After Barry and Barr’s initial interview with him, for nearly six weeks no one in the entire Governing Body went to Edward Dunlap to talk about the matter, to reason with or discuss God’s Word with this man who had been associated for nearly half a century, had spent some forty years in full-time service, professed the heavenly hope, and was now nearly seventy years of age. They themselves are witnesses that this is true. How unlike the shepherd who would leave the ninety-nine to search out and help a “strayed” sheep, for such he was in their eyes.
Again, it may well be that some injudicious words had been spoken by a few individuals among those disfellowshipped. The above actions by those in authority, to my mind, spoke far, far louder than did any such words.42
A committee of five headquarters staff men was assigned to do the work of judging Ed Dunlap. The Governing Body remained in the background. All of the five men assigned were younger than Ed, none professed to be of the “anointed.” After just one day’s deliberations they arrived at their decision.
Fairly typical of the attitude shown were these expressions:
When asked about his views on the organization’s teachings about two classes of Christians, Ed called their attention to Romans, chapter eight, verse 14, that “ALL who are led by God’s spirit” are God’s sons. He asked, “How else can you understand it?” Fred Rusk, who had served as a Gilead School Instructor for several years while Ed was Registrar, said, “Oh, Ed, that’s just your interpretation of it.” Ed asked, “Then how else would you explain it?” Fred Rusk’s reply was, “Look, Ed, you’re the one that’s on trial, not me.”
When questioned about the organization’s forming of rules, he stressed that the Christian is not under law but under undeserved kindness (or grace). He said that faith and love were greater forces for righteousness than rules could ever be.
Robert Wallen said, “But Ed, I like to have someone tell me what to do.” Having in mind the apostle’s words at Hebrews, chapter five, verses 13 and 14, that Christians should not be like babes but like mature persons “who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong,” Ed answered, “Then you need to read your Bible more.” Robert Wallen smiled and said, “Me and two million others.” Ed replied, “The fact that they don’t do it doesn’t excuse you from doing it.” He stressed that this was the major problem, the brothers simply did not study the Bible; they relied on the publications; their consciences were not genuinely Bible trained.
Evidently the major factor that developed in all the session was that on two occasions Ed had had Bible discussions with some of those who had now been disfellowshipped. The judicial committee had no evidence that this had been the case but Ed voluntarily offered the information, having said from the start that he intended to be perfectly open with them on all points. These persons had approached him and on two occasions had had a meal with him after which they discussed portions of the book of Romans.43
The judicial committee wanted to know if he would talk to anyone else on these points. He replied that he had no intention of “campaigning” among the brothers. But he said that if persons came to him privately seeking help and he could direct them to the Scriptures for the answers to their question, he would do so, would feel an obligation to help them. In all likelihood, this was the determinative factor. Such freedom of private Scriptural discussion and expression was not acceptable, was viewed as heretical, as dangerously disruptive.
One statement made seemed particularly paradoxical. Ed had told them plainly that he had no desire to be disfellowshipped, that he enjoyed the brothers and had no desire or thought of cutting himself off from them. The committee urged him to “wait on the organization,” saying, “Who knows? Perhaps five years from now many or all of these things you are saying will be published and taught.”
They knew the fluctuating nature of the organization’s teachings and doubtless on that basis felt they could say this. But how much conviction as to the rightness, the solid Scriptural basis for these teachings at issue, did this show on their part? If they were willing to accept the possibility that the organization’s teaching on these points might be no more solid and enduring than that, how could they possibly use them as the basis for deciding whether this man was a loyal servant of God or an apostate?
If they considered that these teachings (to which the Chairman’s Committee had attached such major importance) were so subject to change that it would be worth while to wait and see what five years would bring, why was it not also worth while to postpone any judicial action against this man who had given, not five years, but half a century of service to the organization?
The logic of such an approach can be understood only if one accepts and embraces the premise that an individual’s interests—including his good name, his hard-earned reputation, his years of life spent in service—are all expendable if they interfere with an organization’s objectives.
I feel sure that every man on that judicial committee recognized that Edward Dunlap had a deep love for God, for Christ and for the Bible—yet they felt they had to take action against him. Why? They knew the temperament prevailing within the Governing Body, expressed through its Chairman’s Committee. Organizational loyalty required such action by them, for this man did not, could not, accept all the claims and interpretations of that organization.
So they disfellowshipped Ed Dunlap, and he was asked to leave what had been his home at the Bethel headquarters. He returned to Oklahoma City where he had grown up and where, now 72 years of age, he supported himself and his wife by hanging wallpaper, a trade he had practiced before he began his 40 years of service as a full-time representative of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.44
Edward Dunlap and his wife
How those responsible—genuinely and primarily responsible—for all this can approach God in prayer at night and say, “Show us mercy as we have shown mercy to others,” is difficult for me to understand.
1Compare Jesus’ words at Luke 5:37-39.
2Matthew 20:25-28; 23:8-12; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 1 Peter 5:3.
