LUHE I don’t want to be picky 😇 but a few things:
There were no Kingdom Halls in Russell’s time. The first Kingdom Hall was named in Hawaii in the 1930s.
I don’t know that Bible Students attended other churches. Is there a source for that?
Blood transfusions were not widely practiced in Russell’s lifetime. I don’t know that Bible Students ever faced the issue or that Russell addressed it, but I’d be interested in any references.
Rutherford didn’t come up with the idea to rename the calendar, that was Clayton Woodworth, the editor of The Golden Age. Rutherford thought it was a stupid idea and made fun of Woodworth in front of the bethel family.
Also the aluminium thing wasn’t Rutherford’s idea.
Blood transfusions were not banned until 1945, three years after Rutherford died, in the presidency of Nathan Knorr.
Current disfellowshipping practice didn’t start until 1952, again years after Rutherford’s death.
I agree that Russell seems to have been well liked in comparison with Rutherford. When Russell died there was widespread mourning across the country. Many hundreds came to his funeral, eulogies went on for hours, from many different speakers, his ex wife laid a flower on his coffin, and the movement was sent into complete disarray.
When Rutherford died there was a brief announcement and bethelites got back to work. There were three or four at Rutherford’s graveside, not including his wife or son. The organisation immediately sprang into action under the new leadership of Knorr/Franz and, within a few years, they had established a missionary school, restructured meetings and ministry, produced their own translation of the Bible, and presided over unprecedented expansion.
