Their new title linked them with Biblical heros.

Rutherford, as an able executive, seized a new name for the followers of Russell. The International Bible Students Association, now, became the Jehovah's Witnesses. It gave them blood relationship to Abraham, who was prepared to slay his own son in order to testify that he was a faithful witness. Their new name identified them with Noah,Moses, David, Daniel, and Isaiah. Wherever the word "witness" appeared in the Bible, they saw their prototype. Associated with such a group of immortals, Rutherford's edict built a religious organization that claimed to rule with divine authority. At his headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, he established a Bible College with dormitories, dining rooms, bookstores, and a printing press operated by a staff without salary. The new organization laboured day and night, witnessing and fighting against time, calling out God's anointed people before the fearful day of Armageddon. They canvassed all over the country. Not a single house was missed. Every family could expect a rap on the door. Slammed doors and other insults were signs of a promise that there would be persecution for righteousness sake. They believed ridicule was proof that the Lord wanted them to be punished as verification of his love, and, that people feared "the truth." Rutherford's apostles relentlessly continued witnessing without salary and any form of reward. They only excepted that the end of the world will endorse their claims. On that day it is believed, they will stand up boldly before Jehovah and say, "we have been obedient to the heavenly vision." Slowly against great odds, the Witnesses were accepted by the institutionalized churches as a contemporary movement which was here to stay.They called their meeting places "Kingdom Halls" so as not to be defiled by the word "church" or "chapel." Their services consisted of a thorough study of lessons prepared and published at the Brooklyn headquarters where a president and a board of directors worked with Biblical scholars to construct the teaching. Every moment of the day the Brooklyn presses piled up staggering production figures of millions of books and magazines bearing as their dedication: "To Jehovah and His Messiah." They believe Jehovah's people must be different from the rest of the world. No one can outquote them when it comes to Scripture. Their references from the Holy Writ comes from their own Biblical teachings which must be received without question and with eager passion. Peter in his second epistle stated "...the heavens shall passaway with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." The new witnesses were given this warning. "You, therefore, beloved ones, having this advance knowledge, be on your guard that you may not be led away..." So say 2 Peter: 17, and so say the Jehovah's Witnesses today.

Russell, Jehovah, and world of devils

Russell felt he had divine authority from God to remove the provisions of specific church law. His theories were based on three dispensations: the first extended from the time of creation to the time of Noah; the second from the time of Noah to the death and resurrection of Christ; his third theory is from the resurrection to the year 1914, at which time, Pastor Russell predicted, the souls of those that sleep will arise and be judged. His followers interpreted his remarks to mean that the end of the world would come in 1914. The movement grew until the dawn of the 20th century. His Watch Tower magazine was their mouthpiece, his studies in the Scripturestheir texts, and his organization,spreading over the world, was known as the "International Bible Students Association." The year 1914 became their target date for the end of the world and for a moment it seemed that Russell's prophecy was terrifyingly true. On June 28,1914, an unknown Serbian terrorist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, killed the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and plunged Europe into war. The Jehovah Witnesses declared it was the beginning of the end. The assassination caused nation to rise against nation, just as the Scriptures had predicted, and a cry of "Armageddon!" swept through apocalyptic ranks. The International Bible Students were besieged with converts and in addition, the most skeptical theologians wondered whether Pastor Russell might actually have had divine inside information. The war escalated, but the year was running out which led the followers of Russell to say, perhaps there had been a slight miscalculation.A difference of a couple of years, what did it matter? When the hostilities in the Middle East became a focal point with fighting in Jerusalem, no more telling signs were needed. Apocalyptic believers have always affirmed that the final slaughter would take place in the Holy Land. The Witnesses watched and waited as the world dragged on throughout the years of carnage without the intervention from a cosmic power. On October 31, 1916, Pastor Russell passed away and his prophecies remained unfulfilled. However, his devotees found a reason for the prophicies not being fulfilled. They now claim the end of the world had actually begun in 1914 but mankind was not yet fully aware of it. They insisted that Christ entered His kingdom, had subdued the forces of Satan and driven the unseen hosts of devils out of their invisible habitat once and for all. They claim the reason for the troubles in the world such as deterioration of world culture,rise in crime,a trend toward world unrest and war, could be found in the fact that devils which had once lived in the land of a spiritual realm now lived on earth among the children of men, as retribution for man's sins. As this supposition grew, a new and forceful leader arose in the oerson of J.F.Rutherford, a judge in the 14th Judicial District of Missouri. He was forty-seven years old when his spiritual teacher, Pastor Russellhad died.

