The following is an excerpt from Edmund Gruss' "The Four Presidents," a book that consists of interviews with former high-level officials in the Brooklyn headquarters of the Watch Tower Society in Brooklyn, who spent years working with the members of the Governing Body and presidents of the Watch Tower Society.Their true identities will be kept hidden likely until they pass on due to family connections still within the WT, but Peter Gregerson, Barbara Anderson, Ed Gruss, and dozens of others including myself personally know these interviewees and can attest to the truthfulness of what they say, based on total harmony with our own experiences which often overlapped.
What is a "Star Chamber?"
Wikipedia defines it thusly:
The Star Chamber (Latin: Camera stellata) was an English court of law that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster until 1641. It was made up of Privy Counsellors, as well as common-law judges and supplemented the activities of the common-law and equity courts in both civil and criminal matters. The court was set up to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against prominent people, those so powerful that ordinary courts could never convict them of their crimes. Court sessions were held in secret, with no indictments, no right of appeal, no juries, and no witnesses.
...
In modern usage, legal or administrative bodies with strict, arbitrary rulings and secretive proceedings are sometimes called, metaphorically or poetically, star chambers. This is a pejorative term and intended to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the proceedings. The inherent lack of objectivity of any politically motivated charges has led to substantial reforms in English law in most jurisdictions since that time.
from pages 89 to 93 of The Four Presidents (edited):
In 1954 the Watch Tower Society released a new film, "The New World Society in Action," which acquainted its "viewers with the magnitude of the Society's organization, its institutions, its field activities, its large-scale conventions, its smooth, efficient functioning and the spirit by which it is moved." What its millions of viewers would never see was what went on behind the scenes. What has happened behind the Watch Tower facade, to real people, not just in the past, but in more recent years? Is it a "spiritual paradise" as claimed? The examples presented here help to answer these questions.
EDWARD A. DUNLAP
In the spring of 1980 an incident occurred at the world headquarters of the Watch Tower Society in Brooklyn that shocked the membership into stunned silence. That is, those who knew about it. Silence, because very few who knew about it believed it, and no one dared talk about it.
Edward Dunlap, one of the most beloved, intelligent, and respected officials of the Watch Tower Society was disfellowshipped. The word spread throughout the worldwide membership that the reason for the action was "apostasy."
Dunlap's friends (and there were many) in the organization were upset. They did not believe the charge. They knew that he had served with distinction and intelligence for over forty years in various responsible positions for the Watch Tower Society. There were those who began questioning the motives behind the judicial rulings of the Governing Body of the Society—especially those who knew the entire story.
He found he could not accept the teaching that only the "remnant" have God's spirit, not the "other sheep" or "great crowd," who, though they are permitted the "privilege" of going from door to door distributing literature, do so without the help, assistance or protection of holy spirit. He determined that anyone who sincerely accepts Christ Jesus as his Redeemer and worships Jehovah God in spirit and truth, would be a recipient of God's spirit.
Dunlap, respected registrar of the Society's Gilead School, pointed this out to the leadership, referring them to Romans 8:14, "For all who are led by God's spirit, these are God's sons" (NWT). The Society has always taught that God's sons are the elitist "anointed" only. When asked how the "other sheep," who have no holy spirit, are authorized to "preach the good news of God's Kingdom around the world" (a work Scripture says is done with holy spirit), the "brave" Watch Tower leadership, not accustomed to being questioned, but to hiding behind board room doors and high platforms, chose not to answer.
When criticized by one of the judicial committee members for his understanding of Romans 8:14, Dunlap asked the man (a Brother Rusk) how he would interpret it. Avoiding the embarrassment of an answer, he replied, "I'm not the one on trial here." (In God's eyes he was.) They immediately began to take steps to correct this glaring breakdown in mental discipline. They quickly disfellowshipped the courageous Dunlap to prevent any other members from talking to him.
Approaching seventy years of age, Edward and his wife were turned out of the headquarters family, without hesitation (and, we were told, without any funds) by the organization to which he had given over forty years of his life.
He was offered lodging and work by his brother, Marion Dunlap, who was the respected city overseer of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. When word of this loving act on the part of his brother got back to Brooklyn, Marion also was disfellowshipped, after giving almost fifty years of "service" to the Watch Tower Society. Within a year, five more members of the Dunlap family were disfellowshipped, for no reason other than displaying genuine concern and following the teachings of the Bible.
