title: Art Modell

text: While the City of Cleveland, Ohio, wanted to improve Municipal Stadium, Modell issued a public moratorium on discussions relating to the stadium issue for the future of his franchise. It was during this time that Modell entered into secret discussions with the State of Maryland to move the franchise to Baltimore for the 1996 season. The announcement of the move occurred several days before the public referendum on the extension of the sin tax that would fund the improvements on Municipal Stadium as Modell had originally requested. Modell wrote a letter to Cleveland's mayor Michael R. White and Ohio's governor George Voinovich saying that the passing of the referendum may not be enough to keep the Browns. Modell had lost $21 million in the previous two seasons. Modell also wanted that information to be made public. Commentators have speculated that the timing of the announcement was to cause the referendum to go down in defeat and thus allow Modell to make the case that he was not receiving the public support he needed to remain viable in Cleveland. Nonetheless, the referendum was passed by a wide margin. Modell was assisted in the move by Alfred Lerner, who would go on to become the new owner of the reactivated Cleveland Browns franchise in 1998. Modell's move returned the NFL to Baltimore for the first time since the Colts left for Indianapolis after the 1983 season. The reaction in Cleveland was hostile. Modell had promised never to move the team. He had publicly criticized the Baltimore Colts' move to Indianapolis, and had testified in favor of the NFL in court cases where the league unsuccessfully tried to stop Al Davis from moving the Oakland Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles.


title: Art Modell

text: The City of Cleveland sued Modell, the Browns, Stadium Corp, the Maryland Stadium Authority, and the authority's director, John A. Moag Jr., in "City of Cleveland v. Cleveland Browns, et al.", Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV-95-297833, for breaching the Browns' lease, which required the team to play its home games at Cleveland Stadium for several years beyond 1995.


title: Art Modell

text: Eventually, the NFL and the parties worked out a deal. The Browns' franchise would be deactivated for three years. Modell initially tried to take the Browns name with him to Baltimore. However, as part of a negotiated settlement, Modell agreed that he would leave behind the Browns' name, colors and heritage (including team records) for a replacement franchise, in the form of either a new team or a relocated franchise. In return, Modell was allowed to take the franchise rights, players and organization to Baltimore to form a new team, the Ravens. Cleveland received a loan from the NFL to help with the cost of a new stadium. The Browns returned to the NFL in 1999 with Lerner, a friend of Modell as well as a minority owner of Modell's original franchise and MBNA CEO and owner, assuming ownership, after Lerner outbid other interested parties for the right to buy the reactivated Browns' franchise.


title: Art Modell

text: During Modell's 35 seasons as team owner the Browns qualified for the postseason 17 times, winning 11 division titles and the NFL championship in 1964. The team's overall regular season record during Modell's tenure was 252–233–10, (winning percentage .519), and its post-season record was 7 wins against 14 losses (winning percentage .333).


title: Art Modell

text: The move fueled a proliferation of 12 new stadiums throughout the NFL. Using the NFL-City of Cleveland agreement's promise to supply a team to Cleveland by 1999, several NFL franchises coerced their respective cities to build new stadiums with public funds. Such franchises include the Broncos, Eagles, Seahawks, Buccaneers, Bengals, Lions, Cardinals and Colts.


title: Art Modell

text: The Minnesota Twins signed a deal with Hennepin County, Minnesota, for Target Field in 2006, where they agreed to a provision that was later codified into law which allows the state of Minnesota the right of first refusal to buy the team if it is ever sold, and requires that the name, colors, World Series trophies, etc. remain in Minnesota if the Twins are ever moved out of state, a deal similar to what Modell agreed to with the city of Cleveland during the move.


title: Art Modell

text: In December 2005, the San Jose Earthquakes MLS franchise moved to Houston, Texas, to become the Houston Dynamo. At the time, it was announced by the league that while players and staff would move with the team, the team name, colors, logo, and records (including two championship trophies) would stay in San Jose for when a new expansion team arrives.


title: Art Modell

text: In 2008, the Earthquakes returned under the ownership of Lew Wolff, a real estate developer, landowner and part-owner of the Oakland Athletics MLB franchise. There have been discussions about moving the Oakland A's to San Jose (which seem to be hampered by the San Francisco Giants territorial rights to the south Bay Area) although offers to move to the A's to Sacramento, California (where the A's minor league club – the River Cats – are based) have been rejected by the A's ownership.


title: Art Modell

text: When the Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 2008, the owners agreed to leave the "SuperSonics" name, logo, and colors in Seattle for a possible future NBA franchise; however the items would remain the property of the Oklahoma City team along with other "assets" including championship banners and trophies. The team was subsequently renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both the Thunder and any future Seattle NBA team will also "share" the SuperSonics' history.


title: Art Modell

text: Modell was a Hall of Fame finalist in 2001 and a semifinalist in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011.


title: Art Modell

text: The original Browns were considered one of the NFL's flagship franchises, as well as an institution by many Northern Ohioans. He never returned to Cleveland after 1996. When Browns kicking legend Lou "The Toe" Groza died in 2000, Modell did not appear.


title: Art Modell

text: When the final game was played in Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1995, there were more people outside it protesting the move than inside enjoying their last Browns game before the three-year deactivation. The protesters were acknowledged by the NBC announcing crew. Former NFL head coach Mike Ditka said, ""...these are some of the best fans in the NFL. I said that when I came here with my Bears. They (the Cleveland sports fans) don't deserve this. If Modell had any sort of sense of dignity he would have sold the team.""


title: Art Modell

text: Many Baltimore fans, including several prominent old-time Colts players who lived in the area, considered the Ravens to be the successors of the Baltimore Colts.


title: Art Modell

text: Other retired stars, like Art Donovan, had mixed emotions about the Ravens' arrival: happiness that the great fans of the city now had an NFL team to cheer for again, but also sadness that Cleveland had felt the same loss that Baltimore had in 1984, and a neutral view of the new team itself.


title: Art Modell

text: Upon the team's move in 1996, Modell selected former NFL head coach and offensive guru Ted Marchibroda as its new head coach. Marchibroda, who also had been the head of the Colts when they were in Baltimore during the late 1970s, had coached them the previous three seasons in Indianapolis, and they were fresh off of an appearance in a memorable 1995 AFC Championship loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.


title: Art Modell

text: However, the new Ravens still struggled to be competitive and suffered in mediocrity for the first 3 seasons in Baltimore, missing the playoffs each year. In 1999, they hired former NFL assistant coach Brian Billick as the head coach, replacing Marchibroda. Like Marchibroda, Billick, an Ohio native, had been considered one of the brightest offensive minds among the league's offensive coaches, and also had been considered by Modell as a possible Browns head coaching candidate.


title: Art Modell

text: In 2000, the Ravens, under the coaching of Billick, qualified for the postseason for the first time, winning the AFC Wild-Card position with a 12–4 record. (Tennessee won their division that year.) Led by a stingy defense anchored by team captain and NFL All-Pro middle linebacker Ray Lewis, and quarterbacked by former Pro-Bowler Trent Dilfer, they would go on to defeat the NFC Champion New York Giants in the Super Bowl, 34–7. Shortly after the Super Bowl XXXV victory, Modell handed the reins of the day-to-day operations of the team over to his son, David. The Ravens qualified again for the postseason in 2001 as defending Super Bowl Champions, and once more in 2003, winning their first division title. The Ravens' regular season record during Modell's tenure as team owner stands at 72–63.


title: Art Modell

text: Modell and his wife, former television actress Patricia Breslin, donated millions of dollars to a variety of charities, most notably the SEED School, a boarding school being developed in Baltimore for disadvantaged youth; Johns Hopkins Hospital; Kennedy Krieger Institute; St. Vincent's Center, a home for abused children; and the House of Ruth, a domestic violence center. Modell received the Generous Heart Award from Dr. Ben Carson Scholarship Foundation, given annually for excellence in the community.


title: Art Modell

text: Despite a no-cost stadium lease, as well as retaining all revenues from parking, concessions, and TV, as well as a reported $25 million subsidy from the state of Maryland, Modell's ownership of the Ravens resulted in continual financial hardships for the team. In late 2002, the hardships led the NFL to take the unusual step of directing Modell to sell his franchise.


title: Art Modell

text: In 2003, Modell sold the Ravens to minority owner and Maryland businessman Steve Bisciotti; under the deal, Modell retained a small interest (approximately 1% share) upon the team's sale as a legal maneuver to avoid a claim by the Andrews trust, which was controlled by family of a former business adviser who sought to collect an estimated $30 million finder's fee upon Modell's sale of the team. The Andrews trust essentially claimed that under a 1963 agreement, Modell owed a finder's fee for his original purchase of the team which was to be paid when Modell sold his entire interest. In July 2005, Modell prevailed in court and defeated the Andrews trust's claim. At the time of sale, the franchise's worth was estimated at approximately US$600 million.


title: Art Modell

text: Soon after Modell reconstituted his organization in Baltimore in 1996, he had sold a small minority interest to Bisciotti. However, Bisciotti had the option to buy the team fully in right (approximately 99%) until March 2004, this upon becoming a minority owner (about 45%) outright in 1999. Bisciotti exercised his purchase option in January 2004. Modell retained his 1% share and an office at the Ravens' headquarters in Owings Mills, Maryland, as a team consultant.


title: Art Modell

text: The furious fan reaction to Modell's planned move of the franchise to Baltimore has been lampooned and chronicled in many media circles, particularly in print and television. On the cover of the December 4, 1995, issue of "Sports Illustrated" titled "Battle for the Browns", there is a cartoon of Modell punching a Browns fan, adorned with a Browns Helmet/dog and dogbone mask, in the stomach. He was portrayed in the 2008 movie "", which was about Syracuse running back and Browns draftee Ernie Davis.


