by acsot 82 Replies latest jw friends
Joker10 - Seriously, from one person to another, I think your view of the book and its author, among many things, would change significantly if you read it. I, for one, was struck by the level of personal integrity it took to experience those things, look at them honestly, and do the right thing. After I read the book, I honestly thought, Wow. I genuinely feel like this is a man whose personality is worthy of imitation.
Just a personal reflection.
Warmly,
SNG
Speaking of Ray Franz's books, I read through In Search of Christian Freedom but not Crises of Conscience. Should I buy that as well?
Enishi, I'd say definitely yes!! It's a shorter book, but it's the first one where he outlines his initial discoveries that led him to view things differently than the JW hierarchy did. It breaks down the inner workings of the Governing Body (as it existed before he was pushed out). And he keeps updating the book with more current information, such as the U.N. / N.G.O. scandal.
Speaking of CoC....
I have a long time friend who, after years of agnosticism has started searching in earnest for God and is reading the Bible and such. Her mother is a JW which, as you can imagine concerns me greatly. I asked my friend if her mother had been working with her through her new found interest in God and she said that she had been trying to get her to read some of the publications and go to meetings and such. My friend is a really intelligent person (PhD) so I wasn't really all THAT concerned but in talking to her, I could see that she had never heard anything of the "dark" side of the WT.
To make a medium length story short, I sent my friend CoC she read it all the way through and the WT now has one less potential convert. She's still searching for God but she will NOT be looking to the WT for any answers.
THANK YOU RAY!!!!! And thanks to everyone here who has recommended this book so that I knew to send it to my vulnerable friend.
Holy crap! I?m only on page 31 and I?m already mad as hell at the ?organisation?.
So did Freddie Franz know all along the ?Organisation? was not the only ?channel of communication? God was using? He?d speak his mind on occasion and it was directly contrary to what ol? Judge Rutherford would say (page 13: Rutherford in 1940 saying that it could very well be the last assembly he?d attend, and Freddie saying, some months later, that at Brooklyn they were not expecting to close down and to send in magazine subscriptions for two years if the people wanted). I?m only on page 30, and I?m angry already at the deviousness and deception of these old men in Brooklyn. Freddie also told Ray to look up other Bible commentaries when the research for the Aid book was being done; didn?t Freddie trust the WTS? own writings on different matters? Weren?t the WTS ?scholars? good enough for the Aid book? Then when asked about Acts 14:23, he tells Ray to check ?other translations that may not be as biased?!!!! What game was Freddie playing? Did it ever occur to him he was playing with people?s lives? Cripes I?m pissed off.
Rutherford had a son? I didn?t know that! And he wanted nothing to do with Rutherford?s religion. Interesting.
(I have a feeling I'm going to have to start re-working my way through more anger at the WTS and disgust at myself for having been duped for so long by such blatant liars and deceivers. Oh well.)
I have a feeling I'm going to have to start re-working my way through more anger at the WTS and disgust at myself for having been duped for so long by such blatant liars and deceivers.
JOIN THE CLUB! BUT AFTER AWHILE, AND PROVIDING YOU CAN WALK AWAY, THE SENSE OF FREEDOM IS WONDERFUL!
Crisis of Conscience and in In Search of Christian Freedom should be prominently displayed upon the shelves of every genuine, true-blooded "apostate"! (Oh...of course after having actually READ them!)
I've read both of them twice and I give them both a five star rating. I personally don't think Ray Franz makes a whole lot of money from these books...but I wish they had made him a millionaire! Those two books have been the basis for the departure from the "organization" of many who finally learned the truth about the "truth". Cathy L.
P.S. I loved these books so much that I ordered a copy of each and anonymously (because the wife of the PO of a local congregation works at the library...yea...I'm still in that sneaking around stage) donated them to our public library. They are now sitting on the "new" non-fiction shelves.
Acsot - I've been trying to figure Freddie Franz out too. What I've come to think is that he was originally a smart guy with some intellectual honesty, which is what led him to say the things that you quote. Any honest person will have to admit that a third party's perspective is likely to be less biased. And he knew that disagreements are not the end of the world.
In my own mind, I see Freddie Franz as slowly but surely succumbing to the incredible pressure to believe a lie, a lie that he ended up playing an instrumental part in creating. By the time he came up with the 1975 thing, I think he was so strongly vested in the organization that he was desperately trying to make it real - kind of trying to invoke Armageddon through sheer will.
The one member of the GB, aside from Ray, for whom I really had to feel compassion in the end was Lyman Swingle. At times I was angered by his complicity in something he clearly seemed to know was false, but I sense that deep inside he was a genuine man who was very deeply conflicted about the organization. The account about Ray's last encounter with him brought tears to my eyes for the man. If there is an afterlife, I sincerely hope that Lyman is there and can work out the things he struggled with.
SNG
Acsot, I didn't know Rutherford had a son either until the brief footnote in the Proclaimers book.
Proclaimers p 89 chapter 7 Advertise the King and the Kingdom! (1919-1941)
Brother Rutherford was survived by his wife, Mary, and their son, Malcolm. Because Sister Rutherford had poor health and found the winters in New York (where the Watch Tower Society?s headquarters were located) difficult to endure, she and Malcolm had been residing in southern California, where the climate was better for her health. Sister Rutherford died December 17, 1962, at the age of 93. Notice of her death, appearing in the Monrovia, California, Daily News-Post, stated: "Until poor health confined her to her home, she took an active part in the ministerial work of Jehovah?s Witnesses.
"What game was Freddie playing? Did it ever occur to him he was playing with people?s lives? Cripes I?m pissed off.
Don't hold back, acsot. Blondie
Something tells me not to give this man a dime.
Gee, Joker10, what's that? What tell's you? A publishing company in Brooklyn that makes nearly 1 billion dollars a year, tax free? Your god given conscience taht should also be telling you to stay away from this website? Tell you what, You PROMISE to read it, PM me your address, & I will PERSONALLY send you a copy, so YOUR concsience does'nt have to be "sullied". Or are you to chickenshit? Put up or shut up, Joker.
