"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. 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. There are also videos on Youtube that tell about his remarkable journey.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. If you are an active JW, I hope that you will read it also. I want to encourage anyone interested in learning more about JW’s to download this free resource and discover for themselves what this man had to say. Recently, I discovered a link on the internet for the entire book…for free. This is tragic, because his insights on the inner workings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WTBTS) are priceless.įranz wrote two books after he left the organization: “Crisis of Conscience” and “In search of Christian Freedom.” Crisis of Conscience has undoubtably had the greatest impact on many JW’s, because they attribute reading it as the catalyst that propelled them out of the organization. Unfortunately, his story is not widely known because of the fact that he was disfellowshipped. Franz was disfellowshipped because he began to see that the organization that he loved and faithfully served in had some deep issues.įranz’a story is unique, particularly since he was a Governing Body member. Since there are so few of these men who have occupied this top position among JW’s, whatever he has to say carries much weight with all JW’s. Raymond Franz was a former Governing Body member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
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