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The story of Ex-Jehovah's Witness Danny Haszard: How Cults Ruin Lives

July 13, 2011 By 17 Comments

Danny Haszard was born a third-generation Jehovah's Witness. He was one of the thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses who grew up believing that the end of this evil "system of things" would come in their life time and that they were destined to be part of the select group of humanity who would cheat death and live forever in paradise on earth after Jehovah God executes genocidal judgment on the wicked world.

According to Danny in an interview with Maine Times, May 2001:

My parents were Jehovah's Witnesses Missionaries and when I was born they were reviled for having a baby because the end of the world was coming any day and preaching work has to get priority.

Danny sacrificed a lot for what he was raised to believe in. He declares on his autobiography: I squandered my youth for a cult! His site DannyHaszard.com has a photograph of him at 29 with the heading: Danny a virgin at 29!

Worldly things did not matter to the young man growing up as a Jehovah's Witness. He'd been assured that the world would soon end and that his youth would be miraculously renewed by Jehovah God in the new paradise world to come.  Danny neglected his responsibilities to himself–getting braces on his teeth, resisting the temptations of sexuality in his youth, he did not bother about his finishing his education because Armageddon was just around the corner. He suffers a complex of medical conditions–He is diabetic, he has ulcerative colitis, but he neglected to seek medical treatment because, according to the elders of his church, God will fix these problems in the new world to come. Danny, now in his fifties says:

In my youth I was a good looking boy. I had all these girls chasing me but I had to suppress my sex drive because any day the end of the world is coming and I'm going to get delivered…

When Danny was diagnosed of ulcerative colitis, he was confident in the promise by the leadership of the Jehovah's Witnesses that the world would end in 1975 and that all things would be made anew. Danny says:

my disease was woefully mismanaged. I neglected my health care believing in the bogus false promise that 'any day' I would be in the 'new system' and Jehovah God would cure me forever. 1975 came and went and the Watchtower has now denied ever making that end of the world prediction. The disease was to continue to ravage me for another 23 years until my bowel finally gave out and I had to have a total proctocolectomy with an ileostomy appliance (colostomy bag).

But Danny is courageous enough to see the good side to his ordeal with ulcerative colitis  (he jokes that he is now immune to colonic cancer, since he doesn't have one anymore). But he remains bitterly disappointed  at the failure of the 1975 end-of-world prophecy by the Jehovah's Witnesses organization:

…the devout are growing old and dying in the Jehovah's Witnesses just like everyone else and I now have had to come to terms with my own eventual mortality, I'm now 53…

After the 1975 disappointment Danny  began to question the beliefs he inherited from his parents in his childhood. According the Danny he came across literature about the life of  William Miller, the man who formed the nineteenth century group known as the Millerites and from whose failed prophecy of the second coming of Christ the Jehovah's Witness may trace their origins as a splinter group. Danny soon realized that he was living a delusion and finally he left the organization. In Danny's own words:

I figured out that their teaching was just so much convulated cult trapping. The thing that really saved me was this: When you get disengaged from a cult, you're brainwashed [to believe] that you are doomed. They brainwashed me that I was like Judas Iscariot…there's only one thing for you to do, and that's to go off and hang yourself…Then I looked up a cult support group and walked into the meeting and there were all these ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, ex-Scientologists, ex-Moonies and I realized I identified with them. Were all from the same cloth all from the same pedigree…

It is the policy of Jehovah's Witnesses to shun any member who lives the organization. He was shunned by his former friends and relatives and soon he was separated from his mother who moved to Florida. Danny now lives in Bangor, Maine. In 1997, he heard a rumor that his mother had Alzheimer's disease. He thinks his mother must have died a few years after but he has been unable to ascertain the facts. According to Danny,

Basically, I got voted off the Island because I did not sell enough Watchtowers.

