Both Manson and Franz asserted that their little groups were the scorpions of Revelation chapter 9 that tormented mankind. (Franz preached it was the anointed subgroup of the JW organization.)
What CHARLES MANSON and FRED FRANZ have in common...
by Terry 16 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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Terry
Let's pause a moment and consider the actual history of the Watchtower Society.
Until his death, Pastor C.T.Russell was the driving force behind the publication of the Watchtower. Russell controlled it and made provisions in his will for what would happen to the Watchtower in the event of his death. Russell's writings, theology, teachings, predictions and intentions were attractive to those who joined his Bible Students movement.
Fred Franz signed on as a baptised adherent of Russellism in 1913 because he was strongly attracted and persuaded by Russell's message.
Franz knew Russell for three years until the Pastor's death in 1916.
Franz was ambitious to become a Presbyterian minister. Russell had been reared in a Scottish Presbyterian household. Both Franz and Russell were attracted to logical arguments which deconstructed scripture into current event urgency for the impending fulfillment of prophetic apocalyptic ends.
Pyramidology, Dispensational charts and Gentile Times explanations appealed to both men in a strong and lasting way. There was a naive superstitious gullibility in their psychology. Russell laid out every piece of the jigsaw puzzle in his Studies in the Scriptures and planned to open up Revelations in the final volume. Fred Franz had studied New Testament Greek in college--but--due to Russell's prophetic predictions about the urgency of 1914--Franz dropped out of college and became a Full Time Pioneer.
This is noteworthy for two reasons.
Franz had been nominated as an outstanding student for a Rhodes Scholarship. Had Franz remained in college, this prestigious scholarship might well have been awarded to him. Yet, ambitious as he was, Franz's True Believer psychology drove him to warn as many people as he could in the colporteur (Pioneer) work that Armageddon was about to occur. (According to Russell's theology.)
Further, the uncanny excitement of being on the cusp of such a revelatory work while assisting the Faithful, Discreet Slave himself must have appealed mightily!
When Pastor Russell suddenly died on a train in Pampas, Texas before the final book was finished (Finished Mystery), it was 2 years past the designated date for Armageddon! 1914 came and went. Now it was 1916. Had Russell made some marginal error? Was there some missing element overlooked? Would the work continue?
Judge Rutherford stepped in and completely violated Pastor Russell's last Will and Testament. Russell expressly mandated that NO FURTHER WRITINGS were to issue from the point of his death under the ageis of the Watchtower. Russell listed who the men would be to succeed him in adminstering his writings and designated their office and dutes. Rutherford pulled the rug out from under these men and set himself as the controlling agent.
Within the next 10 years, 78% of the Bible Students would leave never to return or to become (eventually) Rutherford's newly coined Jehovah's Witnesses.
Fred Franz is among the very few who stayed and signed on in a show of solidarity with Rutherford in creating events that would publicize the new Religion and greatly stimulate the work of the Watchtower.
The Finished Mystery book had been released with ghost-written finishing chapters, theology and predictions wildly contrasting Russell's own temperment and policies. The manipulations in this book stirred up enough hatred against theologians, churches and governmental authorities that the society's leaders were arrested and placed in prison.
Wikipedia article:
Although Pastor Russell's expected seventh volume to his Studies in the Scriptures textbook series was not written during his lifetime, a seventh volume was published in 1917, and was advertised by the Watch Tower Society as his posthumous work. It was received with great skepticism by many Bible Students who felt that the tone and spirit of the book was overly harsh, as well as contrary to the spirit in which Russell had wrote during his ministry. Questions were also raised regarding predictions made in the book for the years 1918, 1919, and 1925. This seventh volume (entitled The Finished Mystery) included strong criticism of the Papacy and the existing Christian religious system and hierarchy. This prompted clergy pressure for government censure and in 1918 he served an imprisonment together with seven other associates in Atlanta, Georgia, for allegedly opposing the Selective Service Act of 1917 and the Espionage Act of 1917.
It is noteworthy that Fred Franz was undoubtedly impressed by what Rutherford was able to achieve in the face of such opposition.
Rutherford single-handedly wrested control of a religion away from its founder, superceded the theology of the founder, made predictions of his own, alienated christendom and brought the full retribution of the Government down own his head---yet--astoundingly EMERGED UNSCATHED!
Can there be any doubt Fred Franz drank this all in and made a mental "note to self" what could be achieved? It must have seemed absolutely obvious that Jehovah was the power behind world events which could BE PERCIPITATED by the Watchtower Society's own writings and activities on earth.
Franz must have determined he was the instrument by which Jehovah's will could be done and set his mind to briging it to fruition.
In latter years, Franz was much older and time was running out for him to see the fulfillments he'd long written about in his books and articles.
Is it any wonder he might step into the role of agent provocateur and stir the pot as he had seen Rutherford do?
Be mindful that Charles Taze Russell was the Faithful and Discreet Slave when Fred Franz dropped out of college to ride the whirlwind into Armageddon. Now, decades later, Franz had engineered the mantle of FDS onto a body of elders in the Governing Body itself which HE HIMSELF was the senior member and chief intellectual vanguard.
