Joseph Franklin Rutherford

Joseph Franklin Rutherford (8 November 1869—8 January 1942), often referred to as "Judge" Rutherford, was the second president of the incorporated Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the primary corporate body of the Bible Students, and subsequently of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Rutherford took up a career in law, working as a court stenographer, trial lawyer and prosecutor and developed an interest in the doctrines of Watch Tower Society president Charles Taze Russell, which led him to become a baptized Bible Student in 1906. He became legal counsel for the Watch Tower Society in 1907 and a traveling representative until his election as president in 1917.

Biographers describe Rutherford as a powerful orator with a blunt and forthright manner. His early presidency was marked by a bitter battle with the Society's board of directors, in which four of its seven members accused him of autocratic behavior and sought to reduce his powers. Rutherford overcame the challenge by gaining a legal opinion that his four opposers were not legally directors and replaced them with four new sympathetic directors. Twelve legal opinions subsequently obtained by the four ousted directors claimed Rutherford's actions were "wholly unlawful"; neither Rutherford's nor these latter legal opinions resulted from an adjudicated ruling. The leadership crisis divided the Bible Student community and helped contribute to the loss of one-seventh of the Watch Tower adherents by 1919.

He and six other Watch Tower executives were imprisoned in 1918 after charges were laid over the publication of The Finished Mystery, a book deemed "seditious" for its anti-war comments.

Rutherford introduced many organizational and doctrinal changes that helped shape the beliefs and practices of today's Jehovah's Witnesses. He imposed on the worldwide Bible Student movement a centralized administrative structure which he later called a theocracy, required all members of the religion to distribute literature and preach door to door and provide regular reports of their activity and instituted public speaking training programs as part of their weekly worship meetings. He established 1914 as the date of Christ's invisible return, asserted that Christ died on a tree rather than a cross, formulated the current Witness concept of Armageddon as God's war on the wicked and reinforced the belief that the start of Christ's millennial reign was imminent. He directed that adherents not celebrate customs such as Christmas and birthdays, salute national flags or sing national anthems and in his last years directed that hymns not be sung at meetings. He introduced the name "Jehovah's witnesses" in 1931 and the name "Kingdom Hall" for houses of worship in 1935.

He wrote twenty-one books and was credited by the Society in 1942 with having put almost 400 million books and booklets in the hands of individuals. The number of adherents increased more than sixfold during Rutherford's 25 years as president. Authors William Whalen and James Penton have claimed that Rutherford was to Russell what Brigham Young was to Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. Penton contends that both Russell and Smith were capable religious leaders but naive visionaries, while Rutherford and Young were "hard-bitten pragmatists who gave a degree of permanency to the movements they dominated".

Early life and law career

Rutherford was born in Boonville, Missouri on November 8, 1869 to a Baptist farm family and raised in near poverty. Rutherford developed an interest in law from the age of 16. Although his father discouraged this interest, he allowed Rutherford to go to college provided he could pay for a laborer to take his place on the family farm. Rutherford took out a loan and helped to pay for his law studies by working as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman and court stenographer.

He spent two years as a judge's intern, became an official court reporter at age 20 and was admitted to the Missouri bar in May 1892 at age 22. He became a trial lawyer for a law firm and later served for four years in Boonville as a public prosecutor. He campaigned briefly for Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. He was appointed a Special Judge in the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri, sitting as a substitute judge at least once when a regular judge was unable to hold court. His appointment earned him the sobriquet "Judge" Rutherford. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1909 and admitted to practice before the U. S. Supreme Court the same year.

Rise to Watch Tower Society presidency

From baptism to the Board

Joseph F. Rutherford

In 1894 Rutherford bought three volumes of Charles Taze Russell's Millennial Dawn series of Bible studies from two colporteurs (now known as "pioneers") who visited his office. Rutherford, who then viewed all religions as insincere, shallow and hypocritical, was struck by Russell's sincerity and his sentiments towards religion, which mirrored his own view. Rutherford immediately wrote to the Watch Tower Society to tell them he and his wife found the books a godsend. He was baptized twelve years later and he and his wife began holding Bible classes in their home. The following year, 1907, he became legal counsel for the Watch Tower Society at its Pittsburgh headquarters to handle its court cases, and from around that time began to give public talks as a "pilgrim" representative (traveling overseer) of the Society. As Russell's health deteriorated, Rutherford represented him on trips to Europe and in April 1915 he deputized for him at a major debate with Baptist preacher J.H. Troy over four nights in Los Angeles before an audience of 12,000, debating such subjects as the state of the dead, hellfire and Christ's Second Coming. Rutherford wrote a pamphlet, A Great Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens, in defense of Russell and served as chairman of the Bible Students' Los Angeles convention in September 1916.