Danny claims that he was raped by Church Elders, but Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to go to the police when a criminal incidence happens in the organization. You go to the elders who judge. You may go to the police only if the accused member is excommunicated by the organization. According to Danny what happens is that if a case in the congregation is really scandalous, they just try to cover it up so as not to cause embarrassment in public to the organization, and say to the victim:

Wait on Jehovah, he will solve your problems don't worry about it

In 1997 Danny sent a letter to the sales tax fraud division of the Criminal Investigation Deparment with copies to all fifty states in the U.S. and the I.R.S office. Part of the letter read:

I am writing to blow the whistle on an organization I used to belong to, an organization that is selling millions of dollars of merchandise in this state without collecting sales tax[as required by law]. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York ships truckloads of books, videos, tapes and assorted other merchandise to their Kingdom Halls across the state…They talk about "donations" but this is a thinly veiled tax-dodging sales operation. Dunn & Bradstreet reports for recent years show their sales in the  $1 billion range.. The religious publishing operations and bookstores connected with other churches are collecting and paying sales tax…

Danny is now in his fifties yet he seems to be unable to get over the trauma of his past and he is still after the Jehovah's Witnesses organization for damages done to his mental and physical  health by the false expectations the group fostered in him which, according to him, made him waste away his youth. Danny says in his blog:

The Watchtower leadership and a number of JW elder…are well aware of what I want…Undaunted Danny wants EVERYTHING promised to me by the [Jehovah' Witnesses Organization]…My mission profile is to get the above family wrecking, pedophile protecting, and blasphemous …Elders all Disfellowshipped themselves. I also demand a compensatory damage payment of $100,000,000 from the…real estate empire and ripoff racket.

To the suggestion that Danny Haszard's trauma at having left the Jehovah's Witnesses organization might have been so profound that he needs mental health care he says:

Well if Jehovah's Witnesses say this guy is crazy, he's mental case–well, yeah, I've got a mental history. It was caused by them

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JohnThomas Didymus

Transmodernist writer and thinker. Author of "Confessions of God: The Gospel According to St. JohnThomas Didymus"

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  • Ms Captain America

    Jehovah Witness conventions summer 2011 may be the last hurrah for the Watch Tower.Critical mass is ready to detonate on all the fraud for the God going on in this cult.

    To any Jehovah's Witnesses or Watchtower officials who monitor news articles.
    My snap findings are that at least 50 percent of all Watchtower bad PR is instigated,promoted by Danny the Haszard from Maine (who is a group?).
    The Watchtower should take some of their billions and settle with this guy to get him off their case.
    It is amazing what even one determined soul can do,and he ain't the only one……

  • Truth

    "And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." Acts 5:38, 39 KJV

  • http://www.jwfacts.com JehovahWitnessoner

    55 reasons Jehovah’s Witnesses will never be reformed
    by Frank J. Toth

    1. Teaching that true Christianity is an organization instead of a way of life
    2. Claiming salvation is dependent upon belonging to the JW denomination
    3. Claiming that the organization speaks for and is controlled by Jehovah, thereby equating the organization with God himself

    4. Centralizing authority in an organization instead of letting Christ be the head of each Christian
    5. Claiming that the “faithful and discreet slave” is the “anointed class” rather than each individual Christian who shows himself or herself to be responsible and obedient to Christ
    6. Teaching that the early Christians were led by a governing body

    7. Teaching that Jesus appointed the “anointed remnant” as his true church in 1919
    8. Viewing the so-called “anointed” class (actually, the governing body) as God’s channel and prophet
    9. Placing WT literature above the Bible

    10. Frequently taking Bible texts out of context in order to build support for the organization’s man-made teachings and procedures

    11. Teaching that Jesus returned in 1914 and is “invisibly present” since then
    12. Teaching that Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE when no historical records confirm this and the actual date is believed by nearly all historians to be 587 BCE

    13. Falsifying the fact that Charles Russell predicted for 1914 the end of the world, not Christ’s return
    14. Lying about a so-called “increase” in earthquakes, warfare, famines, persecution, etc., since 1914
    15. Contradictorily condemning military organizations and frowning upon JWs who choose alternative service in lieu of military service while the headquarters organization at the same time owns stock in a military product organization (REGI)

    16. Taking a conflicting stand with regard to the United Nations, claiming that it is the “wild beast” of Revelation that leads all nations in a fight against God and Christ at Armageddon, but signing on as an NGO member and publishing articles that present the UN in a favorable light
    17. Teaching that it’s wrong to celebrate birthdays and all holidays
    18. Teaching that Abraham and the faithful men and women of old are not among the holy ones who will rule with Christ in his Kingdom
    19. Interpreting Jewish restoration prophecies as fulfilled in “the anointed remnant”

    20. Teaching that the Scriptures are directly addressed only to “the remnant of anointed ones”
    21. Teaching that only the “anointed” must be born again
    22. Teaching that the “great crowd” are not begotten or anointed by the Holy Spirit

