One of the things that attracted new adherents to Watch Tower belief was its insistence on Holy Conduct. Though there were those who fell short, on the whole Watch Tower adherents took righteous conduct seriously. This was in stark contrast to clergy behavior in the period. The following is from a table of reported clergy misconduct from 1877 to about 1910.
Abduction 22; Abortion and attempts to procure 19; Abusive language 22; Adultery 676; Alienation of affections 17; Arson 62; Assault with intent to murder 61; Assault with intent to rape 50; Assault with intent to do great harm 26; Assault and battery 66; Attempted suicide 15; Bastardy 77; Bigamy, attempted and accomplished 144; Breach of promise to marry 27; Burglary 17; Cheating, swindling, grafting, malversation, misappropriation, etc. 288; “Conduct unbecoming a minister of the gospel” 44; Conspiracy 11; Contempt of court 13; Counterfeiting 16; Cruelty to wife or children 130/35; Debauchery 52; Desertion or non-support of wife or children 207; Disorderly conduct 44; Divorced or sued 56; Drunkenness 202; Elopement, attempted or accomplished 163; Embezzlement, fraud, defalcation, etc 162; Enticing women and young girls 15; False impersonation 13; Fighting 51; Forgery 123; “Fornication” 14; Gambling 19; Grave robbery 1; Gross immorality 40; Horse stealing 19; Illicit distilling 12; Illicit liquor selling 15; Immoralities with women and girls, miscellaneous and variously described 223; Larceny 181; Libel 50; Lying and deceit 138; Malicious destruction of property and malicious mischief 22; Manslaughter 14; Murder generally 119; Murder of child 12; Murder of wife 27; Obscene language 16; Obscene print, circulation of 14; Obtaining money or property under false pretenses 65; Perjury or subornation of 12; Plagiarism or literary piracy 14; Praying for death of neighbor, who died 1; Profanity 11; Quarreling 19; Rape in general 43; Rape of girls under age of consent or puberty 76; Seduction in general 273; Seduction of girls under fifteen 28; Slander 109; Sodomy or unnatural crime 67; Stealing religious funds or property 23; Suicide 117; Threatening life 16; Violation of postal laws 17; White slavery and pandering 15; Wife or woman beating 57.
By incident of reported bad behavior Methodists led the list with 728 reported. Baptists followed with 492 incidents; Catholics with 325 incidents of clerical misconduct; then Presbyterians with 187, and Episcopalians with 164. In the same period only two Millennial Dawn believers were reported.
4 comments:
A very interesting list. Can you give us the reference, or the source of the original table that provides this information?
That was incredible, and eye-opening. I'm curious as to how the reporting took place, I guess. As in, did parishioners go to another parish to report someone? Did the church themselves uncover these crimes? Or is this passed to the church from legal representatives? It'a just such an appalling and oddly fascinating window. Thank you, I'll be considering this one for a while!
The list comes from a New York based atheist association. The scoured newspaper sources, church trial records and similar. One can reproduce their results using various Internet newspaper archives - and add to the list.
The tract, with its lurid cover is here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57764/57764-h/57764-h.htm
These issues came to light in various ways. Some by criminal complaint. Some by accidental discovery. Some were notorious. Others made such be newspaper reports or by church trials. The list as given above does not include all clergy bad behavior. But the atheist society relied on members collecting articles and apparently on a clipping service. For those not old enough to remember, a clipping service subscribed to many, many newspapers and for a fee would search them for your topic. Given the Internet, I doubt any still exist.
Love the cover!
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