Translated from the original by Costas Balomenos
Joseph Rutherford, the second president of the Organization
of Jehovah's Witnesses. Is
distinguished with his
bodyguards, keeping wands in their hands. And other Jehovah's Witnesses are holding
wands (Newspaper «The Saturday Evening Post»)
A
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ptly been said by many
and especially from former
Jehovah's Witnesses, that the Internet
will be the "tomb"
of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses “Watchtower”, because
now through Internet, the world is
informed not only for teaching that is full of lies, errors and contradictions,
but also for debunking of behavior and practices on the part of Jehovah’s
Witnesses, which formerly covered
by the veil of mystery and myth. This has resulted in the developed countries,
where there is a broad spread of Internet, thousands
of Jehovah's Witnesses are leaving
each year their organization, which explains why it is done and the "fierce" attack of the Organization against Internet, in order to prevent
the browsing therein,
from its members...
This “bleeding” with the fleeing of members of the organization,
clearly illustrated and in the statistics of active members
of Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world, that publishes annually by the
organization itself. So in the most developed
countries, the number of members of the Organization has declined dramatically
in recent years. Indeed, in some of these countries, the
decline has taken such dramatic proportions, since the active Jehovah's Witnesses are much less than it was thirty years
ago! For example, in 1975 in Denmark, the active
members of Jehovah's Witnesses amounted at 14.554,
and in 2012, i.e. after almost
37 years of intensive propaganda and “continuous walking”
of unpaid "bagman" for life of the Organization, this number approximates
14.411. In the above numbers must be
taken into account the increase of
the population of Denmark .
In 1975 was 5.059.454,
while in 2012 amounted
to 5.550.000.
Well, it was a myth, that had been circulating over the
years and unfortunately it circulate still on. A myth, which artfully is
cultivating from the Jehovah's Witnesses, i.e. how good men and harmless are
the Jehovah’s Witnesses, after they refuse to get caught weapon and
to defend their lives. It’s a myth, which we have broken with our
article “Jehovah's Witnesses shall refuse indeed the weapons and war?” in which
we prove with documents,
that neither against the war are not against
guns.
But on
a personal level, what happens?
If someone Jehovah Witness had been attacked, how should you react? Must not resist at all in attacker and be subjected the
consequences of this attack as painful to be, even for the own his life? I wonder what
they say the forms of the Society on this issue? They turn and the
left jaw when someone knocks them on the right jaw? Matth. 5:39.
The official publications of the Society “Watchtower”,
through which is passing the teaching in the Jehovah's Witnesses, in June 1, 1968, pages 346-347, deals exactly with this
issue. How
should we act, if someone attacks us? According to what we have heard by now, which is widely circulated in the
world, a Jehovah's Witness suffered brutal attack, while observing the rules of
the Gospel must not be raise any resistance, whatever if it happens to him? Really, the “Watchtower” what advises him? So let's
see what he says. Well,
it writes word for word:
«But what if you are accosted by a violent person, one who begins to
attack you? Then reasoning and peacefully handing over material possessions may
no longer be enough. In this extreme situation the Christian is justified in
protecting himself … True, a blow struck in self-defence might injure the
assailant. But if it resulted in killing the attacker, this should not be
intentional».
From the above we can see that the “fairy tales” that serve the Jehovah's Witnesses, that they don’t use violence to defend themselves “go walking”. As they go
"strolling", and all relevant rules of the Gospel, which apply, but
for ... others and not for them. Because, the
Witness of Jehovah who suffered brutal attack, is called by his Society not
only to defend himself, but it can kill and him who will attacking him! As well one woman
a Witness of Jehovah can cause resistance and causing bodily harm, in order to
avoid a rape as we read in the same form of the Society. Here is and document
of organization, to not stay with you any doubt.
WHEN PERSONALLY
CONFRONTED
However, there are times when
difficulty cannot be avoided. For example, even in daylight hours you may be
accosted by a robber who has a weapon. What can you do? You might try to reason
with the robber, perhaps identifying yourself as a Christian minister, if you
are one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Many times this has resulted in Christians’
being left alone and safe.
But what if that will not
suffice, and the accoster is determined to get some money at all costs? Ask
yourself: Which is more important, my money or my life? Can I continue to serve
Jehovah without the money I may have in my wallet or purse? Can I continue to
serve Jehovah without my life? The answer is obvious. Life is far more
valuable. Hence, it is extremely unwise to endanger your life just for money.
And since many robbers today will not hesitate to use violence if the victim
resists, it is the course of practical wisdom to let them have the money.
This same thought holds true
if a thief enters your home. If he has a weapon, you may have no opportunity to
call the police for assistance. The thief may be after money or other material
items only. Resistance could end up in injury or death for many members of the
family, so it would be unwise to resort to what some might consider “heroics”
to defend material things. The safety of yourself and your loved ones comes
first.
