The Cult of Four "Just Imperfect" Men
(Please move on to the next thread, fluffers. Move on! There is a vast world of inane stuff and 30 second sound bites to enjoy out there, but this ain?t it. Some things just cannot be said in a minute or two.)
From its beginning, until the death of Fred Franz (and even to this very day), the WT movement has been a cult of personality, which has excused all of its excesses and human damage by claiming those who did it "were just sincere, but imperfect men." Just how excusable is this rationale? Let?s see.
Without the powerful personalities of its 4 most important leaders it is not difficult to propose that the WTS would be a far less cohesive and radical religion than it is today.
Ironically, the Bible makes it clear that God has, without exception, used individuals as prophets and leaders; yet, even though the WTS has also unwittingly used (following the Bible example) individuals as prophets and leaders throughout its history, it claims otherwise. Even the WTS must be aware that too many other religious movements have collapsed and died off upon the passing away of their charismatic founders.
By denying its own reality and creating the myth that God works through a large organization that is superior to any individual and continues without interruption when any individual dies, the WTS has also established a permanence and stability for itself based upon that myth. This myth creates an aura of mystery and anonymity. The mystery part of this myth keeps dubs from knowing how doctrine and policy is really decided. The anonymity part of this myth shields the myth-makers themselves from personal responsibility for their often cavalier and disastrous religious decisions.
Eighteenth Century Deist Thomas Paine observed that the Christian religion (and many others) survives through the use of myth, mystery and miracle. Consciously or not, the WTS employs this same trinity of alliteration in its teachings and practices. That God chose only THEM to be worthy of eternal salvation surely is a mystery. The eons upon eons of perfect health, lion petting and picnics "real soon now" surely is a miracle. The WTS uses myth to create the mystery and the miracle. Using myth as a cornerstone of faith which itself creates two other myths is as tragic, shallow and as specious as anything could possibly be. This is even more tragic knowing that people mold their entire lives and hitch their eternal salvation based upon a cornerstone made of myth.
Russell
Charles Russell was against formalized religious organizations and freely admitted only HE was the WTS. In his day there was no governing body that met, studied, debated and decided WT doctrine. Russell reserved all of that responsibility for himself. He and his writings carried a title of distinction he conveyed upon himself: "Pastor" Russell. Yet, he was never ordained or trained to merit that title in any acceptable way among peers who also used that title.
There was no inextricable distinction between Russell the man and the WTS he managed. Just how important did the man Russell think he was? He privately admitted that he himself fulfilled Bible scripture, being in Jesus? own words the SOLE "faithful and wise servant" in fulfillment of the ancient verse in Matthew 25:21. Russell had himself buried in a toga, and had a large pyramid built near his grave that proclaimed him to be the "Laodicean Messenger." This made him the recipient of being the SOLE recipient of fulfilling yet ANOTHER ancient Bible prophecy in Revelation 3:14-18. The Bible portrays the Laodiceans as Christians who had become spiritually lazy and materialistic; so much so that Paul had to rebuke them in the book of Ephesians. Russell was "sent" to awaken the modern day Laodiceans into spiritual prosperity by serving them a dish of pyramids, false prophecies, "mystery doctrines", types and antitypes and other loony ideas, all since discarded by the WTS. Some "messenger."
People didn?t turn to the WTS per se for spiritual answers; they turned to Russell. And since the WT magazine WAS Russell, there is no difference. Bible students were called "Russellites" for a very good reason. The movement was a cult of personality in the form of Charles Russell from its very beginning.
Rutherford
Not surprisingly, when Russell died, the WT organization faced a schism. People quickly realized that their new leader, Joseph Rutherford was no Russell. Rutherford realized this too, and for most of the 1920?s he spoke often and kindly of Russell. But Rutherford was not a kindly man, and he was not the least bit interested in forever keeping the memory and teachings of Russell in the minds of dubs. When his own power was firmly entrenched, he slowly began to erase the memory and doctrine of Russell from the ever malleable and fluid minds of WT members. All beards were banned from the Bethels. At that time men often wore beards like Russell?s out of their devotion to him. Rutherford would have none of this. The stone monument (Great Pyramid) to "God" became a satanic pyramid. Character building was ridiculed as were those men and women who used it to try to better themselves as good humans. The Great Crowd or Company was downgraded from a heavenly class to a second-rate group of dumbed down worker-bees.
