I have a couple of GB related questions.
In Crisis of Conscience, Ray mentions several times the way decisions are (were?) made by a voting system. Having been brought up in another country (not US), I was rather surprised at the kinds of things they would decide; Ray has a few copies in his book of letters from various congregations, letters that sometimes take up quite personal matters concerning a couple of people in one single congregation, for instance. I never thought our branch / our congregations in my country had such a 'close connection' with the GB?
So my questions are:
-Do (did?) the GB really have to decide on each and every little case and query from congregations all over the globe? This sounds like a task even Santa would find difficult to handle, time-wise. How does it work in practice? How can this small bunch of old guys possibly vote on every minor and major issue around the world? Do the local branches have "GB power" in certain matters, so that they are solved locally? How does it work today, if differently from when Ray was in? How do they have the time if the same?
The second, unrelated question is:
-Whenever a lowly JW asks a question there aren't any clear cut answers to in the literature, he/she may be in trouble. However - for the whole voting system thingy of the GB to work, they surely will have to ponder a whole lot of ideas, and jumble them around? For instance, Ray mentions how the thought that "this generation" is the anointed as a group was a thought that had been around for quite some time, and I'm sure had been voted on once or more (but turned down). In such an environment, one would think that more GB members would smell the coffee and get out? Yet they don't. But still - their minds must be full of unresolved questions, sometimes voted on, but turned down?