War is a Racket, by Smedley D Butler, 1935

by dropoffyourkeylee 2 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • dropoffyourkeylee
    dropoffyourkeylee

    I have just become aware of a book, published in the US in 1935, called 'War is a Racket', by Smedley D Butler, a former Marine Major General who was very critical of the US involvement in WW1. Since it was apparently a popular book at the time, and Butler was a prominent figure, I am wondering if Rutherford's adoption of the slogan 'Religion is a Snare and a Racket' may have been borrowed from Butler.

    If so, it wouldn't be the first time Rutherford drew upon familiar terms of the 20's and 30's to create slogans or WT articles.

  • Finkelstein
    Finkelstein

    Religion is a Snare and a Racket

    No truer statement to make after reviewing and analyzing the activity of the WTS/JWS religion.

    The JWS religion came out to be a organized act of corrupt charlatanism, J Rutherford was a pivotal figure in this Racket.

  • Earnest
    Earnest

    It seems unlikely to me, but not impossible.

    After Butler retired from the US Marine Corps in October 1931, he made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech "War is a Racket". The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version as a short book published in 1935.

    In 1938 when Rutherford came to England he organised a placard campaign preceding his lecture on "Face the Facts" at the Royal Albert Hall. In the biography of Albert Schroeder in The Watchtower, March 1, 1988, pp.10-17 Schroeder says (pp.13,14):

    To advertise the public talk, sandwich-sign parades were organized. Before the first information march was due to take place, Brother Rutherford asked to see me. While we were discussing convention matters, he was doodling with his pen, which at times he did when talking with someone. He peeled from a pad what he had written and handed it to me. “What do you think of that?” he asked.
    "RELIGION IS A SNARE AND A RACKET,” it read.
    “It looks blazing hot,” I replied.
    “I meant it to be strong,” he said. He then instructed that placards with this wording be made in time for our first convention information march Wednesday evening.

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