Talk:Bible Student movement/Archive 4

Unbalanced JW-focus
Regarding the statement: "Bible Students worldwide are numbered at less than 10,000, while worldwide membership among the Jehovah's Witnesses numbers in the millions." The statement gives excessive focus on the JW organisation, which is not the subject of this article. There is no similar statement in the lead indicating membership of the other groups that diverged from the Bible Students. The verbosity of figures in the JW section of the article also seems on the fringe of the article's scope.--Jeffro77 (talk) 11:49, 9 February 2008 (UTC)


 * My understanding is that JWs are one branch of the Bible Student movement, so they do belong there in some form. An alternative formulation could be "Worldwide membership among the Jehovah's Witnesses numbers in the millions, while other Bible Students worldwide are numbered at less than 10,000."  It's not actually clear to me which one emphasizes BSs more than JWs, but I'm fine with either one.  I agree with you on those figures, and have removed them.  --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 01:38, 10 February 2008 (UTC)


 * The numbers must be corrected: from the Layman's Home Missionary Movement gives it according to own data, to 16,000 members. From the Free Bible Students gives it to 25,000 members world-wide. From the Associated Bible Students does not give it own instructions, it are however into over 40 countries active. --Bibelforscher (talk) 09:36, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

I once heard a quote where Witness literature was described as pedagogical. It seems to me that Wikipedia is tending to follow this path too. Encyclopedias are generally considered to be pretty grown-up reading material, not necessarily because of the content, but because of the style. Each point gets made once only and in the place where it's most appropriate. If I were using Wikipedia for an assignment, I'd look at it before I started brainstorming, and I'd want to read the entirety of the information on the topic once through before I started. It would irritate me immensely if, in doing that, I kept coming across the same information all the time.

Mandmelon (talk) 23:40, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Eurocentricism in the study of the Bible Student Movement
In addition to the groups & leaders mentioned in this & other studies/articles on the history of the Bible Student Movement, their are other groups & leaders of Russellite Bible Student origin that are rarely ,if ever ,mentioned. These movements are contemporary, active & in some cases were very significant in the regions that they appeared. That region is Africa. This page is an attempt to bring some ethnic diversity & information to what, in the eyes of this informant, has been a blatant, but hopefully not wilful, eurocentric bias in the chronologicalizing accounts of Russellite Bible Student History.Below is a brief outline of the groups/leaders-founders/significance of the African Russellite descendant groups.AFRICAN RUSSELLITE SPLINTER GROUP:Watchtower/Kitawala(southern/central Africa),founded around 1910 & definitively separate from the Rutherford led Watchtower movement by 1920)-active in Congo,Angola,Zambia,Zimbabwe,Malawi & Mozambiqe.FOUNDER(S):Joseph Booth(1851-1932)-England born Russellite Watchtower Missionary in southern/central Africa.Elliott Kenan Kamwana(1872-1956)-Malawi born, Russellite Bible Student Convert & after 1919 leader/founder of the English speaking independent Watchtower Movement in the region. SIGNIFICANCE:Political;Believing in Russellite Chronology,1914 was to be the end of the world,thus African Watchtower members ernestly hoped for the end of European colonial rule and during 1914/1919 various African watchtower inspired uprisings, riots & strikes occurred through out the region, culminating in Kitawala participation in southern colonial Congolese secessionist actions that were brutally repressed in the early/mid 1920s.These actions in conjunction with other divergent Bible Student groups responses/reactions to the crises in Russellite chronology(1914-1925)had a definitive effect,in my observation, on subsequent New York based Rutherford/Knorr administered Watchtower policies.This manifested in various ways,ie; on politics,the "Higher Authorities" doctrine &the necessity of the post 1945 revamp of Watchtower missionary activities particularly in areas of central/southern Africa were the Watchtower/Knorr administration struggled to regain hegemony amongst the Bible Students adherents.AFRICAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESS SPLINTER GROUP: Gods Kingdom Society(GKS)International-founded 1934 headquartered in 'Bethelhouse'Warri,Nigeria-active in Nigeria,Benin,Togo,Ghana,Liberia,United Kingdom & the USA.FOUNDER:Gideon Urhobo(1903-1952)Nigerian Jehovah's Witness convert,former Lagos City Watchtower Study Leader & Watchtower pioneer in the early 1930s.SIGNIFICANCE:Growing movement with a consistant,long term criticism of JW 'house to house' preaching practice &'armageddon date setting'.In Nigeria,the GKS,whitch does engage in politics,had an early inpact on the 1st independent,post colonial Nigerian Administrations,in terms of the National Anthem and Christion 'rights' in a country with a numericaly increasing Muslim majority.AdowablkAdowablk (talk)

That certainly sounds important. Do you have sources?

Mandmelon (talk) 23:42, 12 September 2008 (UTC)