First, that they repent and forsake their elevated status. Those charlatans who occupy the high ground with their manipulation and lies, I wish them two things. I consider myself as a Christian and a Witness of Jehovah. I am ashamed and disgusted to be a Jehovah’s Witness.Īlthough associated with a congregation in my heart I am not a JW. So, I can really relate to what these two former witnesses are saying and to use a phrase from the Society their story has the ‘ring of truth’. In my time I have experienced the bureaucratic nightmare and the willingness of elders to lie and dishonour themselves in front of God, just to save face. His gruff exterior oftentimes belied his genuine compassion for others, including Franz. I think it worthwhile to note that in spite of his sometimes intimidating words, Swingle was, at least for a time, a good friend and ally of Raymond Franz. Franz told me in subsequent conversations that Swingle had known no other life except Bethel, and no doubt, this was an overriding factor in his compliance with the Society. We will never know whether he was of the same mind as those courageous men at Bethel who obeyed their own conscience. In spite of Swingle’s harsh treatment of these two brothers who sought an audience with him, I believe he was in a great deal of personal turmoil over the lynch mob mentality of the Governing Body and other zealots within the organization. He also told Franz that he should not resign, not give up. Some of what Franz wrote about Swingle led me think that he was of the same opinion about the last days and the “Gentile Times” ending in 1914. I was both thrilled and terrified to read it… sometime before I found and read the book, I had decided I could no longer accept Witness theology. Six or seven years later I found “Crisis of Conscience” in the Marriott Library at the U. I heard about their discussion first-hand from my father at that time I was still a faithful Witness. They told him that even though an individual was responsible for the whole idea, it was still published through the Society’s literature, and therefore, the Society was culpable for the whole misleading blunder. His response was that the date was merely the idea of an individual… implying that the Society was not wholly responsible for all the sensationalism during the years leading up to 1975.īoth of his half-brothers were Elders at the time and they rejected his explanation. In the late 1970’s, Lyman’s two younger half-brothers (one of whom was my father) confronted him about the 1975 fiasco. I never asked him about his relationship with Ray Franz He certainly would have refused to talk about it. Swingle responded to these two Witnesses. Two elders that actually flew to meet Ray Franz and Peter Gregerson in 1981 when it all went down and called Bro Barr and Bro Swingle and begged them to meet with them. His seminal works will be read and re-read by those struggling to make sense of the Watchtower Society and other high control groups for many years to come. When he woke up to the truth about the truth, he struggled with and went through his crisis and told us about it in a candid, humble manner. Millions of Witnesses unknowingly study his articles regularly, right off of the bound volumes in the Watchtower library, and especially in the many sections he wrote for the excellent Bible encyclopedia Insight on the Scriptures.īut the most significant of his writings are Crisis of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom. Hundreds of thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been personally touched by this gentle brother who served Jehovah God and Jesus Christ zealously for so many years. One year ago Brother Ray Franz finished his earthly course.
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