Hello, i meet Ray two years ago in Karlsruhe (Germany). I received a mail on january. Now he has 87 years, 50th years mariage and he continue to work for reedition of his two books
please find here his last mail
Dear Jean-Pierrre,
I appreciated your letter and the good news about your healthful association in France.
I will reach 87 on May 8 and find it discouraging to realize how much my strength has abandoned me. On Saturday, February 28 Cynthia and I reached our 50th wedding anniversary. It was sadly preceded, on February 24, by the death of our dog Muchacho who had been a treasured companion for close to 15 years. Our young Russian friend Andrey Zorine kindly came over to dig a burial site for him. I realize that for many “a dog is a dog is a dog.” But a relationship can develop between human and animal that is in itself unique. That was the case with the man in Nathan’s story related to David—after David’s adultery with Bathsheba about a man for whom a little ewe lamb became as a “daughter” to him. (2 Samuel 12:1-6) Even though this was a story, it must have been a “true-to-life” one or it never could have produced the impact Nathan sought the account meant to bring home to David how cruel his selfish act had been. David, former shepherd that he was, could feel with the man when his surrogate “daughter” was wrenched from him and slaughtered by a wealthy man. David did not say, “Well, it was only an animal.” He burst out with, “The man that did that deserves to die!” Not because he had simply killed an animal, for David himself ate lamb, if at no other time then whenever Passover was celebrated. His intense feeling was instead because the insensitive man had robbed the other man of a beautiful relationship, one that had a beauty that could not be replaced. At any rate, like the lamb, our dog was somewhat of a “surrogate son” for us—a sort of “child” of our older age and a companion for me each day—and we limited our traveling because we would not have felt good about leaving him with other persons when he was in need of daily care. He is beyond that now. One Sunday in February Jim Penton, the Canadian author of Apocalypse Delayed and former university professor, and his wife visited us along with a couple from Tennessee. They also went to the home of a couple, Dan and Debby Dykstra, east of Atlanta where we have a Bible discussion group. A few Sundays ago at our home we had a group numbering 14, including one African-American sister and also Andrey Zorine, the young brother from Russia. We’ve been having a chapter-by-chapter consideration of the Letter to the Hebrews and have completed Chapter 10.
I agree wholeheartedly with you that we should not engage in negative attacks against Jehovah’s Witnesses or others. Many who write express appreciation of a kindly approach. One person wrote:
- Thank you for your tone. You told the whole truth about an authoritarian and legalistic religious organization, while refusing to become bitter and nasty about it.
A man from England recently wrote:
I'm currently an "active" Witness from England, and I just wanted to say how absolutely relieved I was to read your books ("Crisis of Conscience" and "In Search Of Christian Freedom"). I must confess, reading them was nothing like I expected. My only contact with ex-jw's has been through browsing the net, and to be honest, a lot of what's written doesn't merit much by way of consideration. A lot of sites are so absolutely blinded by bitterness, that even the truth they do provide is soured and unpalatable.
Another wrote:
I wanted to take some time to thank you for your clarity and honesty. Reading your publications helped me immeasurably. Your kind words and obviously loving attitude to everyone, including Jehovah's Witnesses, really came through and enabled me to read your books in a positive frame of mind.
From Scotland:
Are there any Ex JW web sites you have come across that are helpful for those letting go of the organisation as I am doing; not the ones who have become bitter and twisted through their experience of the organisation, but those who have remained a rational moral footing? This information would be helpful in acting as a surrogate community for my wife and myself in the future.
From a man who spent four years at the Brooklyn headquarters;
Crisis of Conscience goes out of its way to be kind to people, including to NH Knorr. A lot of events from Bethel have slipped from my memory. Pages 74-75 understate, in my opinion, how bad Knorr acted. One day his speech (at lunch time I think) was so long we were an hour late to work. The only person who would talk about it (Peter Hollingworth) said, "I hope he doesn't fall out of the Truth." I think Bethelites were baffled and traumatized by how he acted. I don't know if it was the same occasion when Knorr said something to the effect that if the "letter-writers" would just leave Bethel it would be a better place, or something like that. When he railed against the letter-writers, I thought of my own letters and certain other ones written by conscientious Bethelites. But he was probably thinking of IMPORTANT letter-writers, Bethel elders, like those who led to the Black Thursday confrontation, and those who wrote the letters to the governing body in 1975.
I had some correspondence with Didier Fougeras some years ago but have not heard from him since. If you have communication with him please give him my regards and best wishes. The same for Nabil Jaafar
Warm regards, Ray