excellent
My personal thoughts on Ray Franz
by Terry 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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binadub
AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE:
Terry:
I am not a frequent poster on JWN, but the title of your post caught my eye. I logged in and had just begun to read your post when an amazing coincidence occurred.
Cynthia Franz called me.
I had not talked to her since last spring close to a year ago. I guess she called because we observe emblems this time of year.
We talked for about an hour.In any case, I told her what a coincidence it was that I had just opened a thread on a discussion forum about Ray Franz.
I read the first three or four paragraphs and it brought her to tears. (As you might imagine, she still mourns the loss.)
She asked if I would send her a copy of your post and I said I would. I hope you don't mind. I wanted to let you know.Blessings,
~Binadub (aka Ros) -
Sic Semper Tyrannis
I had a chance to write Ray a few months before he passed. In his response, he seemed to be quite satisfied with life. He also pointedly remarked that both him and his wife were in poor health and asked to be put on Do-Not-Resuscitate. He then apologized profusely for not being able to keep up with correspondence as he used to, and took no parting shots at the WT. True to form, he quoted from the Bible.
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batchannel
If anyone is interested in all of Ray Franz's published writings in their original versions (everything that used to be on his Commentary Press website), someone has put up a website where you can find all that material for free here:
www.friendsofraymondfranz.com
This includes PDF versions of his books Crisis of Conscience (2004 edition) and In Search of Christian Freedom (2007 edition). He'd be glad to know they are back online and available for free and neither "updated" nor "altered". -
lastmanstanding
I have two reel2reel tapes of Ray from the 70’s. I don’t think anyone has ever listened to them. I am planning to convert them for upload.
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Vanderhoven7
I did not realize that Ray's books are available free in PDF format at Raymond Faraz Archives
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blondie
Thanks, Terry, I meet Ray and Cynthia many times on our way back and forth from Florida. It was always fun and positive. Cynthia always had us laughing out loud and Ray too but it would sneak up on you later how funny it was. He shared photos of him and Cynthia in their missionary assignments. They both spoke fairly good Spanish because of that. They are sad to leave their home and the people there to go to headquarters for Ray to be on the GB. He was stunned as to what went behind the doors. And though Fred Franz was his father's brother, he did not know him at all, and Fred did not interact with him much at all. I'm sure he had several aha moments, but felt some how it would be corrected by god (wait on Jehovah). He would take me back in his office and show me letters he had gotten from people who had been affected so positively by what he wrote; and then he would write back! I'm glad we were able to do that. I just looked online and found their phone number and called. No problem, he said stop by on down to FL or back. I enjoyed going down memory lane about Ray with you. Love Blondie
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Phizzy
Ray was a lovely man, I only had indirect contact with him , toward the end of his days. I first contacted him by e-mail to thank him for his two Books, I begged him not to bother to reply, he was very unwell by then, but lovely man that he was, he did !
He e-mailed me yet again a couple of times, to help me with the Trauma I felt upon leaving the Cult, so helpful, so full of practical advice and information, what a guy !
It is so sad he is no longer with us, also sad that the G.B at the time he was ousted, did not have anyone else with a spine. or any love on it ! They acted totally hatefully toward a man who only wanted the org. to act with the Love of Jesus, and to move toward adhering to what the Bible actually says, and to STOP telling lies !
The Org could have been so very different.
R.I.P dear Ray, your work lives on and still helps so very many !
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dropoffyourkeylee
I did not realize that Ray's books are available free in PDF format at Raymond Faraz Archives
I also was not aware of this. I do hope that any copyright issues are contemplated with these pdfs being available.
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Terry
IMHO Ray Franz was not an "Apostate" for the simple reason he didn't have the anger and ego or eagerness
to push himself forward into a "reform movement" with himself at the forefront.
It is just my opinion - but- I think Ray Franz COULD HAVE begun a REFORM movement. But you can't
build on a bad foundation and he knew that. His ambition for notoriety was zero.
Comparing Fred Franz (the "oracle") with Ray Franz (humble servant) is all you need to do to capture the essence
of what went down at JW headquarters. Fred Franz was MENTAL. Ray was clear-thinking. Ghastly nonsense from Fred swept like a tornado over ordinary people's lives wrecking their prospects of having an existence without self-induced trauma. Some of us have had mentally disaffected people in our own family and we know what happens if they are an authority with power over others. Ray was tolerant in forbearance. That is a word nobody uses anymore. Look it up and there should be a picture of Ray next to it :)
Modern Day Jehovah's Witnesses have (take a deep breath) NEVER HEARD of Ray Franz for a good reason. (Good in the worst possible ironic sense). The Governing Body is hyper-aware of what a few words of Ray's illumination could do to their castle in the clouds.
Psychiatrically, people do things for all sorts of personal reasons but put a public face of benevolence on it all and that is belied by consequences...eventually. Fred Franz invented chronology nonsense, polished turd heaps of fallible scenarios leading to FALSE DATES, and never paid for his crimes. The JW organization REWARDED his failures by making him PRESIDENT even after the disaster of 1975. Stop and think about that!
The Watchtower corporations are evil empire comic book style insanity and their Herculean efforts at covering their collective ass by cracking down on historical proof they are WRONG is openly apparent (if you dare take a look at Ray Franz's words).
Ray Franz pulled back that Wizard of Oz curtain and the flim-flam took our breath away.
Ray's spark started a cleansing fire and the push-back of GB authoritarianism has grown more ferocious and insane over the last forty years.
I'm glad we are talking about Ray once more. A whistleblower is a kind of martyr and if you look that word up in your dictionary, the root means (ironically) "witness". Jehovah's Witnesses have never been eyewitnesses to a Governing Body meeting but Ray was. He is a true Jehovah's (martyr).noun- patient self-control; restraint and tolerance.