By 1916 Rutherford had become one of the seven directors of the Watch Tower Society and when Russell died on October 31, 1916 he was chosen—with Vice-President Alfred I. Ritchie and Secretary-Treasurer William E. Van Amburgh—to form a three-man executive committee to run the Pennsylvania corporation until a new president was elected at the annual general meeting the following January. He also joined a five-man editorial committee to run The Watch Tower from the December 15, 1916 issue. Russell had decreed in his will that after his death the magazine was to be managed by an editorial committee of five and he had named the five men he wished to form the committee. He had placed Rutherford fourth on a second list of five alternate members to fill any vacancies that arose.

Bible Student Alexander H. Macmillan, who served as an aide to the executive committee, later wrote that tensions at Watch Tower headquarters mounted as the day for election of the Society's officers approached. He observed: "A few ambitious ones at headquarters were holding caucuses here and there, doing a little electioneering to get their men in. However, Van Amburgh and I held a large number of votes. Many shareholders, knowing of our long association with Russell, sent their proxies to us to be cast for the one whom we thought best fitted for office." Macmillan, who claimed he had declined an offer from an ailing Russell months earlier to accept the position of Society president after his death, agreed with Van Amburgh that Rutherford was the best candidate. He wrote: "Rutherford did not know what was going on. He certainly didn't do any electioneering or canvassing for votes, but I guess he was doing some worrying, knowing if he was elected he would have a big job on his hands ... There is no doubt in our minds that the Lord's will was done in this choice. It is certain that Rutherford himself had nothing to do with it."

Rutherford vs Board of Directors

On January 6, 1917, Rutherford, aged 47, was elected President of the Watch Tower Society, unopposed, at the Pittsburgh convention. Controversy soon followed. Author Tony Wills claims there is evidence that nominations were suspended once Rutherford had been nominated, depriving shareholders of the chance to cast thousands of votes for other candidates and within months Rutherford felt the need to defend himself against rumors within the Brooklyn Bethel that he had used "political methods" to secure his election. In the first volley of what became a bitter pamphlet war by opposing sides, Rutherford told Bible Students: "There is no person on earth who can truthfully say that I ever asked them directly or indirectly to vote for me."

By June the rumblings surrounding Rutherford's elevation to President were turning into what he called a "storm" that ruptured the Watch Tower Society for the remainder of 1917. The seeds had been sown in January when Bethel pilgrim Paul S.L. Johnson, sent to England following Russell's death with orders to inspect the management and finances of the Society's London corporation, dismissed two managers of the corporation, seized its funds and attempted to reorganize the body. When Rutherford, who was convinced Johnson was insane and suffering religious delusions, ordered his recall to New York in late February, Johnson refused and claimed he was answerable only to the full Board of Directors. When he did finally return to New York and apologize to the Bethel family for his excesses in London, Johnson became caught up in a move against Rutherford by four of the seven Watch Tower Society directors.

Joseph F. Rutherford c. 1910

At issue were new by-laws that had been passed in January by both the Pittsburgh convention and the Board of Directors, stating that the President would be the executive officer and general manager of the Society, giving him full charge of its affairs worldwide. Opinions on the need for the by-laws were sharply divided. Rutherford maintained that Russell, as president, had always acted as the Society's manager, and the January 6 vote by shareholders to approve the by-laws proved they wanted this process to continue under his successor. He explained that it was a matter of efficiency: "The work of the Society peculiarly requires the direction of one mind," he wrote. "There are so many small details that if several persons had to direct them, more than the time would be used in consultation. This was clearly demonstrated by the Executive Committee, and it was found that it took three men two hours a day what one could do in a third of that time." Bible Student Francis McGee, a lawyer and an assistant to the New Jersey Attorney-General, responded: "This is then the crux of the matter. He says he is that one mind." By June four board members – Robert H. Hirsh, Alfred I. Ritchie, Isaac F. Hoskins and James D. Wright – had decided they had erred in endorsing Rutherford's powers of management. They claimed Rutherford had become autocratic, refusing to open the Society's books for scrutiny and denying Johnson a fair hearing over his London actions. They accused Rutherford of having engineered greater powers for himself by drawing up the by-laws which they claimed were in direct conflict with both Russell's will and the Society's charter that stipulated it be controlled by a seven-man board of directors. Rutherford, who said he had "no ambition for earthly power or honor" and had never attempted to gain control of the Society, countered that he had drawn up the by-laws only after being requested by the Executive Committee – Ritchie, Van Amburgh and himself. Ritchie insisted he had known nothing of the proposed resolutions until shown them by Rutherford.

