In 1940, former zone servant Harvey H. Fink wrote that the WTS was "set up by presumptous men whose interest in spite of their pretenses to the contray, is primarily selling books for revenue.." and that the WTS demanded that books containing outdated doctrine would still "be sold to the people very definitely, because it wanted to get the revenue out of them in spite of the errors it willing admitted they contained."
Strong words, indeed. Is the WTS so currupt and greedy that they would knowlingly make their membership buy and sell books that contained ADMITTED false prophecies and outdated doctrines? Is the WTS so currupt that they would knowingly put the very salvation of interested persons in jeopardy just to get rid of book inventory?
But of COURSE they are!
After the early 1930's hardly any mention of Chuck Russell was made in the society's publications. Many of not most of Russell's most important doctrines had been changed, even demonized. While Russell thought the Great Pyramid was a monument to prophecy from Jehovah, Rutherford taught it was a monument from Satan the Devil himself. I could list literally dozens of Russell's beliefs that had been changed by the time Rutherford died in 1942. By 1938 Rutherford had re-organized his pet cult so thoroughly that it bore virtually NO resemblance to the way it was in Russell's day.
Yet the "Watchtower Cost List", dated February 1, 1944 (two years after Rutherford's death and twenty five years after Russell's death) offered all six volumes of "Studies in the Scriptures" in three editions: Cloth, Keratol and DeLuxe!
In April 1946 the society's "Informant" pamphlet (currently Kingdom Ministry) listed most of Rutherford's books as part of a literature campaign, even though they taught many things that were currently rejected by the society.
Among these things were that the "time of the end" began in 1799, Jesus' second presence began in 1874 and the "other sheep" were destined for heavenly life. Keep in mind that last doctrine was rejected eleven years BEFORE that literature campaign began in 1946.
This campaign to sell outdated literature continued for four years after Rutherford's death.
Ray Franz in his book "In Search of Christian Freedom" stated that often the book that was ordered to be studied in the congregation's book study was one that had a backlog of inventory at the factory. Being primarily a book-selling business, this makes perfect sense to Watchtower leaders.
Have any of you have wondered why the same book is often studied more than once at the mid-week study, several years after it was first studied? It's because the book is over-stocked at the factory, and the WTS knows that over a period of several years many dubs will leave their cult and be replaced by new suckers. New suckers have to buy the book in order to study it, while old suckers just might buy themselves another copy, too! And of course another campaign to "place" that book at the door is also instituted. Inventory problem solved.
I well remember having to study the 678,324 page book "Babylon the Grape Has Fallen" twice within a period of about four or five years. That book was so screwed up, we were only able to cover about 5 pages in a single study. Even then, NONE of us (including the study conductor) understood a damn thing Franz wrote in that piece of crap which masqueraded as "spiritually deep" understandings.
Can a religion be so detached from Christianity that they would place book profits over truth and the spiritual needs of their membership?
If that religion is the Watchtower Book Peddling Corporation, you can bank on it.
Farkel