God rest his soul. Although I never met him personally, he and I did correspond a number of times, and I have numerous friends who have not only met him, but stayed several days with he and Cynthia at their home. If nothing else, Ray was kind, non-judging, and generous. And, it turned out, he became an honest man after shedding the Watchtower lies.
I do take exception to a phrase he used in COC, though. I think he was sincere when he said it, but he was still wrong. He described Jehovah's Witnesses and their relationship with Governing Body members, not as evil people, but as "victims of victims."
I wouldn't be remiss to call dubs "victims." I think they are victims. But dubs don't rule over all aspects of the lives of over 6 million people. The GB does. Only the GB know all the dirty secrets and lies that are hidden by the Watchtower Corporation because they are the ones who hid them. Only the GB know what goes on in their Wednesday afternoon meetings, where wacko ideas are submitted to a democratic-style vote so they can become new doctrine or not. Only the GB knew about their cover-up of Judge Rutherford's 15-year long illicit relationship with Berta Peale and that Beth Sarim was built to get the drunken judge out of Brooklyn and 3,000 miles away before he could do any more damage at Bethel. Only the GB knew about Rutherford's illegally smuggling liquor from Canada during Prohibition. Only the GB knew that their pursuit of Ray Franz was a witch hunt to discredit him because he DARED to have a personal opinion, even though he didn't break any Watchtower laws.
Now I know that there was no formal "GB" during some of the events I mentioned, but all the players who were privy to those events later became GB members. Swingle, Schroeder, Klein, Barr and others were heavy-weights in Brooklyn for decades before the 1970's.
Since the GB has taken upon itself the mantle as God's personal spokesmen, they have a much higher standard of accountability than the rank and file who are powerless by comparison.
They KNEW there was nothing "certain" about their 1975 prediction. They had their expansion and real estate development plans projected out for 10 years in the future up to and including 1975. It's obvious they didn't even trust their own bullshit.
When Nathan Knorr said he "wasn't sure about 1914" back in the 1970's he KNEW that their chronology and the foundation of their entire existence was shaky, since without 1914 as a cornerstone, the GB could have never been given "charge" of all of Christ's belongings in 1919. By making that stated it was clear the erstwhile leader of the Watchtower organization wasn't even sure if they "spoke for God." Or not.
They were not and ARE not "victims" by any definition.
They are lying, cynical, self-worshiping criminals. They are FRAUDS and they know they are frauds. They are murderers with their blood policy. They know it isn't scripture, else why would they "permit" virtually every part of blood to be transfused if done seperately? Oh, I forgot. They haven't stated in print if the "water" component of blood can be transfused.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
"Victims", my ass. Ray, you got that one wrong, I'm sorry to have to say.
Farkel