At a Board meeting on June 20 Hirsh presented a resolution to rescind the new by-laws and reclaim the powers of management from the president, but a vote was deferred for a month after strenuous objections by Rutherford. A week later four of the directors requested an immediate board meeting to seek information on the Society finances. The President, who later claimed he by then had detected a conspiracy between Johnson and the four directors with the aim of seizing control of the Society as he believed Johnson had attempted in Britain, refused the meeting and took a new direction to thwart their plan.

Rutherford gained a legal opinion from a Philadelphia corporation lawyer that a clause of the Watch Tower Society charter stipulating that its directors were elected for life was contrary to Pennsylvania law, and that all directors were required by law to be re-elected annually. The legal opinion stated that because the January 6 shareholders meeting had elected only three men to office – Rutherford, Secretary-Treasurer Van Amburgh and Vice-President Andrew N. Pierson – the remaining four board members, who had joined as early as 1904 and never faced re-election, had no legal status as directors of the Society. Even Hirsh, who had been appointed by the board on March 29, 1917 following the resignation of Henry C. Rockwell, was said to have no legal standing because his appointment had taken place in New York rather than Allegheny, as required by law. Rutherford claimed to have known these facts since 1909.

Pamphlets published by opposing sides during the dispute over Rutherford's leadership, 1917.

On July 12 Rutherford traveled 750 km from Chicago to Pittsburgh and exercised his right under the Society's charter to fill what he claimed were four vacancies on the board, appointing A.H. Macmillan and Pennsylvania Bible Students W.E. Spill, J.A. Bohnet and George H. Fisher as directors. Rutherford called a meeting of the new board on July 17, where the directors passed a resolution expressing "hearty approval" of the actions of their president and affirming him as "the man the Lord has chosen to carry on the work that yet remains to be done". On July 31 he called a meeting of the People's Pulpit Association, a Watch Tower Society subsidiary incorporated in New York, to expel Hirsh and Hoskins as directors on the grounds that they were opposing the work of the Association. When the resolution failed to gain a majority, Rutherford exercised shareholder proxies provided for the annual meeting in New York the previous January to secure their expulsion. On August 1 the Society published a 24-page journal, Harvest Siftings, subtitled "The evil one again attempts to disrupt the Society", in which Rutherford stated his version of the events and explained why he had appointed the new board members.

A month later the four ousted directors responded with a self-funded rebuttal of Rutherford's statement. The publication, Light After Darkness, contained a letter by Pierson, dated July 26, in which the Vice-President declared he was now siding with the old Board. Although he believed both sides of the conflict had displayed "a measure of wrongs", Pierson had decided Rutherford had been wrong to appoint new directors. The ousted directors' publication also disputed the legality of their expulsion, stating that the clause in the Pennsylvania law prohibiting life memberships on boards had been only recently introduced and was not retroactive, exempting existing corporations from the statute. As well, they claimed, the Society's Charter allowed only directors to be elected as officers. If, like the other four, neither Rutherford, Van Amburgh nor Pierson had legally been directors in January, then nor could they be elected as officers. Their advice from several lawyers, they said, was that Rutherford's course was "wholly unlawful".

The ex-directors' publication claimed Rutherford had required all Bethel workers to sign a petition supporting him and condemning the former directors, with the threat of dismissal for any who refused to sign. Some workers complained they had signed under duress and it was claimed as many as 35 members of the Bethel family were forced to leave for failing to support Rutherford during his "reign of terror". Rutherford denied anyone had been forced out for refusing to sign an oath of allegiance. Despite attempts by Pierson to reconcile the two groups, the former directors left the Brooklyn Bethel on August 8.

1918 election and aftermath

Bible Students continued to be assailed by publications from both sides through late 1917, with Rutherford on one side and Johnson and the four expelled directors on the other each accusing their opponents of gross misrepresentation and trying to usurp authority. The controversy fractured the harmony of the Bible Student movement and many congregations split into opposing groups of those loyal either to Rutherford or those he had expelled.

Rutherford's four opponents made one last attempt to unseat Rutherford, claiming that although he had the backing of the most powerful shareholders, he lacked the support of Bible Students at large. They therefore called for a democratic vote from all the Bible Students. Rutherford wrote in October, "I did not seek election to the office of President, and I am not seeking re-election. The Lord is able to attend to his own business." Then, outmaneuvering his opponents, he organized a referendum of all Bible Students in December, a month before the annual Pittsburgh convention. Although they were not binding, votes were counted in more than 800 congregations in the United States, giving him 95 per cent of the vote for President. His opposers ranked 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th on the list of prospective directors, with the highest support given to Rutherford's existing six co-directors. On January 5, 1918, Rutherford was comfortably returned to office, receiving 194,106 shareholders' votes. Of the ex-directors, Hirsh received the highest number of votes, with his 23,198 putting him in 10th place. A resolution was promptly passed to request that Hirsh resign from the Editorial Committee.