But what if you are accosted by a violent person, one who begins to
attack you? Then reasoning and peacefully handing over material possessions may
no longer be enough. In this extreme situation the Christian is justified in
protecting himself. If unable to get away, or if in his own home, he can ward
off blows and defend himself, doing what he can to restrain the attacker. Of
course, if there are several, or many attackers, even this defense may prove
unsuccessful.
True, a blow struck in self-defense might injure the assailant. But if
it resulted in killing the attacker, this should not be intentional. A Christian who
might thus accidentally kill his assailant should recognize the seriousness of
what has happened. Realizing that he may bear bloodguilt for what has happened,
even though it was unintentional, he ought to go humbly to God in prayer to
seek his forgiveness through Christ Jesus.
What can be done if your
family or spiritual brothers and sisters come under physical attack in your
presence? You could undertake resistance as much as possible if there were no
other means of assistance available. Such may bring your life in danger, but as
Jesus said: “No one has love greater than this, that someone should surrender
his soul in behalf of his friends.” (John 15:13) It might prove practical,
depending upon the circumstances, to go for help instead of trying to handle
the situation alone. If there is a large group attacking one’s family or
Christian brothers, the wise course may be to get police help if that is
available. So the course to follow depends upon the circumstances. And even the
same situation may be handled in different ways by different ones. Each person
will have to decide the best course to take depending upon what he knows of the
situation at the moment.
ATTEMPTED RAPE
If you are a Christian woman, what should you do if, in spite of all
precautions, you are set upon by a rapist? If you cannot deter him by
reasoning, or by calling upon the name of Jehovah, then what? As a Christian
you are under obligation to resist. This resistance includes screaming and
creating as much disturbance as possible to try to frighten off the attacker
and attract help. If the
attack continues and you cannot break free to flee, then you would be justified
even to inflict damage on your assailant if necessary. Resistance is
imperative, because the rapist is after, not just money, but your virtue. An
issue of integrity to Jehovah’s laws is involved here. So by no means would it
be proper quietly to submit to rape, as that would be consenting to fornication.—1 Thess.
4:3.
Watchtower June 1, 1968, pages 346-347: The Witness of Jehovah may kill him who attacks him.
Violence were brought by Jehovah’s Witnesses, resulting in to throw unconscious and a police officer(!) when they defended themselves
in a mob attack, which became, during a Assembly which were making in
Oregon of the United States. Where we read this? In another document of the
Organization, the “Book of the Year 1975” , pages 184-185:
CHRISTIAN GATHERINGS
DISRUPTED
During those turbulent years,
Christians in the United
States sometimes were assaulted while
gathered peacefully for Bible instruction. That happened, for example, in Saco , Maine ,
during 1940. While Jehovah’s witnesses were in their second-floor Kingdom Hall
there preparing to present a recorded Bible lecture on one occasion, a mob of
1,500 to 1,700 formed, according to Harold B. Duncan. He clearly recalls that a
priest was with them, sitting in a car in front of the hall. “The fellow in the
[adjacent] radio repair shop turned on every radio he could to full volume so
as to drown out the talk,” says Brother Duncan, adding: “Then the mob started
stoning the windows. The police in plain clothes with flashlights pointed the
light beams on the windows to stone out. The police station was only a block
and a half away. I went there twice and informed them of what was happening.
They said, ‘When you people salute the American flag, we’ll give you help!’ The
mob stoned 70 [small windowpanes] out of the hall and a stone as large as my fist
just missed Sister Gertrude Bob’s head and took a corner of the plastered wall
out.”
Mob violence also erupted during the 1942 assembly in Klamath Falls , Oregon .
According to Don Milford, mobsters cut the telephone wires bringing a discourse
from another convention city, but a brother having a copy of the talk
immediately took over and the program went on. Finally, the mob broke into the
hall. The Witnesses defended themselves and when the door was closed again, one
attacker—“a large powerful man”—lay unconscious inside the building. He was a
police officer and his picture was taken with his badge alongside his face. “We
called the Red Cross,” says Brother Milford, “and they sent in two women with a
stretcher and took him out. He was later heard to say, ‘I didn’t think they
would fight.’” The police refused to aid the Witnesses, and it was over four hours
before the mob was dispersed by the state militia.
“Book of the Year 1975” , pages 184-185: Jehovah’s Witnesses throwing unconscious
a police officer.