Another follower of the Watch Tower Society, a professor at Oklahoma State University, arranged for Edward to teach some classes at the university, thereby using his considerable talents and Bible knowledge. This led to the professor being disfellowshipped for no reason other than helping elderly Edward Dunlap in this way.
The author personally knew Edward Dunlap, and can say with certainty that Edward could not find it in his heart to hate, not even the Watch Tower leadership. His character, developed not by his association with the Watch Tower Society but in spite of it, and by his love for the Bible, stands in marked contrast to those claiming to be a Governing Body over "God's people."
Listen to Ed talk about his experience on mp3 PART ONEPART TWO
RAYMOND V. FRANZ
Perhaps just as poignant, if not more so, is the story of Raymond Franz. He lived among Jehovah's Witnesses for sixty years and served for more than forty years in a rare range of privileged positions, from special pioneer to branch overseer, and finally became a member of the top ruling body of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Governing Body. He edited and wrote articles for Aid To Bible Understanding (completed 1971), acknowledged as their finest and most definitive reference book.
It is said he offered fresh Scriptural insight into their board meetings, always seeking and imploring the others to let the Bible be their guide, rather than their traditional policies, or whatever was good for the printing empire. In doing so, he did not endear himself to his fellow Governing Body members (with possibly one or two exceptions), who preferred their traditions over the Scriptural "baby food" he was recommending.
Because of a private conversation in a private home, during which a question arose about a "current understanding," the paranoia of the leadership again emerged, and they became convinced a conspiracy was underway to undermine current doctrine, and possibly to form another splinter group. Raymond Franz happened to be present at this discussion, and to the author's understanding, answered the proffered questions with loyalty to the organization.
They began to secretly investigate everyone in the headquarters family that had ever spoken to this kind, soft-spoken man, who was loved and admired by members of the Bethel family. They tried to disfellowship Raymond Franz, but nobody, not even a majority of the Governing Body, would go along with this action. Among the Bethel family members, this man personified their role model, in both manner and traits.
The divided Governing Body nevertheless asked him to leave headquarters, because he was present at the previously mentioned social occasion, where someone merely asked a sincere question. Several former members of the Bethel family have related to the author that they have no doubt this was merely a scheme used by his enemies within the Governing Body, including his arrogant (more than one source said "jealous") uncle, Fred Franz, to get Raymond out of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.
It has been suggested by the same former members that Fred Franz wanted the history of his tenure at world headquarters to be remembered with only one Franz of record, with no possibility of confusion. Raymond, his nephew, was becoming too popular, his intelligence and Bible knowledge too well known, and his writing skills too superior.
Having engaged in full-time service to the Watch Tower Society all his adult life, and having developed no work skills, Raymond and his wife Cynthia moved to Alabama where a friend, Peter Gregerson, a prominent businessman, owner of a chain of wholesale grocery warehouses, and a former Witness, offered Raymond a job and a place to live. Gregerson, from personal study, had determined there was no way Christ Jesus could have looked down on the Watch Tower Society between the years 1914 and 1918, and chosen them, in 1919 (see Chapter 8), to represent his interests on earth. In a letter dated March 18, 1981, he voluntarily disassociated himself from the Watch Tower Society.
Gregerson enjoys an excellent reputation among all who know him. One traveling circuit overseer in North Carolina told Informant #1 that there was no doubt in his mind that "Peter Gregerson is a Christian." In fact, he represents the type of sincere ones who have been leaving the Watch Tower organization over the past thirty years.
Raymond Franz was later disfellowshipped (December 31, 1981), unbelievably, for eating lunch with his employer Peter Gregerson, and still more unbelievably, he was disfellowshipped ex post facto, because of a change in the rules about treatment of disassociated ones.
Informant #3
When one "Orwellian" Witness reported the lunch to the elders, who reported it to the Governing Body, they quickly changed their position on treatment of disassociated persons, and ruled that they were to be treated the same as disfellowshipped persons. Thus Raymond Franz could now be disfellowshipped, retroactively, for having lunch with a person who had disassociated himself. This occurred even though they were in another city, where Raymond was doing service work for Gregerson in one of his grocery warehouses.