Rutherford admitted at the convention he was aware he had made many mistakes, but by mid-1919 about one in seven Bible Students had chosen to leave rather than accept his leadership, forming such groups as The Standfast Movement, Paul Johnson Movement, Dawn Bible Students Association, Pastoral Bible Institute of Brooklyn, Elijah Voice Movement and Eagle Society.

The Finished Mystery

In late 1916 two prominent Bible Students at the Brooklyn headquarters, Clayton J. Woodworth and George H. Fisher, sought approval from the Executive Committee to produce a book on the prophecies of the books of Revelation and Ezekiel based primarily on Russell's writings. Work on the book, The Finished Mystery, which was labeled as the posthumous seventh volume of Russell's Studies in the Scriptures, proceeded without the knowledge of the full Board of Directors and Editorial Committee and was released by Rutherford to the Bethel family on July 17, 1917, the day he announced the appointment of four replacement directors.

Although denounced by Rutherford's opponents, the book was an immediate best-seller, was translated into six languages and serialized in The Watch Tower. Rutherford expected theocratic rule to be established on earth in 1918 and the saints glorified, writing in January 1918: "The Christian looks for the year to bring the full consummation of the church's hopes." He embarked on a vast advertising campaign to expose the "unrighteousness" of religions and their alliances with "beastly" governments, expanding on claims in The Finished Mystery that patriotism was a delusion and murder. The campaign attracted the attention of governments and on February 12, 1918 the book was banned by the Canadian government for what a Winnipeg newspaper described as "seditious and antiwar statements" On February 24 in Los Angeles Rutherford gave the first of his talk series "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" in which he attacked the clergy, declaring: "As a class, according to the Scriptures, the clergymen are the most reprehensible men on earth for the great war that is now afflicting mankind." Three days later the Army Intelligence Bureau seized the Society's Los Angeles offices and confiscated literature.

In early May 1918 US Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory condemned The Finished Mystery as "one of the most dangerous examples of ... propaganda ... a work written in extremely religious language and distributed in enormous numbers". Days later warrants were issued for the arrest of Rutherford and seven other Watch Tower directors and officers on charges of sedition under the Espionage Act. On June 21 seven of them, including Rutherford, were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. Rutherford feared his opponents would gain control of the Society in his absence, but on January 2, 1919 learned he had been re-elected President at the Pittsburgh convention the day before. The victory convinced him that God wanted him as President. In March 1919 the directors were released on bail after an appeals court ruled they had been wrongly convicted and in May 1920 the government announced all charges had been dropped.

Reorganization and the birth of the theocracy

Administrative changes

On his release from prison, Rutherford began a major reorganization of Bible Student activities. At a May, 1919 convention in Ohio he announced the publication of a new magazine, The Golden Age (today known as Awake!); since Russell's will had decreed the Society should publish no other periodicals the new magazine was at first published by "Woodworth, Hudgings & Martin", with a Manhattan (rather than Brooklyn) address. Within months Bible Students were organized to distribute it door-to-door. He expanded the Society's printing facilities, revived the colporteur work and in 1920 introduced the requirement for weekly reports of Bible Students' preaching activity. He expanded and reorganized overseas branch offices in what he regarded as a "cleansing" and "sifting" work. Beginning with an eight-day assembly at Cedar Point, Ohio in 1922 Rutherford launched a series of major international conventions under the theme "Advertise the King and Kingdom", attracting crowds of up to 20,000, who were urged to "herald the message far and wide". "Behold the King!" Rutherford told them. "You are his publicity agents." He stressed that the prime purpose of all Bible Students was to preach publicly in fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, especially in the form of door-to-door evangelism with the Society's publications.

A 1920 booklet by Rutherford, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, a best-seller translated into 11 languages including Yiddish, and supported by a major speaking program and newspaper advertisements, predicted the "full restoration of mankind" in 1925 accompanied by the resurrection of Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Rutherford later admitted "I made an ass of myself" with the prediction, but continued to claim the end of the world was "near at hand".

In 1921, Rutherford published his first book, The Harp of God, eventually following it up with another nineteen books, each with one-word titles, such as Creation (1927), Jehovah (1934) and Children (1941). His publications reached a total of 36 million copies.

