What is your experience as to buying Crisis of Conscience? (page 2)

garybuss

I ordered my copy of Crisis Of Conscience from a Christian bookstore in 1992 after reading about Ray Franz leaving the Watch Tower Corporation at the public library, in the same year, in a book about cults.

I walked away from Witness association in 1974 and had been living as a believing walkaway while resenting the Witness group. The COC book took away the believing part. In Search Of Christian Freedom filled in some blanks in my mind.

That left a huge void. Everything I had been taught at home at school and in church except the multiplication tables had been proved lacking. The Witness group isn't a belief group, it's a disbelief society. I didn't need to replace it with another disbelief group.

I really started my education then at 48 years old. I'm still at it. Still looking for good teachers.

I didn't get on the Internet till 1995. In 1992, there was little objective information about the Witness group available to people like me out on the plains of South Dakota. It all helped, and thanks to Diane Gholson, Spanglers, Joan Centnar, Jerry Bergman, and especially Randy Watters, I met some other former Witnesses and got some facts I needed.

Reading Crisis Of Conscience and In Search Of Christian Freedom was the early start of my recovery not the end. I had a valueless value system and a fatalistic outlook underlined by a feeling of impending doom. These are not the tools I needed to live a rewarding life.

I think Ray needs to write a book for us to read before we read Crisis Of Conscience telling us what NOT to DO after we read Crisis Of Conscience. GaryB

willyloman

Or you could just go right to the source, and it's a good one:

http://www.commentarypress.com/

Spend some time there; excellent essays and a number of other interesting books for sale. Ray will send the book right out himself.

FairMind

About a year ago after dipping my feet into the waters of apostasy by coming to web sites such as this one I found the courage to order 30 Years a WT Slave as a used book. I had it shipped to me at work. This book was OK but the writer’s attitude seemed to be an angry one and it left me feeling that he might have just been a very disgruntled person. So, I ordered COC and had it shipped again to my office so that my wife would not know. It was a wonderful book that really opened my eyes to the fact that what I had observed on a local level was actually an attitude that had filtered down from the top.

I have since obtained and read several other books by ex-JWs and will continue to order and read what ever is available as time passes. The books I have finished are part of a “secret library” I have at home. My hope is that my wife will discover them and that curiosity will get the best of her.

FM

M.J.

Startingover,

I will never forget the gasp she let out when I tried to share it with her.

So...Did she just close her eyes and refuse to have anything to do with it? I'd like to know if anyone can be convinced to read it while still firmly believing in the "truth".

startingover

M.J.

So...Did she just close her eyes and refuse to have anything to do with it? I'd like to know if anyone can be convinced to read it while still firmly believing in the "truth".

Absolutely right, the eyes closed and the wall went up. The mind control regarding "apostates" is so strong it's unbelievable. I can understand, I was once there myself.

I often wonder if Ray reads threads like this. If you do Ray, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you. Without your words I might very well be floundering about living in WT created guilt.

researcher

I have been wanting to read both of Bro Franz's books. Crisis of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom.

I was hoping that at some point an electronic copy would be available. But to this date, NO.

I have to be discreet................ If the 'you know who found out' there would be problems :)

So If anyone has any suggestions..............let me know.......I have no problem paying...........its the discreet part...............

seeitallclearlynow

Researcher, could you get a post office box somewhere? Then have the books shipped there; you could read them in bits right there at the p.o. box location or take them out to a park somewhere after putting book covers on them.

I remember the first time I tried to read C. of C. - I was so nervous even parking in the parking lot of the little strip mall for fear someone would realize I had intentionally gone to a Christian Book Store. But I went in and went to the Cults section and was shocked to find JW's listed by many as a cult. I found Ray's book and started reading it in the store. But how to buy it? Where to keep it?? So I asked the owner of the store if I could pay for the book and leave it there, to return to read more of it as I could. He was sad/disgusted/appalled at the way JW's were kept in fear by the religion over simply reading a book! He wouldn't let me buy the book and said I could just come in and read it any time I wanted to.

Well I did buy the book and had to keep it hidden in my apartment or the trunk of my car. I gave it to someone else to read so years later I needed another copy, as I never did really read the entire book. The second time I bought it I kept it in my locker at work and was afraid another witness employee might see me reading it...sheese. The book has been hidden in my vehicle for a couple of years now. That's the power we (I) give them....

But on a more amusing note -

Another friend who eventually read it and DA'd was scared to death to even touch it at first.

This is so true! Even when I tried to hand my very open minded brother an email from Ray Franz, he got visibly nervous, and didn't want to be caught holding it if my kids walked in the room! I'm happy to say that after he read the email, he then sped-read C of C and commented that Ray Franz "is one of the Masters."

blondie

I ordered it through Amazon.com and even though it came to my home, my dear hubbie never opens my mail. I just put a cover on it from another book and when done locked it up in my file cabinet. A few months later, my hubbie stopped attending. My husband has never read Ray's books, but he has met him several times and broke bread with him.

Neo

seeitallclearlynow,

when I tried to hand my very open minded brother an email from Ray Franz, he got visibly nervous, and didn't want to be caught holding it if my kids walked in the room! I'm happy to say that after he read the email, he then sped-read C of C and commented that Ray Franz "is one of the Masters."

Great story! Though Ray wouldn't like this title very much...

Neo

researcher

Hey , blondie, seeitallclearlynow,nero,,,,,,,............do you have any suggestions on how to get these two books discreetly?

What is your experience as to buying Crisis of Conscience?

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