Skegness Magazine

Jehovah’s Witnesses answer Skegness Rector’s attack

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THE Presiding Minister for Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Skegness and district area, Mr. C. Morgan, of Flat 1, Margaret House, Ancaster Avenue, Chapel St. Leonards, has replied to the attack on his movement by the Rector of Skegness, the Rev. H B. Pruen. Writing in his parish magazine, the Rector called the Jehovah’s Witnesses ” a modern heresy, an unfortunate imitation of Christianity.” Mr. Morgan writes :

“I was pleased to read your report that Mr. H. B. Pruen has made an attack in the parish magazine upon Jehovah’s Witnesses, for this shows that they are active in spreading the good news about God’s Kingdom, and encouraging study the people to read and study their Bibles. No doubt this is what has disturbed Mr. Pruen, for he mentions that the organisation is growing, which is quite true; but Mr. Pruen if he is honest should get his statements right before he publishes them. It was the religious leaders of the days of Jesus who falsely accused him of being seditious because his activity disturbed them.
“He mentions that Jehovah’s Witnesses were outlawed in Australia. This is quite true, but Mr. Pruen should state facts, not slanderous statements without facts. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not afraid of facts, and have published in their publications that their work was banned in other countries. Why, it was banned even behind the Iron Curtain, and yet in these lands there are more Witnesses than before. In fact, behind the Iron Curtain there are now 100,848 engaging in the preaching work.

SOME FACTS
“Seeing that Mr. Pruen mentioned Australia as a country where the Witnesses were outlawed, here are some facts not stated by him. On Saturday, 18th January, 1941, the headquarters was seized by government and soldiers occupied the premises, also Kingdom Halls at Adelaide and Perth were taken over by the government. Then after a two- and-a-half year legal battle this case – Adelaide Company of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Inc. v. The Commonwealth – was finally heard in the High Court of Australia.
On 14th June, 1943, the court gave a four-to-one victory to Jehovah’s Witnesses, holding that the order in council banning Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia was illegal, and ultra vires, the court ruled that the Witnesses were not engaged in seditious enterprises, or engaged in publishing or printing literature that was seditious within the meaning of the criminal law of Australia. Thus the Witnesses in Australia were vindicated, and their property returned and compensation was paid by the Australian Government, In other countries such as Canada, cases were decided in the High Courts resulting in victories for the Witnesses, so Mr. Pruen should be honest with his statements.
“His remarks, that the Witnesses were amassing a financial fortune is too funny to be taken seriously when one thinks of the millions of pounds invested in big business by the Church of England.

NOT PICKED
“Another point Mr. Pruen wants to put himself right on, is that those who go from house to house are not picked, as he says. Yes they are trained, and that means the entire congregation, and then all who are willing engage themselves in the preaching work. This is a work Mr. Pruen’s congregation could not engage in, because they are not trained in the Bible.
“Even the children of Jehovah’s Witnesses engage in the house-to- house work with the Bible, therefore Mr. Pruen must be a very disturbed man because of the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Skegness. Many who are not witnesses have expressed this. As for distorting Christianity, any one of Jehovah’s Witnesses will be glad to discuss this with him as long as he will let the Bible be the guide.”

Source: Skegness Standard 1965

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