In 1925 he gained total control over what doctrines would be taught in Watch Tower publications, overruling the refusal by the five-man Editorial Committee to publish his doctrinally revolutionary article, "The Birth of a Nation". Rutherford later claimed Satan had "tried to prevent the publication of that article ... but failed in that effort" and the 1933 Watch Tower Yearbook observed that the subsequent demise of the Editorial Committee indicated "that the Lord himself is running his organization". The committee was removed in 1931 and Rutherford wrote every leading article in The Watch Tower from then until his death.

Rutherford expanded his means of spreading the Watch Tower message in 1924 with the start of 15-minute radio broadcasts, initially from WBBR, based on Staten Island, and eventually via a network of as many as 480 radio stations. A 1931 talk was broadcast throughout North America, Australia and France, but the virulence of his attacks on the clergy was strong enough to result in both the NBC and BBC radio networks banning him from the airwaves. Later still, in the late 1930s, he advocated the use of "sound cars" and portable phonographs with which talks by Rutherford were played to passersby and householders.

At a 1931 Bible Student assembly in Columbus, Ohio Rutherford proposed a new name for the organization, Jehovah's witnesses, to differentiate his followers from the proliferation of other groups that followed Russell's teachings. Bible Students who opposed or abandoned Rutherford to form new groups were increasingly described as the "evil servant class" and his followers were told it was wrong to pray for those who were "unfaithful".

The door-to-door preaching program was extended to formally include "back calls" on interested people and Witnesses were urged to start one-hour Bible studies in the homes of householders. With the increased emphasis on preaching came a stronger push for centralized control of congregations. Service directors, who reported back to Brooklyn, were appointed in each congregation and a weekly "service meeting" introduced to meeting programs. Rutherford impressed on elders the need to obey without complaint "regulations", "instructions" and "directions" from the Society. When many congregations balked at the new regulations, Rutherford from 1928 began a drive to abolish the system of elective congregation elders, dismissing them as "haughty" and "lazy" and asserting in 1932 that the office of elder was unscriptural. In 1938 he introduced the term "theocracy" to describe the government of the religion, with Consolation explaining: "The Theocracy is at present administered by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, of which Judge Rutherford is the president and general manager." "Zone servants" (now known as circuit overseers) were appointed to supervise congregations and in a Watchtower article Rutherford declared the need for congregations to "get in line" with the changed structure.

By 1942, the year of his death, worldwide attendance at the annual Memorial of Christ's death was 140,450 – more than six times the number attending when he succeeded Russell as Watch Tower president. However his restructuring of the Bible Student community coincided with a dramatic loss of followers during the 1920s and 1930s. Worldwide attendance of the annual Memorial of Christ's death fell from 90,434 in 1925 to 17,380 in 1928. Memorial attendance figures did not surpass 90,000 again until 1940. Author Tony Wills, who analyzed attendance and "field worker" statistics, suggests it was the "more dedicated" Bible Students who quit through the 1920s, to be replaced by newcomers in larger numbers, although Rutherford dismissed the loss of the original Bible Students as the Lord "shaking out" the unfaithful. In the 1942 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, Rutherford wrote that the year's achievements "would, on the face of it, show that the Theocratic witness work on earth is about done".

Doctrinal changes

From 1922 Rutherford began dismantling some of Russell's doctrines. At the 1922 Cedar Point convention he announced that scriptural evidence indicated Christ had begun his reign in 1914,, not 1878 as Russell had taught since 1881. He expanded on his view in the 1925 Watchtower article "Birth of a Nation", which he later admitted "caused a real stir or shake-up within the ranks". In 1927 he moved the date of the resurrection of the "sleeping saints" – until then said to have taken place in 1878 – to 1918.

From 1925 he began drawing on the books of Exodus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Psalms as well as the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles to develop the view of the Battle of Armageddon as a universal war waged by God rather than Russell's belief that it was an anarchistic human struggle for domination on earth. A January 1, 1926 Watchtower article introduced a new emphasis on the importance of the name "Jehovah" and from 1929 Rutherford presented the view that the vindication of God's name – which would ultimately occur when millions of unbelievers were destroyed at Armageddon – was the primary doctrine of Christianity and more important that God's display of goodness or grace towards humans. In 1932 he published an interpretation of a passage in Ezekiel describing the attack on Jerusalem by Gog of Magog and predicted an intensification of persecution of the Witnesses that would culminate in God intervening on the Witnesses’ behalf to begin the battle of Armageddon, which would destroy all opposers of God’s organization.

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A 1940 Rutherford booklet "exposing" a Catholic campaign of mob violence against Jehovah's Witnesses

From 1926 he began discrediting Russell's teaching on the importance of Christian "character development" or personal "sanctification" and a year later discarded the teaching that Russell had been the "faithful and wise servant" of Matthew 24:45-47, warning that the desire to revere men was a snare set by the Devil.

