Few JW leader have children (page 2)

blondie

Rutherford son's name was Malcolm Cameron Rutherford. https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2014/12/more-on-malcom-cameron-rutherford.html

St George of England

Guy Pierce:- Our brother and dear friend is survived by his wife and six children, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren. WT14 12/15 p.3

As I recall he was married twice, acrimonious divorce. I think he mentioned in an article on marriage that he had kids from both marriages living with them.

George

slimboyfat

Ah, how did I miss that!

I found similar on Reddit. Two of those six children were step children, apparently.

Guy Pierce might be more interesting than the surviving GB members. He had two children with his first wife, then they divorced in early 1976. Coincidence, right after the 1975 debacle? He the married his second wife Penny, who also had two children. Then they had two children together. His widow Penny was interviewed at last year's convention. The unusual thing about Guy is that he has grandchildren. One of them shared some interesting information on Cedars' blog, indicating he was a pretty normal grandpa. But he does look a bit like Herman Munster to me.

He looked like Grampa Munster (uncanny!) not Herman Munster.

Does anybody have more information on any of the other GB members, even if just to rule out that they had children?

Morris has 2 children - https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/w20150515/remembering-first-love-for-jehovah/ - but they were not disfellowshipped as ChatGPT claims. At the time of Morris' removal, they both had high ranking 'jobs' (one was the US branch overseer or something like that) at WTBTS, so there was some speculation back then, right now both of them seem to still officially live at a WTBTS address.

Not sure what happened to them since, I would assume the WTBTS doesn't want to 'shake' that tree too much.

David H. Splane doesn't have any kids. It's pretty easy to find out - Born in 1944, started pioneering in September 1963 (20yo). A graduate of the 42nd class of Gilead (1966, 22yo), he served as a missionary in Senegal, Africa (1966-?), then for 19 years in the circuit work in Canada (?-1990). Then he has been at Bethel. So none of those positions would've allowed for 'children'.

The rest you can find similar reference, they self-publicize enough self-aggrandizing life stories. Even the lesser known ones, eg Jacob Rumph, The 132nd class of Gilead means 2012 he was between 21-40 years old, at least 2 years married, and had no children at that point, by 2023 he was a GB member, that's only 10 years, so he can't have raised children even if he 'dropped out' after graduating at that point.

Now, whether some of them have some 'illegitimate' children could be an issue of contention, but I'm fairly sure they 'screen' for some of those 'undesired' attributes.

NotFormer

It's a paradox in some ways. Rarely have WT leaders encouraged the production and raising of children ("the time is short", "devote your time and resources to the world wide work" and so on) and those at the top, for the most part, have, for once, followed their own demands. Yet the only way the WT can have experienced the growth of the last couple of decades*, outside the Third World that is, is if the rank and file disobeyed the head honchos and went forth and multiplied, determined to have families.

If the GB recognise this for the paradox that it is, it must be a bittersweet realisation. That on the one hand , it is a wholesale rejection of their authority at the deepest level by the R&F, yet it is the reason for their rather phenomenal growth, about which they continue to crow.

I've often said that the WT has always hated children, yet those very children that they've denigrated, at least since Rutherford's day**, have proven to be their salvation. 🙄

* If the published figures are true. Some take them at face value and in good faith; some are very sceptical. Plenty of recent threads about that.

** Russell had no heirs, so the attitude may well have started with him.

no-zombie

While I might look into this a bit latter, but could this stance taken by the Governing Body be another legacy from our 18th century Adventist past? I have a feeling that it might when we think about the nature of Firebrand Preachers of the time.

Listener

With the Watchtower having similarities to a business, it can also be seen in this aspect too.

For decades, it’s been argued that the main reason females are not paid the same as males and fill far fewer top positions is because of childbirth. Their careers are badly affected by having children. The same can be seen in the organisation where childless couples fill a significant amount of higher positions.

Mikejw

Most true believers thought it was wrong to have kids.

i remember older ones in the congregation I grew up in frowned upon a couple having a baby. Why would you have a baby when we are shortly before the last day of the last days?

most of those babies are grown up and having more babies themselves now 🤮

Few JW leader have children