Was the policy change to equate DA to DF because of Ray?

by teel 15 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  teel

  As Ray says in the last chapter of CoC, before 1981 DA was quite different from DF. "Persons who resigned were not treated the same as those disfellowshiped", they were not shunned for example, except when the DAd person enters into politics or military.

  I put it on account of humbleness that Ray says he doesn't think they changed the policy just to use it against him, he probably feels he wasn't so significant as to warrant such a far-reaching change. But it seems way too convenient that the policy change came at that exact time, too much of a coincidence. Peter Gregorson DAd himself before the change was made, and zap, suddenly he finds himself shunned, and Ray questioned for associating with a DAd person. Sounds like a political plot to me...

  This just goes to show the heartlessness of the GB, they only care about their position, they wanted Ray out, so they made the final step to turn the JW into the destructive cult we all love to hate. This single step is causing so many of us huge problems, with fading, losing family, friends, etc. If there was a clean way out I would only be half as angry at them. And all this just to get rid of one man?
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  Mad Sweeney

  Like every goofy decision those clowns make, it was multipurpose.

  It was a way to get at Ray Franz and a way to tighten their grip over the rank and file.
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  blondie

  Actually the WTS applied that policy selectively since Ray Franz' baptized wife Cynthia was at the same dinner Ray was, associated with the self da'd Gregorson and was not df'd.
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  OnTheWayOut

  Highly likely. They said "We are going to have a fair trial, and then we'll hang him."

  Whether it was for Ray or not, it was a loophole they would have closed sooner or later.
  You can't have people quitting and able to talk to the others in a dangerous mind-control cult.
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  Cindi_67

  When did the policy changed? I haven't heard of that...
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  MrMonroe

  The change in policy was announced in the September 15, 1981 WT. Under the heading, "Those who disassociate themselves", it read:

  Persons who make themselves “not of our sort” by deliberately rejecting the faith and beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses should appropriately be viewed and treated as are those who have been disfellowshiped for wrongdoing.

  End of quote. No scripture to support the change in policy, no nothing. Franz was already in a state of friction with the WTS; his landlord and employer had submitted his letter of disassociation in March 1981. The announcement of the change in attitude towards DA'd people was published in the September 15, 1981 WT and two months later Franz was put on trial for (retrospectively) breaching that direction.
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  MrMonroe

  I knew I had this quote somewhere ... Heather and Gary Botting, in "The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses" (1984) quoted the September 15, 1981 article and commented: "The magazine article might have been written specifically for Franz." They note that the article was "studied" on October 25, 1981, and on November 5 two elders visited Franz to tell him they were laying a formal charge against him. The change in policy could well have been introduced for the sole purpose of providing the "technical infaction" (as Time magazine called it) for which Franz was ultimately expelled.
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  neverendingjourney

  Was the policy change to equate DA to DF because of Ray?

  Perhaps, but even if Ray had never been a subject of the witchhunts, the WT would have probably adopted this position anyway. A fierce sense of paranoia and feeling that a rebellion was afoot was prevalent among the WT ruling class. The WT probably felt that the current policy allowed for closet apostates to work the system and promote divisions/sects by exploiting that rule. WT leadership was bringing the hammer down hard to preemptively stamp out a potential rebellion, and this policy would certainly have been changed regardless of Franz's situation.
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  diamondiiz

  I totally believe the useless human scum in Brooklyn created the policy to get Ray - not that wouldn't have done this later but at the time it was an easy way for them to get him. Ray is too nice to say anything bad about the human filth that is GB of JWs.

  One and only thing that puzzles me about Ray's story is why did they send him $10,000 for? That to me makes no sense at all, as they wanted to get rid of him and later they did that through the policy change. Obviously they didn't give a rat's ass about him so why send him 10k? Was it scummy Freddy who found some compassion for his nephew? Was it done by one them without others knowing?
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  Alfred

  Bumping this for the newbies and lurkers...

  The reason we can no longer dissassociate without being shunned by family is because the policy changed in 1981... The was done for the sole purpose of shutting down Raymond Franz as the remaining members of the Governing Body (especially Whacky Freddy) was afraid that Ray would air their extremely dirty laundry... Before 1981, anyone could freely dissassociate without being shunned (although dissaossiated JWs weren't really looked at favorably by JWs in general, but they weren't actually "shunned" in the full sense of the word)...