Joseph Franklin Rutherford - Character and Attitudes

Character and Attitudes

Biographers describe Rutherford as tall and solidly built with a senatorial demeanor, and a strong booming voice that helped make him a powerful orator. In 1917, The New York Times stated that Rutherford "has a reputation as an eloquent, forceful speaker". Watch Tower Society literature states 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 Society 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 added, "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 also address Rutherford's abrasiveness: James Penton describes him as blunt and moody with an explosive temper, with "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 position 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 his unilateral decision to publish The Finished Mystery—as high-handed and secretive. In contrast, Rutherford claimed, "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 supported Rutherford throughout 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 those of the Catholic Church, 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, calling them the "evil servant". He urged readers to view with contempt anyone who had "openly rebelled against God's order or commandments" and also described elective elders of the 1930s who refused to submit to Watch Tower Society administrative changes as "despicable".

Wills states that Rutherford seemed to relish his descriptions of 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 were not to be observed—led in turn to austerity becoming a part of Witness life. In 1938, he directed that singing be dispensed with at congregation meetings; singing was reinstated soon after his 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 with 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 adherents 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 claimed there was no evidence Rutherford engaged in door-to-door ministry despite his assertion that it was a requirement and sacred duty of all Witnesses. Franz claimed to have heard Rutherford's associates say his responsibilities as president "do not permit his engaging in this activity". Macmillan, however, related details of Rutherford's home preaching in 1905 or 1906 when he was baptized, and a 1975 article quoted several Witnesses relating their experiences with Rutherford in the house-to-house ministry in the 1920s. The official history of Jehovah's Witnesses also notes, "Rutherford personally shared with other conventioners as they engaged in the work of Kingdom proclamation from house to house." On August 2, 1928 in a meeting with the Bible Student elders who had attended a general convention in Detroit, Michigan Rutherford listed his responsibilities and concluded "when I have attended to many other details, I have not had very much time to go from door to door."

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".