31 Corinthians 12:4-11, 25; 14:40.
4Hebrews 5:14; 1 Corinthians 8:9; 16:13, 14.
5Matthew 20:25.
6My wife is thirteen years younger than I. We recognized the risks the doctors brought to our attention but were willing to face these.
7The Society had not long before purchased the fifteen-story Towers Hotel, complementing other ten-story residences already owned in the Brooklyn Heights area. Since then the Society has purchased (through agents) the Standish Arms Hotel and the Bossert Hotel, both in Brooklyn, as well as erecting a new 30-story residential building in the area.
8I found Jesus’ words at Matthew 23:6 brought to mind by all this.
9These included the books Is This Life All There Is? (actual writing by Reinhard Lengtat); Life Does Have a Purpose (by Ed Dunlap); Making Your Family Life Happy (written principally by Colin Quackenbush); Choosing the Best Way of Life (by Reinhard Lengtat); and Commentary on the Letter of James (by Ed Dunlap). At the time of resigning I was assigned to oversee the development of a book on the life of Jesus Christ that Ed Dunlap was assigned to write.
10Presumably the reference was to the corporation president (Fred Franz), some apparently believing (mistakenly so) that the presidency still represented the power base it had occupied up until 1976.
11The official teaching is that upon his ascension, Christ began ruling as king toward his congregation only; that in 1914 he took full power to reign toward all the earth.
12Eventually this came before the Body and, after much debate, was finally approved (not unanimously) and published in the Watchtower of October 1, 1979, pages 16-29.
13At a meeting (in Chicago I believe) of witness attorneys and doctors, another Governing Body member, Grant Suiter, had invited them to express themselves as to the rightness of the Society’s then current position on the use of the term “ordained minister.” Though no open statement of disagree
ment was expressed at that meeting by him, he had made such before the Body, and the response that followed his invitation indicated clearly that those hearing it felt free to criticize that current position.
14The other Committee members then were Ted Jaracz (Coordinator), Milton Henschel, Albert Schroeder, William Jackson and Martin Poetzinger.
15See the Watchtower of April 1, l979, p. 31; November 15, 1979, pp. 21-27.
16Ed Dunlap’s comment on this afterward was, “I always thought that what enabled us to endure was faith, not ‘guts’.”
17One day a longtime member of the Service Department approached me, raising a question about an article written by the president. I said I could not answer for the article and suggested he write in his query. He replied. “No, I did that before and got burned.” I said that unless people did write in no one would know their concerns. His response was, “If you really want to know how people feel about these articles, tell the Circuit and District Overseers to write in how they feel about some of the articles. But you must tell them NOT to sign their names, otherwise they’ll only write what they feel is wanted.” He said the same would be true if Bethel Elders were invited to write.
18Lloyd Barry was also in this class and made such expression on more than one occasion while a Governing Body member. I doubt that any others of the students ever had any question as to Ed’s deep love for, and knowledge of, the Scriptures.
19Romans 8:14 — Compare the apostle’s use of the same phrase “led by the spirit” in a similar contrast between sinful flesh and God’s spirit at Galatians 5:18, where it is stated that those “led by spirit” are “not under law.” To deny that this applies to all Christians, rather than to a select group, would be to leave all the others still under law and law’s condemnation.
20Hebrews 11:1-7
21The importance given to these reports is undeniable. Every Witness reports to the congregation, every congregation reports to the Branch Office of their country, every Branch Office sends a detailed monthly report to the international headquarters where these monthly reports are compiled, averages are figured, percentages of increase are noted. They are studied with the same avid interest that a large corporation would study the figures of its production records, its business growth; any fluctuations or downward trends in the number of Witnesses reporting time, the hours reported or the distribution of literature, become causes for concern. Branch representatives become uneasy if the monthly reports for their country fail to show increase or, worse, show a decrease.
22Acts 19:8, 9.
23See Chapter 12, “Aftermath” footnote #5.
24He and his wife now have seven children and about seventeen grandchildren.
25Matthew 23:3, NEB.
26This committee supervises the Service Department, at that time composed of a staff of about forty persons.
27While it is true that all these proceedings were carried on in “secret star-chamber” style, there were many in the Department who knew what was taking place, either through direct knowledge or by departmental “gossip.”
28James 2:12, 13, JB.
29New York Times, January 12, 1976, p. 12.
30Previous to my departing on my leave of absence, René told me that he and his wife and mother all felt conscientiously that they should partake of the emblems. He said he was certain that if all three did so at the Kingdom Hall it would cause a lot of talk (it is rare for any of the Spanish-speaking congregations to have even one person professing to be of the “anointed” among them). He said he felt the course that would cause the least problem would be for his wife and mother to wait until after the congregation meeting and partake quietly at home. He said that Bonelli was not in their congregation and was not asked to accompany them home but asked to do so himself. (René’s mother had at one time conducted a Bible study with Bonelli and knew him well.)
31I personally doubt that that was his motivation at the time.