    23. Teaching that the “great crowd” are God’s grandchildren and not his sons and daughters
    24. Teaching that the “great crowd” are not members of the bride of Christ
    25. Teaching that Jesus is not the mediator between God and the “great crowd” of Revelation chapter 7

    26. Teaching that the resurrection of the “anointed” precedes the resurrection of the “other sheep” and that it has already begun
    27. Teaching that only “anointed” JWs will receive immortality in the resurrection
    28. Inviting only the “anointed” to partake at the memorial

    29. Claiming that spiritual food comes from the “anointed” class whereas nearly all the writers of WT publications are members of the “other sheep” class

    30. Creating a climate of fear by authoritarianism
    31. Controlling what individual JWs may read of Bible-related publications that are not produced by the WT Society
    32. Arrogantly pretending that the JW organization maintains higher standards than any other religion and proclaiming publicly that all other churches are members of Babylon the Great

    33. Forbidding attendance and participation at other churches
    34. Class distinctions such as “governing body,” “anointed remnant” and “great crowd of other sheep”
    35. Class distinctions such as publishers, auxiliary pioneers, regular pioneers, special pioneers, circuit overseers, district overseers, Bethelites, Governing Body, etc.

    36. Prohibiting women from serving in any meaningful role in the congregation while expecting them to do the bulk of the work in “field service”
    37. Constantly prodding the membership by means of literature, meetings and conventions to do ever more and more in the service of the organization, promoting an atmosphere where many feel their best is never good enough

    38. Setting dates for Armageddon and thereby urging the membership to abandon normal living, this often resulting in the ruination of health and family life, as well as creating employment and financial hardships

    39. Teachings that lead the members to believe righteousness and salvation can be earned by devoted and loyal support of the organization’s slavish programs
    40. Keeping meeting attendance and field service records as a gauge of an individual’s spirituality
    41. Organizationally requiring no blood transfusions instead of letting it be a matter of conscience, thereby cruelly informing all members that they will be shunned by the organization if they accept a transfusion that might restore health following a life-threatening accident or illness

    42. Allowing their own infants and children to die instead of allowing doctors to give them necessary blood transfusions
    43. Teaching that the “congregation” of Matthew 18:17 is the body of elders
    44. Holding heresy trials and disciplinary hearings in secrecy from the rest of the congregation
    45. Withholding information that would be helpful to persons who have been accused of wrongdoing

    46. Conducting heresy trials of members who have doubts or who think differently upon the Scriptures
    47. Defining apostasy as against the organization instead of against God
    48. Being quick to disfellowship instead of making efforts to restore persons who have done something wrong

    49. Unnecessarily and abusively shunning members even for minor infractions such as smoking or not complying with the whimsical directives of elders, thereby causing personal and family turmoil that often results in immense guilt, shame, fear, depression, bitterness, hatred, murder and suicide
    50. Prohibiting fellowship with disassociated persons who show no inclination toward causing dissension

    51. Showing favoritism by advising innocent victims to “leave it to Jehovah” instead of the elders taking decisive action to deal with some members who have been accused of harmful wrongdoing.
    52. Ignoring or minimizing clear evidence of child molestation and other abuses simply because only one witness is available to testify against the member accused of such serious wrongdoing
    53. Covering over and hiding damaging facts about the JW organization

    54. In many cases, neglecting the care of their own sick and elderly members who no longer have the strength and energy to attend all the meetings and to be regular in “field service” as they did for most of their lives

    BIGGIE!
    55. Blatantly lying to the public by declaring to news media that members may leave the organization at any time, of their own free will and without any repercussions from the organization

    http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/abstain.shtml Blood Transfusions

  • Vinny

    Life defending Watchtower land is sure one tough deal.

    The Watchtower is not God's anything. FACT OF LIFE!

    Prove God chose Watchtower JWs.

    Cause I got a MOUNTAIN OF PROOF that God never chose Watchtower for anything: http://home.tiscali.nl/t661020/wtcitaten/part2.htm

    The printed page tells it like it is. MANY PAGES.

    Sorry JWs but you just keep losing all the time.

    Did God get all those EMBARRASSING DATES wrong JWs? (1914, 1925, 1975, 2000, GENERATION OF 1914 ETC)…

    Did God get Vaccinations wrong too?

    And then 21 years later did God change his mind about vaccinations?