But and in simple
cases, the use of violence is not unknown for Jehovah’s Witnesses. The same form of the Organization, the “Book of the Year 1975” , pages 180-182,
recounts us about the violence brought by Jehovah's
Witnesses to fans of Catholic
priest, because the latter created a fuss in assembly, in which
he was speaking Joseph Rutherford, the second president of the Organization, interrupting him with voices. The persons
responsible for maintenance
of order of Jehovah's
Witnesses are called “usher”, not only evicted them naughtily from the hall using violence, but literally
they broke the head of one of them with
sticks, which had taken care to provide in advance as recounts with a dose of bragging and the form
itself of Jehovah's Witnesses:
VIOLENT MOBS FAIL
TO SILENCE PRAISERS OF JEHOVAH
While Jehovah’s witnesses
were waging legal battles for freedom of worship and their right to preach the
good news, in the field they sometimes came face to face with violent mobs.
This was not without parallel, however, for Jesus Christ himself had
experiences of that kind. (Luke 4:28-30; John 8:59; 10:31-39) Faithful Stephen
suffered martyrdom at the hands of an angry crowd.—Acts 6:8-12; 7:54–8:1.
The worldwide Christian
convention held on June 23-25, 1939, was viewed by hoodlums as an opportunity
to harass God’s people. Direct wire connections linked New
York city , the key city, with other assembly locations in the United States , Canada ,
the British Isles, Australia
and Hawaii .
While J. F. Rutherford’s discourse “Government and Peace” was being advertised,
Jehovah’s servants learned that Catholic Action groups planned to prevent the
public meeting on June 25. So, God’s people were ready for trouble. Blosco Muscariello tells us:
“Like Nehemiah raising the wall of Jerusalem
and supplying his men with both instruments to build and instruments to fight
(Neh. 4:15-22), we were so armed. . . . Some of us young men received
special instructions as ushers. Each was supplied with a sturdy cane to be used
in the event of any interference during the main talk.” But R. D. Cantwell
adds: “We were instructed not to use it unless it was a matter of being
cornered in final defense.”
Though it was not known
generally, Brother Rutherford was in poor health when he ascended the platform
at Madison Square
Garden in New York city that Sunday afternoon, June 25,
1939. Soon the talk was under way. Among the latecomers were about 500
followers of Roman Catholic cleric Charles E. Coughlin, renowned “radio priest”
of the 1930’s, to whose regular broadcasts millions listened. Since the lower
level of the auditorium had been reserved and filled with the Witnesses,
Coughlin’s followers, including priests, had to occupy a top section of the
balcony behind the speaker.
“There was no smoking elsewhere in the auditorium,” wrote a Consolation
correspondent, “but eighteen minutes after the discourse began one man to the
left front in this crowd lit a cigarette, and then another to the right front
lit one; then the electric lights in this section only were blinked, and then
in this one section only there were booings, screams and catcalls.” “I sat
tense,” says Sister Edward Broad, “waiting for the confusion to spread all over
the Garden. But as a few moments passed I saw that the trouble was confined to
a group directly behind the speaker. ‘What will he do?’ I wondered. It seemed
impossible for anyone to keep on speaking with things being thrown down on the
platform and not knowing at any moment when the microphone might be taken
away.” Esther Allen recalls that “wild howling and expressions of ‘Heil
Hitler!’ ‘Viva Franco!’ and ‘Kill that damn Rutherford !’
filled the air.”
Would ailing Brother Rutherford yield to those violent foes? “The louder
they yelled to drown out the speaker’s voice, the stronger Judge Rutherford’s
voice became,” says Sister A. F. Laupert. Aleck Bangle remarks: “The Society’s
president did not become afraid but courageously said: ‘Note today the Nazis
and Catholics would like to break up this meeting, but by God’s grace cannot do
it.’” “That was the opportunity we needed to break into heartfelt applause,
giving the speaker our enthusiastic support,” writes Roger Morgan, adding:
“Brother Rutherford held his ground to the end of the hour. We later thrilled
every time we played recordings of that lecture in the homes of the people.”
C. H. Lyon tells us: “The attendants did their work well. A couple of
the more obstreperous Coughlinites were rapped on the head with a cane, and all
of them were unceremoniously hurled down the ramps and out of the auditorium.
One of the Coughlinites rated some publicity in a daily tabloid the next
morning, as they printed a picture of him with his head wrapped, as with a
turban.”
Three Witness ushers were
arrested and charged with “assault.” They were tried before three judges (two
Roman Catholics and a Jew) of the Special Sessions Court of the City of New York on October 23 and
24, 1939. In court it was shown that the attendants had gone into the section
of Madison Square Garden
where the disturbance broke out in order to remove the disturbers. When the
rioters attacked the ushers, they resisted and dealt firmly with some of the
radical group. Witnesses for the prosecution made many contradictory
statements. Not only did the court acquit the three ushers. It also found that
the Witness attendants had acted within their rights.
“Book of the Year 1975” , pages 180-182: Jehovah's Witnesses engage in violence on
a Catholics faithful.
And after
all this, we have Jehovah's Witnesses, with bottomless audacity
that distinguishes them, to speak ironically us because we want to defend ourselves and the honor of our
family against of any
foreign and hostile threatening!
Writer Christos Pal
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