The Watchtower perposely keeps its leaders "cordoned off" for a reason. The ones really in charge WANT to be invisible and have been in control since Knorr's day, and still think like him. The GB want like hell to be visible and powerful. But like all newboys at Bethel, they have to "pleasure" the few older ones taught by Knorr. All the "types" (Ruth/Naomi" class, etc.) were all power ploys to keep the old guard in control. This is very common ie real life society/governments, business as well. If you have been in control for decades, it means one thing... your real power is invisible to the rank-and-file, and they WANT it that way! They are in hiding and use others to give the appearance of the "true leadership." But they are pretty old, so it will change soon, and the whole thing will start to fall apart as new powerplays begin. But by then it will be too late to stop the fragmentation.
I apologize for not writing much of anything in several weeks.
Did you miss me? (Don't answer that!)
I am doing pretty good now after going through the worst year of my 60 years of life... but in order to make some changes that will enable me to keep working, I really had to take time off to take care of medical issues (mostly my spine - destroyed after 30 years spending 10-12 hours a day on the computer). But it doesn't end on a sad note, once I get myself back in shape and out from behind a desk, I will be much better. At least I never get sick, it's all hereditary crap.
Plus, my original goal has been reached, to do everything in my power to:
(1) help cripple the authoritarian control of the Watchtower over millions of people, and...
(2) to "deprogram" many thousands of Witnesses from the implanted stupidity of the Watchtower doctrines and encourage them to get out and get a REAL LIFE, free from guilt and misery completely, and...
(3) to teach them how to enjoy life the best they can with what years they have left. I had no other agenda for them. Jesus was in charge of converting them... that was not my job. Far be it from me to take the place of the Holy Spirit. I see that too much in the churches.
Converting people is NOT my thing. I rarely judge people, as their reasons for what they do are too complex. My job is to be in the right place at the right time, and allow room for the Spirit to do HIS work. That's why I have never concerned myself with "invisibles," like who is saved and who isn't, and what the invisible sky-daddies and super-daddies are doing. How the hell would I know??
In fact, I considered "converting" people over to "my" path as blasphemous to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the only one I ever truly dreaded, crossing HIS path or "taking over his job." I have always been gently punished for crossing the Spirit. I won't touch that with a 10 foot pole!
I was never afraid of "Satan" and never have been. Though I loved horror movies even as a child (NOT slasher movies, but stuff like Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allen Poe). I've read several of Anton LaVey's books, visited his home in Northeren Calif. (after his death), attended several supposed exorcisms, attempted to sleep in a haunted house when I was 13, and made home movies where I was dressed in black and with my wand turned people into dog do-do (in the spirit of John Waters).
I have also done everything in my life (well, after about 18 years old) with a clean conscience, I can say in all honesty. I have never catered to any man. The only employer I ever had besides working at Anderson Lithograph the year after I left Bethel was my first real job at 16, working at a fish n' chips shop, and I was fired after 10 days because I couldn't keep up with the "assembly line" (I was left-handed and it didn't work). The job paid $1.35/hr. Oh, and I was a Ford mechanic (tune up) part time while I pioneered in Canoga Park right before going to Bethel. I never was too concerned with making money. So I was in heaven working at Bethel for $14/mo. for six years. LOL.
Hey, I got a slice of pizza in Brooklyn once a week and went to the movies once a month. I was there when the original STAR WARS came out and showed in Cinerama in Manhattan. (There was a contest going on among the Bethelites as to who watched the movie the most times - some saw it over 30-40 times!)
Bethelites were a rare breed. So I fit right in.
My goal was not so much to warn outsiders but to set the insiders free. Although as a licensed Foursquare pastor starting as early as 1984, I later traveled the world speaking in churches and even assemblies of pastors, especially in Australia and Japan, and hundreds of churches in California.
I'm over 2012.
ON THE DB not being on the committees, etc. [only one of several reasons]:
Like Christian Science, I would almost rather see them stick around just to watch the carnival. Especially now that they are hoarding everything in upstate New York (and can't even sell their properties to pay for Candace Conti's lawsuit victory for probably another year.) Their arrogance has slapped them down to the ground, forever more.
Sure, they'll be around for quite a while. Just like Christian Science and the Worldwide Church of God sects (although the main leaders turned to historical Christianity after Armstrong died, thanks to Joseph Tkach. They also changed their name.) But the loss of most of their members to little break-off groups of worshippers of the late Herbert W. Armstrong has left them with little money or property.