Like Russell, Rutherford WAS the WTS. Like Russell, he conveyed upon himself a title of distinction, "Judge" Rutherford. He did this despite the fact that he never obtained his law license through formal education, but through apprenticeship, and Rutherford was never formally appointed or elected as Judge. He merely substituted as an adjudicator for a couple of days, presiding over a few trivial cases. He also created a new title for the WTS organization: "THEOCRACY," (always written in all caps) and gave the religion its modern name: "dubs." (hahaha!) But the WTS was not a THEOCRACY ruled by God; it was a dictatorship ruled by Rutherford. Rutherford was not only accountable to no man, he acted as if he was not even accountable to God. He formed his WTS into a hierarchical pyramid with many levels of supervision and reporting and distinct castes of people. At the very top of the WTS spiritual food chain sat Rutherford himself: unchallengeable and unaccountable. Yet, despite the obvious, Rutherford created the myths of the Faithful and Discreet Slave CLASS and the "governing body," and fed those myths to his followers.
Unlike Russell, Rutherford was neither loved nor liked. He was feared and despised by even his own followers. The man Rutherford claimed to represent was Jesus Christ. However, Jesus allowed his words to be challenged by his followers and he was always approachable. Rutherford was not approachable and any challenge to him and his words were met with his fury and punishment.
I?ve seen a number of Rutherford?s books which state they are "Copyrighted by J.F. Rutherford." If that isn?t evidence for the non-existence of any "governing body" and the existence of a cult of personality, then what is?
Rutherford did everything possible to bolster his own cult of personality. In the 1930?s, worker-bee dubs had little training in presenting and refuting the Bible. Rutherford obviously must have felt such training was not necessary: selling his books was the primary goal. Dubs were given testimony cards which they robotically handed to householders to read and then cranked up portable phonographs (sold to them at great profit by the WTS, by-the-way, proof available for those who ask). Whose voice boomed and ranted from those recordings? "Judge" Rutherford?s, of course. Day after day, week after week and year after year, dubs heard Rutherford?s voice and "sermons" screeching from those phonographs at every door where someone showed the least amount of interest. Then there were the sound cars with huge speakers where Rutherford?s rants were heard not just by individual householders, but entire neighborhoods at once. Rutherford even had his own radio station and had other stations carry his rants to even a wider audience.
Anyone who denies that the WTS was not a cult surrounding the personality of Rutherford during his WT leadership is in deep denial and has his head in the sand, not to mention his posterior.
JW apologists will hear all this evidence and having no refutation for the obvious, will say, "Well, at least the Judge got rid of creature worship." Baloney. What the Judge actually did was get rid of Russell worship and replace it with Rutherford worship. Otherwise, he would have not had his name plastered all over his books and pamphlets, would have not donned a title he did not deserve and would not promote himself as an eminent and world-renowned Bible scholar.
Franz
Starting in 1942, after Rutherford died of a cancer most fitting to his personality (hahahahahahhahahaha!), the Rutherford cult of personality was replaced with the Franz cult of personality. Nathan Knorr may have been the appointed leader, but Franz was the real spiritual leader.
William Frederick Franz was the most unique and enigmatic among the four WT giants. He was conspicuous by being inconspicuous. He was arrogant while appearing modest. He led while following (his own leaders). He wielded immense power without having a powerful position or formal title. He did more damage behind the scenes than any WT leader did out in the open. But make no mistakes about it: Major modern WT doctrine and rules were (and are) the personal hand-stamped doctrines of Fred Franz and only Fred Franz. For nearly 70 years Franz was the "man behind the curtain." His wishes, whims and daydreams became WT law. Yet, like Russell and Rutherford before him, none of the many books he wrote are now in print. And because of this and like Russell and Rutherford before him, he became disgraced without becoming formally disgraced. He was, after all, "just an imperfect man." HAHAHA!
Unlike Russell, Rutherford and Knorr, Franz wasn?t suited to run the day-to-day operations of a religious publishing corporation. No, he worked behind the scenes. Rutherford and Knorr did their dirty work out in the open: they publicly humiliated and banished those who disagreed with them, and people in the religion dreaded their wrath.
Franz did no such thing. His dirty work was covert. Whenever a document was required in order to disgrace or banish someone, Franz?s signature was on it. Silent death from the hand of Fred Franz himself. He earned the trust and respect of Rutherford and Knorr. By so doing, he was allowed to freely promote and expound his personal doctrinal fantasies and whims. What Franz spoke was law. What Franz wrote was law. What Franz fantasized was law. WT LAW, no matter how unreasonable, no matter how fanciful, no matter how illogical or idiotic was not allowed to be questioned. Franz was GOD in his little religious pond.
Franz was genial and approachable. He dressed like a geek and people loved it. I cannot help but wonder if he did that on purpose, or not. People didn?t visit the large summer assemblies to hear Knorr give a talk. Gawd no! When he spoke, Knorr had the knack of being able to cure every form of insomnia known to man! He mastered the art of the 45 minute prayer! After Knorr prayed at assemblies, everyone in the stadium did not begin to leave until at least 15 minutes after the prayer ended. It took that much time for conventioneers to revive each other from near-comas and to get the blood to begin circulating again in their legs and feet again.