Franz had made it to the top of the "pyramid", so to speak and could now engineer world events himself just as Pastor Russell had tried and Judge Rutherford had succeeded in doing.
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james_woods
Undoubtedly he did. In my recent mini-research on Hayden Covington (the society lawyer), I discovered that he had been Judge Rutherford's hand-picked successor. Both were lawyers (Covington being a more convincing and legitimate lawyer than the Judge), and both were old drinking buddies (convincing and legitimate drunkards, as a matter of fact) with a bombastic oratory style.
Franz ousted Covington from the board of the corporation because Covington was "not of the annointed". This later set the stage for Franz to become Knorr's right hand man (and spiritual counselor) as well as to eventually succeeed Knorr in the presidency.
So, for sure Rutherford thought he was actually making world history with the talks, etc...according to his own words.
Whether Franz thought he was triggering Armageddon, I don't know. But I do know that he didn't care one whit about triggering the vicious persecution of thousands of brothers and sisters in Malawi with the ridiculous rulings on the silly party card and the equally stupid letter-writing campaign. I was even at the time, as a young kid really, concerned that alll these letters would do nothing but piss off the dictator even more (God will bring down you and your national party, etc.) and get our people killed.
So make of it what you will, Terry has a good & debatable point...Freddy displayed some of the same Madman tendencies as Manson in that sense.
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dogisgod
My brother is getting out of prison AGAIN on July 11th. I asked his who was one of the most scary guys he has met in prison. He is 62 and bounced around between federal and state prisons. Murder, breaking and entry, id theft, forgery ad nauseum. His response was...Manson. I was dumbfounded. Manson is mentally ill but he is still a teeny little guy. How does that crap happen. (I think my brother was trying to impress me....I wasn't).
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Terry
One wonders, of course, how men entirely without charism attract followers. But, upon reflection, power is the greatest attractor.
Wielding power is heady stuff.
Manson was tiny, yet, used his wits to avail himself of "enforcers". People who did his bidding intimidated the rest.
We find that Franz was not personally charismatic either. He gleaned many strategies from the early writings and reconstructed them over and over to appear "connected" with Jehovah's holy spirit personally. This put others in awe of him.
The Governing Body today has welded itself into an iron fist of intimidation. But, it wasn't overnight. There is a long history from the charismatic personality and intellect of Pastor Russell, the bully-boy rants of Rutherford who set himself on the throne and the quiet background figure in the shadows who watched them all as they performed their power-brokering: Fred Franz.
Franz was a sort of Prime Minister in residence. The power behind the throne.
For Russell, who was proved ignornant of bible languages, Franz proved enormously helpful as a resource as a scholar in residence. For Rutherford, Franz could piece together at will whatever predictions were needed and retrofit them to scripture while wrapping them in a veneer of pseudo-history.
For Knorr, Franz was a sold foundational asset as the Oracle and translator of the NWT.
As Knorr was about to fade, Freddy turned up the wattage on the "light" and concocted the 1975 publicity stunt.
He took the helm when Knorr died and the rest is history.
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Burger Time
This is such a crap post in my opinion (of course). The same Watchtower logic is used here to try to make some weak connection between a certified murderer and a guy who got a little crazy in his old age. ROTFL at such a useless post.
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Terry
This is such a crap post in my opinion (of course). The same Watchtower logic is used here to try to make some weak connection between a certified murderer and a guy who got a little crazy in his old age. ROTFL at such a useless post.
Well, you could be a little more specific in your complain, ya know.
I think Fred Franz and his brainfarts which passed as divine light from Jehovah set into motion societal destruction among generations of Jehovah's Witnesses which led to far more upheaval than Charles Manson.
Think about it like this. When you toss a pebble in water it makes a brief hole, yet, rings widen out therefrom which reach every shore.
Franz and the Watchtower rhetoric held (and still holds) an iron grip on the lives of its membership. What? Seven million worldwide?
The people who gave up education and couldn't feed their family or provide insurance benefits and who could not retire are one group of disaffected victims. Those with psychological problems who were discouraged from seeking help from mental health professionals are another group. People who were parents of children who were allowed to die rather than take blood are another group. Families with child moelstation who were prohibited from reporting rape to authorities is another group. Young men who gave up at least a couple of years in the prime of their life to go to Federal Prison (where many were abused) because of "neutrality" policy is another group. Young kids who were ostracized in school because they didn't pledge allegience or sing the national anthem or celebrate Christmas and who were alienated as a result are another group. Wives abused by husbands who were discouraged from leaving them are another group.
Shall I go on and on?
You have to stop and think about this at deeper and deeper levels to get my point. I don't mind you considering this topic weird or way out or even crackpot---but---believe me, I have a good reason for making the connection: to get people's attention and cause them to reflect on those rings that widen out from one little pebble (Franz) tossed into the pond of humanity.