    (Or was it possibly because vaccinations were stomping out polio, smallpox, diptheria, measles and more)?

    Did God get organ transplants being, "CANNIBALISM", wrong too?

    And then change his mind again 13 years later saying organ transplants were not cannibalism after all! (how bout that!).

    Did God get, "ALTERNATIVE SERVICE" wrong? (((FOR 50 YEARS))).

    Did God change his mind 50 years later and then say alternative service is now okay to do?

    Who did all those brothers go to jail for JWs? Was it for Jehovah or for the Watchtower Society?

    What about good ole and special BETH-SARIM, JWs? Was Jehovah behind Beth Sarim too? An entire house and property waiting for the ancient worthies to be resurrected and have a place to go to.

    Who was Beth Sarim an embarrassment to JW's? Please tell us.

    Is it reasonable to expect just a little more from God's channel than all this JWs?

    What do you think JWs

    Who did all those witnesses that died because of not getting vaccinations or organ transplants die for? Did they die for God or for the Watchtower Society? You tell me JWs.

    So please, tell me JWs, are you ready to let your little children DIE if for some reason they need blood? Please answer yes or no. Put yourself in that situation right now before it actually happens.

    Are you ready to teach other people in your territory that they too must say no to blood even if death results?

    JWs, Are you also ready and willing to shun your children if they get baptized at like 14 but then say, "sorry, but the JW's just ain't for me", at 18?

    JWs, do you tell your bible studies that the JW's were FLAT WRONG about those organ transplants, vaccinations, alternative service, Beth Sarim, 1914, 1925, 1975, 2000, Rape Rules, Sex with animals or sex with the same sex not breaking the marital bond along 500 more things just like these?

    Do you tell your bible studies all about these many mistakes JWs?

    You see, it would be disingenuous of you to only show the one side of the JW picture, don't you think?

    People have a right and you have an obligation to show people the COMPLETE JW PICTURE.

    Most bible studies only know what JW's tell them in their little bible study books. (I bet you all know this now). And NOWHERE does it mention all these problems that destroy the WT Society as being used by God for anything at all.

    If the Bible is True:

    Jesus walked on water.

    Moses parted the Red Sea.

    A Cloud followed the ark of the covenant.

    And the JW religion owns this bad boy: http://home.tiscali.nl/t661020/wtcitaten/part2.htm

    Do you see the slight difference here JWs?

    This is why many people after knowing the entire JW range of facts end up walking away altogether. Just like I did almost five years ago now.

    And this despite the fact that we will be judged as wicked, as some apostate, be labeled, shunned and lose almost everything we have.

    Is this fair JWs? Is this scriptural JWs? No, it is neither… and I have examined all the scriptures many times and in great detail. No scripture supports this unfair abuse of power and loss of friends, family and reputation.

    I hope you take the time to honestly examine all these things JWs.

    Be ready to cut-off your own children just because they don't want it. Because you just might have to. It happens more than you know.

    So JWs, the next time you try to push JW's are God's channel today nonsense please do not get offended when I fall out of my chair laughing.

    You all have many questions all over this site that you have put on your lap.

    And then you ALL always run like a fast little rabbits…

    And do the JW dance moves out the door…

    Silly JW's.

    AND THIS IS WHY YOU KEEP GETTING SPANKED!!!

    No JW that I have ever encountered or debated with can defend the sorry JW past plethora of embarrassing mistakes..

    This is where you cross the line, lose badly and then get buried and spanked all on the same thread.

    Why not just say this is a pretty good religion for me and leave it at that?

    Why arrogantly teach that you must be a JW, JW's are the truth, God uses only JW's, JW's are God's people all the while you have pages and pages of PROOF that God never chose the JW's for anything, never got all those things wrong for 100 plus years and has not picked the Watchtower for anything at all.

    This is your problem. And this is where you JWs are in denial. And what you run away from again and again.

    The JW religion is just that another religious institution and nothing more. The facts prove this again and again over and over.

    JW's preach (((THE JW))) message. And that is it.

    You know the one that said (in writing) that the end would come in 1914, 1925, 1975, before the generation of 1914 died, the year 2000. The JW message that forbids blood transfusions, that forbidded organ transplants, vaccinations, alternative service etc etc etc…. The one that says no beards, no holidays, no school sports or plays, no cub scouts, no red cross, no salvation army etc etc etc

    THAT is not the biblical message at all.