32These elders were in the congregation adjoining the congregation René attended.
33Not only was everything checked by a number of different persons in Brooklyn, but a large percentage of Branch Office personnel in Spanish-speaking countries know English and read the publications in both languages. Had such charge of deliberate alteration been true, it would have been quickly reported. To think otherwise simply betrays an ignorance of the facts or a lack of concern for facts on the part of those originating and spreading the rumors.
34Lloyd Barry also expressed similar dissatisfaction, saying that I had “equivocated” on every one of the 8 points the Chairman’s Committee had drawn up as proof of “apostasy.”
35Phillips Modern English translation.
36Jehovah’s witnesses hold this service as an annual celebration only, approximately at the time of Passover.
37Typical of the rumors circulated (and I had questions written to me about this from as far away as New Zealand) was that I had given a talk encouraging everyone to partake of the emblems and that an entire congregation had done so (which would be a truly spectacular event for Jehovah’s Witnesses). The fact is, however, that at the talk I gave in Florida in April 1980, there were exactly two partakers, myself and a woman attending who was not a Witness but a member of a local church.
38Matthew 23:8; Romans 6:14; 8:14; Ephesians 4:4-6; 1 Corinthians 11:26; 1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 1:7.
39In the months that followed, Lyman Swingle, though continuing as a Governing Body member, was removed from his position as the Coordinator of the Writing Committee and of the Writing Department, being replaced by Lloyd Barry. Lyman died in 2001.
40At that time I believe the monthly allowance was about $175 per person.
41Albert Schroeder had been a fellow instructor with Ed at Gilead School for many years; Karl Klein worked in the same Writing Department with him, his office being right next door to Ed’s; Grant Suiter, a year or so before these events, had come to Ed with an assignment he (Suiter) had received to prepare (an outline for one of the Branch seminar class discussions) and asked Ed to prepare it for him, saying that he was very busy and was sure Ed would “do a better job anyway.”
421 John 3:14-16, 18.
43Ed was assigned by the Governing Body’s Teaching Committee to conduct a regular class on Romans for the Branch Committee members in their seminars.
44Edward Dunlap continued secular employment up until he was 86 (though physically unable to keep up his wallpaper hanging work). He died on September 17, 1999 at the age of 88.
12
AFTERMATH
I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness.
— Acts 20:29.
THERE is an old expression, “An iron hand in a velvet glove.”
I do not believe that the events of the spring of 1980 produced the hardhandedness manifested by the authority structure. I believe the hardness was already there, that history shows it was. What took place in the spring of 1980 merely caused the velvet glove to be removed, exposing the unyielding hardness underneath. What followed supports that conclusion.
When the judicial committee of five Bethel elders that, by any standard of rightness, did for the Governing Body what the Governing Body should have done for itself, finally met with Ed Dunlap and informed him of their decision to disfellowship him, Ed said to them:
All right, if that is your decision. But don’t you say that it’s for “apostasy.” You know that apostasy means rebellion against God and Christ Jesus, and you know that that is not true of me.
In the August, 1980, edition of the monthly paper called Our Kingdom Service, sent to all congregations, the front page contained the statement that a number of persons in the Bethel family had been disfellowshipped and then spoke of “apostasy against the organization.” This phrasing, though still false (for there had been no rebellion even against the organization) was at least closer to the truth than statements made elsewhere.
On May 28, 1980, my lett
er of resignation was read to the headquarters family. On May 29, a meeting of all Bethel elders was called. Jon Mitchell was among these. He was serving as a secretary in both the Service Department and the Governing Body offices. My only contact with him had been when he obtained visas for me for my trip to Africa. He had never conversed with any of those who were disfellowshipped. He had, however, seen some of the correspondence from judicial committees passing through the offices and had heard the departmental gossip about the “heresy” trials. Relating his impressions of the elders meeting, and the talks given by Governing Body members Schroeder and Barry, he says:
Schroeder’s talk focused on the subject of organization. He spoke about our “finely tuned organization” and how certain ones who seemed to feel that they couldn’t go along with its rules and regulations “ought to be leaving and not be involved in the further progressive work here.” (The publication Branch Organization was held up to illustrate how “finely tuned” the organization was, and he said that this publication contained over 1,000 rules and regulations regarding the operations of the Branches and the Brooklyn headquarters.) He stressed that this was not a “witch hunt,” but there appeared to be a “pruning” going on.
Of those who had left, he said, “It’s not that they don’t believe the Bible, you’d have to be an atheist to think that way,” but “they understand it differently.”
He concluded his part by opening it up to questions from the Bethel elders. Harold Jackson raised his hand and suggested that there be a “forum” or open discussion of what the issues were. Schroeder replied that they had no plans to do this. If we had a question we could send in a letter. Another elder, Warren Weil, asked if the possibility of having the brothers take “loyalty oaths” had been considered. Brother Schroeder replied that that avenue was not being pursued at that time.
Crisis of Conscience Page 35