All I can say is "WOW"

by lepermessiah 5 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  lepermessiah

  I love those life-changing books that you read and they seem to come at the right time and really touch you deeply.

  Most of you have read Crisis of Conscience, but the beginning of Chapter 11 just blew me away......UNBELIEVABLE........

  Ray is such a gifted writer, the sincerity just oozes off the pages, and even people that treated him like garbage, he still has a kind and respectful tone toward those scum bags.

  I just read a three part series on the Third Reich, and it is truly SCARY how similar in structure and operation the WTBS is, when it comes to authoritarianism, eliminating "enemies", and instilling fear in people.

  Ray put into words EXACTLY how I feel, why I feel the way I do, and made me feel GOOD about feeling that way.

  I just wanted to share these few paragraphs and see if they had the same effect on many of you!

  I now began to realize how large a measure of what I had based my entire adult life course on was just that, a myth—“persistent,

  persuasive and unrealistic.” It was not that my view toward the Bible had changed. If anything, my appreciation of it was enhanced by

  what I experienced.

  I was not opposed to authority. I was opposed to the extremes to which it was carried. I could not believe that God ever purposed for

  men to exercise such all-pervading authoritarian control over the lives of fellow members of the Christian congregation. My understanding

  was that Christ grants authority in his congregation only to serve, never to dominate.2
• 

  JWoods

  It makes you wonder how all those GB members could have read this book (and you just know they almost all HAVE) and resisted their own conscience. Provided they have one in the normal intelligent human sense.
• 

  lepermessiah

  Provided they have one in the normal intelligent human sense.

  I think those guys are so drunk with power and authority that their conscience has been overriden with self-righteousness and the feeling that they are authorized by God to lay the hammer down!
• 

  nugget

  I read this book only recently and was deeply affected by it. I had always felt that people in charge of the organisation were imperfect men but I had thought that they had spent time in bible research and prayer, that they loved the rank and file and cared deeply for us. What was most upsetting was that they didn't seem to care about the rank and file at all. Decisions were arbitary and Bible research minimal or non existant .

  I vividly remember the Malawi time and was disgusted that such great hardship had been caused for no good reason.

  There is no humility or love demonstrated by the GB it is all politics, apathy and empire building no wonder these qualities are reflected in the elder arrangement too. They probably read it to see how they as individuals were portrayed and failed to see the bigger picture. Do they honestly believe that they are going to heaven, I doubt it.

  Waking up to the lie is painful but at least you're awake.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  If I were the one in Ray's shoes, and there weren't any other books like mine, the bitterness would have oozed off the pages of my revealing book. That was not what the people needed. I am thrilled that Ray was`able to write what would humbly help so many to freedom.

  His wasn't the first important book I read on my road to freedom, I don't fully agree with much of what he says about his residual feelings for God, but I respect his words.

  An absolute must read for everyone here.
• 

  The Almighty Homer

  Franz's book exemplifies the fact how men can abuse and misuse the power of god which they themselves

  instilled into their own hands. JWs are just one of the extreme examples of totalitarianism thats around and its harmfulness

  toward humanity is obviously real.