You're absolutely right, Six Semper.
At Bethel I would never have pinned anything evil on Freddy, but Knorr was just harsh... but he knew how to do business in the world, and how to manipulate the right people with the least amount of collateral damage.
Freddy, on the other hand, lived in a whole different world. He really had no grasp on anything related to business or handling people, but he was very friendly to the Bethelite boys. The opposite of Knorr. But he detested the other men who were seeking power, like Milton Henschel, who some time after he was appointed to the new Governing Body let his hair down to the 300 Bethel elders in a vital meeting that "the president promised them power" in so many words, but that "Where is that power, we see none of it yet." I was so shocked I was frantically taking notes while he spoke. I later incorporated them into my tract, "What Happened at the World Headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Spring of 1980?" after a visit with Ed Gruss. it went along with my disassociation letter a few months later after having been reapointed as an elder locally in the El Segundo congregation near LAX after having left Bethel. That really took the local elders by surprise... no one had a clue I was a rebel.
Freddy was delusional. When he wrote the "God's Kingdom of 1000 Years" book, the writing dept. was horrified, as he changed the interpretation of many passages in the NT. What made it worse was that at a Gilead graduation right around the time of the release of the book, he reviewed all of the previous understandings of some of Jesus' parables... quite boring, then halkway through he shocked the entirew crowd of Bethelites by saying it was all hogwash, and proceeded to reprogram our minds with his new understanding. No doubt his Jewish scholar friend who he was often seen with, and got many of his ideas from, might have been the source of part of his "new light." It was the first time I have ever seen anyone give a lecture on doctrine and then make a complete reversal midstreeam and totally reinterpret the old one as wrong. 180 degrees wrong!
One day at the breakfast table(?) Dan Sydlik stood up and said that all Bethelites from now on should come to breakfast like they would to a meeting, shirt and tie, and a coat would be nice! That went over like a lead balloon. Freddy always took the side of the young Bethel brothers, and as a table head he came to breakfast all five days the next week in a T-SHIRT that said on the front, "Where in the Hell is McCook, Nebraska?" Open rebellion against the lesser GB, especially Sydlik. Obviously few Bethelites took Sydlik's advice. No wonder when Knorr died and Freddy became president, he didn't last long and was whisked out of Bethel. He was a poison to the agenda of the GB, and was an embarrassment due to rumors of possible homosexuality, with his saunas with the young brothers every week. YUK!
He, like Rutherford (who he no doubt learned it from), loved to reinterpret scripture whenever he wanted to change the organization. He actually was thought to have wrote some of Rutherford's books. And as I mentioned in my quote of the "Four President's book, he invented the "no blood" doctrine to keep the org. looking radical and to offset the dwindling numbers at the time.
Persecution always increases the numbers in cults - it is feeding the monster. Freddy, unbeknown to us at the time, was the REAL monster. Knorr was just ugly and mean. Quite a shocker.
Randy
More on this:
http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=326:the-watchtower-bible-and-tract-societythe-critical-years-1975-1997&catid=31:governing-body&Itemid=346
John May comes to America:
http://www.watchtowernews.org/media/may.mp3
derek May and Martin Merriman:
http://youtu.be/KBa9HRSrnFk
and a multiple eye-witness discussion at:
http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:freddy-klein-and-the-apostate-books&catid=32:brooklyn-bethel&Itemid=347
Randy
There is so much more to tell it's boggling.
Ed Dunlap's testimony:
http://www.watchtowernews.org/media/dunlap.mp3
Cris and Norma Sanchez 'cruel treatment after years at Bethel:
http://www.watchtowernews.org/media/sanchez.mp3
My roommate Robert Sullivan and I interview shortly after leaving:
http://www.watchtowernews.org/media/whathapp.mp3
My former Bethelite guest log:
http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/bethelguest.htm
Warren Schroeder tells his side of the story:
Hi Randy, Just a hello from Warren Schroeder, [I was in] Bethel: 5/79 to 10/82.