title: Art Modell

text: An episode of "The Drew Carey Show" (whose title character and titular actor is a native Clevelander) referenced Modell. During a party at Drew's house, which featured many Cleveland personalities, former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar asks Drew where the bathroom is. Drew directs Kosar to the bathroom, following with the instruction, "Just don't take a Modell."


title: Art Modell

text: Modell's only marriage was to Patricia Breslin, lasting from 1969 until her death in 2011. He adopted Breslin's two sons, John and David, from her first marriage to actor David Orrick McDearmon (1914–1979). David would later work for the Browns/Ravens' franchise, eventually become team president and CEO before the team's sale in 2004. As of 2009, Modell and his wife lived in Cockeysville, Maryland. They also retained residences in nearby Owings Mills, Maryland, where son David lived with his family, and Vero Beach, Florida. They had a total of six grandchildren. Patricia died on October 12, 2011, at the age of 80.


title: Art Modell

text: Although Modell later retired and had relinquished control of the Ravens, he is still hated in Cleveland, not only for moving the Browns, but also for his firing of head coach Paul Brown in 1963. Some consider the Browns' move and subsequent lawsuits as having cost Modell a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which is in Canton, Ohio, 60 miles south of Cleveland and part of the Cleveland television market and Browns' territorial rights.


title: Art Modell

text: Modell had a history of coronary disease. He died on September 6, 2012, at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the age of 87 due to natural causes. He hadn't returned to Cleveland before his death.


title: Art Modell

text: The Ravens dedicated the 2012 season to Modell. On Week 1, all team members wore an "Art" decal on their helmets, and for the rest of their season, they wore an "Art" patch on the left side of their jerseys. They would go on to win Super Bowl XLVII.


title: Art Modell

text: The Sunday following Modell's death was also the opening weekend of the 2012 NFL season. Each team playing a home game was asked to hold a moment of silence in memory of Modell. However, after much discussion, the Browns elected not to hold a moment of silence, but rather a "brief read over the public address system." Finally, at the request of David Modell, the Browns opted not to commemorate or even mention Modell during their pregame festivities to avoid a negative reaction from the team's fans.


title: Art Modell

text: On July 23, 2014, a video surfaced on YouTube of an unidentified Browns fan desecrating the grave of Modell wearing a Lyle Alzado jersey by urinating on the grave through a catheter. Baltimore County filed charges for disorderly conduct at the request of Modell's stepson David Modell once the fan was identified. The charges were dropped after the fan apologized and appeared on David Modell's radio show.


title: Art Modell

text: Art Modell was the grandson of the founder of Modell's Sporting Goods, Morris A. Modell, but had nothing to do with that company. Established in 1889, Modell's was a Northeastern US retail chain that transitioned to online-only after a 2020 bankruptcy reorganization. When Modell Sporting Goods attempted to penetrate Maryland markets, it hoped that a perceived association with Art Modell's Baltimore Ravens would be helpful, but ultimately they were unsuccessful.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: In estimation theory and statistics, the Cramér–Rao bound (CRB) expresses a lower bound on the variance of unbiased estimators of a deterministic (fixed, though unknown) parameter, the variance of any such estimator is at least as high as the inverse of the Fisher information. Equivalently, it expresses an upper bound on the precision (the inverse of variance) of unbiased estimators: the precision of any such estimator is at most the Fisher information.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: The result is named in honor of Harald Cramér and C. R. Rao, but has independently also been derived by Maurice Fréchet, Georges Darmois, as well as Alexander Aitken and Harold Silverstone.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: An unbiased estimator that achieves this lower bound is said to be (fully) "efficient". Such a solution achieves the lowest possible mean squared error among all unbiased methods, and is therefore the minimum variance unbiased (MVU) estimator. However, in some cases, no unbiased technique exists which achieves the bound. This may occur either if for any unbiased estimator, there exists another with a strictly smaller variance, or if an MVU estimator exists, but its variance is strictly greater than the inverse of the Fisher information.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: The Cramér–Rao bound can also be used to bound the variance of estimators of given bias. In some cases, a biased approach can result in both a variance and a mean squared error that are the unbiased Cramér–Rao lower bound; see estimator bias.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: The Cramér–Rao bound is stated in this section for several increasingly general cases, beginning with the case in which the parameter is a scalar and its estimator is unbiased. All versions of the bound require certain regularity conditions, which hold for most well-behaved distributions. These conditions are listed later in this section.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: Suppose formula_1 is an unknown deterministic parameter that is to be estimated from formula_2 independent observations (measurements) of formula_3, each from a distribution according to some probability density function formula_4. The variance of any "unbiased" estimator formula_5 of formula_1 is then bounded by the reciprocal of the Fisher information formula_7:


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: and formula_11 is the natural logarithm of the likelihood function for a single sample formula_3 and formula_13 denotes the expected value with respect to the density formula_4 of formula_15. If formula_16 is twice differentiable and certain regularity conditions hold, then the Fisher information can also be defined as follows:


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: The efficiency of an unbiased estimator formula_5 measures how close this estimator's variance comes to this lower bound; estimator efficiency is defined as


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: A more general form of the bound can be obtained by considering a biased estimator formula_21, whose expectation is not formula_1 but a function of this parameter, say, formula_23. Hence formula_24 is not generally equal to 0. In this case, the bound is given by


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: where formula_26 is the derivative of formula_23 (by formula_1), and formula_7 is the Fisher information defined above.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: Apart from being a bound on estimators of functions of the parameter, this approach can be used to derive a bound on the variance of biased estimators with a given bias, as follows. Consider an estimator formula_5 with bias formula_31, and let formula_32. By the result above, any unbiased estimator whose expectation is formula_23 has variance greater than or equal to formula_34. Thus, any estimator formula_5 whose bias is given by a function formula_36 satisfies


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: It's trivial to have a small variance − an "estimator" that is constant has a variance of zero. But from the above equation we find that the mean squared error of a biased estimator is bounded by


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: using the standard decomposition of the MSE. Note, however, that if formula_40 this bound might be less than the unbiased Cramér–Rao bound formula_41. For instance, in the example of estimating variance below, formula_42.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: Let formula_48 be an estimator of any vector function of parameters, formula_49, and denote its expectation vector formula_50 by formula_51. The Cramér–Rao bound then states that the covariance matrix of formula_48 satisfies


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: If formula_48 is an unbiased estimator of formula_61 (i.e., formula_62), then the Cramér–Rao bound reduces to


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: The bound relies on two weak regularity conditions on the probability density function, formula_65, and the estimator formula_21:


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: Assume that formula_79 is an estimator with expectation formula_23 (based on the observations formula_15), i.e. that formula_82. The goal is to prove that, for all formula_1,


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: Here formula_87 is a statistic, which is used as an estimator for formula_88. Define formula_89 as the score:


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: where the chain rule is used in the final equality above. Then the expectation of formula_89, written formula_92, is zero. This is because:


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: where the integral and partial derivative have been interchanged (justified by the second regularity condition).


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: If we consider the covariance formula_94 of formula_89 and formula_72, we have formula_97, because formula_98. Expanding this expression we have


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: For example, let formula_104 be a sample of formula_105 independent observations with unknown mean formula_1 and known variance formula_107 .


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: Suppose "X" is a normally distributed random variable with known mean formula_111 and unknown variance formula_107. Consider the following statistic:


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: (the second equality follows directly from the definition of variance). The first term is the fourth moment about the mean and has value formula_117; the second is the square of the variance, or formula_118.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: where the second equality is from elementary calculus. Thus, the information in a single observation is just minus the expectation of the derivative of formula_89, or


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: Thus the information in a sample of formula_2 independent observations is just formula_2 times this, or formula_129


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: In this case, the inequality is saturated (equality is achieved), showing that the estimator is efficient.


title: Cramér–Rao bound

text: When the mean is not known, the minimum mean squared error estimate of the variance of a sample from Gaussian distribution is achieved by dividing by formula_135, rather than formula_136 or formula_137.


title: Rage 2

text: Rage 2 is a 2019 first-person shooter video game developed by Avalanche Studios in conjunction with id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is the sequel to the 2011 game "Rage". The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on May 14, 2019. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its combat but criticism for its story, characters, and open world gameplay.


title: Rage 2

text: "Rage 2" is a first-person shooter. Players assume control of a ranger named Walker, who is free to explore the game's apocalyptic open world. Players are given control over some of Walker's attributes, such as their gender, skills, or attire. Walker is able to wield various firearms and tools to fight against enemies, including returning weapons such as the wingstick. Players can develop Walker's skills with Nanotrite-based powers. Through a mode called Overdrive, Walker's guns do more damage, enemies drop more energy and they get healed constantly — providing players with an aggressive way to mow down enemies. Nanotrites from the first game, which act as special powers and ability boosts, can be used to increase combat efficiency. The game features vehicular combat, including trucks, buggies and gyrocopters, with the player being able to drive any vehicle in the game's world.


