Will we ever see another Ray Franz?

by Emery 43 Replies latest jw friends

  • NOLAW
    NOLAW

    Can you compare the current governing body with Russell, Rutherford, Freddy? No. These are mere dwarfs. Illiterate, no writting skills, no brain. How can a Ray come out of them?

  • dontplaceliterature
    dontplaceliterature

    Highly unlikely. But, it's worth noting that Ray Franz was on the GB for almost 10 years before he resigned. It's possible that someone on that body is burying some serious doubts and concerns and will one day have 'had enough'. But, it's highly unlikely, IMHO.

  • red21
    red21

    I mentioned Franz's writtings to a relative. She then told a long time Bethelite of what I said. Their answer to her was not to refute what he said but to tell her what a haughty man he was. So, I guess if you can't defend, you attack! I believe any of these GBs or long time bethelites have NO idea of what life is like in the real world...they never had to struggle the way the rest of us do.

  • williamhconley
  • Balaamsass
    Balaamsass

    I liked Ray. He was a considerate thinking man and a true believer in God, he really wondered what Jehovah would want.He was hospitable to average Bethelites ...like me. He treated his wife with kindness and consideration. He fought for a while, tried to reform, gave up..then tried to fade..they would not let him..and they reaped the results. I wish he had stuck to his guns and actually changed the place, or tore it down while a GB member. In the end...he was just a man.

    They made certain to "buy off" Chitty and Greenleaves. No repeats of Ray- no publicity- no mention of their "hobbies".

    I do not know any of this group of GB personally, so I have no opinion.

    BUT.... I KNOW some in the legal department are sickened by what they have seen. HOWEVER if they go public..they will be disbarred...WTBTS is the "Client". Some speak quiety and go softly into the night. They do lurk here. Many have joined the Legal Department as "True Believers", unlike most JWs they have been educated to THINK, they understand US law and.... MOSAIC and Christian legal concepts. (Can you imagine what is going through the mind of an educated idealist SISTER in the legal Department when she has to take crap during a depo from a high school drop-out elder?) I know some were working for change behind the scenes, but power corrupts. Will change happen, I doubt it. Will someone else write like Ray, I doubt it. Will more leave and perhaps post some juicy tidbits here......perhaps...but it would cost them a career.....so I doubt it. They will fade...... perhaps throw a case or two.........an ending like in the movie "The Firm" would be too much to dream..... :) Only time will tell.

  • King Solomon
    King Solomon

    Here's an excerpt from his book I found to be a bit disquieting:

    Months of research were spent on this one subject of “Chronology” and it resulted in the longest article in the Aid publication.28 Much of the time was spent endeavoring to find some proof, some backing in history, for the 607 B.C.E. date so crucial to our calculations for 1914. Charles Ploeger, a member of the headquarters staff, was at that time serving as a secretary for me and he searched through the libraries of the New York city area for anything that might substantiate that date historically.

    We found absolutely nothing in support of 607 B.C.E. All historians pointed to a date twenty years later. Before preparing the Aid material on “Archae- ology” I had not realized that the number of baked-clay cuneiform tablets found in the Mesopotamian area and dating back to the time of ancient Babylon numbered into the tens of thousands. In all of these there was nothing to indicate that the period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (in which period Nebuchadnezzar’s reign figured) was of the necessary length to fit our 607 B.C.E. date for the destruction of Jerusalem. Everything pointed to a period twenty years shorter than our published chronology claimed.

    Cuneiform tablet
    Though I found this disquieting, I wanted to believe that our chronology was right in spite of all the contrary evidence, that such evidence was somehow in error. Thus, in preparing the material for the Aid book, much of the time and space was spent in trying to weaken the credibility of the archeological and historical evidence that would make erroneous our 607 B.C. E. date and give a different starting point for our calculations and therefore an ending date different from 1914.

    Charles Ploeger and I made a trip to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, to interview Professor Abraham Sachs, a specialist in ancient cuneiform texts, particularly those containing astronomical data. We wanted to see if we could obtain any information that would indicate any flaw or weakness whatsoever in the astronomical data presented in many of the texts, data that indicated our 607 B.C.E. date was incorrect. In the end, it became evident that it would have taken a virtual conspiracy on the part of the ancient scribes—with no conceivable motive for doing so—to misrepresent the facts if, indeed, our figure was to be the right one. Again, like an attorney faced with evidence he cannot overcome, my effort was to discredit or weaken confidence in the witnesses from ancient times who presented such evidence, the evidence of historical
    texts relating to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. In themselves, the arguments I presented were honest ones, but I know that their intent was to uphold a date for which there was no historical support.

    So, despite our heightened appreciation of certain principles, the Aid book nonetheless contained many examples of our efforts to be loyal to the Society’s teachings.

    So basically a nice way of saying he knowingly wrote lies to support the WTBTS.

  • williamhconley
  • Aware!
    Aware!

    I don't think we'll do. Though it would be awesome and further add to the overwhelming heap of evidence against them. Only wishful thinking...

  • Bungi Bill
    Bungi Bill

    King Solomon,

    No wonder he had a crisis of conscience!

    Bill.

  • 00DAD
    00DAD

    Even if another GB member does have doubts the others will probably not do a repeat of the Ray Franz ouster.

    Which raises an interesting question: How much do the current GB members really know about Ray Franz?

    I was only vaguely aware of him until a couple of years after I was DF'd. It wasn't until reading so many positive posts about him and his books here that I researched about him and read CoC and ISoCF.

    I obviously don't know, but I would guess that if the current crop of GB members have always been the obedient little JWs that they are supposed to be, then the very WT policies that insulate the organization by preventing the R&F dubs from learning about apostates would ironically also have kept them from knowing very much about Ray Franz.

    In this case George Santayana's famous aphorism may prove true:

    “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

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