Another shock wave went around the world, in every branch division of the Watch Tower Society. The membership did not learn of the despicable act from their organization, but most learned by word of mouth or by picking up a copy of Time Magazine at the newsstand.
A high ranking official of the Watch Tower Society told the author this move backfired on the Society because Raymond Franz was not only their best Bible scholar, but indisputably their best writer.
After Raymond's disfellowshipping, the administrators left behind at headquarters quickly began preparing a revision of Aid to Bible Understanding and produced it with a different title, Insight on the Scriptures (1988). Even die-hard loyal members said it was a pitiful attempt at reproducing the work of Raymond Franz. The author has been told that those who have his "Aid book" in their libraries, never consult the surrogate version, even though very often it is taken word for word from the original.
The publication of the new "Aid book" accomplished two things: it erased the "stigma" of Raymond Franz from their primary reference work, and it provided a new source of revenue.
The new two-volume reference set would automatically enjoy sales to the majority of member households in the hundreds of thousands, and it is not an inexpensive set. (The first printing in English was 1,000,000 copies.) It was a case of the Governing Body having its cake and eating it, too.
But the big mistake the officials made, one they wish they could erase, the author was told, was underestimating the respect existing for Raymond Franz. Letters of disbelief poured into Brooklyn. Circuit and district overseers were deluged with questions they could not answer.
John May and Martin Merriman
Reading about the disfellowshipping in Time Magazine, two prominent members from Dublin, Ireland, Martin Merriman and John May, flew to the United States because they could not believe that Ray Franz could be guilty of anything worthy of disfellowshipping, and they could not believe the Watch Tower Society would disfellowship a loyal member and official of the highest order, just for eating lunch with his employer, who was not disfellowshipped, and who had never been accused of anything.
When Merriman and May arrived in this country, they got the shock of their life. They could not obtain an appointment to speak with any member of the Governing Body, even though they knew several personally. They were told by Lyman Swingle, then chairman of the Governing Body, to go back home and "put it in writing." The author understands that not only these two men, but many others in Ireland who knew Raymond Franz, are no longer associated with the Watch Tower Society.
Some pointed to the lack of intelligent rationale among the leaders at headquarters in forgetting that Raymond Franz was an excellent writer. When this finally dawned on the short-sighted Governing Body, and after the publication of his first book in 1983, one member of their group made this rather enlightened statement, "Perhaps we should have handled Ray's case differently." This is like Hitler, ensconced in his bunker in 1945, with Allied bombs falling over his head, saying, "Perhaps we should have stopped with Poland."
When world reaction brought the Governing Body members to their senses, and they realized they were being exposed for their unjustified actions, they decided to fall back on an old Russell/Rutherford stratagem—which would fail—"we'll pretend it never happened and just forget all about it."
With the release of Crisis of Conscience, about Raymond's life and experiences at the headquarters of the Watch Tower Society, for the first time readers were given a prolonged look into the "sacred" Governing Body meetings, with its bickering and personal animosity between members, and which were often nothing more than old backroom crony politics, void of Scripture and serious prayerful discussion.
Informant #1
Was I ever shocked when I read Raymond Franz's Crisis of Conscience, especially about the Governing Body's weekly meetings. I had always envisioned my "spiritual" leaders going to this weekly meeting, walking down the halls of Bethel, exchanging friendly greetings with one another, with files under one arm and the other hand holding the Bible.
I could see them sitting around the boardroom table, heads bowed, asking for Jehovah's spirit so they could determine his will from Scripture, that their decisions would be in harmony with the teachings of his Son, Christ Jesus, asking him to give them not only wisdom but the patience and love to listen to one another, to meditate, and prayerfully consider any differences and in all subject matter before the body, to yield to God's Word on the matter as the ultimate authority. What I saw, with few exceptions, was a bunch of behind- closed-door politicians, discussing the welfare of their printing operation, and whether they should institute grounds to disfellowship on certain human behavior, for no reason other than protecting literature distribution.
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I will quote more of this most interesting book later. But this helps tie up some more information about Raymond Franz.
RAYMOND FRANZ WEEK! in remembrance one year anniversary
check out all our different and new thing this week!
The Watchtower Audio ands Video Museum clips all seem to be working now.