title: Rage 2

text: Players assume control of Walker, the last Ranger of Vineland, who must survive in a world inhabited by dangerous mutants and crazed bandits after it was hit by the asteroid 99942 Apophis. The majority of humankind died during this apocalyptic event. While new settlements and factions emerged, a group called the Authority declared themselves the new military power. The game's prologue begins in Walker's home, Vineland, a city founded by former Ark residents and their descendants. Vineland gets stormed by the Authority's rebuilt Abadon mutant armies, and Walker's adoptive Aunt Prowley is killed by General Cross. Prowley leaves a pre-recorded holotape asking Walker to carry out Project Dagger, a mission conceived to stop General Cross. Walker is inducted as the last Ranger, a group of Ark survivors whose nanotrite-powered suits give them enhanced combat abilities. They are asked by Prowley's recording to find the three other members of Project Dagger; Loosum Hagar, Marshall, and Dr. Kvasir. Prowley's biological daughter, Lily, provides Walker with the Phoenix, an indestructible vehicle to travel the Wasteland, and promises to rebuild Vineland in the Ranger's absence.


title: Rage 2

text: Marshall is found in the town of Gunbarrel. Walker is asked to assist him in restoring power to Gunbarrel and retrieving Gulo, a scout sent by Marshall from an hostile enemy clan named the Immortal Shrouded. The scout's last defiant act was to swallow the recorder with the bunker's location, which Walker recovers from her already-carved-out gut. They proceed to the bunker, wiping out both the Immortal Shrouded and the Authority patrol sent to dislodge them, and secures the data necessary to penetrate the Authority's security scans.


title: Rage 2

text: Loosum Hagar is the mayor of Wellspring, a major travel hub in the Wasteland. When Walker arrives at her office, the Ranger is forced to fight off an assassination attempt against the mayor, who she suspects Wasteland tycoon Klegg Clayton of masterminding the attack. Klegg tries to kill Walker after admitting he was on a first name basis with General Cross. Fighting through Klegg's henchmen, Walker warns Loosum of the plot against Wellspring and uncovers a Xerxes MK III Authority Predator tank hidden in Klegg's catacombs beneath the town. The Ranger follows Klegg to an Authority bunker, to witness General Cross put down his unsuccessful lackey for failing to deliver Wellspring. Exploring deeper into the facility, Walker finds evidence that the Authority is building massive Abadon mutants piece by piece, calling them "Titans" and planning to unleash them on the rest of the Wasteland. Walker tears the fusion core out of a huge, half-build Titan, causing a chain reaction that destroys the facility and simultaneously securing a power source for the Xerxes III Predator tank that is necessary to complete Project Dagger.


title: Rage 2

text: Dr. Anton Kvasir is a master of genetic manipulation tasked to create a nanotrite virus that would disable General Cross' ability to clone himself indefinitely to prolong his life. The scientist invites Walker into his sanctum, where he says he is held back from finishing his project by insufficient computing power. Walker is asked to land Eco-Pod 15, the last of a series of satellites tasked with re-seeding the Earth with life in the event that the Apophis meteor rendered the planet barren after impact. After entering EDEN Space Center, Kvasir hacks the Vault mainframe to grant Walker the status of POTUS to ensure they can access every aspect of the EDEN Project. Successful in lowering Eco-Pod 15 back to Earth, Walker slaves its processor to Kvasir's mainframe before being forced to fight off an Authority strike force. Kvasir sends Walker on a mission to retrieve a DNA sample from General Cross. Raiding an Authority base for the sample, Walker frees captives from Vineland whose DNA was used in horrific cloning and mutant experiments. Walker decapitates General Cross after defeating him in battle, though a fresh clone of the General escapes. Back at Kvasir's lab, the doctor uses Cross' severed head to produce the nanotrite virus that was his part of Project Dagger.


title: Rage 2

text: With the three components, Walker initiates the final phase of Project Dagger by infiltrating the Authority HQ. Able to gain entry to the compound by impersonating General Cross, the Ranger is discovered by the real general. General Cross meets Walker while riding a gigantic Cyber Titan, and the two battle. Killing the Titan, Walker stabs Cross in the eye with the Nanotrite Virus, causing his DNA to be corrupted to prevent future clones from being created. However, unbeknownst to Walker due to Kvasir's manipulation, the Ranger's own nanotrites are also susceptible to the virus. Choking to death alongside the broken body of General Cross, Walker is saved by the intervention of Lily, who returns them to Hagar's Wellspring office for medical treatment. With Lily's gun to his head, Dr. Kvasir works frantically to save the Ranger. When he succeeds, the doctor begs for his life from the enraged Lily, who spares him. The game ends with Walker regaining consciousness and thanking Lily for her help, promising to continue helping the Wasteland as the Last Ranger.


title: Rage 2

text: "Rage 2" is a joint development between id Software and Avalanche Studios. Avalanche was selected as the collaboration partner for the project as id Software was impressed by Avalanche's work on "Just Cause 3", especially its physics-based emergent gameplay. According to Tim Willits, the team hoped that the sequel could deliver on the promise made by the first game, which was limited by technology during its time of release. Willits added that "Rage 2" was designed to be the player's "power fantasy", thus they ensured that they will not feel underpowered at the beginning of the game. The game features a colorful color palette so as to distinguish itself from other id Software games. "Rage 2" utilizes Avalanche Studios' proprietary Apex game engine instead of id Tech, which had been used for the predecessor. The Apex engine allowed the team to create detailed indoor environments as well as broad outdoor locations, also allowing players to transition between these worlds without any loading screens. The game engine uses the Vulkan API exclusively.


title: Rage 2

text: A sequel to "Rage" was hinted by Bethesda's Pete Hines, who believed that both "Rage" and "The Evil Within" had sold enough to warrant sequels. In mid-May 2018, rumors of the sequel were fueled when Walmart Canada's website updated its video game sections with several as-yet-unannounced titles, which included "Rage 2". Bethesda poked fun at Walmart over social media in the following days, but this turned into more direct hints of the sequel's existence. Bethesda formally revealed "Rage 2" on May 14, 2018 with a teaser trailer and a gameplay trailer the next day. The game was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on May 14, 2019. The game's Collector Edition, which includes a severed mutant head voiced by Andrew W.K., is set to be released alongside the standard edition. Players who preordered the game will have access to an exclusive mission and additional gameplay items. Willits revealed that the game will be a game as a service, and he promised that lootboxes would not be present in the game. "Rage 2" was released on Steam with Denuvo digital rights management. However, the game was cracked within a day because the version on Bethesda's own store did not use Denuvo. Denuvo was subsequently removed from the Steam release.


title: Rage 2

text: An expansion pack titled "Rise of the Ghosts" was released on September 26, 2019. It introduced cheats, new vehicles, a new story, and pilotable mechs to the game.


title: Rage 2

text: On release, "Rage 2" received "mixed or average reviews" according to the review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Rage 2

text: Daniel Tack from "Game Informer" rated the game a 7/10, praising the game's shooting mechanics and music but criticized the visuals, open-world and characters. Dan Stapleton from "IGN" gave a rating of 8/10, comparing the game to 2016's "Doom", praising the game for its gunplay and the open-world gameplay as well as the abilities and the visual style, but felt bemused about the use of microtransactions as it featured no co-op or multiplayer. Michael Higham from "GameSpot" gave the game a 6/10, praising the game's combat and abilities, but criticized the humor, short length, narrative, characters, gameplay and side activities.


title: Rage 2

text: "Rage 2" was the best-selling retail game in the United Kingdom in its week of release, beating "Days Gone", although its physical sales figures were only 25% of the original game's launch-week sales. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version "Rage 2" was also the best-selling retail game during its first week of release, selling 12,146 copies.


title: Bob Arum

text: Robert Arum (born December 8, 1931) is an American lawyer and boxing promoter. He is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. Prior to becoming a boxing promoter, Arum was employed as an attorney in the tax division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum was born in New York City. He grew up in the Crown Heights section of New York, with an Orthodox Jewish background.


title: Bob Arum

text: He attended Erasmus Hall High School, New York University, then Harvard Law School with fellow students recalled as "snooty guys from the prep schools and the eating clubs," where he was graduated "cum laude". He worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice during the Kennedy administration, and had little interest in boxing until 1965.


title: Bob Arum

text: Following the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy and his Justice Department service under Robert F. Kennedy; Arum joined Wall Street law firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon, where he researched Kennedy's assassination for senior partner Louis Nizer, author of the foreword to the Warren Commission Report.


title: Bob Arum

text: Following the 1963 suicide of Washington Heights Savings and Loan Association president Floyd Cramer, hours after his indictment for being the "mastermind" of a mortgage tax-evasion scheme; Arum recalled, "I knew then that I wasn't cut out to be a prosecutor." Arum continued to practice civil law until dissolving his office in 1979.


title: Bob Arum

text: In 1962, Arum was assigned by the Department of Justice to confiscate proceeds from the September 25, 1962 Sonny Liston vs. Floyd Patterson world heavyweight boxing title fight; during which he met closed-circuit television (CCTV) pioneer and former Leo Burnett & Co. vice-president Lester M. Malitz (1907 – July 24, 1965) of Lester M. Malitz Inc. Malitz was the promoter of the 1965 Terrell–Chuvalo bout, during which he retained Arum to represent him. In 1966, subsequent to a suggestion by Jim Brown, whom Arum had secured for Malitz as the fight's announcer, Arum became a boxing promoter. In 2016, Brown recalled that Arum had seen a televised fight in 1965, as "The first fight Arum ever saw was Terrell–Chuvalo, and he watched that from the television truck." Arum credits Brown with introducing him to Muhammad Ali, and Ali with teaching him how to be a boxing promoter.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum became a vice-president and secretary of Ali's promotion company, Main Bout. Mike Malitz, son of Lester, like Arum, owned 20 percent of the company and became its vice-president. Jim Brown owned 10 percent of the company and served as its vice-president in charge of publicity. Referencing his first live fight viewing, Arum was reported as saying that he "had never seen a boxing match before the first fight I did with Ali", referring to the 1966 Muhammad Ali vs. George Chuvalo Toronto bout.


