I take it you realize the absurdity (I'm being polite, here) of you mentioning this 'left flowers at his funeral', given the significance of her willingness to testify on behalf of Russell's greatest and most fearsome opponent.
Yes, I have direct evidence of her presence. You will have to wait for it, I am not going to go out of sequence here.
btw, I am not here mainly to argue. Like Jeeebus, I am here to turn brother against Brother, sister against Sister, etc. But I have to instruct you that I am probably one of the few sane (well, reasonably sane) people alive who have read all Russell's scribblings - and he was a prolific scribbler. Incredibly prolific. All six Studies in Scriptures, and all the Zion's Watchtowers (&HoCP) etc.
You clearly haven't. I am lucky to still be sane after doing that - years ago - spread over months.
Russell wrote competently too, in terms of grammar, structure, syntax, idiom.
His English was almost as good as mine.
But I use language to communicate. Russell did it to obfuscate and complicate. And fill pages, recycling old material with minor changes. Sometimes as many as half-a-dozen times, whole big sections of text - he'd wait say five years, and then reprint pages of the old nonsense again, with minor alterations, and trusting no one would notice. So the same poor brainwashed Russellites paid for the same worthless pap again and again.
What else Russell was seeking to accomplish was evident to me.
To bemuse and befuddle his reader, to get them to completely accept him as their Master... and then to further misdeeds which I won't refer to now, because I want to produce my evidence in the order I want to produce it - and not in response to your challenges.
He was clearly not stupid, though not as smart as Maria.
Therefore his culpability is even greater than that of brash bombastic blowhards like Rutherford or filthy perverts like Knorr.
Russell had the intelligence to know better, and thus to do better. He did not use it, and this was his choice. He chose to be a rogue. Like F.Franz, he deserves the very highest punishment possible.
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Focus
("J. J. Ross" Class)