by Mulan 42 Replies latest jw friends
It has been suggested, by a man we know, that those who read Crisis of Conscience, are left with a feeling of despair and are "cast adrift" after reading it. It is his opinion that the book shouldn't have been written, because it does harm to people.
I do NOT agree, and would like to hear from anyone who has an opinion to share, so I can print all this out and show it to him.
Comments, everyone, please???? Thanks!
Marilyn (a.k.a. Mulan)
This is like the witness arguments of "where else shall we go" "they just bring you down and don't build you up".
Well if ever a doctor tells me I have terminal cancer or another horrible disease I'll just tell him "Who do you think you are giving me such negative information ,why cant you build me up?".
That will cure my cancer.
I agree Sleepy. I don't expect Ray Franz to be my savior and tell me what to do once I got out of the borg. To give him that responsibility is ridiculous. I wanted to know what he had to say and what he witnessed. I appreciate his experience and heartache as it's helped me in my journey. But it's MY JOURNEY. Not Ray Franz's. He felt responsible to shed light on an obviously false religion. What you do after that is your deal. Why get mad at him for not telling you what to do after you learn about the troof? Why not get mad at the people that lied to us in the first place?
Andi
I think that if his book was the first exposure to the atrosities within the WTBTS, then quite possibly you could be "cast adrift". But I don't see that as a bad thing. The one thing I liked about his book was that there was no 2nd agenda. He wasn't telling you about the bad things so that you could come into his "religion" or any thing else. He told you the problems he saw and let you make the decision for yourself on what your next step should be.
I think that the WTBTS gets so many of it's members, because they want to be led to the right way. And they don't think for themselves. I think he leaves the thinking up to the person who is reading his book and that is where it should be. To many people jump in without thinking about all the options. That is why they are so blind to other possibilities and theories. They don't want to think about it. They just WANT it to be right and won't listen to anything that can cast doubt.
Being "cast adrift" lets you see what is out there. All the different theories. Lets you decide and hopefully make an informed decision about it. It is those who panic at being 'adrift' that have a problem. They will latch on to the first thing they find that makes any sense. Thereby starting the whole cycle over again.
Just my thoughts.
-P-
Mulan,
Nope, can't say it did anything more than to vindicate steps that I had already taken.
Got you card BTW, Ta!
Englishman.
Bring on the dancing girls!
Billy said it well! Who wants to be a "little sheep" & have information pre-screened & pre-digested while the proverbial WOOL iz pulled over their eyes? Not here!
I start with this:
A man who refuses to think is a fool,
A man who can't think is a idiot,
A man who is afraid to think is a coward.....
####################################################################
Mulan says:
"It has been suggested, by a man we know, that those who read Crisis of Conscience, are left with a feeling of despair and are "cast adrift" after reading it."
*****
He is 100% coorrect- because what this book does is reveal to a jw that all the years you have lived in "Disney Land" and had friends like Goofy and Mickey it was all a Joke
so it is to be expected that now one would be depressed or let down as it was- Regardless of what anyone says i firmly believe that the Wt offers perhaps one of the best programs around in Print
nice homes, good health, plenty food, no sickness - wonderful and kind frineds, etc all these things are what each one of us looked forward to .
and then to read a book like Rays' and find out it was all a Joke then of course folks are left outcast as it were and Pisssed
so with that portion of the comment i fully agree
I have not found many who were not anger mad hurt or pissed after reading rays book and finding out they had been bamboozled and hoodwinked
###############
Mulan continues with:
"It is his opinion that the book shouldn't have been written, because it does harm to people."
###### I have to disagree with him on this point to a certain extent
perhaps for someone who is sick and old about to die- then it could be a toss up late the old dude die in peace
but for a younger person who has 10-20-30-50 years ahead of them - they need to know - reason being they have time to get out and start a life - kids college, start a biz, etc
I have found very few csaes where the not knowing the truth is better
than finding out that you are literally WASTING YOUR LIFE SELLING USELESS BOOKS
To have a hope that is built on sand TELL ME - most people perfer to call a spade a spade,
but there are those who would perfer to be in the dark we have all kinds of folks
but in my exp most folks perfer to know that if they have only 3 days vacation they don't want to spend 2 of the days driving in the wrong direction
i see it the same with wt- we only have some many years to live and enjoy why would i want to spend 69years pioneering - no kids, no money , no education- all my dreams of being a dancer, writer, painter, etc put on hold for a new system that will never show up
most folks perfer to know and this way what little time they do have left to live be it 10 -20 yrs they can at least spend it enjoying life as to wasting every single sat am selling useless books
just my thought
i end with this:
A man who refuses to think is a fool,
A man who can't think is a idiot,
A man who is afraid to think is a coward.....
Mulan
Not at all! I felt wonderful after reading it. At the time i felt like the door to the kingdom was opened for me. Don't need a church for that.
Just wondering who this friend of his was. He still has a totally wt mind frame, whether he is a jw or not.
SS
Ray’s book confirmed many of the doubts I already had and documented (proved) what most of us could only assume. He helped me to feel less guilty about leaving the JWs.
The witnesses themselves have tried to counter criticism of their message by using the illustration of a neighbor reporting the burning roof of the house next to them to the occupants of that house. That is exactly what Ray has done.
Ray has liberated many former witnesses who knew things were not right, but couldn’t put their finger on the problem. Thank God, Ray put his finger squarely on the problem.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
Marilyn,
My sense is that the vast majority of JWs who reach the point of deciding to read CoC have already begun to experience niggling-to-profound doubts and skepticism---if not full-blown disbelief. It doesn't figure, at least to me, that one who is still a true-believer with faith wholly in tact would even consider reading such a publication. These, imo, are done no harm as they have already started to detect something fishy. That was the case for me, anyway. And once I read CoC, yes I did experience a deep sense of despair even while huge holes started to fill in around the areas I'd begun to have doubts ---the divine appointment and direction of the the gb, for starters.
Would I have preferred not to know? No. The despair for me was that the book had been around for nearly 20 years---and I had major doubts for the last 10--- before I dared check it out.
Otoh, although I believe that Ray was conscience/duty-bound to write CoC, I don't think that it need be read by all JWs, a great number of whom are probably no better or worse off being Witnesses and would probably despair beyond ability to recover if stripped of "The Truth" by being forced to face the truth.
-AMNESIAN
