{"id":3968,"date":"2013-01-05T23:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/05\/enemies\/"},"modified":"2013-01-05T23:18:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T23:18:00","slug":"enemies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/05\/enemies\/","title":{"rendered":"Enemies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was\u00a0written by one “Judge” J.F. Rutherford, and published in 1937 by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Brooklyn, NY.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cover:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Judge’s thought processes are somewhat elusive, but as far as I can make out, he seeks to dissociate faith in the Christian god from “religion” generally, which he classes as a form of politics. He defines religion as<\/p>\n

\n

“the product of the devil, employed specifically to deceive the people and to turn them away from Jehovah…”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He identifies the violence of the 20th Century as a product of an ill-defined fear that Jesus prophesied would one day sweep the earth. Judge apparently holds this Fear responsible for a dazzling variety of societal ills ranging from Nazism and “pestilences” to “sit-down strikes and other senseless labor disturbances”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To help you cope with your crippling fear, Judge means to identify and expose your spiritual Enemies. (They’re everywhere.<\/em>)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Enemy, by the way, is the Religionist.<\/p>\n

The illustrations are illuminating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Above, Eve in the Garden of Eden, being tempted by the Serpent, here seen taking the form of a sassy Komodo dragon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Cain having slain an adorably pudgy Abel, apparently with a baseball bat. Note Lucifer’s disembodied head floating at a jaunty angle over Cain’s shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

It’s implied that this rather fey gentleman above is meant to be Nimrod, descendant of Noah, although it’s by no means obvious from the text. (The good Judge describes Nimrod as “ambitious, warlike and bloodthirsty, and reveled in wicked deeds”. Whereas this fellow and his entourage seem to be revelling in his off-the-shoulder toga and well-groomed moustache.)<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The text offers no context or explanation for this image. I can only assume that’s John the Baptist’s head in the bucket, ruefully eyeing Salome’s nipple as she performs a victorious lap-danse macabre<\/em> for Herod. Yon corpse remains a mystery, unless it’s just some naked courtier with an over-developed sense of theatre, swooning at the whole grotesque spectacle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

You weren’t there, but this is what the Inquisition was like.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just to reiterate, this is not an atheist tract. This is a religious text that happens to rely on an eccentric definition of religion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To clarify:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

If you’re still a little confused, let Judge Rutherford’s further teachings enlighten you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was\u00a0written by one “Judge” J.F. Rutherford, and published in 1937 by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Brooklyn, NY.\u00a0 Cover: The Judge’s thought processes are somewhat elusive, but as far as I can make out, he seeks to dissociate faith in the Christian god from “religion” generally, which he classes as a form of … Continue reading “Enemies”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[444,105,438,443,414],"class_list":["post-3968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-book","tag-found","tag-illustration","tag-religion","tag-weird-old-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaisercaimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}