title: Bob Arum

text: During the 1980s, Arum became a driving force behind the sport, rivaling Don King. Arum organized superfights including Marvin Hagler vs. Roberto Durán and Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns. Arum mounted the Hagler–John Mugabi, Hearns–James Shuler doubleheader in Las Vegas in April, 1986. After the Hearns–Shuler fight, Shuler, who had lost by knockout in the first round, showed up at Arum's hotel room to thank him for the opportunity to fight Hearns. ten days after that bout, Shuler died in a motorcycle accident.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum kept producing big-scale undercards and superfights, including the Hagler–Sugar Ray Leonard bout, the Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns 1989 rematch, Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman, and many others. Some of Arum's superstars from the 1990s include former world flyweight champion Michael Carbajal, six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya, eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, and three-division world champion Erik Morales. Arum also promoted the legendary champion Julio César Chávez in his later years of boxing.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum has concentrated largely on promoting Hispanic fighters in recent years, citing surveys which show boxing is among the most popular sports within the Hispanic community. He has concentrated many of his shows in the Southwestern portion of the U.S., in cities with large Spanish-speaking populations. He is also the promoter of many of the cards on Telefutura, a Spanish language network. He has had great success with Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, who won world titles at the 140, 147, 154, 160-pound weight divisions; Mexican-American Antonio Margarito, who held a 147-pound WBO belt from 2002 to 2007; Mexican-American José Ramírez, the former WBC and WBO light welterweight world champion; Honduran-American Teófimo López, the former lightweight world champion; and Mexican Óscar Valdez, the former WBC super featherweight world champion.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum was inducted into the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in 1999. In 2003 he was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.


title: Bob Arum

text: As a boxing promoter, Arum had been involved in many spats and controversies, including a 40-year feud with Don King, with whom he has co-promoted several fights. UFC president Dana White has also been a vocal critic and the two have engaged in a protracted and acerbic public feud; in 2018, White briefly became a rival boxing promoter.


title: Bob Arum

text: In 1994, he was involved with John Daly for the High Noon in Hong Kong boxing event. The fights were called off at the last minute when Barry Hearn scuttled the bout by withdrawing his fighters, when no purses were forthcoming from Top Rank.


title: Bob Arum

text: In 2000, citing extortion, Arum voluntarily testified to having paid IBF president Robert W. "Bobby" Lee, Sr. $100,000 in two installments in 1995, as the first half of a $200,000 bribe, through "middleman, Stanley Hoffman", adding that Lee had first demanded $500,000 to approve the Schulz–Foreman fight but had settled for the lesser amount of $200,000 (half of which was never paid). Lee was indicted for racketeering in 1999, but convicted of money laundering and tax evasion in 2000. Following his testimony, Arum was sanctioned and fined $125,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Boxing promoters Cedric Kushner and Dino Duva also admitted to making similar payments to Lee.


title: Bob Arum

text: Oscar De La Hoya successfully sued Arum and was legally released from his contract with Top Rank in January 2001. Following years of acrimony; he and De La Hoya publicly salvaged their relationship.


title: Bob Arum

text: In 2003, Arum complained about judging in the September 13 bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Shane Mosley and suggested there was a vendetta against him from a member of the Nevada State Commission that led to De La Hoya's loss. Arum later made an apology for the remark which commission chairman Luther Mack accepted.


title: Bob Arum

text: In the first week of January 2004, FBI agents raided Arum's Top Rank office in Las Vegas. Arum was on vacation when his office was raided and the FBI originally declined to comment on the raid. The news media reported that the FBI was investigating allegations that Top Rank was involved in fixing the rematch between De La Hoya and Shane Mosley, even though De La Hoya lost and Arum was De La Hoya's promoter. The federal agency also announced it was investigating some of Eric Esch's fights, as well as the Jorge Páez–Verdell Smith fight. The investigation closed in the summer of 2006 with no charges being filed.


title: Bob Arum

text: In 2007, "Yahoo Sports" reported that, "Floyd Mayweather Jr. essentially accused Arum, who promoted him from the beginning of his career in 1996 until 2006, of underpaying him, exploiting his talents and manipulating officials." Mayweather, who also became a boxing promoter, stated to "Yahoo Sports" in 2015, "I don't have anything bad to say about Bob Arum."


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum filed a lawsuit against HBO for overstepping its boundaries in the sport by becoming a de facto promoter while trying to intentionally eliminate him as a promoter. Arum complained that HBO dropped Mayweather from his exclusive deal after he insisted his fighter have a tougher bout than the network wanted. The suit was settled out of court but Arum continued to criticize HBO by saying "Instead of working with promoters, like they have done in the past, they have become promoters themselves. They make the fights just like promoters and pay fighters", Arum said. "It's their money and they can do what they want but Don King doesn't have to go along with it and neither do I. King and I can get along without HBO or Showtime ... The problem HBO Sports got into is they became defenders of the status quo. They held you back because they had control."


title: Bob Arum

text: In 2009, Arum defended Antonio Margarito when he lost his boxing license in the US state of California on charges of illegal hand wraps, implied it was racially motivated and stated that Top Rank would not come back to the state of California until the issue was rectified.


title: Bob Arum

text: In 2020, Arum stated that one of his top boxers, Terence Crawford should also start promoting himself better. He compared his situation with several other greats in the sport. Arum stated he could have built a house in Beverly Hills with the money he lost on Crawford's last three fights. Crawford did not take this lightly, responding through numerous media outlets showing his disappointment towards Arum's comments"." In January 2022, Crawford sued Arum for racial bias and for the money he lost by not being promoted well enough.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum has been married twice. He had three children with his first wife: Richard, Elizabeth, and John. His son, environmental lawyer John Arum (1961–2010), fell to his death in 2010 while climbing the north face of Storm King, a mountain in North Cascades National Park; he is most remembered for his meticulous representation of Native American tribal rights.


title: Bob Arum

text: In 1991, he married Lovee duBoef with whom he has two stepchildren; Todd duBoef, President of Top Rank and Dena duBoef, vice president of Top Rank. Arum was a close friend and business partner of the late billionaire casino tycoon, and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp, Sheldon Adelson.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum, who appeared as corrupt DEA agent, "Stokes", in the 1975 film, "The Marijuana Affair", at the behest of his friend, Jamaican-born boxing promoter, filmmaker, bookie, and horse-racing aficionado Lucien Chen (June 6, 1928 – December 16, 2015), has advocated for the decriminalization of cannabis; and, in a 2017 interview, stated that he had started smoking it in 1966, declaring, "Cannabis is good for you! It's these damn people during the Nixon administration that really put cannabis into the position where it was a drug like heroin and cocaine and that was wrong" and adding that "in a lot of ways, marijuana is better for the athlete as pain medication than the drugs.” In a 2017 "VICE" interview (which erroneously reports film producer Chen as Shen); Arum was also quoted as saying, "I think the NFL is gonna revise its policy on marijuana and I think everybody should. It was the Nixon administration that demonized marijuana, to the real harm of a lot of people, particularly people who have terminal cancer. Marijuana can be a very therapeutic thing."


title: Bob Arum

text: Arum has appeared on several television documentaries, boxing specials, movies and shows, usually being interviewed about a boxer or fight but occasionally as an actor himself, including in "Play It To The Bone" (where he played a boxing fan) and "Arliss".


