Joseph Franklin Rutherford

"Do you believe it! Do you believe that the King of glory is present, and has been since 1874?... Behold, the King reigns! you are his publicity agents. Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom."

"The Judge had a prodigious appetite for alcoholic beverages and was not pleased when Prohibition became law."

"Rutherford loved to depict the clergy as money grubbers with their hands in the pockets of the people, and big business as greedy commercialists exploiting the workers. In fact, Rutherford was himself guilty of these very things. While his workers plodded from door to door selling his prolific writings, the Judge lived the life of a major industrialist. He spent winters at Beth Sarim and traveled by steamship to Europe each summer. At Brooklyn headquarters he maintained a luxurious apartment on the top floor. All of this was done during the depression, when soup lines were the norm in America. Ironically, although Rutherford fashioned the organization into the "Fuller Brush" of religion, he himself never went door to door. The reason given was that he was too busy with executive responsibilities."

"Rutherford, though not an appointed Judge, acted the part by title and deed, while criticizing the clergy for their titles. He railed against the clergy for its class distinctions while himself exercising the control and rule of a Pope. He castigated the political arena while employing the tactics of a back-room politico. His rhetoric was never without euphemisms attacking the "greedy commercialists" while himself leading a lifestyle that would make them envious. The Judge pointed his finger at a doomed world of decadent people while himself enjoying fine liquor, quality cigars, and the company of female traveling companions. He acted as a prophet of God predicting the end of the world and the resurrection of the Princes in 1925. He built a mansion to house the Princes upon their imminent return but was the only "Prince" to ever inhabit the home. Either Rutherford was a con man or else had delusions that exceeded even Pastor Russels. Probably the truth is that he possessed both of these traits."