...You can please ‘some
of the people, some of the time, but …’
Guest post by Gary
Scholars who study Jehovah’s Witnesses have often noted
their keenness to measure activity by numbers. This is most obvious in terms of
the monthly field service reports that publishers file with their congregation’s
secretary, but also in terms of congregation meeting attendances, assembly and
convention attendances and the annual Memorial figures.
In addition, in recording the monthly numbers of publishers
Witnesses are markedly different than any other religion in counting active
members as opposed to passive attenders. Comparing these figures
provides the Society a numerical measurement of progress, of course, and -
to some degree - an indication of how well the message is received in various
lands. In turn, Witnesses draw encouragement as they read annual reports and
see evidence of their ministry bearing fruit.
In contrast, looking back into the earliest Watch Tower
history it is noticeable how little interest was shown in collating figures,
with only annual Memorial attendances and the number of colporteurs giving
indication of growth. Interestingly, Henry King Carroll’s comprehensive
book The Religious Forces of the United States Enumerated, Classified,
and Described, returns for 1900 and 1910 compared with the Government Census of
1890 records meeting figures for nearly every denomination and sect
conceivable with the notable exception of the Bible Students.(1) So,
what caused the situation to change? Strange as it may seem, as will be
explained, it was likely the American governmental authorities in World War One
who we may thank for indirectly kickstarting this trend.
The Draft Act and ‘not an organized sect’
Although the teachings of Pastor Russell were broadly
recognised as being ‘pacifist’, one of the criticisms made to justify why Bible
Students were not to be granted recognition as conscientious objectors in
America during World War One, rightly or wrongly, involved their considered
lack of organization.A list of pacifist sects was created in the United States
by a Mr Hunt of the Census Bureau in 1917 following the country’s entrance to
war and in anticipation of the Selective Services Act (otherwise referred to as
‘The Draft Act’). The list includes the three traditional peace
churches, the Mennonites, Quakers and Brethren, and several others, many known
for their premillennialist expectations. At the bottom of the list,
as if reluctantly tagged on, appears the name International Bible Student
Association, beside a bracketed explanatory note stating, significantly, that
this is “not an organized sect.” (2) Hunt’s list is significant and
apparently was relied on by a number of draft boards throughout America. The
Selective Service Act allowed provision for conscientious objectors to perform
non-combatant service, but only if they belonged to a recognised pacifist sect
which fitted certain criteria. (3)
To have satisfied the authorities the IBSA had two problems
to overcome: Firstly, they were ‘new kids on the block’, a recent religious
‘sect’ as far as the authorities were concerned. As such, unlike the
Mennonites, Brethren or Quakers, they had with no earlier peace testimony that
could be called upon in support. Secondly, while the teachings of Pastor
Russell were well known in America and obviously ‘pacifist’, the extent to
which they were “organized prior to May, 1917” was less clear. In the
Spring of 1918 Military Intelligence Division agents visited Joseph Franklin
Rutherford and requested sight of an IBSA membership list, to which Rutherford replied, “Our only roll of
members is written in Heaven.”(4) At the
famous United States v. Rutherford et al trial,one Bible Student
conscientious objector acknowledged that the IBSA didn’t “keep any record on
the rolls as other churches do” (5) while it was acknowledged that an
individual could “become a member without communicating with headquarters.”(6)
When asked in 1917 how many International Bible Students
Association members there were in America, Rutherford answered that “from the
names on our Watch Tower list we would answer, there are approximately 75,000
adherents.(7) But this list, of course,
indicated just the number of subscribers rather than active supporters.Indeed,
much questioning during the trial involved the use of affidavits sent from
the IBSA to those requesting them in support of their claims for conscientious
objection and whether these were requests from ‘consecrated members’ or, as the
prosecution implied, a large number of slackers who were using the IBSA to
shelter under.
So, when did the situation change? When did the
‘organization’ first start to become organized?