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: The Winchester Model 1912 (also commonly known as the Model 12, or M12) is an internal-hammer pump-action shotgun with an external tube magazine. Popularly named the "Perfect Repeater" at its introduction, it largely set the standard for pump-action shotguns over its 51-year high-rate production life. From August 1912 until first discontinued by Winchester in May 1964, nearly two million Model 12 shotguns were produced in various grades and barrel lengths. Initially chambered for 20 gauge only, the 12 and 16 gauge versions came out in 1913 (first listed in the 1914 catalogs), and the 28 gauge version came out in 1934. A .410 version was never produced; instead, a scaled-down version of the Model 12 known as the Model 42, directly derived from scaled drawings of the Model 12, was produced in .410.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: The Model 1912 (shortened to Model 12 in 1919) was the next step from the Winchester Model 1897 hammer-fired shotgun, which in turn had evolved from the earlier Winchester Model 1893 shotgun. The Model 12 was designed by Winchester engineer T.C. Johnson, and was based in part on the M1893/97 design by John M. Browning, in that it used a sliding forearm or "pump action" to cycle the mechanism. It was initially available in 20 gauge only (12 and 16 gauge guns were not sold until late 1913). The Model 12 was a very successful internal hammer pump-action shotgun.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: Its tubular magazine was loaded through the bottom of the gun. Empty shotgun shells ejected to the right. Depending on the particular wooden plug installed in the magazine, two, three, or four shells could be loaded into the tubular magazine. The magazine tube held six 2¾-inch 12 gauge shells, whereas modern shotguns can typically hold only four or five.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: With forged and machined steel parts, the ultimate reason for discontinuation in 1964 was that it was too expensive to produce at a competitive price. The primary competition at this time came from the much less expensive Remington Model 870, which had been introduced in 1950. The majority of "modern" Model 12 shotguns manufactured after 1927 were chambered for 2¾-inch shotgun shells only, although some specialized models such as the Heavy Duck Gun Model 12 were chambered for 3" Super Speed and Super X shells (basically a 3" magnum). The early 20 gauge Model 12 guns had chambers that were 2½", and the 16 gauge Model 12s were chambered for a 2 9/16-inch shotgun shell. To add further confusion, some of these early Model 12s have subsequently been modified, with their chambers lengthened to accept 2¾-inch shotgun shells, while others remain in their factory-stock chamber lengths. Careful inspection by a gunsmith is always recommended to determine whether or not it is safe to fire a modern 2¾-inch shotgun shell in older Model 12s. It is worth noting that while a 2¾-inch shell will often chamber in the short chambered Model 12s this will result in excessive pressure upon firing, and the fact that a 2¾-inch shell fits should never be taken as an indication that the chamber has been modified.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: Special production examples were produced by Winchester, the U.S. Repeating Arms Company, and Miroku after 1964 through 2006 through specialized gun collector purchase programs, but the Perfect Repeater shotgun was never mass-produced after 1964. The U.S. Repeating Arms Company (a subsidiary of FN) announced a complete closing of the New Haven, Connecticut factory facility in January 2006, thus ending the Model 12's long and illustrious career at the age of 95 years.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: The United States armed forces used various versions of the Model 12 in World War I, World War II, Korea, and in the early part of the Vietnam War, until inventory was exhausted after the Model 12's initial production ceased in 1964. Versions of the Model 12 were type classified as the Model 12 or M12 for short. Approximately 20,000 Model 12 trench guns were purchased by the US Army in World War I, differing from the civilian version by having a shorter barrel, a perforated steel heat shield, and a M1917 bayonet adapter.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: More than 80,000 Model 12 shotguns were purchased during World War II by the United States Marine Corps, Army Air Forces, and Navy, mostly for use in the Pacific theater. Riot gun versions of the Model 12, lacking the heat shield and bayonet, were purchased by the Army for use in defending bases and in protecting Air Forces aircraft against saboteurs when parked. The Navy similarly purchased and used the riot gun version for protecting Navy ships and personnel while in foreign ports. The Marine Corps used the trench gun version of the Model 12 to great success in taking Japanese-occupied islands in the Pacific. The primary difference in Model 12 shotguns between the World War II trench gun version versus the World War I trench gun version was that the original design, containing six rows of holes in the perforated heat shield, was reduced to only four rows during 1942.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: During the Korean War, the Marines used the Model 12 extensively. Likewise, the Marines and U.S. Army used the Model 12 during the Vietnam War. However, production of the Model 12 ended in 1964, which led to the Model 12 no longer being purchased by the military. However, there were numerous firearms already in the American arsenal, and the Model 12 would continue to see combat service until the end of the 1960s. During the middle 1960s, the Ithaca 37 shotgun was acquired for combat use, and it began replacing the Model 12 as the primary shotgun employed by the United States military. The Ithaca 37 eventually became the most commonly-used shotgun of the Vietnam War. Other shotguns which were used in that conflict included the Winchester Model 1897 trench gun, the Stevens Model 77 shotgun, and the Remington 870 Wingmaster, the latter of which was used more by the U.S. Navy than other branches.


title: Winchester Model 1912

text: Unlike most modern pump-action shotguns, the Winchester Model 12 had no trigger disconnector. Like the earlier Model 1897, it fired each time the action closed as long as the trigger remained depressed from the prior shot. While the trigger remained depressed, as fast as one could pump the action open and closed another round would fire ("slam firing"). That capability and its 6-shell magazine capacity made it effective for close-combat.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Bobby Lee Rush (born November 23, 1946) is an American politician, activist and pastor who is the U.S. representative for , serving in Congress for almost three decades. A civil rights activist during the 1960s, Rush co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush was first elected to Congress in 1992. He has since won consecutive reelections. His district was originally principally on the South Side of Chicago, with a population from 2003 to early 2013 that was 65% African-American, a higher proportion than any other congressional district. In 2011 the Illinois General Assembly redistricted this area after the 2010 census. Although still minority-majority, since early 2013 it is 51.3% African American, 36.1% White, 9.8% Hispanic, and 2% Asian. A member of the Democratic Party, Rush is the only politician to have defeated Barack Obama in an election, which he did in the 2000 Democratic primary for Illinois's 1st congressional district.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush was born on November 23, 1946, in Albany, Georgia. After his parents separated when Rush was 7 years old, his mother took him and his siblings to Chicago, Illinois, joining the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South in the first part of the 20th century. In 1963, Rush dropped out of high school before graduating and joined the U.S. Army. While stationed in Chicago in 1966, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which had helped obtain national civil rights legislation passed in 1964 and 1965. In 1968, he went AWOL from the Army and co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. He later finished his Army service, receiving an honorable discharge.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Throughout the 1960s, Rush was involved in the civil rights movement and worked in civil disobedience campaigns in the southern United States. After co-founding the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968, he served as its defense minister. After the Chicago Police Department and the State's Attorney Office assassinated Black Panther Fred Hampton in a police raid, Rush said, "We needed to arm ourselves", and called the police "pigs". Earlier that year, Rush had discussed the philosophy of his membership in the Black Panthers, saying, "Black people have been on the defensive for all these years. The trend now is not to wait to be attacked. We advocate offensive violence against the power structure." After Hampton's death, Rush became acting chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. He worked on several nonviolent projects that built support for the Black Panthers in African-American communities, such as coordinating a medical clinic which offered sickle-cell anemia testing on an unprecedented scale. Rush was imprisoned for six months in 1972 on a weapons charge after carrying a pistol into a police station. In 1974, he left the Black Panthers, who were already in decline. "We started glorifying thuggery and drugs", he told "People". A deeply religious born-again Christian, Rush said, "I don't repudiate any of my involvement in the Panther party—it was part of my maturing."


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush earned his Bachelor of General Studies with honors from Roosevelt University in 1973, and a Master's degree in political science from University of Illinois at Chicago in 1974. He completed a degree in theological studies at McCormick Theological Seminary in 1998. On May 13, 2017, Rush received a Doctorate of Humanities, "honoris causa", from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) for his outstanding contributions to Chicago.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In 1975, Rush ran for a seat on the Chicago City Council, the first of several black militants to seek political office, and lost to incumbent alderman William Barnett, receiving 23% of the vote to Barnett's 55% and Larry S. Bullock's 21%. Rush's allies in the black-power movement abandoned the Democrats in the wake of the political turmoil that followed the sudden death in 1987 of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and formed their own political party, naming it after Washington. Rush infuriated Harold Washington Party leaders by spurning their candidates for local offices and sometimes backing white Democrats instead. He worked with the Democrats and was rewarded with the deputy chairmanship of the state party.


title: Bobby Rush

text: After redistricting in 1992, Rush ran in Illinois's newly redrawn 1st congressional district, which included much of Chicago's South Side. The district had a high proportion of African-American residents; it has been represented by Black congressmen since 1929. Rush defeated incumbent U.S. Representative Charles Hayes and six other candidates in the Democratic primary election. He won the general election with 83% of the vote. (The 1st is so heavily Democratic that Rush had all but assured himself of a seat in Congress with his primary win.) The district has been in Democratic hands since 1935.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In the 2000 Democratic primary for the district, Rush was challenged by Illinois State Senator Barack Obama. During the primary, Rush said, "Barack Obama went to Harvard and became an educated fool. Barack is a person who read about the civil rights protests and thinks he knows all about it."


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush claimed Obama was insufficiently rooted in Chicago's black neighborhoods to represent constituents' concerns. Obama said Rush was a part of "a politics that is rooted in the past" and said he could build bridges with whites to get things done. But while Obama did well in his own Hyde Park base, he did not get enough support from the surrounding black neighborhoods. Starting with 10% name recognition, Obama eventually gained 30% of the vote, losing by more than 2 to 1 despite winning among white voters. Rush won 61% of the vote, and won the general election with 88% of the vote.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In 1999, Rush ran for mayor of Chicago, but lost to incumbent Richard M. Daley, an ethnic Irish American whose father had long controlled the city as mayor. He remained active in city and regional politics.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In 2013, Rush criticized U.S. Senator Mark Kirk's proposal that 18,000 members of the Chicago gang "Gangster Disciples" be arrested, calling Kirk's suggestion "headline grabbing" and an "upper-middle-class, elitist white boy solution to a problem he knows nothing about". A spokesman for Kirk said Kirk had dealt with the issues for decades.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Also in 2013, Alex Clifford was forced to resign as CEO of Metra commuter rail agency, but soon after he left, a memo was released indirectly accusing Rush of using his political power to steer a $50,000 contract to a Washington-based business group.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In the 2015 Chicago mayoral election, Rush endorsed Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Emanuel's runoff reelection campaign against Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In the 2019 Chicago mayoral election, Rush endorsed Bill Daley in the first round and Toni Preckwinkle in the runoff.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Though a very close friend of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, Rush announced early on in the 2008 Democratic primaries that he would support Obama. After Obama won the presidency and vacated his Senate seat, Rush said that an African American should be appointed to the seat: "With the resignation of President-elect Obama, we now have no African-Americans in the United States Senate, and we believe it will be a national disgrace to not have this seat filled by one of the many capable African-American Illinois politicians." Rush said he did not support any particular person and was not interested in the seat. On December 30, 2008, Governor Rod Blagojevich announced his appointment of Roland Burris, the former Attorney General of Illinois; Rush was present at the press conference and spoke in support of Burris.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. After she dropped out, he endorsed Michael Bloomberg and became his campaign's national co-chair.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush has been considered a loyal Democrat during his tenure; in the 110th Congress, he voted with his party 97.8% of the time. Rush is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Baltic Caucus.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush initiated the Chicago Partnership for the Earned Income Tax Credit, an ongoing program designed to help low-income working Chicago residents receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal income tax credit.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush sponsored the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act passed in 1999. The law temporarily addressed the nursing shortage by providing non-immigrant visas for qualified foreign nurses in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood and was reauthorized in 2005. Rush sponsored the Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act, named for a Chicago native who jumped to her death from a 12th-story window due to postpartum depression. The bill would provide for research on postpartum depression and psychosis and services for people suffering from these disorders. The Children's Health Act, passed in 2000, incorporated Rush's Urban Asthma Reduction Act of 1999, amending the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant program and including an integrated approach to asthma management.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush was very outspoken against the GOP's No More Solyndras Bill, which would override a loan guarantee by the Energy Department to encourage research and development. The Energy Department provided a federal loan guarantee to the solar manufacturing company Solyndra to help with R&D. He said the No More Solyndras Bill would be better named the No More Innovation Bill.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush introduced Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 on January 6, 2009. The bill would require all owners of handguns and semiautomatic firearms to register for a federal firearms license. All sales of the subject firearms would have to go through a licensed dealer. It would also make it illegal not to register as an owner of a firearm.


