Here's a bloke who entered the ministry of the Worldwide Church of God, jumped overboard when the United Church of God broke away, and then - liebe Gott! - followed David Hulme into the ministry of the Church of God, an International Community.
And then he "slip-slided" away into a cloud of self-generated fog. Word is that he's now a Baha'i.
Now a lot of this information (but not the Baha'i connection) can be found in a piece he's just had published in The Journal, ostensibly a personal commentary on the current ripping apart of the Hulme group. Fransson is both critical and affirming of the Dear Leader, which I find remarkable, but has absolutely nothing to say about the pretenders, Orchard and Nathan. I guess there's no point in alienating potential readers of his new autobiographical instalment, soon to be released under the title The Hardness of the Heart.I read the first volume to the bitter end with a mixture of empathy and distaste. You can take the man out of the ministry, but can you take the ministry out of the man? It is an interesting account, and reasonably well told; but I still doubt I'd buy a used car from Wade.
But, hey, the new book will probably sell well in the Herbal diaspora - the last one apparently did. It's not yet listed on Amazon, but it shouldn't be long in coming. I really want to know, though, when the author is going to come clean and relate what is, at least to me, the most interesting part of his story: from A to B (Armstrong to Bahá’u’lláh).
As for The Journal, I hope to post a link to the latest issue, along with a few comments, tomorrow.
Mr Fransson has advised me that:
ReplyDelete- he has not been a salaried minister of any church since leaving WCG
- his new book is due out around Valentines Day
- that he is not making a living off sales of his books
- that a third book is planned which will address where he stands currently
It's probably fair to add that Mr Fransson is less than delighted with the coverage on Otagosh. He seems to feel there is an inference that he's doing this for the money, that the comments made here do not constitute a fair review, and there is an ad hominem element.
To respond: (1) There was no intended implication about monetary gain, simply an observation that the first book has apparently sold well, as evidenced by Mr Fransson's own publicity material.
(2) Neither this posting nor an earlier one was intended as a review. When I have written reviews, they have been clearly identified as such. I referred to the first posting as a "preliminary mention."
(3) As for ad hominem, the impressions here are quite genuine based solely on Mr Fransson's writing style and content. We reveal a good deal about ourselves in print, both he and I included, and readers can make their own judgement call.
The Baha'i have lavish temples around the globe.
ReplyDeleteThey're going to be tapping Wade's wallet like WCG, UCG, GOGIC,
Is he the Programmer who cannot deprogram himself?