can someone fill me in as to what happened in 1980? I was only 3 at the time, and that is right around the time my family got into the org. Also anything about the homosexuality at bethel too?
thanks!
The apostasy of 1980...want to know more!
by Lonestar13 6 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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foreword
Hi, btw, welcome
If you're in a rush for an answer, this site has a search feature , I'm sure this has been discussed here before.
Good luck,
marc
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Joyzabel
Welcome LoneStar to the board.
I think you'll find lots of answers in Raymond Franz's book(s) Crisis of Concience and In Search of Christian Freedom.
Happy reading.
j2bf
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Gamaliel
Randy Watters was there (so was I) and Randy has a nice site that includes some nice articles explaining it well.
The very best source for most is Ray Franz' book Crisis of Conscience because he was an eyewitness to the events at the highest possible levels.
Go to www.freeminds.org and type 1980 into the search box. It should come up with some nice articles like the following. The first link is Randy's eyewitness account to what happened:
1. What Happened at the World Headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Spring of..1980.
4. part IV, Spiritual Food at the Proper Time, 1974 - 2000
6. Watchtower: The Critical Years
12. Governing Body Home Page (Jehovahs Witnesses)
26. Apostasy Knocks At Bethel's Door (Watchtower)
34. Randall's Scrapbook from Bethel
Gamaliel
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Lonestar13
Thanks all for the responses! A lot of interesting stuff I read there!
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SanFranciscoJim
Also anything about the homosexuality at bethel too?
Here's a first-person account by a friend in Canada:
"At one time I thought that perhaps I was the only gay Jehovah's Witness in Canada, perhaps the world. This was not unusual, as most gay/lesbian Jehovah's Witnesses feel the same way. There is a conspiracy of silence on the subject, since these things were "not to be even mentioned" by a good Christian.
Percy Chapman and his companion Leo Greenlees were sent by Rutherford from London Bethel in 1936 to replace the rebel Canadian Branch Overseer, Walter Salter, who had started up his own group over the "elected elders" debacle. Percy was a mesmerizing public speaker of the old school (no voice amplification required) and with his Lancashire lilt of voice reminded me of Winston Churchill, flapping jowls and all. I can still remember the reverberating vibrato of his voice warning of the "vile depths of the abominations" and since I knew that homosexuality was "an abomination unto the lord" wondered if that was what he was referring to. It was not until later that I began to suspect the administration at Bethel was mainly gay.
I remember the shock at a district assembly in 1959 at Halifax, Nova Scotia where Percy Chapman, then the branch overseer of Canada was to give the main talk. Suddenly who should appear to replace him, but Brother Knorr, the President from New York. Percy Chapman just disappeared from sight. Later we found out that Brother Knorr had removed all responsibilities from Percy but allowed him to remain at Bethel in Toronto as a janitor. The next shock was that Percy Chapman was forced to be married. Percy, following the Rutherford line, was totally anti- marriage and he made sure that none of the "Bethel boys" even contemplated the subject with very strict rules and early curfews. The only way a bethel boy could see another sister would be to go on a Bible study with her. My parents started studying in 1945 with a beautiful young pioneer sister named Joyce Randall and every week there would be a new Bethel boy accompanying her. She later was sent to Gilead and posted in Peru, totally isolated, only to be seduced by a latin lover. Of course she was disfellowshipped and sent home in disgrace. But my family did get to know a lot of Bethel boys. They were all young and handsome, hand-picked by Percy Chapman; there was even an elite group known as "Percy's boys" who would accompany him to expensive restaurants and bars and receive other favours. At the time, Bethel was on Irwin Avenue, now (although replaced by a condominium) in the centre of the gay district of Toronto. There was even a Kingdom Hall above "the Parkside", one of Toronto's few gay bars in the fifties and sixties.
Poor Leo Greenlees, Percy's close companion for three decades even when at London Bethel, had to find himself a new room-mate. Leo was a cheerful, likable fellow, with his thick Scottish brogue and also an electrifying public speaker. He was very open about his homosexuality to those few good-looking young brothers like those he would meet at one of the summer resorts in Haliburton run by Jehovah's Witnesses (later bequeathed to the Watchtower Society). I got to know Leo a little better when he was assigned to be congregation overseer at the Kingdom Hall I attended as a teenager during the early sixties in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto. He would bring along another bethel boy, Lorne Bridle, who was very good looking and charming. After a failed marriage to a young pioneer sister, he eventually committed suicide. I often wondered what tortured state of mind led him to that - but so often the fate of closeted gays in the Watchtower society!
But Leo was soon to be promoted to Brooklyn Bethel, where he became the Treasurer of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and one of the elite governing body. He managed to escape the witch-hunt at Brooklyn Bethel in the early seventies when dozens of Bethel boys were disfellowshipped after learning of their midnight trysts in the sauna in Brooklyn bethel. There was for a short period in the late sixties and early seventies a marked liberalization of attitudes among the governing body. But this suddenly ended, culminating with a power struggle and the disfellowshipping of Raymond Franz, a member of the governing body who was a free-thinker and had written the "Truth" book and chaired the writing of the almost scholarly "Aid to Bible Understanding". Both books, interestingly have joined the list of publications that you would think never existed according to the Watchtower society, although the "Truth" book had the largest printing, next to the Bible, of any book in the world.
It as not until a few years ago that I learned Leo Greenlees had been found out and was removed from the Governing Body for being gay. The last I heard as that he was sent to San Diego where he died not too long ago. As far as I know he was never disfellowshipped, nor can I corroborate any real seductions. Another member of the GB, Chitty who was also removed from Brooklyn Bethel for the same reason and sent away to London, England, I understand."
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Insomniac
Lordy, San Francisco Jim, what a story! Hard to believe that a few people of the same sex falling in love, lust, or whatever, should warrant a witchhunt. I just hope that someday this will all cease to be an issue, and nobody will end up comitting suicide or being persecuted over their orientation. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now. I have a lot of gay friends, and I hate to think of them in situations like these.