Dr. George Chryssides gives the general era noting:
“It was under
Rutherford that house-to-house visiting became organised, and was expected of
the Society’s members - a practice that has continued into the twenty first
century. Previously, under Russell, the Bible Students’ message was
spread by colporteurs ...” (8)
And historian Zoe Knox linked the greater emphasis on
public ministry that gave ‘rank and file’ members a greater degree of
visibility to “particularly ... since 1922, when Rutherford intensified
door-to-door ministry and initiated a co-ordinated, worldwide campaign that led
door-knocking to become Witnesses’ trademark.”(9)
Knox, no doubt, has in mind the ‘Advertise, Advertise,
Advertise the King and his Kingdom’ rally call at the Cedar Point, Ohio,
international convention on September 8th, 1922.But did the start of this
organized “worldwide campaign” commence even earlier in America
itself? Can we be more precise? The Watch Tower for
August 1 and 15, 1919 published the two-part article “Blessed Are the
Fearless”, which was re-emphasised at the eight-day general assembly at Cedar
Point, Ohio, that followed on September 1-8, 1919, in which Rutherford
delivered the ‘The Hope for this Distressed Humanity’ talk. Hence it was in
1919 that the public witness was resumed. As the Society itself
later described the period:
“Figuratively
speaking, it was a climb to organize all the restored
spiritual Israelites for preaching the Kingdom message from house to house.”
(Italics are mine) (10)
Interestingly, the Proclaimers book states that
“Through the service director, the field service of those associated with the
congregation, or class, was to be reported to the Society each week, starting
in 1919.”(11) Indeed, as a consequence, the very first field service report compiled
for the United States in 1920 showed there were 8,052 “class workers” out in
service, along with 350 colporteurs.(12)
Is it a coincidence that the IBSA moved in this direction
following Rutherford’s release from the Atlanta
Penitentiary? Rutherford apparently saw need to record the activity
of members as a reaction to his court experience, with the intention of
protecting Bible Students in case authorities repeated such arguments in any
future confrontation. If so, what better way of measuring active membership
than to allow adherents themselves to file regular field service
reports? These enabled Bible Students, and later Jehovah’s Witnesses, opportunity
to show their willing support for both the Kingdom message itself and the organization
being used to promote this message.
Too organized?
Unaware of this background, modern critics of the Society ironically
believe it is somehow evidence of a dictatorial leadership imposing their will
over uncommitted followers! In fact, having been muted and suppressed
during the war, by 1919 most International Bible Students responded
enthusiastically to the opportunity to publicly witness and report their
activity, seeing their situation in Biblical terms:
“At that time
the lame one will climb up just as a stag does, and the tongue of the
speechless one will cry out in gladness.” (13)
This remains the attitude of zealous
Witnesses today. Whatever criticisms
opposers may throw at them, their scrupulous reporting and recording of figures
ensures that they may never again be accused of being unorganized!
As Zoe Knox notes:
“The Society
is remarkable, however, in two important ways: it defines every baptised
adherent as an ordained minister and makes public ministry a requirement for
every adult in the community.” (14)
——————————————————
References:
(1) H.K. Carroll, The Religious Forces of the United
States Enumerated, Classified, and Described, returns for 1900 and 1910
compared with the Government Census of 1890. Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1912. A search here for the terms ‘Russellites’ and ‘Millennial Dawnists’
also revealed no results.
(2) A copy of the list appears in Mark A. May’s 1919
article entitled “The Psychological Examination of Conscientious Objectors”,
The American Journal of Psychology 31, April 1920, 155.
(3) The Official Bulletin: Monday, July 9, 1917, Information
for Persons Registered under the Selective Service Law, 6, column 3, point 13.
(4) Lon Strauss, A Paranoid
State: The American Public, Military Surveillance and the Espionage Act of 1917,
2012, 84.
Per Strauss, “Rutherford interpreted the act to mean the organization had to
have been recognized in existence prior to that date, not necessarily that an individualmust
have been a member at that time. In other words, individuals might still join
afterMay 18and thus become exempt to the draft law.” This seems the most
obvious reading of the legislation.However, Rutherford’s letter To the
Secretary or Clerk of the Local Ecclesia, dated 8 August 1917, argues
against this interpretation. In this Rutherford explicitly stated that “such
affidavit will be made, of course, for only those who are members of the
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION and in good standing and who were such
on and before the 18th day of May, 1917.”
(5) Quote from Hans Insberg, an IBSA conscientious
objector, questioned in the The United Statesv Rutherford trial, 253.
(6) Quote from William E. Van Amburgh during the United
States v.Rutherford trial, 1212.
(7)Watch Tower, 1 December 1917, reprints 6181, in
article entitled ‘In Re Military Service’.
(8)George D. Chrysiddes, Jehovah’s Witnesses –
Continuity and Change, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2016, 91.
(9) Zoe Knox, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World,
Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 109.
(10) Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at
Hand! 1975, Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 150.
(11) Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom,
Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 1993, footnote, 212.
(12) The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence,
December 15, 1920, 372.
(13) Isaiah 35:6 –
see application, for example, in Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at
Hand! 1975, 151.
(14) Zoe Knox, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World,
Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 108.
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