That's actually good... churches thrive on poverty, at least spiritually. People love one another and help one another more, and they can be a real family community. But when a church has one charismatic leader (like Russell, Rutherford, and Knorr), they get arrogant and proud and look down on other "Christians" as being stupid and low class. It becomes a powerful collective ego. But now that the Bethel old folks' dentures are falling out one by one, and the puppet-like Governing Body is extremely ignorant and has no charisma at all, it's all but over, folks. Sure, they still be around for a long time, but so will Christian Science! And when was the last time anyone was afraid of them?
The REAL powers that be at Bethel have always been hidden from public view. They are the ones that run the corporation.They are the ones who decide how all the money is spent, how to make more money and property purchases, and how to silence opposition. Don't even think the GB are really running the show! They are merely puppets on a string, and have zero charisma (which will destroy their credibility).
At least some of the 18 Governing Body members that were appointed 3 years after I went to Bethel in 1974 (and watched this sad drama) had some personality and charisma, but the current crop are real losers and Youtube videos from detractors as well as Sparlock teaching cartoons has, to their embarrassment, made it clear to almost everyone watching these videos how pitiful, ignorant and out of touch they really are. They are becoming the laughing stock of the internet world. Someday Watch Tower history will likely be made into a good movie that will astound thinking people.
Personally, I never believed more than 75% of what they taught... it was just so obvious what their motives were. If I hadn't spent 6 years at Bethel and saw it for myself, and talked to many old timers, I would still be oblivious to their vile and life-threatening schemes to intimidate and control innocent people.
Then you have men guilty of really serious crimes against humanity like Gene Smalley and Fred Rusk for running the "no blood" show (invented by Fred Franz in the "Rutherford slump" (after his forced takeover of the organization) to intentionallydrum up persecution and gain many new zealous members as a result, at the cost of how many tens of thousands of innocent lives... when Charles Russell HIMSELF said the supposed "prohibition on blood" was not a law for Christians, but for keeping from stumbling the Jews!
Russell at least agreed with the apostle Paul that he could walk into an idol temple and eat the meat offered up to the false god and not be affected at all or disapproved by God. And that was much worse than taking a blood transfusion as far as the tribal god YHWH was concerned!
I remember Nathan Knorr going to Italy and touring the Vatican and some old cathedrals while services were going on, and telling us about it at the Bethel table! You think he was afraid of demons??
KNORR was the demon. And Fred Franz was worse, but few have no idea of that secret. By outward appearances, Knorr was cantankerous and hated by many, ESPECIALLY at Bethel, but he was not nearly as deceptive and evil as Fred Franz. Franz was in the habit of inventing seriously life-threatening doctrines just to stand apart from other religions.
Truly Evil Leaders
I remember attending one Bethel elder's meetings in 1979 where Karl Klein said Freddy has been "our oracle for the last 67 years."
! I almost tossed my cookies on that one. Things like that prompted me to write the very first expose' of what happened at Bethel in 1981, and thanks to Ralph Moore, pastor of Hope Chapel in Hermosa Beach, I was allowed to print 10,000 copies of it (gratis, thank you Ralph!) and sent them around the world. That's how Free Minds got started.
A lot of credit goes to Edmond Gruss, who wrote the first thorough rebuttal of the Watchtower organization and doctrines in 1970, called "Apostles of Denial." After I had left Bethel in disgust in 1980, I visited Ed and I was so encouraged by him that I stayed up all that night and wrote my story. It was the first time any insider told the story of the "Franz Incident." Ed was one of the first true insider whistle-blowers on the WT. He was not mean, had no axe to grind, but told it like it was. Ed later became professor of History and Apologetics at L.A. Baptist College for many years. I have a video interview with him, taken many years ago when he was writing his book, Jehovah's Witnesses: Their Claims, Doctrinal Changes, and Prophetic Speculation. I will try and get it up soon again.
By the way, the Watchtower speaks out of many contradictory mouths. As far as the blood transfusion doctrine, it has been in the process of dissolution for about two years. They are now being forced to gradually abandon it without looking like they are abandoning it. No one is being disfellowshipped for taking a blood transfusion in the last couple of years, unless this "crime" is interconnected with other crimes, like "thought crimes" and other "1984" similarities. They are very intelligent, but often do evil things. It's their nature. - Randy