v asked me to post his latest video - a tribute to ray franz made with the help of many people who took the time to record a brief message about what ray meant to them, and to those people v has asked me to pass his special thanks.. .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0axx-av7zrcif you are on facebook maybe post this on your profile..
Besty -
Thank V for a most wonderful and fitting video tribute. I've posted it at www.ex-jw.com. I'll repost here on a subsequent message any comments or memorial messages I receive on the post.
Thanks for letting us know about this video and posting it here for all to enjoy.
i've been watching the new dvd and it is a bull fest about russell.
i haven't even gotten half way and they already excluded one very important bit of information.
you'll recall that russell "lost" his faith and "turning away from church creeds and searching for truth, russell examined some leading oriental religions, only to find these unsatisfying".
Rutherford's son was named Malcolm. He was so pissed at his father (even though he held a decent job at the WT for a short time), that he and his mother would not even attend the Judge's funeral.
over at freeminds we didn't want this day to pass without some recognition of the life and death of ray franz.
in view of his stated wishes not to have a memorial or service we hoped for something that he would have liked for all of us to take a moment over.. .
we owe a note of thanks to v for his graphics work and atjeff for the obituary writing - i know neither of them need mentioned by me.. .
Beautiful. I wanted to share it with our readers, so I sent a link your way, Jeff and Randy...
hi everyone,.
many have expressed a desire to show sympathy and concern for cynthia franz somehow and wonder the best way they can do this or how they can help.. if you would like to write a letter or card to her and/or send her a little gift contribution, the following address would be best and safest.. cynthia franz, c/o commentary press, po box 43532, atlanta, ga 30336-0502.. thank you..
Thank you very much. Just what I needed...
does anyone remember seeing the witness movie called "heritage" ?
it was made in the early 60's and they used to show it once a year at the kh when i was a kid.
(with guilty minds, we were secretly glad to see the projector set up in the middle section of the hall because it meant we didn't have to sit through another long boring talk.. even as a little kid i could see the one sided propaganda basicaly showing how empty "worldly" peoples lives were compared to ours and if you were a witness your family life would be idyllic like on "leave it to beaver".
I was active during those years (1954 -1966) and never once saw any of those movies. Never saw PhotoDrama (CT Russell's slide show) either, even though several copies of the black and white version were still around at that time.
It would be fun to see these old movies because I might be able to relate to the time period. It seems as if they might have been filmed on the east coast of the USA and I live in Southern California at that time - but there should still be some similarities.
Thanks for posting them, Wasanelder. Hopefully the WT won't shut you down before we all get a good look at some of them.
just setting the record straight.
there is another thread that notes a claim on wiki that said that ray has died.. he had a stroke yesterday, and is in the hospital.
he is still alive.
A very brief announcement...
active unbaptised publisher here.you?
(though i already know the answer for some people).
I am a dedicated, willful, and unrepentant ex-JW.
Started studying at age 7 in 1951, going to meetings at 8, ministry school at 9, International Convention in NY in 1953, vacation pioneered at 11, 12, 13, and 14. Went to International Convention in NY in 1958. Vacation pioneered in 1959. Gave first public talk at 15 1/2. Started dating a Catholic girl at 17. Married at the KH in 1962. Wife baptized JW in fall 1962. Gave public talks all over circuit in 1963. Started to fade in 1965. DF'd in 1966. Wife was in until 1973, but I was a DF'd husband during that time. Because of 1975, wife pressured me in 1969 to go back or she'd leave me. She left me in 1971. She quit the JWs in 1976 and went back to being Catholic. I've only been in KHs for the funerals of my parents in 1985 and 2006, and for my step-mother in 1988.
Started becoming active in the ex-JW educational movement in 1998. Now edit and webmaster www.ex-jw.com.
I guess that means I'm an "outie" - not an "innie"!
14 years in and 45 out. Thank God for Ray Franz!!!
just setting the record straight.
there is another thread that notes a claim on wiki that said that ray has died.. he had a stroke yesterday, and is in the hospital.
he is still alive.
I will be putting up a proper tribute page to Mr. Franz on www.Ex-JW.com when appropriate. I welcome anyone here to contribute their own personal testimonies about their connection to Ray and his books. I'll be happy to publish any that you'd like to offer. Articles also allow for comments, so feel free to visit and add your own.
If Michael Jackson could have an article on Ex-JW.com, Ray Franz most certainly deserves one!
But let's not rush things. I'll do it when the time is right...
just setting the record straight.
there is another thread that notes a claim on wiki that said that ray has died.. he had a stroke yesterday, and is in the hospital.
he is still alive.
Coffee (and any others) -
I briefly came across a mailing address for Cynthia while perusing the various forums, but it seems to have disappeared at some point. Perhaps someone here that has contact with Mrs. Franz, or with some of their close friends in the area, could make contact and find out what she might need in the way of funds or other assistance. She needs to know that many of us here are willing to contribute toward her immediate needs.
I have no idea what their living arrangments might be now. I suspect that they derive some income from royalties from Ray's books, but so many years after they were published that might not be enough to sustain them. I doubt that they had much, or anything, from Social Security since they spent most of their working years living under a vow of poverty.
Bottom line is that we should not pry into their personal financial affairs, but just be aware that they may have some special needs if Ray makes it back home - or doesn't. I'm sure that many of us would be willing to pitch in and help them a bit.
So - can you help get this information for us and get the word to Mrs. Franz that we really care for them both?
Thanks!
a wonderful darling man was so kind as to anonymously pm this to be shared with the board...... consider it 'food at the proper time'.
kudos for anony-brother.
for actual outline.... http://www.sendspace.com/file/o58i6h.
The public talks were an hour when I gave them back in the 1960's.
Total wasted time stolen from my life (including travel time and misc. BS with the other JWs before and after): nearly 3 hours.
The dead time between meetings was eventually reduced to 15 minutes because there were so few real members of the "public" that ever attended. The original purpose of the 30 minute breaks time between meetings was to allow new ones on their first or second visits to the hall to be introduced to all of the servants and more popular brothers and sisters - a little "love bombing" time.
The local congregation could move the WT study along a bit and reduce it to 45-50 minutes as long as all the paragraphs were covered. But when that happened, they would call on Brother Wysocki, one of the last of the remnant anointed in that KH and a Polish survivor of WW2, to pray.
Brother Wysocki only got his invitation to pray about once every two months, so he made the best of it. Praying in a mix of broken English and Polish, he would cough and wheeze and repeat himself several times during his 8-10 minute closing prayer. We would always stand for the final prayer, so all of the mothers would have to try to keep their kids in line or hold their babies that whole time. The longer he went on the more babies would cry. Their mothers would use that excuse to make a hasty retreat out the back of the KH or into the ladies' room - a perfect excuse for an escape.
Do I miss those days? Not on your life! RIP, Brother Wysocki - I hope you are enjoying your eternal life in heaven sitting at Jesus' (or is it Jehovah's) right hand and ruling with him.
