Posted by Jeffery M. Schwehm [JefferyMSchwehm] on April 02, 1999 at 11:40:11 {ppHCdFLRUM7mGcjg8rgIMdud7girzQ}:
Hi-
I don't know if I told anyone this but a few months ago I called Watchtower Headquarters and spoke with someone in their public relations office. I asked them if it would be possible for them to send me a copy of "The Declaration of Facts" so that I could read the entire Declaration instead of just relying on the quotations that they made in the Awake! article on this subject last year.
To my surprise, they sent me an official copy of the Declaration of Facts in its entirety.
By the way, it is my understanding that in the 1974 Yearbook the Society blamed a German Overseer for the wording in the Declaration that "appeared" to violate Christian neutrality. I think the overseer's name is Paul Belazareit or something like that. It appears now according to last years Awake! article that they are saying that this overseer was not responsible for changing the wording of the Declaration but that the Declaration stands as is and accurately reflects the position of the Watchtower Society in 1933.
The Awake! article last year further states that anyone who finds the statements about the Jews in the Declaration to be offensive is misunderstanding those statements.
Also, the statements in the Declaration of Facts that the Watchtower Society never took money from Jewish people cannot be true. Russell was a well known Zionist and if I am not mistaken Rutherford continued to hold to this position until the 1920's.
I was wondering if anyone has a copy of the 1974 year book and could post the Society's previous explanation for the offensive language contained in the Declaration.
Also, it seems to me that the Society
obviously had a copy of the Declaration of Facts in English in 1974 since it was printed in its entirety in the 1934 Yearbook
and I know that those Yearbooks are readily available in the Bethel libraries at Brooklyn (since I lived there
for a year).
It seems to me that the guys who wrote the 1974 Yearbook were trying to hide something or they did some very sloppy research.
Jeff S.