Thanks for the warm reception. In my initial post I should have stated: "That I would be coming back soooon." Well, at least I kept my promise. Since I have a busy schedule, I will be dropping in from time to time.
I hope I can add some input (historically speaking) to threads dealing with the early history of the "society." Although much has been written on the subject, the "reform impulse" of the late nineteenth century/ early twentieth century or lack thereof within the nascant Bible Student's association and particularily in the Rutherford era affects continued policy on isolation from the "world." Interestingly Joseph Rutherford was quite active in the political arena supporting the "Populist" party (later called the Peoples Party) an agrarian crusade in the 1890s and latter supported William Jennings Bryan (Democrat) in his bid for the Presidency in the election of 1896 losing to Republican William McKinley. The problems that faced the Populists assumed a delusive simplicity: the victory over injustice, the solution for all social ills, and crusade against the money power (Big Business). Several historians argue, such as Richard Hofstadter of Columbia University, that it was an attempt to go back to a "Golden Age" a "status revolution."
I have wondered about the connection between the People's Party and the formation of the People's Pulpit, corporation formed in 1909 when property was purchased in Brooklyn. What influence or input did Rutherford have on the name choice since he was legal counsel at the time? Russel had also supported labor and opposed big money. Historian Eugene Weber's Apocalypes: Prophesies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages (2000) states the following: "After 1919, the prohibition amendment to the Constitution divided and criminalized the nation. After Scopes (1925 Tenn court case over the teaching of evolution in public schools), a new separatism encouraged withdrawal from reform, public life, public schools, local and national affairs, and even abstention from voting.
None proved as extreme as Rutherford. In 1929, he declared the secular state demonic. His Bible Students were not to salute national flags or stand up for a national anthem; Mother's Day was denounced as a feminist plot, Christmas and birthdays parties were banned as pagan. The main Witness periodical The Golden Age, founded in 1919, denounced the American Medical Association, the germ theory of disease, and smallpox vaccines. The modern world, its snares and its delusions, were to be shunned. (191)"
This is an interesting quotation and I thought many of you might enjoy the contents.