Over the years I lost touch with some common friends and was looking for a couple of names which I found through the ex-JW sites. I live in the East Village with my dearest wife, who teaches at NYU. We sometimes think we're the oldest people in the neighborhood... I just turned 53. We can't imagine living anywhere else.... well, we can imagine, but not any time in the near future.
I think back to my years at Bethel with great fondness, even though many of my closest friends were dismissed and treated badly during the "purge". I made many good friends in and out of Bethel. Many of us knew we were part of a significant movement inside Bethel which also found its influence into a few small local NY groups outside of Bethel.
The powers seemed to tolerate the loose and liberal talk for quite a while. The Towers and Squibb construction was complete, or near complete, and the Bethel population was growing very fast. It was buzzing and alive. Bible reading groups and bible commentaries were popping up everywhere. Construction and spending money, including new 4-color presses and faster bindery equipment, was foremost and took priority with the "management". Dealing with the heretics was put on hold a bit, at least until the great property grab in the Brooklyn Heights was completed.
There were a couple new books published that were nothing like the typical FWFranzesque “prophetic calculus manuals.” These books were not typical fare, and you could see the puzzled looks when they reached the book study groups and meetings. Biblical commentary within scriptural context, with applied critical thinking, was a daunting task for the star-struck and lobotomized organizational faithful.
There was a point when the committees finally started their inquisitions. I had a total of three, two of which that included Don Adams (twice), John Booth, and some Bethel elders I don't remember, and finally a one-on-one with Karl Klein in his writing department office (this was likely due to my relationship with Rinehardt Lengtat, who I had studied with for about a year). The Karl Klein meeting was most memorable. Karl got quite fired up, doing all the talking, and began drooling on himself. He always seemed to have a slight speech impediment. He had two open books in front of him marked on various pages that he read passages from and stated the heresy of the ideas and how opposed these ideas were to "Freddy's". He named the authors, clearly mentioning Ray Franz and Rinehardt Lengtat. The books were "Commentary on James" and "Happiness".
I do not recall the particulars of the discussion now and which were the problem passages. It was an event to watch him so animated when he was simply sitting slouched in a chair. As far as the real purge, guilt by association was easier for the elders to deal with than figuring out what you really believed. I knew how to answer the "what do you believe" questions since I was primed by Chris Sanchez and Nestor Kuilan, who I had met with once, during their series of meetings with Bethel elders, and again, right after their liberation from Bethel. In the beginning of the purge, who I knew and talked to would be problematic. I was certainly "small potatoes" but the committees wanted information about others. I got away with mostly saying I didn't know anything about how any person believed on specific doctrines. The first committee I met was easy because it was early in the hunt, and the inquisitors were a bit lost as a group by not being very focused on anything in particular. The 2nd committee was a few months later and made me sweat a bit more. They had their people lined up and their questioning fine tuned, mostly with one person asking all the questions. Overall, the meetings were short and, for me, ended with a little talk about bad association and reading worldly Bible commentaries.
This is all so much water under the bridge and much more since. I was never disfellowshipped and never resigned as a JW (with some criticism by a few others that I should do so). By 1984 I never thought to attend a Kingdom Hall again out of my own volition. I have never looked back with regret, or that my unpaid work at Bethel was a waste of my time. I was a little later than many in getting my college education and attaining other economic benefits, but it was an irreplaceable learning experience, being a progressive free thinker inside a closed minded group, and surviving relatively unscathed. I look back and retell the story for an interested audience. I reflect on who I am today, very different than who I was as a young JW. Bethel was an important turning point in my life. If it could have the same results I could only wish the experience for others.
Cheers,
Warren
and last but the best, political cartoons from Bethel in 1979:
http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/toons/cabeen.htm
Real Comments from the Bethel Breakfast table:
http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/morningworship.htm
Keith Casarona's story:
http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/NewBoy.htm
and Quak's cartoons:
http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/toons/quak.htm
My scrapbook from Bethel:
http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/scrapbook.htm
Fred Franz Discredits Concept of a "Governing Body":
http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=414:fred-franz-discredited-the-concept-of-a-qgoverning-bodyq&catid=31:governing-body&Itemid=346
25 Years After Bethel - Friends Reunited