Some chronology for John Joseph Ray

1960


A most scenic drive near where I grew up -- the road from Cairns to Port Douglas



Starting work

When I finished Junior I started work. My father did not want to support me through Senior (In his eyes it was a waste of money and perhaps he wasn't too wrong about that. See Ivar Berg's book "Education and jobs: The great training robbery).

At the beginning of the year I had a falling out with my parents over religion so left home. I took full board with an old Aboriginal woman (Ruby Durrant) at 58 Water St.

I had been there only days when Jack Carroll came around and offered me a job as a junior clerk with the Queensland Dept. of Public Works (P.W.D.) -- much later renamed as "QBuild".

Jack was the senior clerk at the Cairns branch of the PWD. I had sat for the public service exam and done well so he got my name off the results. I gladly accepted.

As I recollect it, my starting salary was 7 pounds a week

John Dudgeon from my class also got a job at the PWD depot. And a fellow clerk was Eddie Gobel, a Dutchman. He was pleased when he heard that both of us newbies liked classical music. Europeans are often into high culture whereas Australians rarely are. So he invited us both to his place for an afternoon of music. And one thing I remember is that he got out recordings of Caruso on his collection of old 12 inch 78 rpm records. I had never heard of Caruso at that point so I was glad to hear him singing all the old operatic potboilers. Eddie was quite a bit older than me so is probably no longer with us.

Old Ruby owned the house where I boarded at Water St. She had amazing luck and got the house by winning the Golden Casket lottery.

She used to call taxis to take her to and from shopping ¸¸ which was generally seen as extravagant. She never had any money but spent it as soon as she got it -- which must have taken some doing.

I think she was on the pension and she also got rent from three boarders.

The dinner menu was always the same: meat and 3 vegetables. Even then I found that boring enough to protest about occasionally.

Ruby was a cheerful old soul, though.



My time as a Christian fundamentalist, 1960 to 1963

My religious interests at that time centred on Jehovah's Witnesses. I liked their opposition to conscription. They seemed to be the only ones who actuallly were following what Christ instructed in Matthew chapter 5.

"I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also"

So I went along to their meetings and joined them for a time in going door-to-door preaching. They are very Bible-focused and I did at that time do a lot of Bible study -- which has given me a lot of Bible knowledge that has stayed with me.

I also read a lot of classical literature and philosophy so at around age 19 those readings led me to the conclusion that the idea of God was empty and so I became an atheist.

I greatly enjoyed my time with the Cairns congregation, however and felt grateful for the guidance Biblical principles had given me through my teenage years

I continued to attend their meetings for a while as they had become my friends but after a little while I moved from Cairns down to Brisbane and did not contact JWs there. For social reasons however I renewed my affiliation with my original Presbyterian religion by going to the Ann St church.

I got on well with the Minister there; Percy Pearson. I still have a treasured letter of recommendation written for me by him. I reproduce the text of that letter below.

Ann Street Presbyterian Church

To whom it may concern:-

Re. Mr John Joseph Ray

This is to certify that I have known the bearer John Joseph Ray for a period of two years and I have pleasure in certifying to the good name and character he bears.

In association with Young People and in study he has revealed outstanding interest in the deeper things and always in my opinion with intense earnestness and spiritual discernment.

He is trusted and popular and I anticipate that he will do well in any position of trust and in that work that calls for sincerity and courage.

Signed: REV. P.W. Pearson, B.A.

"Ann Street"
Brisbane
13th December 1964







But I eventually stopped going to Ann St too.

Would I still have been the same person without my years of Bible study? Perhaps. But I am sure that Bible teachings have helped me to live a wiser life. I was 17 in 1960 and the 60s are now legendary as a time when many young people cast off all restraints, often harming themselves and their relationships in the process. But Christian ideas of self-restraint protected me from all that. I not only took no drugs but I was even teetotal, in the best Presbyterian way

People who read my more recent writings will have noted how derisively I speak of "liberal" Christians. I imagine however that some readers would want to ask what right an atheist (which I now am) has to to pontificate on such matters.

The simple answer is that it is my remote fundamentalist past with the JWs still speaking. I still have great sympathy for my former fundamentalist brothers in arms despite no longer being one of them. And I share their view of what a "real" Christian is.

All that aside, however, I do think that there is an important rational distinction to be made between those on the one hand who sincerely believe that Christ is their saviour and do their humble best to follow his teachings and those who claim to be Christians while flouting the clear Bible teachings on such matters as homosexuality and the role of women. Women bishops and homosexual bishops are a joke to me.

And I will continue to refer to the former as "real" Christians and the rest as "pretend" Christians, "impostors" and "hypocrites" -- or, as Christ called the equivalent people in his day: "whited sepulchres" (Matthew 23:27):

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness".

I will never be able to better that description of the pretend-believers. Is the Bible the word of God or is it not? If you say it is but ignore what is says you are denying God. How is that Christianity



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E.&O.E.

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