In statements from 1928 he began distancing himself from Russell's teaching that the natural Jews would be restored to Palestine and also return to God's favor. Ten years earlier Rutherford had claimed prophecies of their restoration were already being fulfilled with the British takeover of the Palestine from the Turks during World War I. At that time he expected 1925 would bring further major fulfillment. From 1928, however, he began denying there was a role for Jews in God's Kingdom arrangement and by 1933 he had reversed Russell's earlier teaching, claiming that Jews, prominent in whose ranks were avaricious, "arrogant, self-important and extremely selfish" business leaders, would gain no favored standing with God. The teaching that God would restore the Jews to the Palestine was dropped about the same time.

Russell's teaching that the "great company" of Revelation 7:9 was a "secondary spiritual class", who would be resurrected to heaven apart from the 144,000 "elect", was rejected in 1935 when Rutherford, at a Washington, D.C. convention, argued that the "great multitude", the "sheep" of Matthew 25 and the "Jonadabs" of 2 Kings chapter 10 all pictured the same group of people of good will, all of whom could survive Armageddon and receive everlasting life on earth by becoming Witnesses.

In 1935, Rutherford took issue with U.S. state laws requiring school students to salute the flag as a means of instilling patriotism and in the 1936 Yearbook declared that baptized Witnesses who did salute the flag were breaking their covenant with God and were thus "guilty of death". Witness children in 43 states were expelled for refusing to salute the flag and the Watch Tower Society took most cases to court, with Rutherford personally leading their unsuccessful U. S. Supreme Court battle in 1940. Controversy over the flag salute issue escalated and mob attacks on Witnesses became prevalent in many U.S. states until the Supreme Court reversed itself in 1943. A U.S. law magazine noted how Jehovah's witnesses had helped shape the course of constitutional law, remarking: "Through almost constant litigation this organization had made possible an ever-increasing list of precedents concerning the application of the 14th amendment to freedom of speech and religion".

Character and attitudes

Rutherford with Cadillac from the Watchtower publication The Messenger (1931)

Biographers describe Rutherford as tall and solidly built with a senatorial demeanor and a strong booming voice that helped make him a powerful orator. Watch Tower literature acknowledges that his personality contrasted strongly with that of his predecessor. One Witness history book says that while Russell was kind, warm and tactful, Rutherford "was warm and generous toward his associates but he was also a brusque and direct type of person, and his legal background and experiences in early life gave him a directness in his approach to problems in dealing with his brothers that caused some to take offense". Another Watch Tower account says he did not hide his feelings, adding, "His bluntness, even when spoken in kindness, was sometimes misunderstood." Fellow Watch Tower Society director A. H. Macmillan says Rutherford "spoke as simply and directly to the people as he knew how, and he was an extremely forthright man. He was thoroughly convinced that what he had to say was the truth and that it was a matter of life and death." Macmillan adds: "He would never tolerate anything that would be contrary to what he clearly understood the Bible to teach. He was so strict about that, he would permit nothing that would seem to show a compromise when it came to an issue of the truth." Author Tony Wills describes him as charitable and generous and says his sympathy for the poor and oppressed was exceeded only by his hatred for the rich, the oppressors. He also notes that he was a dynamic, impatient extrovert. Other authors highlight Rutherford's abrasiveness: James Penton describes him as blunt and moody with an explosive temper and "a streak of self-righteousness which caused him to regard anyone who opposed him as of the Devil", while Alan Rogerson notes that he was a "dogmatic and insensitive person, obsessed with his own self-importance".

Rutherford's confrontation with four Watch Tower Society directors who opposed him in 1917 highlighted both the forcefulness of his personality and his determination to fight for what he believed was right. Penton claims Rutherford played "hard-fisted church politics" and Rogerson accuses Rutherford of using The Watchtower as a propaganda medium to attack his opposers in what was effectively a battle for his survival as president. At the heart of his opponents' complaints was his "autocratic" behavior as he strove to "exercise complete management of the Society and its affairs". Penton similarly describes Rutherford's actions in his first year of presidency – including his appointment of new directors, refusal to allow the Society's accounts to be examined and unilateral decision to publish The Finished Mystery – as high-handed and secretive. Yet to Rutherford the issue was simple: "...It was my duty to use the power the Lord had put into my hands to support the interests of the shareholders and all others interested in the Truth throughout the world ... to be unfaithful to them would be unfaithful to the Lord." Macmillan, who fully backed Rutherford through the crisis, claimed the president was extremely patient and "did everything that he could to help his opposers see their mistake, holding a number of meetings with them, trying to reason with them and show them how contrary their course was to the Society's charter".

