THE SAD BALLAD OF HAYDEN C. COVINGTON (Attorney of record for the Watchtower Organization)

by Terry 14 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  OrphanCrow

  Terry: Notice how this UNTRUTH is presented:
  ..........Moyle quit, and left Brother Rutherford holding the bag.

  Lol! You had to bring up Olin, didntya, Terry? How could you not when speaking of Rutherford and Covington?

  Sure..."Moyle quit". Sure, if you buy the fairy tales that spew forth from the WTS.

  But, for an better look at Moyle's role back in the 30s and 40s, here is a link to

  the transcripts of the Olin R. Moyle Trial that was concluded in 1943.

  https://archive.org/details/OlinR.MoyleTrial

  Olin R. Moyle v. Fred Franz et al (1943). Complete transcript of this landmark trial and includes background. Moyle sued the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society) for libel and was awarded damages. Includes testimony from several notable Watchtower leaders.

  And another link to the WTS' attack on Olin Moyle:

  https://archive.org/details/1941WatchtowerConventionCondemnsOlinR.Moyle

  1941 Watchtower Convention Condemns Olin R. Moyle. Scan of the resolution adopted by the Assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses in St Louis, Missouri condemning Olin R. Moyle. In 1939, Moyle resigned as legal counsel for Jehovah's Witnesses in a letter criticizing "Judge" J.F. Rutherford, second president of Jehovah's Witnesses. Rutherford published statements against Moyle which were held to be libelous in US Courts and Moyle was awarded $15,000 in damages. The Convention resolution against Moyle was mentioned in a 1941 Watchtower magazine issue (which is also included in this file).

  The St. Louis Assembly held in the summer of 1941 was one of the "Children of The King" assemblies. The one where the WTS had 15,000 children registered, 1,300 children baptized and all 15,000 pledge allegiance to the Watchtower Society. Those were the children that Covington used to challenge the US pledge of allegiance and it was their refusal to salute the flag or pledge allegiance that the 1943 Barnette Scotus ruling emerged from. Right smack dab in the middle of WW2.

  The "Children of the King" assemblies were the last speaking tour that the Judge made - he died in January of 1942.
  http://exjehovahswitnessforum.yuku.com/reply/349311/Pure-indoctrination-its-NOT-cute-at-all#reply-349311
  

  
  
  
• 

  Terry

  Covington was surprisingly naive about anything/ everything going on in Bethel BEFORE he came on board. If he was told Moyle had cut and run, you can count on Covington to believe that's exactly what happened. He knew almost nothing about what was previously taught (under Russell) and didn't care to know.
  
  The key to understanding the Rutherford years is pretty much tied up in the personality of J.F. Rutherford and his relationships with others. He was a slash and burn leader with fulminations, expostulations, and no recriminations :)
  
  Moyle is prima facie evidence of Sociopathy on the part of the Watchtower President.
• 

  Terry

  Using the inflation calculator, Moyle sued the Watchtower and J.F.Rutherford for $50,000.00 each which in today's money is $857,251.80. The total of his lawsuit would = 2 X $857,251.80 or $1,714,503.60

  Olin Moyle was awarded: $30,000.00 in today's money = $514,351.08, but later reduced to half. or roughly a quarter of a million dollars. (plus interest!)

  _______________________________________

  
  

  I love this part, where Rutherford is hysterical with righteous indignation:

  
  

  "Now, I say this to you, Moyle, you have allied yourself with the Devil; you have willingly, without any just cause or excuse even, withdrawn yourself from the Lord's organization, and you are going back to the Devil's organization to engage in the practice of law. I have never known any man to withdraw from the Lord's organization and go into the Devil's organization, that ended up right. When you say you want to continue to fight for the Lord, there is not a person in this presence that believes a word of that. Henceforth you shall never represent the Watchtower by my consent. This Resolution has been adopted. I shall follow it. You have served notice to leave September 1. You need not wait but move out of the house this day. If you wish to join the enemy and fight, do so. I have no use for a quitter. You are a quitter. You have furnished as an excuse that the president of this organization has not conducted the Society according to your ideas, and I don't think your ideas are Scriptural. In the 4 years that you have been here, I have never heard you ask or answer a single Bible question in the Bethel home. Any man that pretends to be of the Lord's organization, and who does not attend the studies and does not engage in the spiritual discussion in this home, but who devotes himself to his general work, and then goes about talking with others to cause discord and to find fault with the organization, cannot be in the truth. I shall read this letter to the family or have it read. You may be present; if you wish to defend yourself. Henceforth I shall expect you to ally yourself with those who oppose the Society as long as I am here."
  
• 

  OrphanCrow

  Terry: The key to understanding the Rutherford years is pretty much tied up in the personality of J.F. Rutherford and his relationships with others. He was a slash and burn leader with fulminations, expostulations, and no recriminations.

  That is true.

  I also think that key to understanding the Rutherford years is looking at how it played out against the social and poilitical backdrop of its time.

  At the same time that the Rutherford/Covington/Moyle drama was being played out in the American legal system, the "children of the king" were standing up in schoolrooms refusing to salute the flag. And, over in Germany, Erich Frost was turning in the WT people he didn't like to the Nazis. (Instead of Covington in the court room, the German Watchtower, in 1933, employed two lawyers who were members of the Nazi party.)

  Historians state several resons why the JWs in the German camps were treated better after 1942 - mainly, the intervention of Heinrich's widow and Dr. Kersten - but, another event that was critical, I think, was Rutherford's death. And the taking over of the WTS presidency by Nathan Knorr - a man with wealthy family connections in Germany.

  In 1942, the control of the WTS changed from a bully who was a mortal enemy of Hitler to a man with German roots and influence.
• 

  Terry

  If I take three giant steps backwards and look at the many layers of bureaucracy which make up the Watchtower

  Organization today and lay that side by side with the Org in the time of Rutherford, WHAT A STARK DIFFERENCE there is to behold!

  Legally speaking, today's Org is lawyered up to the gills.

  There are firewalls galore.

  Indemnity is the flag which flies highest on the pole.

  We have in contemporary Witnessdom a plausible deniability policy with a Cheshire grin.

  Instead of a few stalwart super-lawyers of the magnitude of Hayden C. Covington, there are faceless hirelings by the busload, skittering about on their little rat claws doing the bidding of hooded figures weilding scythes.