The Significance of Raymond Victor Franz

by AllTimeJeff 41 Replies latest jw friends

  • besty
    besty

    wow - Randy woke up in a sharing mood this morning.....

  • Found Sheep
    Found Sheep

    Nice overview Jeff. And Wizard if Raymond was able to change what needed to be changed it would not BE the same religion... I was so upset Thursday untill I put it all in prospective. Ray Franz was a truly successful man!

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    yeah at 7AM with a sore back!

    That's why I'm cranky! :-))

  • SixofNine
    SixofNine

    Well, Tom Cabeen or Barb Anderson, somebody needs to step up, cuz I'm feeling rudderless out here. Where shall I go to?

  • mouthy
    mouthy

    Now Grace, on the other hand, would have made a good cult leader. :-))

    Randy

    SEE that is why you have a sore back!!!!!You implied I was a "cult"leader prospect!!!! Bad boy.So I sent the devil to cripple you.

  • The Finger
    The Finger

    I enjoyed reading this.

  • Gayle
    Gayle

    Ray was not charismatic at all. Not dynamic, not a powerful speaker. However,he was the most mentally stimulating GB member for the week on those Bethel texts shared by the rest of GB. Most GB were only extremely repetitious, only commenting on literature we had already read too many times.

    One of the most significance of Ray's was his wife Cynthia. Now she is Italian, lively, forthright, open-hearted, welcoming (she invited weekly "new boys" to their Bethel room for a snack to welcome, she went out of her way to create something homey at Bethel, which was quite difficult to do), unpretentious, more humble than Ray. I worked with her in housekeeping for awhile, we had coffee break time together often. She was so down-to-earth, no thought on her part that she was in any "positioned spot."

    I left Bethel the middle of '74 for motherhood. Motherhood and leaving Bethel started re-evaluation for me about the organization. Later, when Ray and Cynthia left Bethel with such circumstances, I lost heart that the organization was going to improve and saw very clearly, what I saw there at Bethel all along, that the GB was arrogant and hard-fisted in their ways, with no hope of positive change.

  • snowbird
    snowbird

    Ray mentioned in CofC that he and Cynthia entertained the possibility of conceiving a child after they left WT headquarters.

    I felt so sad and angry for both of them.

    Beautiful tribute, ATJ.

    Syl

  • designs
    designs

    Gayle,

    Yours is an interesting perspective, getting to work with Cynthia, being a woman at Bethel, and living through those crazy 70's. I had friends and family in Bethel during the late 60's up to Ray's departure. Nothing in the last 30 years has had any glimmer or Reform, and so the exodus continues.

    All the best to you and your kids.

  • snowbird
    snowbird

    I wish we could keep all the threads about Ray Franz together.

    Syl

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