The apocalypse, the rapture, and the believers pt.1

The belief that the world is coming to an end has tormented the mind of humanity ever since the first mysterious darkening of the sun during an eclipse, the first earthquake, the first volcanic eruption, and the first great flood. From 2 million BC to 10,000 BC,the first humans gouged out shelters in the rock and hilly cliffs and they sought refuge in caves against the day when the gods would destroy everything on the earth. Apocalyptic believers assumed that there will be a thousand years where they will be living in great happiness, peace and prosperity. Such probing into the future of this old world's fate, caught the imagination of religions from the ancient Aztecs to the equally ancient Zoroastrians. At the time of the Babylonian exile, some 600, years before the birth of Christ, the Hebrew people believed their God of righteousness would eventually triumph over the forces of evil. The Hebrew prophets - Daniel, Enoch, Moses, Baruch-sustained their people in the darkest hours with the light of apocalyptic hope. It was the Christians however, who gave the apocalypse its greatest emphasis.The apocalyptic writings of Daniel, Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation became the texts for a timetable in which men claimed to read the mind of God. Nor did the followers of Christ think it strange or curious that they, the most enlightened among the seekers after truth, without question taught that one day the world will end. Awed by the far-seeing eyes of their apocalyptic prophets, the early Christians pinned their messianic hope on Christ.He was their God of the Apocalypse. Less than two hundred years after His death, apocalyptic groups were flourishing wherever Christianity was preached. There were for example, the Montanists, followers of the "pagan" priest, Montanus, who had been converted to Christianity after serving for many years in the temple of Cybele (Aphrodite).He claimed he had a vision in which the Lord revealed to him that men were living in the latter days. Frequently seized by the spirit, Montanus proclaimed in a loud voice that the days were numbered. Virgins followed him, wearing heavy veils so that no man could see their faces until Jesus came and first looked on them. Wives lived apart from their husbands so that the Lord would find them pure. Men gave up all their worldly goods so so that they might meet God empty handed. Secular education, science, art, and worldly pleasures were renounced, and Montanism became a movement of fasting and prayer. Pilgrimages were made to the Phrygian hills (ancient country in Asia Minor)to wait the coming of the Lord. In the third century other enthusiasts grouped themselves around Novatian, a Roman priest, labeled a heretic, who preached that the second coming of Christ was imminent and that the church had better prepare itself and warn its people.Great crowds followed Novatian as others had followed Montanus, chanting their favorite prayer, "come, Lord Christ, clothed in all thy wrath and judgement, come with all Thy vengeance, come."