According to Wills, Rutherford emerged from prison in 1919 bitter against the world and the collusion he saw between the clergy and military that had secured his imprisonment. Soon after his release he coined the term "Satan's organization" to refer to this supposed conspiracy. In Watchtower articles Rutherford was similarly scathing towards big business, politics and the League of Nations. Rogerson describes Rutherford's attitude towards the clergy – his avowed enemies – as "unadulterated hatred". His attacks on clergymen, particularly Catholics, from the late 1920s were strong enough to attract a ban on his broadcasts by the NBC radio network, which condemned his "rabid attack upon organized religion and the clergy". He also applied criticizing terms to those who had deserted Watch Tower ranks, applying the biblical description of "evil servant" to those who had left and opposed his teachings. He urged followers to view with contempt such ones who had "openly rebelled against God's order or commandments" and also described as "despicable" elective elders of the 1930s who refused to submit to Watch Tower Society administrative changes.

Wills argues that Rutherford seemed to relish describing how completely the wicked would be destroyed at Armageddon, dwelling at great length on prophecies of destruction. He claims that towards the close of his ministry Rutherford spent about half of each year's Watchtowers writing about Armageddon.

According to Penton, Rutherford's austerity – evidenced by his distaste for Christmas, birthday parties and other popular customs that were described as of pagan origin or that encouraged creature worship and hence not to be celebrated or practiced – led in turn to austerity becoming a part of Witness life. Congregational hymn singing was also halted in 1938 (and reinstated soon after Rutherford's death).

Rutherford's books and magazine articles reveal his strong views on "the proper place of women" in the church and society. In a 1931 book he linked the post-1919 rise of women's movements that encouraged equality of the sexes to satanic influence and claimed the custom of men tipping their hats to women or standing when a woman approached was a scheme of the devil to turn men from God and indicated an effeminate streak in men who practiced the custom. Mother's Day was similarly described as part of a plan to turn people away from God. In 1938 he urged followers to delay marriage and child-bearing until after Armageddon, which Wills claims prompted a strong community bias among Witnesses against marriage. Those who did marry, says Wills, were considered to be weak in faith. At a 1941 convention in Missouri he quoted Rudyard Kipling's description of women as "a rag and a bone and a hank of hair".

Former Jehovah's Witness and former Governing Body member Raymond Franz claims there is no evidence Rutherford engaged in door-to-door ministry though he said this was a requirement and sacred duty of all Witnesses. Yet Rutherford had once made a living as a door-to-door salesman, and A. H. Macmillan related details of Rutherford's early home preaching in 1905 or 1906 In addition, a 1975 article named several Witnesses and quoted their experiences with Rutherford in the house-to-house ministry in the 1920s. Headquarters staff claimed his responsibilities as president prevented him from doing so more often, especially toward the end of his life.

Personal life

Beth Sarim ("House of the Princes") was built in San Diego, California in 1930 for soon to be resurrected Old Testament "princes." Rutherford used it as a winter home.

Rutherford married Mary Fetzer, of Cooper County, Missouri, in 1890. Their only child, Malcolm, was born on November 10, 1892. The couple separated after he became president of the Watch Tower Society.

In 1929, funds were privately donated to allow the construction of Beth Sarim, (House of the Princes), a residence at San Diego, California for the stated purpose of housing the prophets and "faithful men of old", who had been expected to be physically resurrected in 1925. Rutherford, who is said to have lost the use of one lung after suffering pneumonia during his imprisonment, began spending his winters at the residence and later spent most of his time there. Rutherford resided at the villa in his last years of ill health until his death in 1942. The villa was sold in 1948, with The Watchtower declaring, "It had fully served its purpose and was now only serving as a monument quite expensive to keep."

The standard of Rutherford's accommodation and his private conduct attracted public criticism from within Witness ranks twice in the late 1930s. In a public letter to Rutherford in April 1937, ousted Watch Tower Society Canada branch manager Walter F. Salter claimed that, in contrast with the lifestyle of pioneers, Rutherford had a luxuriously furnished New York apartment, palatial residence and another abode on Staten Island, as well as Beth Sarim and "commodious and expensive quarters" in Magdeburg, Germany, as well as two 16-cylinder cars. Salter – who was disfellowshipped the same year – made repeated claims in the letter that Rutherford was a heavy drinker. In July 1939 Olin R. Moyle, legal counsel for the Society, wrote an open letter of resignation to the president to complain about behavior of some members of the Bethel family, including Rutherford himself, that he considered excessive and inappropriate. Moyle cited Beth Sarim as one of the examples of "the difference between the accommodations furnished to you, and your personal attendants, compared with those furnished to some of your brethren." (Among other things, Moyle also accused Rutherford of "unkind treatment of the staff, outbursts of anger, discrimination and vulgar language" and condemned him for his allowance of the "glorification of alcohol" at Bethel). Penton cites unnamed former Brooklyn Bethel workers to support his claim that Rutherford was frequently inebriated.

