by Thisismein1972 44 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Some people are about the cause and what is good and right. Often the become known for their work.
Others just see the cause as a means for self-promotion and adulation.
Probably most are somewhere in between these extremes, but it usually isn't hard to tell who is who and what is what.
When an individual elevates themself to the top of the cause, they eventually become the cause.
All too often the case in Trade Union circles, but can also apply elsewhere!
For the record, selling 2,000 books as a first time indie author is pretty darn good.
There is much evidence that the average indie author sells far fewer than that, some estimate 100 to 500 books, at best.
https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/how-many-books-does-an-indie-author-sell/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/24/self-published-author-earnings
My advice: write a book for your own catharsis first, to possibly help others second.
NOT to make money.
Every new generation of ex witnesses need a book that is relevant from their perspective and time period. As amazing, well written and researched the older books were, they were not written for and from the perspective of today's generation.
I believe that The Reluctant Apostate is a very good book. Lloyd has done a great job with it.
Please don't cast stones at me for saying that. While some here may have had personal issues with Lloyd in the past, it is not fair to criticise his work. He has helped many more (particulary younger ones) awaken to Truth About The Truth. And that has to be a good thing! - Saving the next generation of vulnerable born-ins....
Be warned:
To the making of many books there is no end,
and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.
— Ecclesiastes 12:12
Stuck: While some here may have had personal issues with Lloyd in the past, it is not fair to criticise his work.
Sure it's fair to criticize his work. Why would you even say that? I'll admit that he has shed a bright light on many of the hypocrisies and abuses of the WTBTS, as have many others. That does not grant him immunity from criticism.
Indeed, the moment when people can't be criticized is the exact moment when a new cult is formed. And there is very clearly a small cult following of Lloyd Evans.
I guess that is just one more bit of evidence about this one aspect of human nature: many people evidently need someone to follow. They will leave one cult just to join another, sometimes even creating one just to fulfill their need.
Stuck: Please don't cast stones at me for saying that.
I wouldn't dream of it. You're one of the good ones!
Lloyd does have some very devout "he can walk on water, we're not worthy" followers who act as a kind of goon squad to defend and follow wherever he goes.
I just always took that as the unfortunate ex-jw propensity towards black and white thinking. People are either all good and you or anyone else cannot question them or criticize them or all bad and you must dislike and shun and them.
Lloyd, like all of us has his good points his strengths and his not-so-good points his weaknesses. He puts his trousers on one leg at a time.
But such is the way of social media. Sigh.
@stuckinarut2 I credit his Worst Convention Ever video series to my waking up during the Remain Loyal convention. The John Cedars channel was pivotal in my waking up. It all started there and I haven't looked back since. I burned through four highlighters going through his book. But before it was published, I had read Apocalypse: Delayed by James Penton, half read Crisis of Conscience by Raymond Franz (it's a heavy read and I still haven't finished it), along with Carl Olof Jonsson's Sign of the Last Days: When? I wouldn't have even ventured to these "apostate" books if it wasn't for the concise, logical approach Lloyd introduced apostasy with. Glad I discovered him.
By the way, what is this Cult of Cedars everyone keeps talking about? Is there an option where I can donate my firstborn? Lol.
I am glad that Mr Evans put in the time to write The Reluctant Apostate, I think it is of its time, and brilliant for awakening JW's if they discover it, I have a copy, and have read some of it, I pick it up and put it down, whilst reading more pressing things as well.
He does not deal at length with the way to leave the JW Cult, so I can see that a small follow-up book may fill a need for some, I hope it gets published, if it helps just a handful of people who otherwise would not have left, or would have made a cock up of doing so, then it has to be a good thing.
" Don't shoot the messenger".
