Did Ray Franz Help You To Get Out of “The Truth”?

minimus

I sneakily read his books at work. It was written in such a way that no one could accuse him of being another bitter old apostate.

Once it registered in my brain, especially after reading the second book, I knew I had to get out!

LoveUniHateExams

No, Ray Franz didn't help me leave the cult.

I was already long gone when I first read his excellent book, Crisis of Conscience, in 2014.

AnonVet

Not only did he help me, he helped my spouse.

I thought apostates were all angry people. This book was refreshing.

With the second book, I tried to get my spouse to read with me, but my spouse was too far in.

After a year my spouse got curious and read the first book and never attended another meeting after that.

cofty

No. I avoided ex-JWs until after I was out.

I found his first book fascinating. The second one not so much.

pale.emperor

He certainly did. In fact, without it I could well have still been in the cult by now.

moreconfusedthanever

I didn't read the book until I had already stopped going to the meetings. It certainly was a "wizard of Oz" type of awakening for me. It removed any niggling doubt about my decision never to return.

Diogenesister

First came an OU philosophy course. That taught me how to think. With that I really didn't need anything else in terms of believing, but....

What I wasn't aware of was how cynical and corrupt the orginzation was. I was still under the illusion It was run by loving, deeply honest and generous souls.

The ARC and Rays book utterly dispelled that belief. I was mesmerized and agast at how deceitful these men were. I was aware that Rutherford was an extremely bad apple who had engineered a publishing company masquerading as a religion, but I somehow hung on to the idea that everyone else was genuine. I read Rays book around the same time as the ARC, which just confirmed the crazy egotism had always existed and that the org was the same as any other big organization.

Gorbatchov

I read CoC in 1996 and direct lost my believe in the organization.

G.

Spiral

No, but had I known about his book while I was still in, it certainly would have helped get me out. Reading CofC later just provided confirmation that I had made the right decision.