J.D. Rutherford was a con-man.

First, my opponent is correct, I mean Joseph Franklin Rutherford, second, I want to establish that this is a debate on the LEGALITY and MORALITY of Mr. Rutherford's actions, not his THEOLOGY. It is not my place to say whether his religious beliefs were right or not, I do however feel that some of his actions were illegal and he was in fact a con-man: 1) Definition of a con-man: "Noun 1. con man - a swindler who exploits the confidence of his victim, con man - a swindler who exploits the confidence of his victim."http://www.thefreedictionary.com... Although I will admit, Mr. Rutherford was probably more of a swindler, as I will show in a minute. I give two examples of Mr. Rutherford's illegal activities, they are: 1) Forgery, and 2) Violation of a Last Will and Testament. 3) Promoting Anti-Semitic ideologies in an organization that was dedicated to brotherly love. 1) Forgery: After C.T. Russell's death, J.F. Rutherford presented a book called: "The Finished Mystery" that was allegedly written by C.T. Russell after his death. But according to a New York court this was a forgery: "After his death and after we were in the war they issued a seventh volume of this series, entitled "The Finished Mystery," which, under the guise of being a posthumous work of Pastor Russell...which were not written by Pastor Russell and could not have possibly been written by him...They were proved false.(1)" As you can see Rutherford wrote a book trying to impersonate a deceased man, it does not matter what your religious beliefs are, impersonating someone is immoral and illegal. 2) Violation of a Last Will and Testament a) In C.T Russell's last will and testament, he willed: "As the Society has already pledged to me that it will publish no other periodicals."(2) meaning the Watchtower society. But Rutherford soon began publishing another magazine titled: "The Golden Age" in Oct 1919(3) (today's "Awake") Although he published it at first under a different publishing companies name he eventually published The Golden Age under the Watchtower.(3) b) In addition to not publishing any new periodicals, the Watchtower had to remain separate from any religion(4) in C.T. Russell's own words: We belong to no earthly organization, hence if you should name the entire list of sects, we should answer no to each and all.(4) But under Rutherford. the Watchtower became totally under the Church of Jehovah's Witnesses and exclusively became its publishing arm.(4) As you can see C.T. Russell had wishes in his will he clearly stipulated and were clearly violated by Rutherford. 3) ) Promoting Anti-Semitic ideologies in an organization that was dedicated to brotherly love. Before I go any further I will reiterate that this is a debate about LEGALITY and MORALITY, not THEOLOGY there is nothing per se illegal about Mr. Rutherford's anti-Semitic actions but they were clearly immoral. also I am not here to debate about Zionism but about Mr. Rutherford. a) While he initially was sympathetic towards Zionists as this publication states: "JUDGE RUTHERFORD, known throughout the world as a friend of the Hebrew people, is vigorously supporting the claim of the Jews to the Holy Land." (5) but later he seemed to change his mind by saying: "I'm speaking of the Palestine Jew, not the hooked-nosed, stooped shouldered little individual who stands on the street corner trying to gyp you out of every nickel you've got."(5). Hypocritical, a little bit, but I am not a person to judge anyone on hypocrisy, this however re-enforces my point that he was a swindler for he portrayed himself as pro-Zionist when it was convenient but became anti-Semitic when it was also convenient, in other words he painted a false picture to his followers regarding his views on Zionism so he could remain popular among them. b) Also, Rutherford was a fan of the Nazis:"Instead of being against the principles advocated by the government of Germany, we stand squarely for such principles, and point out that Jehovah God through Christ Jesus will bring about the full realization of these principles." (5) Before I go any further I think I need to define what's moral, morality according to Merriam-webster.com:concerning or relating to what is right and wrong in human behavior, based on what you think is right and good, considered right and good by most people agreeing with a standard of right behavior. I'm all for moral relativism but, it is immoral to me that a man who claims to be the head of a religion that promotes brotherly love and the sanctity of human life, to do an about-face and not only condone but praise a regime that violates both is a clear violation of any and every moral standard. IN CONCLUSION: J.F. Rutherford was a swindler that violated many moral standard (including his own) for he 1) forged C.T. Russell's authorship, 2) violated a legal last will and testament by illegal publishing periodicals using C.T. Russell's society and making said society sectarian despite Mr. Russell's will expressed wishes not to. 3) hypocritical on anti-Semitism and condoning the third Reich's actions, violating most moral standards, so concludes my argument and no for CON: Sources: (1) http://books.google.com... (2)http://www.pastor-russell.com... (3) The Watchtower, Apr, 1 1990 (4) The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses, Heather and Gary Botting, University of Toronto Press, 1984 (5) Jehovah's Witnesses, Anti-semitism and the Third Reich: The Watch Tower Society's Attempted Compromise with Nazism By professor M. James Penton University of Lethbridge, pdf file.