i think possibly their are a few valid reasons for either options to this question ,depending on a number of factors .. such as how old you might be, how long you have devoted your life to the "truth" as you believed it .
?....how it may affect your mental/physical health and well being.?.
how it will affect your financial position in your life ,?
Any who would choose the blue pill get what they deserve.
I dunno man, my JW girlfriend was pretty hot...
I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss....I don't want to remember nothing. Nothing. You understand? [pause] And I want to be rich. You know, someone important, like an actor.
so i was fooled by the witnesses.
what can i learn from that?
not to accept things at face value but to seek out opinion and different view points.. hence my question " do you believe man landed on the moon?.
You've seen the evidence folks. The conspiracy is true. Nixon was instructed during the Bohemian Grove counsel in 65 that he would be president and that the moon landings would be faked. This was done to bankrupt the Soviets. The fact is we can't get out past the Van Allen Belt due to radiation. This could be due to residual vapor from the diluvian canopy.
Peace to all, in Jesus name.
day text -- saturday, september 19 - "he will certainly bring about deliverance from the assyrian."mic.
today, jehovah certainly has provided an abundance of spiritual men to shepherd his precious sheep, to strengthen his people for the future attack of the modern-day assyrian.
the most practical step that we can take to prepare for the coming attack of the assyrian is that of strengthening our faith in god and helping our brothers to do the same.
when you look through a keyhole, and see the person you once were?.
as for myself, i am just pleased i have mended my ways.
i realise ( now) my time as a witness was a keyhole that looked in to the ground, and licked the elders arse.
Do you feel embarrsed?
I once tried to sell Watchtower "consolation" to a lady I knew quite well who had just lost her newborn son. I still feel very bad and embarrassed about it.
i am the new vermin.. of course by disfellowshipping myself i don't need put a yellow star on my jacket.
but i am identifying myself to be looked at and resented like people did with the jews.. yes i am overdramatising my possible misfortune.
i will still be allowed on the buses, to visit the zoo, and such places that were deprived the sight of jewish families.
fyi, this article is very, very long.
it's about both the jws and the muslims, but don't give up reading when only the muslims are discussed because the jws are brought back into the article again and again.
lots of food for thought and for discussion too.. barbara .
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.
Hi steve2,
There are only ever humans, doing their darndest to get their needs met in a way that tries to minimize the likelihood of being badly misunderstood by those who count.
You're absolutely right about people and motives. I would say that Franz had altruistic motives and personal motives and when one looks at his life or anyone else one must neither exclude one or the other (as you pointed out). What I also have to point out is how people who are heroes, eventually become icons, then "saints", and finally demigods.
An interesting counterpoint to me is a phenomena like YouTube. Have you ever noticed that even the greatest most brilliant, popular and/or insightful videos will always at least have one down vote? (Due to the unrestricted audience) Actually I smile when I see at least one opinion of damnation and then wonder: Who would actually have down voted this? What could they possibly have disagreed with or thought was so wrong? In the end it shows me that I'm still living and alive on planet earth and that diverse opinions must always exist in a society that wants to be healthy. Now I have to say that in the past I've actually never come across a Raymond Franz "down vote" on any of the threads on the forum. So when I saw Vinmans thread it bothered me that I had never even considered a critical evaluation of Franz, and so I had to offer the second down vote.
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.
Well Wulf allow me to retort,
Ok I really will disappear now
Yeah well I get the last word then, don't I? :)
"The late period you refer to is when he had basically already lost and the org started recoiling from the changes he had been pushing for."
Compare the James Book to In search of Christian freedom. The ideas expressed are basically parallel regarding reliance on conscience instead of an organization with a Talmud. This was Raymonds first attempt at a real doctrinal shift and happened post 1975. The changes in the early 70s (as you pointed out) were organizational and regarding those organizational changes as you well know the GB changes of the two thirds stuck and so did the committees. Raymond was never after the Presidency (if you may have thought that was my argument), he was after his uncle's position as chief theologian. Why did he feel he could do so? Because after 1975 he could reasonably raise the specter of 1914. But he didn't challenge the 1914 date directly (that was left for the bethelite discussions in the backroom), instead he focused on his main theological point: Christian conscience supersedes an organizations authority.
So I believe that Raymond's late GB period was his actual battle because it was a struggle for theological control of and to give a new direction to the organization.
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.
I'm sorry my rhetoric was not to your satisfaction.
But then again what you are actually saying is that his struggle just took longer than I had imagined.
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.
Hi Wulf,
He didn't just wake up in 75 and say "I want control of the theology"
No I guess it would be from about 1 January 1976 until he lost the war in 1980.
he had already essentially lost the power struggle, whatever it entailed.
Well his struggle only really came to the fore from 1977 with the James book preparation.
The shift to GB meant Freddy Franz has already been disempowered in a sense, anyways.
One might have thought so with the committee splits in 1975 under Knorr but... the rule was also changed that now only a two thirds majority was needed in the GB to carry a motion where before it had to be unanimous. What about theological control? Was the governing body in fact steering things now? Fred Franz said to the entire Bethel family on 25 May 1980, that some "expected me to ignore the influence of world events in the light of Bible prophecy for the last 67 years, and to start over where we began 67 years ago." (Penton p.160) - I wonder was Frederick using the royal "we"? :)
IMO Ray portrays himself as fundamentally responsible for initiating the shift from Presidency to GB in CoC...the Presidency was turned into a figurehead by the GB by that point. And who had played a major role in that?Interestingly enough there is an audio recording (1975 0906 talk with comments - post 1980) of Ray Franz where he agrees with Frederick on a talk he gave where Frederick actually argues against the idea of a Governing Body (obviously because he was next in line for presidency and did not like interference). From his comments on the recording Raymond obviously recanted from the idea of a controlling governing body. For uncle Frederick the two thirds rule meant a matter could now in fact be swayed more easily and theologically he was still firmly in control until the day he died. And that power is what Raymond wanted...Hence In search of Christian Freedom. That is what the organization would have turned into had Raymond had his way.