    And remember this fact: Before JW's ever showed up on the scene, Christianity was already GLOBAL!!! Now how did that happen do you suppose?

    God's hand is with my life today. Now how does that happen JWs if I left his organization as you al laughably claim??

    It's simply a matter of putting the issues on the table and with an open mind coming to reasonable conclusions based on the whole range of facts and information.

    I have proven to myself (and my family as well as God Himself) that I am willing to be WRONG.That I am willing to be adjusted. That I can accept new information regardless of the consequences.

    After all I became a JW.

    And then I was willing to leave the JW's despite heavy though unfair consequences.

    I am willing to be proven wrong… or right… whatever the case may be.

    Truth is worth the effort and or consequences for me. And the JWs do not have it.

    That's what this journey called life is all about.

    Living with blinders is no way to live at all!

    If the bible is true Jesus did many amazing things to prove God was with him.

    If the bible is true Moses did many amazing things that prove God was with him.

    And this sorry list is what JW's have to prove God is with them today??

    http://home.tiscali.nl/t661020/wtcitaten/part2.htm

    All from their own literature.

    The printed page tells it like it is JWs!

    Like I've said many times now; the Watchtower's greatest enemy today is its own literature.

    Vinny

  • Crusty

    I suppose that for a group who "don't go to church", a story such as this will have some appeal and will attract dissenters and opposers with fanciful, exggerated stories. It may even satisfy the multiple-personality of the persona under consideration using the 1000's of copy & paste fantasia he promotes. He will fabricate and mislead, justify and support virtually anyone who will badmouth Jehovah's Witnesses, no matter how offensive their conduct or language is to God. And in not one of those 1000's of posts have I EVER seen a better offer; just a "follow me and be consumed in hatred and bitterness" outlook. If that's what you're looking for, enjoy.

  • http://www.dannyhaszard.com/1975.htm Stu Bricker

    Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus had his second coming already 'invisibly' in the year 1914 and then Jesus waited 3 1/2 years to appoint them the Watchtower society rulers of his earthly kingdom in 1919.

    Jehovah Witnesses are a spin-off of the second Adventist which all came from the Millerite movement.American war of 1812 army captain William Miller is ground zero for Jehovah's Witnesses.
    Yes,the "great disappointment" of Oct 22 1844 has never died out… it lives on in the Jehovah's Witnesses.
    The central CORE doctrine of the Watchtower,yes the reason the Watchtower came into existence was to declare Jesus second coming in 1914.When the prophecy (derived from William Miller of 1844) failed they said that he came "invisibly".
    Watchtower reckless predictions of the (1914) (1975)….. second coming of Christ hardens skeptics in their unbelief and provides new fodder for cynics to mock the Christian faith.

    Actual news releases on Armageddon 1975 prediction
    http://www.dannyhaszard.com/1975.htm

    This is their hard history and they cannot change it anymore than the Mormons can change Joseph Smith golden plates Jesus came to America for them.

    That's it folks!

    • http://ctr.reslight.net ResLight

      The Jehovah's Witnesses organization did not exist before 1914, so that organization did not predict anything about 1914. Nevertheless, I don't know of anyone associated with the Bible Students that was expecting Christ to return in 1914. Russell was certainly not expecting Christ to return in 1914; he believed Christ had returned in 1874. Nor was Russell expecting any JW type of Armageddon to happen in 1914. Russell was expecting the time of trouble to begin in 1914, which I believe it did.

  • http://www.jwfiles.com Salty dog

    Two wrongs don't make a right,whatever guerrilla tactics Danny Haszard or any defrauded ex-Watchtower crusader employs pales compared to the murderous blasphemes that the Jehovah's Witnesses bosses have done.
    Nothing excuses or justifies the 55 points made above NO JW defender can refute only attack shoot the messengers with exaggerations that they hurl themselves.
    We have a JW cult that is like Scientology except they take the 'christian' tag and Bible thump.
    Scientologist cry 'bigot' Jehovah's Witnesses cry 'hater' same

  • http://ctr.reslight.net ResLight

    Charles Taze Russell did not believe in an sectarian, authoritarian organization such as the Jehovah's Witnesses. He preached against such. Likewise, the message of glad tidings of great joy for all people that Russell preached is almost the almost the opposite of the bad tidings of great woe of eternal doom for most of the people that Rutherford created after Russell died. Rutherford began forming his new religious organization within a few weeks after Russell died; in 1923 he began forming a new gospel when he introduced his new views of the sheep and the goats and other scriptures. By 1930, the majority of the Bible Students movement had rejected Rutherford's new organization, and his new gospel. In 1931, in order to distinguish his new organization from the Bible Students, Rutherford had his new organization adopt the name "Jehovah's Witnesses".

