March 1995
But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to
give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness
and reverence - 1 Peter 3:15
Who Really Distorts The Facts of History?
The April 1, 1995 issue of The Watchtower contains
an article entitled "How Christians Cope With Public Reproach."
This article claims that news media reports on the Witnesses are
often biased and contain false or distorted information. A typical
comment about the press is found on page 27 of The Watchtower: "Many
press reports that heap reproach on Jehovah’s Witnesses are
an expression of this hatred." In many cases the Jehovah’s
Witness leaders advise Witnesses not to respond to such articles
in case "The original untruth might thus receive even more
publicity, or opposers may be handed further opportunity to get
lies or slurs into print."
The article counsels Jehovah’s Witnesses
to, "Invite them [misinformed persons] to get firsthand information
about Jehovah’s Witnesses, which enables them to see through
false accusations. You could also use explanations published by
the Watchtower Society that give details about the organization,
its history, and its teachings." A footnote is provided recommending
three items of Watchtower literature. Two of these are pamphlets
which offer just bare outlines of Jehovah’s Witness history
and activity. The third, however, is the 750-page book Jehovah’s
Witnesses: Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom. This volume published
in 1993 is the Watchtower Society’s own official history of
the movement. How reliable and objective is the information presented
in this book?
Well, for example the book contains an entire
chapter "Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News"
in which dozens upon dozens of court cases are referred to. The
overall picture conveyed is of "honest," "sincere"
and "courageous" Jehovah’s Witnesses successfully
battling in the courts to keep their "God-given" right
to preach the "good news of the kingdom." Yet, strangely,
NO mention at all is made of three of the most important cases*
involving the leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses: (1) Charles Russell
v. Brooklyn Daily Eagle; (2) Olin R. Moyle v. Watchtower Headquarters
Staff; (3) the Douglas Walsh case. I WONDER WHY?
Charles Russell v. Brooklyn Daily Eagle
In 1911 Charles Russell very foolishly and naively
allowed two of his followers to persuade him that they had found
a farmer who grew "miracle wheat" (wheat that produced
a much greater yield than any other variety). The Watchtower Society
received 30 bushels of this wheat to be sold at one dollar per pound
as seed grain. The sale gained the Society about $1800 dollars (a
very substantial sum in those days). Subsequently a New York newspaper,
the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, lampooned Russell and his "miracle
wheat" in a cartoon. Whereupon Russell sued the newspaper—and
LOST the case.
Olin R. Moyle v. Watchtower Headquarters Staff
In 1943 Olin Moyle sued the leading members of
the Society’s headquarters staff for LIBEL. Moyle had been
a loyal Jehovah’s Witness for many years and had even defended
the Witnesses in some court cases. But on July 21, 1939 Moyle sent
Rutherford an open letter of resignation. In this letter he accused
Rutherford and some of his associates of excessive drinking of alcoholic
beverages, improper conduct and low morals. In addition he specifically
accused Rutherford of outbursts of anger, discrimination and vulgar
language. In The Watchtower of October 15, 1939 Rutherford attacked
Moyle publicly, in print. Rutherford wrote concerning Moyle’s
letter, "The letter, being filled with false, slanderous and
libelous statements... the writer of that letter... identifies himself
as one who speaks evil against the Lord’s organization... every
paragraph of that letter is false, filled with lies, and is a wicked
slander and a libel." Interestingly, when Moyle sued the Watchtower
leaders in court over Rutherford’s scurrilous Watchtower article—he
WON, and the court awarded him damages of $15,000 (equal to about
$200,000 in today’s currency).
The Douglas Walsh Case
In 1954, the principal officers of the Watchtower
Society traveled to the British Isles to take part in an appeal
to obtain recognition for their Jehovah’s Witness movement
to be accepted as a genuine religious denomination and presiding
elders of Witness congregations as genuine so-called ministers.
The Society gained acceptance as a religion but lost the second
part of the appeal. However, during the trial Hayden Covington (at
that time the chief legal representative of the Society) admitted
that (a) the Watchtower was guilty of publishing false prophecy,
and (b) the Jehovah’s Witness leaders maintained their "famous"
world-wide state of unity by forcing all loyal Witnesses to accept
false prophecy.
I don’t think it’s too hard to
see a reason why these three cases are not even mentioned in the
Watchtower Society’s own official history—do you? Also,
if a Jehovah’s Witness should read my article, would he or
she use the same language about it that Rutherford used to describe
Olin Moyle’s letter?
Peter
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