Posted by ros on March 13, 1999 at 19:17:29 {MWiPgYg2nZn0g}:
It is interesting that with the growth and wealth of the Watchtower organization over the past two or three decades, public interest and awareness of Jehovah's Witnesses has waned. For example, in the late 50's there were not yet even 1
million Jehovah's Witnesses in the world. Yet up to that time, the leading personalities of the movement were well-known, even famous (or perhaps infamous may be a better word). The followers were referred to as the "Russelites," and later
the "Rutherfordites." In the late 50's, one could ask any Witness and they could tell you not only that Nathan Knorr was the WTS president, but they knew Fred Franz was the vice president, Covington was the legal counselor, and they were
acquainted with other prominent names like MacMillan, et al. It was rumored (and we were quite proud of it) that Casious (sp?) Clay
(aka Mohammed Ali) retained Covington as his attorney to represent him for avoiding military service
when he converted to the Islamic faith.
We flocked to district assemblies where all of these personalities would be the key speakers every year. The 1958 last international assembly was on national news every day. The interest,
press coverage, and public interest whether favorable or not was viewed as proof of Jehovah's blessings on the work.
When Nathan Knorr died in 1976 and Fred Franz assumed the WTS presidency, it was on the national news. When Ray Franz--a member of the GB--was disfellowshipped in 1982, it was worthy of a writeup in Time magazine.
However, from that time on, things began to change. Even congregation elders and POs would admit they did not know who was the vice president under Frederick Franz. Most Witnesses today do not know who the current organizational vice president is. When Frederick Franz died in 1992, it was hardly noted in the media, yet the organization was (guessing) about three times bigger and wealthier than when he had assumed the leadership.
On different occasions in the past year or two, attempts to get a story in local media about Jehovah's Witnesses has been rejected for the reason given that "Jehovah's Witnesses are
boring" as for public interest. They currently have no charismatic leaders nor teachings that are controversial enough to attract interest from the public at large, either pro or con, as they did in the first half of this century.
They
seem well on their way to becoming just another rich mainstream religion.
Ros