title: Bobby Rush

text: On July 15, 2004, Rush became the second sitting member of Congress, after Charles Rangel and before Joe Hoeffel, to be arrested for trespassing while protesting the genocide in Darfur and other violations of human rights in Sudan in front of the Sudanese Embassy.


title: Bobby Rush

text: On February 13, 2007, Rush opposed President George W. Bush's proposed 20,000-serviceman troop surge in Iraq. He said the troops' presence in Iraq was the greatest catalyst of violence there and advocated a political resolution of the situation. Rush said the troop surge would serve only to make the Iraqi situation more volatile.


title: Bobby Rush

text: On March 28, 2012, Rush addressed the House while wearing a hoodie in honor of Trayvon Martin, a teenager who was shot in Florida by a local resident. He spoke against racial profiling. As the House forbids its members from wearing headgear as a breach of decorum, Rush was called out of order and escorted from the chamber.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush twice introduced the Emmett Till Antilynching Act (named for Chicago teenager Emmett Till) to make lynching a federal crime. Federal anti-lynching legislation in Congress had been held up for about 100 years, but the Emmett Till Act finally became law in 2022.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush's career average missed vote percentage is 15.7, much higher than the median missed vote percentage of 2.2 for members of the House. In the first session of the 114th session of Congress (January to December 2015), Rush missed 15.6% of the votes and ranked 12th in missed votes. He had the distinction of missing more votes than any other member of the House between 2007 and 2015: of 6,906 votes, Rush missed 1,549 (22.4%). Health issues for Rush and his wife were his main explanations for his high number of missed votes.


title: Bobby Rush

text: The Office of Congressional Ethics referred a matter involving Rush to the House Ethics Committee in 2014. The Office of Congressional Ethics report found he did not pay about $365,000 in rent for longtime use of an office to conduct politics. Rush has paid family members for years in questionable practices. He had a family member who for years worked for his church but was paid by a campaign supporter and friend. The Federal Election Commission questioned a Rush campaign-finance report that showed thousands of dollars spent on vague categories such as "campaign visibility" and "services rendered." His campaign paid his wife, Carolyn, $50,000 in 2015 for consulting, and his brother, Marlon Rush of Lansing, $13,000 in 2016 for two months' work as campaign manager, according to FEC reports. Oxford Media Group Inc., an Oak Brook company owned by multimillionaire businessman Joseph Stroud, paid the Commonwealth Edison bill—which was well past due, totaling $17,900 for Rush's Beloved Community Christian Church in 2010. Rush had personally been named in a ComEd lawsuit over the church's previous unpaid bills. Stroud was trying to break into the wireless phone industry dominated by Verizon and AT&T, and Rush was pushing for federal tax incentives that would give one of Stroud's other companies a leg up as a minority-owned business. A nonprofit Rush started got $1 million from the charitable arm of what is now AT&T for what turned out to be a failed effort to create a "technology center" in Englewood. At the time, the telecom giant was seeking support for legislation in a House committee of which Rush was a key member.


title: Bobby Rush

text: From 2001 to 2013, businesses counting on favorable actions by Rush in Congress donated roughly $1.7 million to his pet charities. Rush attracted more charitable corporate giving than any other Illinois congressman by a large margin, according to a Sunlight Foundation study of expenditures from 2009 to 2011. While it is impossible to assign cause and effect, at critical junctures Rush parted with fellow liberal Democrats in Congress to take pro-industry positions aligned with corporate benefactors SBC/AT&T, Comcast and ComEd.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush is pastor of the Beloved Community Christian Church in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. Leaders of other Englewood nonprofit organizations complained that the church's programs—a community development corporation Rebirth of Englewood, a public health center, and a group serving teens convicted of crimes—received inordinate government aid and weighed heavily on their own efforts for renewal.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In 2013, Rush and his wife, the Beloved Community Christian Church of which Rush is pastor, and another nonprofit organization operating out of the church had tax delinquencies totaling $195,000, and the pattern of tax delinquency was a decade old. Unpaid taxes included property taxes, income taxes, and employee withholding taxes. New City Bank sued Rush and his wife for $500,000, claiming they failed to pay their property taxes in 2009. In 1994, Rush owed the IRS $55,000 in federal income taxes, according to Cook County records.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Since 2018, 15% of Rush's congressional salary has been garnished to repay more than $1 million he owes on a delinquent loan for the now-closed church he founded in Chicago. Cook County Circuit Judge Alexander White ordered Rush to repay the $550,000 loan that New City Bank granted him and seven other co-signers in 2005. With the money, Rush bought the former Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Englewood and restyled it as the Beloved Community Church of God in Christ.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush has been married three times. His first marriage, when he was 19, was to Sandra Milan. They had two children together and divorced in 1973. He was married to community organizer, precinct captain, and political strategist Carolyn Thomas from 1980 or 1981 until her death from congestive heart failure on March 13, 2017. Their blended family had seven surviving children at the time of her death. On June 30, 2018, Rush married minister and author Paulette Holloway.


title: Bobby Rush

text: Rush's son Huey Rich was murdered on the South Side of Chicago at age 29, in October 1999. He was named after Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton. Rich's mother was Saundra Rich, whom Rush never married. On October 18, 1999, Rich was approached outside his apartment building by Leo Foster and Darcell Prince, who falsely claimed to be police officers. They wore bulletproof vests, and carried walkie-talkies, guns, and badges, but Rich didn't believe them and ran. Foster and Prince chased and shot Rich, then stole several hundred dollars and keys from his pockets. He died in the hospital four days later from extensive blood loss. Foster told police that he and Prince were coming to collect $110,000 worth of cocaine that Rich had been paid to procure but hadn't delivered. Rich's friends didn't believe Foster's story, with some suggesting it may have been a case of mistaken identity. Rush said Rich "was involved in positive—as far as I know—endeavors", adding "as parents, we don't always know". Foster was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the murder and Prince to 50 years. The murder prompted Rush to prioritize efforts to reduce gun violence.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In 2008, Rush had a rare type of malignant tumor removed from his salivary gland. He is a member of Iota Phi Theta fraternity. According to a DNA analysis conducted under the auspices of the TV program "Know Your Heritage," he is descended mainly from the Ashanti people of Ghana. Rush attributed his election to Congress to Tony Robbins. His heroes include Abraham Lincoln, Kit Carson, and Huey P. Newton.


title: Bobby Rush

text: In 2018, Rush's son Flynn Rush unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, losing in the Democratic primary to Curtis Tarver.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Jehovah's Witnesses have been criticized by adherents of mainstream Christianity, members of the medical community, former Jehovah's Witnesses, and commentators with regard to their beliefs and practices. The Jehovah's Witness movement's leaders have been accused of practicing doctrinal inconsistencies and making doctrinal reversals, making failed predictions, mistranslating the Bible, harshly treating former Jehovah's Witnesses, and leading the Jehovah's Witness movement in an autocratic and coercive manner. Jehovah's Witnesses have also been criticized because they reject blood transfusions, even in life-threatening medical situations, and of failing to report cases of sexual abuse to the authorities. Many of the claims are denied by Jehovah's Witnesses and some have also been disputed by courts and religious scholars.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Central to Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs are their interpretations of the second coming of Christ, the millennium and the kingdom of God. Watch Tower Society publications have made, and continue to make, predictions about world events they believe were prophesied in the Bible. Some of those early predictions were described as "established truth", and beyond any doubt.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Witnesses are told to "be complete in accepting the visible organization's direction in every aspect" and that there is no need to question what God tells them through his Word and organization since love "believes all things". If a member advocates views different from what appears in print, they face expulsion.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Failed predictions that were either explicitly stated or strongly implied, particularly linked to dates in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1925 and 1975, have led to the alteration or abandonment of some teachings. The Society's publications have at times suggested that members had previously "read into the "Watch Tower" statements that were never intended" or that the beliefs of members were "based on wrong premises". According to Professor Edmond Gruss, other failed predictions were ignored, and replaced with new predictions; for example, in the book, "The Finished Mystery" (1917), events were applied to the years 1918 to 1925 that earlier had been held to occur prior to 1914. When the new interpretations also did not transpire, the 1926 edition of the book changed the statements and removed the dates.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Raymond Franz, a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, has cited publications that claimed God has used Jehovah's Witnesses as a collective prophet. Professor James A. Beverley, along with others, has accused the movement of false prophecy for making those predictions, particularly because of assertions in some cases that the predictions were beyond doubt or had been approved by God, but describes its record of telling the future as "pathetic". Beverley says the Watch Tower Society has passed judgment on others who have falsely predicted the end of the world (he cites a 1968 "Awake!" article that says other groups were "guilty of false prophesying" after having "predicted an 'end to the world', even announcing a specific date").