The Origin of Voodoo

Voodoo worshipers have never forgiven outside interpreters for insulting their religion by saying it is a mixture of sex and superstition. Nor have they forgotten the book by W.B. Seabrook who branded them in his book The Magic Island, as a blood-maddened, sex-crazed people, who venerate a deranged god who is a hermaphroditic deity. Another author described it as "pure sexuality" and Faustin Wirkus in his book The white King of La Gonave identified Voodoo as a worship centered around a black pope and black queen which flourishes in a series of sexual orgies. Noe the unfairness in movies that show a primitive group of people dancing wildly around summoning up evil spirits. One Voodoo initiate responded by pointing out " There is no more emphasis on sex in Voodoo than there is any other religions and maybe not as much." To get at the truth of the matter it is necessary to understand how and why this ancient faith was introduced into Haiti and to see what part it played in the black man's struggle. On December 6, 1492, a ship sailed into an inland bay on a Caribbean Isle. The name of the ship was the "Santa Maria" and the adventurer captain of the ship was Christopher Columbus. He planted the flag of Spain on the Island and named it La Espanola near what is now Cap Haitian. The number of inhabitants at the time were a million brown-skinned Arawak natives, proud and unacquainted with conquest by foreigners. Spain lost no time in sending settlers to their first European settlement on the "American Continent." Within fifty years the forty Spaniards whom Columbus had left on the island was joined by three thousand of their countrymen. They robbed the natives of their gold and started to build an empire. Since the Arawaks were fixed on fighting to the death instead of being taken into slavery, they were totally annihilated. The Christian colonizers then turned to the dark jungles of Dahomey in Africa (now Republic of Benin). Here they found black men practicing their religion by beating drums and chanting their hymns to spirits called the loa. The Spaniards uprooted these aboriginal people from the only land they knew and aggressively coerced and forced them into cargo ships. They were brought in chains to the strange and cruel island where they were sold as slaves, beaten into submission, and killed when no longer useful to their masters. The Spaniards' wanton cruelty set a pattern which were followed by both French and English buccaneers who for two centuries fought to claim their countries' share of the coveted island. The slaves were caught between the barbarism of these opposing forces. They were the pawn in both triumph and defeat. The only comfort they could make out of their misery was their faith in the loa the invisible, personalized spirits of gods and men that had been worshiped in their African homeland. The loa were guardian angels,protectors, spirit guides and friends. It sustained the slaves when they laboured in the insufferable mines, when they dragged the mahogany timbers beneath the blows of the whip, and when they hauled the crushing cargo wagons to build a white man's world. The ioa were the "little gods" who represented the one great god the Gran Mait, in a religion the French called vaudou. It was the staccato beat of the Voodoo drums that filled the slaves with the messages of hope. Voodoo dances were a therapy. Voodoo chants and fires accompanied with voodoo rituals aroused in the slaves' tortured body a will to live. Voodoo was the composite of all instincts and emotions, it was a release from the realities of a miserable life. Voodoo is a religious hybrid related to Christianity and their special holy days follow closely the Christian Christmas, Epiphany, and Easter. The voodoo faith is a strange and curious mixture of Christianity, spiritualism, and a belief that all natural phenomena have souls independent of their physical being. Today,the "Voodoo services" near Port-au-Prince are staged for tourism but worship of the loaand the black and white magic of Voodooism can still be found in the Haitian backcountry where visitors seldom go. It is the year 1700 and you are visiting a remote village in Haiti. A Voodoo priest greets you and you soon notice that he is a man chosen for his position because of his supernatural, psychic talent. He wears no priestly robes and he lives and works with the land as do the Voodoo followers. As you look around you see a group of men and women have gathered in a thatched-roof building where in the shadows, three drummers with their straw hats pushed back over their heads, are leaning over their drums. They solemnly watch as a group of white clad female assistants place jars and burning candles around a center pole. The pole is symbolic of a phallus and the roughly shaped alter encircling it is the yoni. You are informed by the priest that the pole, the pitou- mitan is sacred to Damballa, a mighty loa whose symbol is the serpent. When the early Christian colonizers heard of Damballa, they insisted that voodoo was snake worship. They failed to see that Damballa represents the fertilizing phallus of creation. He was androgynous, as were all creative nature-gods and was originally called Damballa-Wedo. In time the female attribute was personified and renamed Aido-Wedo. Her sign was the circle. She was pictured with her royal consort, Damballa, in poses of conjugal love. Their home was everywhere -on earth, in the seas, and in the air. Their castle was the rainbow. As you fix your eyes on the center pole, visualizing that the serpent, Damballa, is coiled around a tree, you are asked to recall that Damballa is also the source of all knowledge. Coiled forever in the Tree of Life, he tempts man to know himself. As a sign of immortality, he sheds his skin and reappears in a new body. As a symbol of time without end. He is depicted as a snake in the shape of a circle eating his tail. His devotees venerate him and become his bridegroom or bride in special Voodoo ceremonies. In Africa, where he originated, Damballa was honored by building snake houses beneath the tallest and most beautiful trees. In these "serpent- chapels" they kept a living snake which they carried on a carpet of silk in religious processions. Its writhing form was setting inside the center of a golden crown representing the female womb. When the black man heard the Christian story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, he imagined that the snake was Damballa. To him the Biblical account of the temptation was just another story of the "great god sex" and if the Christian did not understand the symbolism, the voodoo followers did. Now the drums start beating and the houngan(male priest) steps authoritatively to the circular alter. He is rattling the asson a small hollowed out shell covered with beads and snake vertebra having a small bell attached. It is the symbol of the priest's office, a kind of holy emblem of the magical power that starts the service in a burst of drum beat and sending the believers into a swaying dance, with candles burning on the alter. Above the entrance to the enclosed space a lamp is lighted and in the shadows the worshipers begin to murmur and sway to the hypnotic rhythm of the drum. At the motion from the priest rattling the asson, the drums begin a muffled beat and the priest intones an invocation honoring the snake god Dambella. The litany mingles Christian creeds with Voodoo charms and chants call upon Catholic saints and Voodoo Ioa. The believers form a semi-circle around the central post and respond to the priest's chants. Then the priest and the followers make the sign of the cross. Everything is a mixture of Christianity and animism which was introduced by the early evangelists. Ever since the black mans' first exposure to the Christian gospel as he listened with rattling chains around his neck, he felt he understood the white man's religion. Why could the white man not understand his? Did not the Christian know that every divine phenomenon must be a universal phenonmon, that it could not be confined to any one place or to any one person? The Voodoo followers was convinced that what had happened in Biblical lands had also happened in African jungles and could also happen in Haiti by reason of the fact that people take their loa with them, whether they go as masters or as slaves. If the Christian wished to believe that it was Jesus who walked on the water; the followers of voodoo knew it was actually Ague, their loa of the sea. If the white priests insisted that it was the virgin Mary who miraculously conceived, the black man knew that the virgin was actually the loa called Erzilie Freda, who knew the secret of bearing children without having intercourse with men. The religiously-active mind of the Voodoo follower satisfies itself with similarities to the Christian faith. The pictures affixed above the Voodoo alters in homes are pictures of Christian saints turned Voodoo saints. The old pictures of St. Patrick had snakes around his feet which is another incarnation of Dambella. Abraham entertained loa, instead of angels, and when the dead rose with Jesus at the time of His resurrection, was evidence that zombies are real. Zombies in Voodoo are supposed to be the living dead, those who have died and been resurrected by the mystical power of the priest who works with God. Through the years the voodoo beads were intertwined with the Catholic rosary and drink Voodoo rum on Saturday night in the Voodoo circle and sip Christian communion wine on Sunday morning. It appears that religion,the mystery of sex and the spirit, moves in the consciousness of the universe with its own standards, and it evolves only with the intervention of human minds.

