Who Actually Supplies the "Food"?
There were, of course, articles that did come through from "anointed" brothers in different countries. [footnote #37: In almost all cases the article came because President Knorr had sent an assignment to the person to write it.] These, however, were subject to review, revision and even total rewriting according to the discretion of the Writing Department overseer, Karl Adams. Yet Karl himself was not of the "anointed." He felt no hesitance in turning over an article written by one of the "anointed" to one of the "other sheep" for reworking or rewriting, and frequently did so. No one of his superiors had any objection to his doing so.
The sole exception to this rule were the writings prepared by the vice president, Fred Franz. As Karl stated to me, Knorr had made clear that the vice president's writings were to be altered only with the vice president's permission.
In one Governing Body meeting when this subject of preparation of "spiritual food" came up, President Knorr spontaneously acknowledged that the great bulk of the writing was done by those of the "other sheep" class. To any one writing in the Writing Department this was obvious. Though the Writing Department has since been greatly expanded, the situation remains essentially the same. [footnote # 38: The writing staff in recent years numbers 20 or more persons in all, the great majority professing to be of the "other sheep."]
The reason generally given to explain away this anomaly is that, even though the non-anointed members do the thinking, development and writing of the material, it is always read and approved by persons of the "anointed" before printing. Evidently this somehow adds an anointed touch or quality to the material. [footnote # 39: Compare Haggai 2:11, 12.] The very fact that such reasoning must be resorted to of itself shows the strained nature of the claim made as to the application of the food-supplying aspect of Jesus' parable.
IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM, pages 154, 155.