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: The Watch Tower Society rejects accusations that it is a false prophet. It admits its explanations of Bible prophecy are not infallible and that its predictions are not claimed explicitly as "the words of Jehovah". It states that some of its expectations have needed adjustment because of eagerness for God's kingdom, but that those adjustments are no reason to "call into question the whole body of truth". Raymond Franz claims that the Watch Tower Society tries to evade its responsibility when citing human fallibility as a defense, adding that the Society represents itself as God's appointed spokesman, and that throughout its history has made many emphatic predictions. Franz adds that the organization's eagerness for the Millennium does not give it license to impugn the motives of those who fail to accept its predictions.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: George D. Chryssides has suggested widespread claims that Witnesses "keep changing the dates" are a distortion and misunderstanding of Watch Tower Society chronology. He argues that, although there have been failures in prophetic speculation, the changing views and dates of the Jehovah's Witnesses are more largely attributable to changed understandings of biblical chronology than to failed predictions. Chryssides states, "For the Jehovah's Witnesses prophecy serves more as a way of discerning a divine plan in human history than a means to predicting the future."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Although Watch Tower Society literature claims the Society's founder, Charles Taze Russell, was directed by God's Holy Spirit, through which he received "flashes of light", it has substantially altered doctrines since its inception and abandoned many of Russell's teachings. Many of the changes have involved biblical chronology that had earlier been claimed as beyond question. "The Watch Tower" asserted in 1922: "We affirm that "Scripturally, scientifically, and historically, present-truth chronology is correct beyond a doubt"." (italics in original). Watch Tower Society publications state that doctrinal changes result from a process of "progressive revelation", in which God gradually reveals his will.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the United Nations is one of the 'superior authorities' that exist by God's permission, and that it serves a purpose in maintaining order, but do not support it politically and do not consider it to be the means to achieve peace and security. Jehovah's Witnesses also believe that the United Nations is the "image of the wild beast" of Revelation 13:1–18, and the second fulfilment of the "abominable thing that causes desolation" from Matthew 24:15; that it will be the means for the devastation of organized false religion worldwide; and that, like all other political powers, it will be destroyed and replaced by God's heavenly kingdom. Jehovah's Witnesses have denounced other religious organizations for having offered political support to the UN.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: On October 8, 2001, an article was published in the British "Guardian" newspaper questioning the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society's registration as a non-governmental organization (NGO) with the United Nations Department of Public Information and accusing the Watch Tower Society of hypocrisy. Within days of the article's publication, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society submitted a formal request for disassociation, removing all association with the United Nations Department of Public Information, and released a letter stating that the reason for becoming associated with the United Nations Department of Information (DPI) was to access their facilities, and that they had not been aware of the change in language contained in the criteria for NGO association. However, when the Watch Tower Society sought NGO association, "the organization agreed to meet criteria for association, including support and respect of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations", acknowledging that the purpose of membership is to "promote knowledge of the principles and activities of the United Nations".


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Jehovah's Witnesses assert that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC and completely uninhabited for exactly seventy years. This date is critical to their selection of October 1914 for the arrival of Christ in kingly power—2520 years after October 607 BC. Non-Witness sources do not support 607 BC for the event, placing the destruction of Jerusalem within a year of 587 BC, twenty years later. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that periods of seventy years mentioned in the books of Jeremiah and Daniel refer to the Babylonian exile of Jews. They also believe that the gathering of Jews in Jerusalem, shortly after their return from Babylon, officially ended the exile in the Jewish month of Tishrei. According to the Watch Tower Society, October 607 BC is derived by counting back seventy years from "Tishrei" of 537 BC, based on its assertion that Cyrus' decree to release the Jews during his first regnal year "may have been made in late 538 B.C. or before March 4–5, 537 B.C".<ref name="WT 10/1">"When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One" "The Watchtower", October 1, 2011, page 26</ref> Secular sources assign the return to either 538 BC or 537 BC.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: In "The Gentile Times Reconsidered: Chronology & Christ's Return", Carl O. Jonsson, a former Witness, presents eighteen lines of evidence to support the traditional view of neo-Babylonian chronology. He accuses the Watch Tower Society of deliberately misquoting sources in an effort to bolster its position. The Watch Tower Society claims that biblical chronology is not always compatible with secular sources, and that the Bible is superior. It claims that secular historians make conclusions about 587 BC based on incorrect or inconsistent historical records, but accepts those sources that identify Cyrus' capture of Babylon in 539 BC, claiming it has no evidence of being inconsistent and hence can be used as a pivotal date.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: While a member of the denomination, Rolf Furuli, a former lecturer in Semitic languages, presented a study of 607 BC in support of Jehovah's Witnesses' conclusions in "Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian Chronology Compared with the Chronology of the Bible, Volume 1: Persian Chronology and the Length of the Babylonian Exile of the Jews". Lester L. Grabbe, professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull, said of Furuli's study: "Once again we have an amateur who wants to rewrite scholarship... F. shows little evidence of having put his theories to the test with specialists in Mesopotamian astronomy and Persian history." (In 2020, Furuli left the denomination but maintained that its chronological interpretations are correct.)


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: The relative positions of the moon, stars and planets indicated in the Babylonian astronomical diary "VAT 4956" are used by secular historians to establish 568 BC as the thirty-seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. The Watch Tower Society claims that unnamed researchers have confirmed that the positions of the moon and stars on the tablet are instead consistent with astronomical calculations for 588 BC; the Society claims that the planets mentioned in the tablet cannot be clearly identified.<ref name="WT 11/1">"When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part Two" "The Watchtower", November 1, 2011, page 25, 28, endnote 18</ref> The Watch Tower Society's article cites David Brown as stating, "some of the signs for the names of the planets and their positions are unclear". However, Brown indicates that the Babylonians also had unique names for the known planets, and Jonsson confirms that the unique names are those used in VAT 4956.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: The Watch Tower Society teaches a combination of gap creationism and day-age creationism, with an extended period between the initial creation of the universe and the subsequent 'creative days' in relation to the earth, which are said to have taken "thousands of years". It dismisses Young Earth creationism as "unscriptural and unbelievable", and states that Jehovah's Witnesses "are not creationists" on the basis that they do not believe the earth was created in six literal days.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Watch Tower Society publications attempt to refute the theory of evolution, in favor of divine creation. The Watch Tower Society's views of evolution have met with criticism typical of objections to evolution. Gary Botting described his own difficulty as a Jehovah's Witness to reconcile creation with simple observations of species diversification, especially after discussions with J.B.S. Haldane in India.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: The Society's 1985 publication, "Life—How Did it Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation?" is criticized for its dependency on the book "The Neck of the Giraffe" authored by Francis Hitching, which is quoted five times. The book presents Hitching—a TV writer and paranormalist with no scientific credentials—as an evolutionist and scientist. Richard Dawkins also criticizes the book for implying that "chance" is the only alternative to deliberate design, stating, "[T]he candidate solutions to the riddle of improbability are not, as falsely implied, design and chance. They are design and natural selection."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses are established by the Governing Body, and the denomination does not tolerate dissent over doctrines and practices. Members who continue to openly disagree with the movement's teachings after initial warnings may be expelled and shunned. Witness publications strongly discourage followers from questioning doctrine and counsel received from the Governing Body, reasoning that it is to be trusted as part of "God's organization". They also warn members to "avoid independent thinking", claiming such thinking "was introduced by Satan the Devil" and would "cause division". Those who openly disagree with official teachings are condemned as "apostates" who are "mentally diseased".


