Posts by slimboyfat

59

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

The generation change was a big wake up call for me too. But apparently not too big a wake up call considering I got baptised two years later!

The generation change impacted a lot of people including, or perhaps especially very long term members that were hit hard with the realisation that Armageddon was no longer predicted in their lifetime.

Having said that, it’s sobering to realise that much more than half the current JWs joined the religion or were baptised after 1995. So for most current JWs the generation change had already been made before they decided to commit to the religion. In other words its impact may be receding as (with some irony) on generation now replaces another.

13

Loyalty to the Governing Body? Timeline to Change

by blondie in

jw
friends

https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/governing-body.php .

here is an example how the wts has "adjusted" scripture.

the governing body has gone as far as to change the text of micah 6:8 in their 2013 new world translation of the holy scriptures (nwt) in order to be able to demand loyalty.

slimboyfat

I think they changed “loving kindness” to “loyal love” throughout the Hebrew Bible, it was not peculiar to this verse. Personally I liked “loving kindness” better but maybe that is just because of familiarity. It was in the kingdom songs and everything: “his loving kindness will follow me”, and so on. I guess they’ve probably changed the lyrics to the songs too.

What I never realised as a JW is that the phrase “loving kindness” is very prominent in Buddhism. I don’t know if the GB is aware of that or if it played any part in dropping the phrase. Probably not. It seems just an attempt to replace a particlar idiosyncratic translation of Fred Franz with something that is more understandable and perhaps closer to the original meaning.

59

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

Have you been to a Christadelphian meeting Wing Commander?

59

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

I doubt Fred Franz left a lot of written material because he was blind for the last 10 years or so and I think there was already a shift away from his style in the 1980s while he was still alive. He could still dictate and write things when he was blind but it seems unlikely he was building up a lot of written material at that stage and with those problems.

His style probably still influenced the green Survival book in 1984 which was full of types and anti-types, although the actual writing was perhaps done by others.

I seem to recall somebody saying that the Trinity brochure was the last publication Franz wrote himself or had major input on. It would make sense considering his long-standing interest in refuting the Trinity. That was published in 1989 just a couple of years before he died.

59

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

Yes, that would be excellent! Also settle the issue of what Maria Russell wrote in the early days too.

59

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

Balaam, Fred Franz was certainly weird and he got weirder as he got older, people who knew him seem to agree on that. But are you sure about the gay angle? I’ve heard from others that Franz had a sort of girlfriend in the French branch and Barbara Harrison says she got on with him and reckons he flirted with her when she was a young secretary in the 1950s. Others have said he was apparently asexual. Knorr on the other hand, more people seem to agree was probably gay, whether he acted on it or suppressed it. A few years ago it was claimed AI could predict sexual orientation from the shape of a person’s face. I wouldn’t be surprised if it can do that now because orientation does seem to have a genetic component and openly gay people do seem to have a difficult to define “look” that AI may be able to tease out by leveraging big data. Maybe it could be possible to answer such questions, shortly before AI kills us all. 🤯

59

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

The style of writing has certainly changed in lots of respects. The overriding difference is that vocabulary and sentence structure has become simpler, some would say dumbed down. The tone is also less belligerent, in particular against other churches, for example. Some old commonplaces have disappeared, such as the old references to “the society” and “classes”, as in the “John class”, “bride class”, “other sheep class”, or perhaps the best: “evil slave class”.

Many have commented on Franz’s distinct style over the years. I wonder if you could provide an example of a book or other publication you think displays this style most clearly.

12

Too Much Video ?

by HereIam60 in

does anyone feel the same way?

i am not anti-video, just feeling overload.

since the jw organization started video production there has been such a flood of it that no one can, or possibly even wants to keep up with it all: some thoughts and questions i"ve had -.

slimboyfat

Think video is too much? Wait until they plant the thoughts direct to your brain via a cyber link. Is this a joke? I’m not so sure. 🤖

88

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

slimboyfat

13% of surnames in Germany are Slavic according to Wikipedia. In Vienna they are very common. Yet our resident ChatGPT expert knows otherwise.

All of which is beside the point because our ChatGPT friend somehow failed to appreciate that the woman’s maiden name is different than her married name anyway. 🤦‍♂️

88

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

slimboyfat

As so often, you say multiple contradictory things at once in the style of: there’s absolutely no hole in the bucket, and I didn’t make the hole in the bucket, and it wasn’t my fault I made the hole the bucket, and who cares if there is a hole in the bucket anyway?

You start out saying it “strains credibility” that the pope made the comment.

Then you go on to say: “He may have been polite (because he was a gentleman), but to interpret a passing kindness as some hidden theological endorsement is naive at best and deceitful at worst.”

So which is it?

My view is it’s plausible he made the comment though it can’t be proved. And if he did make the comment then obviously it was not intended as a theological endorsement of JWs. He was just being polite. I said so above before you did. Your comments don’t contradict what I wrote they agree with them.