Anatomy of Extremism

There are many theories why people become an extremist,but the underlying principle is universal. Extremism is created in societies where there are signs of desperation, poverty and social turmoil. Such human conditions often create susceptibility to feelings of intense emotions that are transformed into words that signify hostility, aggression, and hatefulness toward a perceived or imagined enemy. Similarly,the individual has patriotic pride,is egotistical,has unquestioning devotion to such beliefs with religiously inspired convictions. Because of the intensity of such feelings, there are no middle-of-the-road emotions. This form of black and white reasoning (cognitive simplicity) has no or little consideration of moderate, more complex, or more abstract reasoning. Small but important distinctions of meaning get lost and quick and easy distinctions such as "our side is good" and "their side is bad" are adopted. Consequences of having such thoughts lead to a drastic shift toward simplicity and emotional extremism. As a result, society is subjected to one more unit of polarization and dysfunction when such extreme speeches and behaviour is put into practice. Extremism and it's connection to mythology In prehistory the formation of myth began with cosmology which is the belief in the formation of the universe created through visual symbols, poetry, and in its earliest forms of sacred tales, chants or epics through music. The myths are not "explanations" but resonant re-creations that echo the original creation. The power of creation myth can be found in its' magical, poetic,visionary or psychological potential. Mediation and visualization based on creation mythology does not require belief in the truth. The continuity of creation mythology can be found if the sequences of the myth involves coming into existence out of the void and then setting out certain definitions of space(location), life and time within the newly defined field of awareness (being),are followed through carefully. Creation myths have a regenerative and insight-bestowing effect upon groups or individuals who use them actively in their imagination. For example, if we imagine the creation of the world we can re-balance ourselves. As all myths come from oral tradition, from tales or chants told aloud, the same exercises are nothing but a modern restatement of the ancient art of empowered or mystic story-telling. We need only recall how powerful story telling can be by remembering our childhood and how effective fairy tales can be.