  • http://ctr.reslight.net ResLight

    Charles Taze Russell did not believe in an sectarian, authoritarian organization such as the Jehovah's Witnesses. He preached against such. Likewise, the message of glad tidings of great joy for all people that Russell preached is almost the almost the opposite of the bad tidings of great woe of eternal doom for most of the people that Rutherford created after Russell died. Rutherford began forming his new religious organization within a few weeks after Russell died; in 1923 he began forming a new gospel when he introduced his new views of the sheep and the goats and other scriptures. By 1930, the majority of the Bible Students movement had rejected Rutherford's new organization, and his new gospel. In 1931, in order to distinguish his new organization from the Bible Students, Rutherford had his new organization adopt the name "Jehovah's Witnesses".

    Charles Taze Russell never expected the end of the world for 1914, although one could conclude such from his earlier statements. Before 1904, Russell had accepted Barbour's conclusion that 1914 would seen the end of the time of trouble. In 1904, however, Russell became convinced that 1914 would see, not the end, but the beginning of the time of trouble. He plainly stated that he did not know how long the time of trouble would last after 1914. At the beginning of the year 1914, evidently because many were misrepresenting him as saying that end of the world was to come in 1914, Russell, in the January issue of "The Bible Students Monthly", had this headline: "End of the Word in 1914 – Not the View of Pastor Russell Nor of I.B.S.A." Russell never, ever, believed or taught the kind of Armageddon that is preached by the JWs. He believed that Armageddon was a period of time in which the peoples of nations would be chastised (not eternally destroyed), leading to up to promised blessings of all nations that would follow.

    From the very start, however, Russell disclaimed being a prophet, and plainly stated that his conclusions were not to be considered prophecy, or infallible. Russell never spoke as being a "central authority" of an organization, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses. Russell did not believe in any such central authority, and he held to the view that one should not condemn fellow Christians who do not accept his conclusions, especially as related to chronology or time prophecy. He plainly stated that although he was convinced that the chronology he used was correct, that he did claim that this was "KNOWLEDGE", something that he could say was absolutely true without any reservation.

  • http://starkvillebiblestudents.blogspot.com mark

    It is disingenuous at best and deliberately misleading at worst to have Pastor Russell's photo linked to an article on the JW's. He did not start them and knew nothing of them. The author should replace this photo with that of JF Rutherford, who actually founded the JW organization. The Wikipedia entry is, surprisingly, basically accurate on C.T. Russell.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell

    You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. Fact is Pastor Russell did not start the Jehovah's Witnesses. I wish people would do a little more research and not perpetuate this falsehood. The JW's wish to claim him as founder for historical authenticity; those who oppose the JW's either don't know any better or worse, don't care to be historically accurate.

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

      This is true. You yourself have written a number of articles here about Russell. I'll edit this for JohnThomas. Sorry I didn't see it earlier.

      Deborah

    • http://johnthomasdidymus.blogspot.com JohnThomas Didymus

      Mark: I have always, studiously, avoided getting myself involved in the argument over who started the Jehovah's Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell or JF Rutherford because i have closely examined both sides of the argument and i honestly find the argument that Russell should not be linked to the JWs a specious argument. Every group or organization in its history goes through significant re-organization and even review of its beliefs over time as one generation of its leadership passes on the baton to the next–the peculiar form of historical revisionism which attempts to dismember the fact of corporate body identity of an organization in space and time, at each occasion of a new generation of leaders re-organizing the system, even radically, following the passing away of an old generation of leaders, is one that arises in the tussle for historical legitimacy between splinter groups locked in succession quarrels; and while the details of the arguments in support of contending revisionist schools may mean life and death to those involved in the struggle the perspective for the objective outsider is legitimately synthetic rather than analytical.

