TheChi and others, Amazing has most assuredly not set you on the right path. I know Amazing is sincere, but his basic position here is predicated upon a wrong premise. teejay, minimus, Princess and so on are also somewhat misled, and now are pursuing some red herring re the name "Silent Lambs" larc's jury is still out. A few in this thread have not confused themselves, though they too may have missed something. The originator of the thread, rekless, is wrong on much of the detail, but his "gut" gripe is what I address - and understand.
Ignoring the Noise and Bluster Nethinim Substanceless Class (who post without proper thought or research and "RELY ON THE HARD WORK OF THEIR LEARNED BROTHERS" in Cyber-Bethel), whose members are to be found on both "sides" of this debate, no one is really saying that Ray Franz SHOULD have or MUST have known about the magnitude of the pedophilia issue back then.
That argument is a strawman. There is no real evidence, let alone proof, that he should have.
So drop the strawman, please.
And of course there is no suggestion that some uniformity of approach in fighting the Watchtower's Evil Empire is needed or wanted. How absurd! We are no Borg!
So that is another strawman. Drop it, please.
Ray Franz's UNWANTED and SELF-ELECTED FAN CLUB here are the ones damaging him, by creating these strawmen, and then knocking them down. And damaging Bill's movement too, with an amazing string of calumnies against him.
Strawmen are so convenient to have when there is an issue to address.
So what is the issue?
Have I been a bit vague so far? I have clearly not been too vague, as the penny has dropped with quite a few posters. Click here to see.
Please read that. sf (Skallywagger) has grasped the whole thing, and I think LDH (Lisa) has too. And I have been more explicit.
Here is a Parable to explain things. It is deliberately made less than exact, so do not try to work out who is Enoch, or Caleb, or Achan. But Fookus is very focussed.
I am the most trusted servant commissioned by my employer Enoch to go to market to buy a work of art for him as an investment (the stockmarket keeps falling, so..). There, I am offered a painting by an Artist, Achan. I don't really like the painting, and Achan is a bit shifty in his effusive praise of his own work. Achan claims to be "inspired!". But I know I have no knowledge of paintings, and I am just trying to do the best job for my employer. Achan tells me that the elderly Caleb is an unbiased, neutral, expert, well-loved, experienced art Critic, and he will guide me. So I seek out Caleb, and ask for his opinion on Achan's painting. He is genuinely very nice. Caleb tells me that the painting has its flaws but is basically likely to be a wise investment "in the long term". I accept and rely on Caleb's dispassionate judgment as an expert. I attribute my dislike of the painting to my own poor taste. I buy the painting and take it back to my employer, Enoch.
The next day, Eric's old logic teacher Fookus comes to visit my master's house. Fookus irritates many of us because he is almost always right, and he knows it too, and does not care if we do. Tact is not his strong point! This Fookus hears about the transaction, laughs (cruelly, I think) and tells Eric, in my presence, that Achan, the painter of the work I bought for Enoch, had while painting that same painting been following set RULES written down in a well-known "Caleb's Painting Technique Guide Book" that had been written twenty years ago by the VERY SAME ART CRITIC Caleb - and Caleb (at the time Caleb gave me his expert opinion yesterday) as an expert would have known that Achan had been following his own (Caleb's) rules (as well as his own individual painting ways).
Caleb, having grown wiser since writing that book all those years ago, has changed his mind on the technical rules for painting since. But I can't help feeling a little embarrassed. I should really have preferred it if Caleb had declined to comment to me, or pointed out that he could not really be neutral here as it was the application of Caleb's own "rules" upon which his opinion was being solicited. While Caleb's views may well be totally sincere, my fellow-servants (who would love to discredit me with Enoch, my employer, as they covet my position) can suggest I was foolish to rely on Caleb's judgment, as it could not BE SEEN TO BE WHOLLY DETACHED.
I am angry and embarrassed that I now appear to be a fool in front of Enoch and my peers of the Servant Class. So, with human weakness, I slander Fookus, the bearer of the unwelcome information, and shout:
(a) Fookus, you are despicable for attacking Caleb who is such a nice and honest man (but Fookus had not attacked Caleb, or implied anything bad about him - he had just stated two absolute facts);
(b) Fookus, how dare you insinuate that Caleb's book was written with bad intent - Caleb genuinely believed those rules produced good results back when he wrote them twenty years ago? (but Fookus had not done any such thing at all - Caleb's book, rules or his sincerity when he wrote the rules was never the issue);
(c) Fookus, how dare you hold Caleb responsible for the poor painting done by Achan ("hindsight is so valuable")? (but Fookus had not held Caleb at all responsible for the misuse to which his rules had been put).
(d) Fookus, how dare you insinuate Caleb and Achan were in league together (but Fookus had not insinuated any such thing, and actually he believes Caleb is now very critical of Achan the artist - just a little reluctant to admit that his OWN rules produced such a bad painting, a very human failing especially in an older person).
By introducing these strawmen, I hoped my own foolishness at not checking the background to my source, and possible sources of inadvertent bias, would be overlooked by Eric my master in the confusion.
So I say: "Damn that wicked Fookus! LET US ALL STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS! IT IS UNPRODUCTIVE! IT IS WRONG!"
[Translation: Fookus caught me out and made me look foolish.]
And I have many aliases and stooges in the servant's quarters, so we'll all say it, and churn the issue so the uninformed will get confused, so hopefully I won't get the blame. I really like Caleb.
But Eric was wise, and saw that Fookus (who also likes Caleb) had both:
1. not said what I claimed he had said, and
2. had stated only FACTS as to Caleb's authorship of the guide book and his knowledge as an expert that Achan followed that book.
Alas! Eric no longer trusts me with his important errands until I show I have learned to be more careful, discerning and not to blame others falsely for my own folly and shortcomings.
The long Parable ends here.
For those too dense to grasp the clear meaning of it, Jesus puts them in the Matt. 7:26 Class (don't be lazy, look it up).
Click here for the matter in red and black.
The Ray Franz Fan Club has been infiltrated by some with an agenda far from what Ray must want - and a lot closer to what Bethel would want.
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Focus
(Come to Defend Ray Against His "Fans" Class)