BRCI is holding its annual national Conference near Chicago, Illinois on Friday and Saturday, June 28th and 29th. It will be held at the Wyndham Northwest Chicago Hotel, in Itasca, IL. If you are able to travel here or live in the general area, you can get directions to the hotel by calling 630-773-4000 9AM - 5 PM Central Time.
For those not familiar with BRCI, it stands for Bible Research and Commentary International. It was started by ex-JWs in the 1980s, and today the board of directors still include many of the original founders. You may read about this by going to www.brci.org .
Some of the speakers and attendence often include well known and respected ex-JWs, like Jim Penton and Peter Gregerson and others. Ray Franz attended these Conferences when they were held near Georgia. Peter Gregerson, for those who may not remember is the close associate of Ray Franz who is mentioned in Crisis of Conscience as the perosn over whom the local JW ELders and the Watchtower Society decided to disfellowship Ray Franz ... and this story reached Time Magazine in 1981.
I hope to see as many of you there as possible ... and I would like to meet some of you that I only know from the JWD board ... if you show up, just ask for Jim Whitney, and someone will point me out ... or just look for the guy who looks like he is about to have a heart attack. ... My beard will not help because 90% of ex-JW men have beards ... sorry.
As I did last year, I will post a summary of the Conference on JWD after it ends. The Conferences are not large like JW District Conventions ... in fact they are modest by comparison ... and no Attendant will ask you to Keep Quiet or move your feet out of the asile ... and no one will embarass you for going to the bathroom in the middle of talks ... talks are short, and well researched ... and you don't have to agree with what you hear ... ... no doctrine, no divisions ... just good folks getting together to promote good research and have a great time.
Edited by - Amazing on 26 June 2002 22:22:44