Hello there all,
A while ago the user
Vinman started a forum thread called: "Ray Franz was an Idiot".
The reaction to it was quite negative but I have to admit that the
title of that thread was intriguing to me. By nature I am an
iconoclast. If life was a Shakespeare play I would be a Cassius:
"...he [Caesar] doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus,
and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find
ourselves dishonourable graves." This past week or so I have not
been able to forget Vinman's thread and so it got me seriously
thinking about Raymond Franz.
During his last days
at the Watchtower Brooklyn HQ, why did Franz decide to retain all of
his governing body correspondence and transport it with him when he
left the organization? He had to have taken it all because if he left
Brooklyn with only the correspondence presented within his first
book, he clearly already had a prepared agenda. The reasonable
conclusion is that he took the entire collection of Watchtower
historic correspondence with him and so the question becomes why?
It's not as if the
letters and documents were like a family photo album and he could
warmly reminisce about Malawi/Mexico. He therefore knew that within
the stacks of boring correspondence there lurked damnation and he
knew that he could use it. Franz' paper trail is immaculate, too
immaculate. Perhaps even more complete than Watergate's. Could he
actually claim that he didn't already know that he would write a book
when he stepped out on the pavement of Columbia Heights (remember
this was also before he was disfellowshipped)? Isn't it most probable
that he very well knew much earlier than he ever acknowledged, that
he would probably end up being a heretic? Perhaps as early as 1975?
If this is the case wasn't he just gathering evidence while he was on
the 'inside'?
Very late in Raymond
Franz' Governing body career, his uncle Frederick Franz challenged
more than 70+ points in the James book written by Edward Dunlap, in one chapter alone, while it was being prepared for publication. Raymond took
matters up with Frederick and according to Dunlap he got worn out by
the whole process. But wasn't it wearing Frederick down too? After
all both Raymond and Ed Dunlap were having conversations with the
Spanish brethren (the contents of which was being leaked) and they
were essentially building a new doctrine behind Raymond's uncles
back. They were also clearly setting up preliminary changes through
the James book and Frederick obviously picked up on this. Now Raymond
was an intelligent man, but then according to him it never occurred to him that
the situation would turn into a witch hunt. Really? 70+ points of
doctrinal disagreement with the Watchtowers 'Oracle' in one session
was not giving him a hint? Isn't it more probable that there was
actually more happening than he let on?
Wasn't he in fact
indirectly challenging Frederick on his status as the organizations
chief theologian? Wasn't he making a power play but with an emergency
backup plan? When him and his wife went on a two week vacation before
his downfall, how could he claim that he had no clue what the
Governing Body would do? Isn't it more plausible that he took a
vacation because he knew that if they moved on him, he could burn
them in turn, cause a scandal and birth a long term book return?
Isn't it most probable that he very well knew that he would have to
be a martyr (all the while meticulously documenting the process) and
would have to go through the 'Sanhedrin' experience to feel justified
in his subsequent actions? By using the term 'Sanhedrin' he
characterizes himself as a proto-Jesus. Couldn't his actual inner
motivations also have made him a proto-Judas?
Franz' first book
was an expose, his second a redefinition of his faith. This was in
fact not new in Watchtower history
and he was actually a copycat: William J. Schnell wrote 'Thirty Years
a Watchtower slave' and then 'Into The Light of Christianity' way
before Raymond did. The first book was a best seller and the second
was less popular because Schnell tried to sell the reader on
established Christianity. I dare say that Schnell's book sequence and
themes are uncannily like the Franz efforts (although Franz possessed
more dirt). Was Franz' two books natural progressions like Schnells
(as part of some evolving catharsis) or did he know about Schnell's work
through his own extensive research (including access to the apostasy literature book closet at Watchtower HQ) which was sanctioned by 70's
Watchtower President Knorr?
Most worrisome is
why Franz didn't gun Leo Greenlees in 'Crisis of conscience'. In the
book he mentioned Greenlees having to leave while he still resided on
the Governing Body. Franz gave his vote to make him step down and yet he
kept absolutely silent on the matter of why Greenlees was kicked out. Wasn't
his silence complacency? Franz wrote about everything else, why not
this particular subject? The Watchtower pedorist scandal already
broke three years before the last revision of his first book (2001
and 2004 respectively), yet he still kept silent. Was it too
uncomfortable for him or was he just protecting Greenlees and his own
reputation? So why wasn't his conscience in crisis over this
particular matter?
In his defense Franz
wrote the most influential book concerning Jehovah's Witnesses to
date. The book is uppermost important for exposing not only some of
the best examples of Watchtower scandal, but it also exposes the
internal workings of the Watchtower G.O.D. (Guardians of Doctrine).
Franz' first book is still the gold standard for people coming off
the Watchtower merry go round and his second effort is a serious
attempt to explain his post Watchtower beliefs. Within it he tries to
advance Christian understanding from his own evolving Biblical
perspective. He also wrote down a most beautiful and quotable book
opening: "Life is uncertain and when a man dies what he knows
dies along with him - unless he passes it on while still in life."
Lastly, and by all accounts and in every public appearance, Raymond
Franz was a very very nice and meek man. I actually did like him very
much.
SOOOOOOOOO....
