![]() ![]() "enables me to be free from brooding or harboring bitterness toward the persons involved, either individually or collectively." Franz says on page 346 that his understanding of the root cause of the problems he has encountered I believe his approach is to hate the sin but not the sinner. Franz's stated motivation is not bitterness. What results when proper respect for authority is converted into servility, unquestioning submission, an abandonment of personal responsibility before God to make decisions based on individual conscience?Īt this time I want to cite for you some references to show that Mr. ![]() What happens when the desirable qualities of unity and order are substituted for by demands for institutionalized conformity and by legalistic regimentation? What is the effect when spiritual "guidance" becomes mental domination, even spiritual tyranny? Franz expressed his understanding for the need of unity, of order, of protection from pernicious teaching and of a proper respect for authority.īut on page 7 he asks some good questions: "How, then, is it the case that today any person among their members who voices a personal difference of viewpoint as to the teachings of the organization is almost certain to face judicial proceedings and, unless willing to retract, is liable for disfellowship?. In other countries they have experienced severe persecution, arrests, jailing, mobbings, beatings, and official bans prohibiting their literature and preaching. They have taken some fifty cases to the Supreme Court of the United States in defense of their freedom of conscience. Franz continues by showing a remarkable contrast about conscience. At that kind of crossroads, decisions do not come easy." "On the other hand, they face the risk of losing lifelong friends, seeing family relationships traumatically affected, sacrificing a religious heritage that may reach back for generations. On the one hand, they feel impelled to reject the interposing of human authority between themselves and their Creator to reject religious dogmatism, legalism and authoritarianism, to hold true to the teaching that Christ Jesus, not any human religious body, is 'the head of every man.' They face the same issue that Peter and John and men and women of later centuries confronted: the struggle to hold true to personal conscience in the face of pressure from religious authority. I am sure, and there is evidence to show, that their experience is by no means unique, that there is a similar stirring of conscience among people of various faiths. ![]() "The people I write of are from among those I know most intimately, persons who have been members of the religious group known as Jehovah's Witnesses. #Raymond franz trial#On page 1 he writes that the examples found in his book "may have little of the high drama found in the heresy trial of a John Wycliffe, the intrigue of the international hunt for an elusive William Tyndale, or the horror of the burning at the stake of a Michael Servetus." Let's go to the beginning of the book and identify Mr. This book is advertised as a penetrating view of a religion's supreme council and its dramatic power over people's lives. If you are pressed for time, you can consider reading only the first three and last three chapters. This book has 408 pages with another 20 pages of appendixes. Although he wrote the first edition in 1983, I read the fourth edition from 2002. The author is Raymond Franz, a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. A 'Crisis of Conscience' opens eyes - Part 1Ĭrisis of Conscience is a book about the struggle between loyalty to God and loyalty to one's religion. ![]()
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