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Former Governing Body member Raymond Franz has accused the movement's Governing Body of resenting, deprecating and seeking to silence alternative viewpoints within the organization and demanding organizational conformity that overrides personal conscience. He claimed the Watch Tower Society confirmed its position when, in a 1954 court case in Scotland, Watch Tower Society legal counsel Hayden C. Covington said of Jehovah's Witnesses: "We must have unity ... unity at all costs". He also stated that Witnesses are subject to a disciplinary system that encourages informants.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Franz and others have described Jehovah's Witnesses' meetings as "catechistical" question-and-answer sessions in which questions and answers are both provided by the organization, placing pressure on members to reiterate its opinions. Former Witnesses Heather and Gary Botting claimed Witnesses "are told what they should feel and think" and members who do voice viewpoints different from those expressed in publications and at meetings are viewed with suspicion. Raymond Franz has claimed most Witnesses would be fearful to voice criticism of the organization for fear of being accused of disloyalty. Authors have drawn attention to frequent Watch Tower warnings against the "dangers" and "infection" of "independent thinking", including questioning any of its published statements or teachings, and instructions that members refrain from engaging in independent Bible research. The Watch Tower Society also directs that members must not read criticism of the organization by "apostates" or material published by other religious organizations. Heather and Gary Botting stated, "Jehovah's Witnesses will brook no criticism from within, as many concerned members who have attempted to voice alternative opinions regarding the basic doctrine or application of social pressure have discovered to their chagrin."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Heather and Gary Botting argue that the power of the Watch Tower Society to control members is gained through the acceptance of the Society "quite literally as the voice of Jehovah—God's 'mouthpiece. Franz claims the concept of loyalty to God's organization has no scriptural support and serves only to reinforce the movement's authority structure, with its strong emphasis on human authority. He has claimed "The Watchtower" has repeatedly blurred discussions of both Jesus Christ's loyalty to God and the apostles' loyalty to Christ to promote the view that Witnesses should be loyal to the Watch Tower Society. Heather and Gary Botting have claimed that challenging the views of members higher in the hierarchy is regarded as tantamount to challenging God himself.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: The Society has described its intolerance of dissident and divergent doctrinal views within its ranks as "strict", but claims its stance is based on the scriptural precedent of 2 Timothy 2:17, 18 in which the Apostle Paul condemns heretics Hymenaeus and Philetus who denied the resurrection of Jesus. It said: "Following such Scriptural patterns, if a Christian (who claims belief in God, the Bible, and Jesus) unrepentantly promotes false teachings, it may be necessary for him to be expelled from the congregation... Hence, the true Christian congregation cannot rightly be accused of being harshly dogmatic."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Sociologist Rodney Stark says that Jehovah's Witness leaders are "not always very democratic" and members are expected to conform to "rather strict standards", but that enforcement tends to be informal, sustained by close bonds of friendship, and that Jehovah's Witnesses see themselves as "part of the power structure rather than subject to it". Sociologist James A. Beckford, however, states that the Watchtower is intolerant of dissent or open discussion of doctrines and practices, and demands uniformity of beliefs from its members. He observed that the Society denies the legitimacy of all criticism of itself and that the habit of questioning official doctrine is "strenuously combated at all organizational levels". For similar reasons, Alan Rogerson describes the movement's leadership as totalitarian.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Dr. George D. Chryssides and Dr. James A. Beverley have reported that Witness publications teach that individuals' consciences are unreliable and need to be subordinated to scripture and to the Watch Tower Society. Beverley describes the belief that organizational loyalty is equal to divine loyalty as the "central myth" of Jehovah's Witnesses employed to ensure complete obedience. Andrew Holden has also observed that Witnesses see no distinction between loyalty to Jehovah and to the movement itself. According to him, Witnesses are "under official surveillance" within the congregation. He noted that members who cannot conscientiously agree with all the movement's teachings are expelled and shunned. He also said that Witnesses are taught their theology in a highly mechanistic fashion, learning almost by rote.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Authors Anthony A. Hoekema, Ron Rhodes and Alan W. Gomes claim Jehovah's Witnesses are a religious cult. Hoekema bases his judgment on a range of what he describes as general characteristics of a cult, including the tendency to elevate peripheral teachings (such as door-to-door preaching) to great prominence, extra-scriptural source of authority (Hoekema highlights Watch Tower teachings that the Bible may be understood only as it is interpreted by the Governing Body), a view of the group as the exclusive community of the saved (Watch Tower publications teach that Witnesses alone are God's people and only they will survive Armageddon) and the group's central role in eschatology (Hoekema says Witness publications claim the group was called into existence by God to fill in a gap in the truth neglected by existing churches, marking the climax of sacred history).


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Jehovah's Witnesses state that they are not a cult and say that although individuals need proper guidance from God, they should do their own thinking.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: In 1992, American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton placed the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination in a list of "established cults". However, he and others have since been more reluctant to use the term "cult" for various groups, including Jehovah's Witnesses, because the term is considered too controversial. Ex-cult watchdog John Bowen Brown II and "Knocking" producer Joel P. Engardio also reject the assertion that Jehovah's Witnesses is a cult. The encyclopedia "Contemporary American Religion" stated, "Various critics and ex-members in recent years have wrongly labeled Jehovah's Witnesses a 'cult'."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Since 1920, the Watch Tower Society has required all congregation members participating in the preaching work to turn in written reports of the amount of their activity, explaining that the reports help the Society to plan its activities and identify areas of greater need and help congregation elders to identify those who may need assistance. In 1943, the Society imposed personal quotas, requiring all active Witnesses to spend at least 60 hours of door-to-door preaching per month, claiming these were "directions from the Lord". Although these quotas were subsequently removed, Raymond Franz claims "invisible" quotas remained, obliging Witnesses to meet certain levels of preaching work to remain in good standing in the congregation or to qualify for eldership. Franz describes repeated urging for adherents to "put kingdom interests first" and devote increasing amounts of time to door-to-door preaching efforts as coercive pressure. He says many Witnesses constantly feel guilty that they are not doing more in "field activity".


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Former Witnesses Heather and Gary Botting, claiming an emphasis on a personal track record would mean that salvation is effectively being "bought" with "good works", observed: "No matter how long a Witness remains an active distributor of literature, the moment he ceases to be active he is regarded by his peers as good as dead in terms of achieving the ultimate goal of life everlasting in an earthly paradise... Few realize upon entering the movement that the purchase price is open-ended and that the bill can never be paid in full until death or the advent of Armageddon."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: "The Watchtower", however, noted that although public preaching is necessary, such works do not "save" a Christian and it urged Witnesses to examine their motive for engaging in preaching activity.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: According to Andrew Holden, "those who fail to devote a satisfactory amount of time to doorstep evangelism soon lose the respect of their co-religionists. The Witnesses are thus forced to think quantitatively about their salvation."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Medical and legal commentators have noted cases, claiming that Witness medical patients were coerced to obey the denomination's ban on blood transfusions. According to Osamu Muramoto, in the "Journal of Medical Ethics", those who unrepentantly receive prohibited blood products are labeled "apostates", expelled, and shunned by other Jehovah's Witness friends or family members. He also states that "there is considerable documentation that [Jehovah's Witnesses] can be subject to psychological coercion".


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: In a case involving a review of a Russian district court decision, the European Court of Human Rights found nothing in the judgements to suggest that any form of improper pressure or undue influence was applied. It noted: "On the contrary, it appears that many Jehovah's Witnesses have made a deliberate choice to refuse blood transfusions in advance, free from time constraints of an emergency situation." The court said: "The freedom to accept or refuse specific medical treatment, or to select an alternative form of treatment, is vital to the principles of self-determination and personal autonomy. A competent adult patient is free to decide ... not to have a blood transfusion. However, for this freedom to be meaningful, patients must have the right to make choices that accord with their own views and values, regardless of how irrational, unwise or imprudent such choices may appear to others." The court also stated that, "even though the Jehovah's Witnesses whose opposition to blood transfusions was cited in evidence were adults having legal capacity to refuse that form of treatment, the findings of the Russian courts can be understood to mean that their refusals had not been an expression of their true will but rather the product of pressure exerted on them by the applicant community. The Court accepts that, given that health and possibly life itself are at stake in such situations, the authenticity of the patient's refusal of medical treatment is a legitimate concern."


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Witnesses practice disfellowshipping of members who unrepentantly engage in "gross sin" (most commonly for breaches of the Witnesses' code of personal morality), and "remorseless apostasy". The process of disfellowshipping is said to be carried to uphold God's standards, preserve the congregation's spiritual cleanness, and possibly prompt a change of attitude in the wrongdoer. The practice requires that the expelled person be shunned by all members of the group, including family members who do not live in the same home, unless they qualify for re-admission. A person who dies while disfellowshipped cannot be given a funeral at a Kingdom Hall. Members often face difficulties and trauma once expelled because of their previously limited contact with the outside world. A 2021 qualitative psychological research study of interviews with former Jehovah's Witnesses suggested their experiences of ostracism from their family and friends can be associated with increased mental health risks. "The Watchtower"s description of those who leave as being "mentally diseased" has drawn criticism from some current and former members; in Britain some have argued that the description may constitute a breach of laws regarding religious hatred.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: The Watch Tower Society has attracted criticism for disfellowshipping members who decide they cannot conscientiously agree with all the denomination's teachings and practices. Sociologist Andrew Holden says that because the group provides no valid reason for leaving, those who do choose to leave are regarded as traitors. According to Raymond Franz, those who decide they cannot accept Watch Tower teachings and practices often live in a climate of fear, feeling they must constantly be on guard about what they say, do and read. He says those who do express any disagreement, even in a private conversation with friends, risk investigation and trial by a judicial committee as apostates or heretics and classed as "wicked".


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Franz argues that the threat of expulsion for expressing disagreement with the Watch Tower Society's teachings is designed to create a sterile atmosphere in which the organization's teachings and policies can circulate without the risk of confronting serious questioning or adverse evidence. The result, according to Holden, is that individuals may spend most of their lives suppressing doubts for fear of losing their relationships with friends and relatives. Penton describes the system of judicial committees and the threat of expulsion as the ultimate control mechanism among the Witnesses; Holden claims that shunning not only rids the community of defilement, but deters others from dissident behavior. Sociologist Ronald Lawson has also noted that the group allows little room for independence of thought, and no toleration of doctrinal diversity. He said those who deviate from official teachings are readily expelled and shunned.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: Watch Tower Society publications defend the practice of expelling and shunning those who "promote false teaching", claiming such individuals must be quarantined to prevent the spread of their "spiritual infection". They have cited a dictionary definition of apostasy ("renunciation of a religious faith, abandonment of a previous loyalty") to rule that an individual who begins affiliating with another religious organization has disassociated from the Witnesses, warranting their shunning to protect the spiritual cleanness of the Witness congregation on the basis of the reference in 1 John 2:19 that those who leave Christianity are "not of our sort". An individual's acceptance of a blood transfusion is similarly deemed as evidence of disassociation. They say Witnesses also obey the "strong counsel" at 1 Corinthians 5:11 that Christians should "quit mixing in company" with people who unrepentantly reject certain scriptural standards.


title: Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses

text: The Witnesses' judicial process has also been criticized. Hearings take place in secret, with judicial committees filling the roles of judge, jury and prosecutor. According to Franz, witnesses may present evidence but are not permitted to remain for the discussion. Critics Heather and Gary Botting have claimed that Witnesses accused of an offence warranting expulsion are presumed guilty until found innocent. They say the onus is on the accused to prove their innocence and if they make no attempt to do so—by failing to appear at a hearing set by the judicial committee—they are assumed to be guilty and unrepentant.