Hi Mouthy and friends!
@mouthy, how old were you and what made you realize what we were following was not "the truth"? Did you experience evil from "appointed men of God", were you reading God's Word and had problems reconciling the Bible and the twisted teachings from Bethel. What started to crack your belief in a way of life, you knew for a good portion of your life? You have paid by making a moral stand with your children not talking to you? My focus, emphasis is to bring awareness to a set of people wh are "good people who left for moral reasons", not the exJWs who leave and bash for doing wrong things Biblically speaking.
ExJWs are unfairly labled "aposates" instead of "dissidents" or "whistle-blowers" who desire change and cleaning up doctrine back to our roots of early Christian thinking. It's hard for me to take anyone serious who preaches "I am looking for Truth so I am leaving the Organization on a moral basis" when I know they are a thief (stealing the friends money from bank accounts, forgery), abusive to their spouse (beating, cheating, willfully-non supporting") or some other bad person who practices wickedness but claims "I am leaving to draw close to God!". Bad people "apostates who are wicked" bring about reproach against our JWN Community, if we can bring forward the merits of men like Ray Franz, Ed Dunlap and you yourself, we can sting them where it hurts!
Thank you for quickly replying to my post, if you have read many of my "OP"s or comments to various "threads" I am clear about this subject, that "what I have read shows Ray Franz never spoke ill of his fellow Jehovah Witnesses or bashed the "Watchtower". In fact he defend's the various men who treated him wickedly, doingthe exact opposite they (Governing Body and their propaganda machine) are known to have done (Rutherford and Laywer Miles, Miller or Moyle Case).
I want to pick the brains of members of JWN who have the long-time life experiences, members like o"Mouthy", "Blondie", "Terry", "Dog-Patch", "James Wood" because we are loosing contact with people who know the truth about Brother and Sister Franz, Brother and Sister Dunlap (thanks to James Wood, I know a little history about Brother Dunlap, I wish I could have met these brave men.). JWN has a community where people can bring different ideas of any topic, a forum "lurkers" and "newbies" can discover the truth about courageous men who lived strong morals lives after they left the Organization.
Mouthy, we have to start threads in this manner to combat the lies that abound in "JW-Land", that "Ray Franz was a bitter apostate who went mental!" "Ray Franz ran off from his wife, and she forgave him(A bethelite told me this Whooper!). As I study more information about the "Franz Couple", Ray get's angry when ex-Jehovah Witnesses are lying pubically, either on print or Tv and church-tour information gatherings. My heart has grown attached to a man I never met, and I enjoy reading the writings brother Franz, he seems like a good man!
Please be patient with me as I collect information to write about Brother Franz, Cynthia, Brother Dunlap and his wife. I wish we had friends who knew the Spanish Couple the Organization kicked out for no good reason! Thank you brothers and sisters for helping me create this thread for posterity, and my children too.
@blondie, did you ever write for the Organization (Watchtower or Awake magazines), I love your writing skills and humor with my Sunday study edition you provide on JWN.