Extract from Separate Identity - Vol 2

by vienne 12 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • sparrowdown
    sparrowdown

    So has WT granted you access to their library/records/archives including Russell's personal notes etc for your research?

  • vienne
    vienne

    Oh, no, they are very reluctant to share mateterial. As I noted in my introductory essay for vol 1, they sent us 8 pages of photocopy, 4 of which we already had. They refused access to a document we know they have. I do not know why a 140 year old document is withheld from researchers. The watchtower is not the only institution to do this. An Episcopal archive had a change of management that took them from openess to secretiveness for no apparent reason. Boston University refused to copy papers their archivist thought held the Methodist Church in a bad light. One of our volunteer researchers traveled there making copies for us.

    The Watchtower tries to control the narrative. They are secretive when they do not need to be. I know of no other religion that treats the textbooks used to train clergy as state secrets. Secretiveness extends back to a warning to the brethren from Rutherford given sometime in the 1920s.

    This is probably full of typos. I'm typing this using my cell phone, and my vision is poor enough I can't see what I've written.

  • dropoffyourkeylee
    dropoffyourkeylee

    Great work Vienne, keep it up.

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