Death and burial

About age 70, Rutherford underwent several medical treatments for cancer of the colon. These included multiple surgeries in 1941, but Rutherford never fully recovered. Rutherford died at Beth Sarim on January 8, 1942 at the age of 72.

A U.S. Bethel family member recalled the reaction to their president's death. "It was at noontime when the family was assembled for lunch," he said. "The announcement was brief. There were no speeches. No one took the day off to mourn. Rather, we went back to the factory and worked harder than ever."

Rutherford's burial was delayed for three and a half months due to legal proceedings arising from his desire to be buried at Beth Sarim, which he had previously expressed to three close advisers from Brooklyn headquarters. Consolation explained that "Judge Rutherford looked for the early triumph of 'the King of the East', Christ Jesus, now leading the host of heaven, and he desired to be buried at dawn facing the rising sun, in an isolated part of the ground which would be administered by the princes, who should return from their graves." Russell had claimed that resurrected biblical characters would live at Beth Sarim, and concluded that it was appropriate that his bones be buried on the property.

The legal problem arose because Beth Sarim was not a legally zoned cemetery. Witnesses collected over 14,000 signatures on a petition that Rutherford's dying wish might be granted. Consolation condemned San Diego County officials for their refusal to grant a permit for Rutherford's burial at Beth Sarim or on a neighboring Watch Tower property named Beth Shan, stating "It was not the fate of the bones which they decided, but their own destiny. Nor is their blood on anyone else's head, because they were told three times that to fight against God, or to tamper with His servant's bones even, would bring upon them the condemnation of the Lord....So their responsibility is fixed, and they followed the course of Satan."

Watch Tower attorney Hayden C. Covington explained his role in the lawsuit: "I filed a lawsuit then in the courts out there in San Diego to force them to let us bury him out there on that property. Judge Mundo, who was the judge of the Superior Court, heard it and passed the buck, jumping from one thing to another, from one technicality to another, and finally after looking at the matter in a reasonable way Bill, Bonnie, and Nathan and all of us decided that we have fought enough on this and it looks like its the Lord's will that we take his body back to Brooklyn, and have him buried in Staten Island, which we did."

Speculation that Rutherford was secretly buried at Beth Sarim has been called "private rumor", 'frequently disproven', and "myth". The May 4, 1942 issue of Time magazine noted Rutherford's burial at Rossville, New York, on Staten Island; a private burial plot for Watch Tower branch volunteers is on Woodrow Road. In 2002, a caretaker at the immediately adjoining graveyard answered an inquiry about Watch Tower's graveyard by noting "I couldn't tell you who is buried on it because it has absolutely no markers or headstones".

Rutherford was succeeded by Nathan Homer Knorr as president of the Watch Tower Society.

Bibliography

• Johnson, Paul S.L. (November 1, 1917). "Harvest Siftings Reviewed" (PDF). Retrieved July 21, 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Macmillan, A.H. (1957). Faith on the March. Prentice-Hall.
• Penton, James M. (1997). Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's Witnesses (2nd ed.). University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802079733.
• Pierson, A.N.; et al. (September 1, 1917). "Light After Darkness" (PDF). Retrieved July 21, 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |last= (help)
• Rogerson, Alan (1969). Millions Now Living Will Never Die. Constable, London. ISBN 0094559406.
• Rutherford, J.F. (August 1, 1917). "Harvest Siftings" (PDF). Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. Retrieved July 19, 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Rutherford, J.F. (October 1, 1917). "Harvest Siftings, Part II" (PDF). Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. Retrieved July 19, 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society (1975). 1975 Yearbook. Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.
• Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society (1959). Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose. Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.
• Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society (1993). Jehovah's Witnesses – Proclaimers of God's Kingdom. Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.
• Wills, Tony (2006). A People For His Name. Lulu Enterprises. ISBN 9781430301004.

External links

• Rutherford and associates 1919 Application for Executive Clemency
• Original schism documents 1917 to 1929
• Online collection of Rutherford's writings
• Works by Joseph Franklin Rutherford at Project Gutenberg
• News clippings relating to Judge Rutherford
• News clippings from Rutherford's "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" campaign