I know Ray and his wife have passed but i wanted to take a few minutes and put my thanks in writing. It is pretty incredible to me that someone who i never met, played such a major role in my outlook on life and more importantly in my (at the time) young daughters lives.
From the very first pages of "Crisis of Conscience" it seemed as though Ray was writing to me. From previous experiences I have read, I know that I am not the only one who was literally shaking, thinking the elders were going to bust down my door while reading Ray's book. Almost right away this line jumped out at me... "If some of what is presented is painful to read, it was painful to write" I did not rise to hold every position in the JW religion, but I was a true believer. I wanted to do the right thing and be a good dub for my mother. But when I hit 30 and had two young girls, I needed to make sure I was telling them the right things for the right reasons and began reading everything.
"Crisis" opened my eyes like so many others. It was the final brick out of the wall for me. My daughters are now ten years older, have a completely different outlook on life than I did when I was finishing high school. My goal after finishing Ray's books was making sure that my girls would not need to read "Crisis" That they would not need to log into jw.net or jwfacts and figure out a "post-jw" world. I can honestly say that I have succeeded and while they still have family and friends in the church they are most definitely not jehovahs witnesses. They see it for what it is and for what its not.
Thanks Ray,
Peter Brower