      Your attempt to dissociate the historical legacy of Taze from the JW movement is analogous to the attempt some have made in the past to dissociate Jesus from the group St. Paul founded and which came to be called "Christian" for the first time in the city of Antioch, several years after Jesus himself had died. While such analytical approach to treatment of the history of Christianity may well serve the purpose of those who have a motive and interest to maintain it ( the "circumcision party" of the early Jerusalem church for instance) i hope you will agree with me that from the perspective of the historian interpreting the history of Christianity from a detached outsider perspective, a synthetic approach will be far more legitimate, meaningful and useful for gaining an insight into the dynamics of the evolution of the christian faith over the ages. Detaching the legacy of Jesus from the historical process on which St. Paul built upon is to pulverize by analysis the synthetic reality of Christian history and dissolve it into a fog of unrelated facts from which meaningful synthetic historical insight cannot be retrieved. Genuine historians don't start writing the history of an empire afresh each time a new emperor comes to the throne and re-organizes the state–only partisan propagandists do that.

      Similarly, i prefer to take a synthetic approach to the history of the JW. While i am fully aware of the facts of history which led to the assumption of the name and identity of Jehovah's Witnesses by the group, i think that attempting to totally detach the legacy of Taze from Rutherford's amounts to severing the HEAD of the corporate historical reality and identity of the group from its LIMBS , and while this method of writing history may serve the parochial interests of contending splinter groups it is not a useful way for the detached and uninvolved writer to treat and write history. To order me to replace the image of Taze with JF Rutherford's in this situation is tantamount to telling me to replace an image of Jesus with St. Paul's in an article about Christianity. I REJECT YOUR INTERPRETATION OF JW HISTORY, MARK. It is an analytical approach which dismembers the corporate historical reality of the JWs and serves no useful purpose as far as i am concerned. (And by way of further information, i would have preferred to use an image of Danny Haszard himself had i been able to find a suitable one–since the article really is about him. )

      • http://starkvillebiblestudents.blogspot.com mark

        I REJECT YOUR INTERPRETATION OF JW HISTORY, MARK.
        ———————-
        Allrighty then. I don't consider it my history, but the history. One thing is certain: Br. Russell's last will and testament laid out how the organization should be governed, and his wishes were not followed. If Rutherford had not seized control, the International Bible Students might not have been twisted into the Jehovah's Witnesses. Really, the ONLY doctrines that the JW's kept from the IBSA were no eternal torment and no trinity. They denied Russell's teaching of the Ransom, which was the foundation of the movement.
        As far as being a 'detached and uninvolved writer' — those are few and far between, if they even exist. Most writers have some bias against Russell, but that is to be expected; after all, he challenged orthodoxy in America and changed the course of church history here.
        A synthetic history, then, appears to be one that synthesizes facts and opinion, and by design is less than historically accurate. I accept that.
        And there is a difference between LINKING Br. Russell with the JW's (which is true) and crediting him with being their FOUNDER (which is not true).
        BTW, John, I do enjoy your articles and as a working stiff, I have been amazed at how much material you crank out. My hat is off to you, sir.

        • http://johnthomasdidymus.blogspot.com JohnThomas Didymus

          Quote: And there is a difference between LINKING Br. Russell with the JW's (which is true) and crediting him with being their FOUNDER (which is not true).

          on second thoughts i think you have a strong point there–i really did not sufficiently distinguish between the nuances of meaning.

          And i am happy you enjoy my articles.

          Thanks.

          • Mark

            You da man. Keep on with the thought provoking articles. GodDiscussion is breaking ground, I feel, and providing a home for contributors like you is a valued and needed service… even if we do not always agree.

  • FirstHandView

    Unfortunately, Danny's account of "The Truth" is the truth about this horrible cult.
    The organization tightly controls its members minds, activities and associations. By the WTBS the constant indoctrination, and proclaiming, that "the end of the world" is near, causes many Jehovah Witnesses to continue to hopelessly cling to the organization.

    The WTBS completely dictates and controls its members lives, and by extension, the lives of JWs family members.

    As Jehovah Witnesses start to become older, some members do start to realize, that by staying in this organization, that they have lost valuable years of their lives (such as the teenage years and young adult years) -and years that they can that they can never get back.

    By restricting its members activities to attending Kingdom Halls, JW conventions, magazine selling, and field service work – the organziations causes a myriad of lost educational, employment and health care opportunities.

    The WTBS also destroys families.

    Family members who decide not to become Jehovah Witnesses are brutally and viciously shunned. In fact, a JW will virtually seek the destruction of a family member that attends a church.

    The Jehovah Witness organization that, in reality, does not practice true Christian love. This organization is a highly destructive and life ruining CULT!