But when Franz spoke, the audience was electrified! Even when he had nothing new to say, he said it in a way as if he did. He loved to tease his audiences with hints, and his audiences loved to be teased by him. They (and I) loved to "glean" through his words for indications of "new light." For some strange reason, dubs never much liked the existing "light" (whatever it happened to be at the time). This included me. They were always looking for "new" light, which hopefully, would be better light than the existing crappy light. That?s why they were always "gleaning" from the words of Fred Franz. They never stopped to consider that the word "gleaning" basically means "diligently looking through piles of turds in the hopes of finding something worthwhile."
Even as a braindead dub, I could always spot the articles and books written by Franz, even though his name never appeared as the author. The cult of personality of Franz was too subtle for that. Nonetheless, Franz?s imprint was unmistakable. If a book or article was impossible to follow and understand, Franz wrote it. If it denigrated and ridiculed women and their place in dub society, Franz wrote it. If it used the expressions "modern day type", Bible Rule?", "lunar calendar", "CLASS", "confidently expect" or involved any chronology, Franz wrote it. If it took a serious dose of drugs to understand any of it, Franz wrote it.
Knorr must have hated it when Franz sucked all the attention towards himself whenever the two were together, but then again, Knorr knew he needed Franz. Knorr was not a writer, nor even a halfway serious Bible student. For Knorr, all that mattered was membership expansion and the bottom line on the WTS ledger sheet.
Unlike Russell and Rutherford, Franz did not promote himself by prefacing his name with formal titles like "Pastor" or "Judge." He was too smart to do that. He allowed OTHERS to promote him with even more important appellations: "Oracle". "Rhodes Scholar." "Ancient Languages Expert." Franz dropped out of college in the middle of his junior year. He was never accepted as a Rhodes Scholar, only being allowed to begin participating in the selection process. Yet, he also never corrected people when they said otherwise. He never could read 7 languages fluently, yet remained mute when people claimed he could.
It is my opinion that Franz came to believe he was everything dubbies believed him to be. There is no better illustration of this than what his nephew Ray Franz related about Franz? view of the Faithful and Discrete Slave CLASS. When Ray asked Fred to name some members of that "class", Franz told Ray he believed himself to be a member, but when pressed, did not or could not name a single other soul who also belonged to that "class." So much for another myth: the myth of the Faithful and Discrete Slave CLASS. So much for the myth that God has always worked through a formal "organization" composed of thousands of anointed dubs.
Knorr
There?s not much to say about Knorr. He had about as much personality as a potted plant. Nonetheless, he was the "President" of the WTS and like Rutherford, he ruled with a ruthless iron fist. To question his decisions or policies was to guarantee exile in WatchtowerLand. Knorr was so jealous of Haydn Covington and A.H. Macmillan?s popularity among JWs that he had Franz cook up a doctrine that said only anointed members could be officers in the WT Corporations. This cooked-up "new light" forced Covington to resign before he got booted out as vice president of the WTS. Because Macmillan was so well liked and drew large crowds to hear him speak, Knorr banished the old and deaf man to a menial job wrapping magazines in the Bethel factory until he became to old to work and finally died. Knorr even made a condescending comment in Macmillans? book "Faith on the March" when he stated in the introduction that Macmillan?s life was not really different than that of most dubs. Yet, Macmillan was one of the 7 men who served in a Federal prison with Rutherford, thus making him one of the very few men who "fulfilled" the major WTS Bible "prophecy" of "Babylonish captivity" in the 1918-1919 era. If one of only seven people in the universe who "fulfilled" Bible prophecy is NOT extraordinary in dubland, then who is? Yet, Knorr could still not let Macmillan eclipse him in prominence and popularity. This indicates that Knorr desperately wanted to be one of those WTS leaders who was a part of the cult of personality, but it was not to be. Knorr had no personality!
Even today, the WT cult of personality continues, albeit behind the scenes and in the manner of Fred Franz. WTS insiders report that Ted Jaracz is called "The Boss" by those in Bethel. Even though there is now a genuine governing body, the will of Jaracz is (mostly) the will of the governing body. He has stacked the GB with four of his own younger toadies and the rest of the members are too old, too weak, or too out-of-it to stand up to him and his wishes. Either that, or they simply don?t care about anything anymore. Everything they decided in the past has turned to shit anyway, you know. That being the case, why should they care at all what is decided? Dubbies may continue to die and suffer from their whims and idiocies, but they will be comfortably taken care of and will continue to be insulated from the damage they cause to others. They too, live in the myth they?ve created.
Given the facts and the great weight and power these men have taken on for themselves, can they be excused when they simply say, "Hey! We are just imperfect men like you?" Can any reasonable person conclude that "God always works through an organization" when the facts show that the WTS has always been ruled by one or at present only very few men? Can any honest person deny that genealogy of the WT organization is one of a cult of personality?
"?if this scheme or this work is from men, it will be overthrown?" - Acts 5:38
Farkel