Hey, let's welcome the new guy by maiming him!
I was a young man at Bethel about 30 years ago, back in the early 80's. Newly arrived and a bit scared as I was never away from my home before, I was assigned to work in the factory. My duties were mundane and I was getting used to the food, the walking, New York City, the culture, plus the intense schedule all Bethelites were under. I remember falling asleep exhausted my first few weeks and even though they fed me well, I actually lost weight at first until I could accustom myself to everything.
On top of everything else, I had a pretty faithful work out routine and was a pretty good size myself. There were some monsters at Bethel at that time and the biggest guy of all was actually a real sweetheart. It was the not-so-big guys that had something to prove.
One day in the factory I was taking a break and it was late in the day and I was tired. I didn't know many people then as I was still new. Well, four of the guys in my locker room approached me. They were laughing and joking with each other and they started talking to me. At first, it was small talk like "where you from", "why'd you come here", etc. But something told me they were not there to talk to me as they had pretty much ignored me the first week or so and were, even now, kind of standing away from me. Something felt wrong.
Then, the conversation took this turn:
Muscular black dude #1 in a ripped T-shirt: So, you work out?
Me: Yeah.
Talk lanky black dude #2, big thick glasses: How much you bench?
Me: Oh, pushing for 300 now, probably around 290. I can reverse bench 250.
Little ugly guy with buck teeth #3: No way. You lie. Prove it.
Me: OK. Come to the gym with me this weekend and we'll see. Let's see what you bench.
Medium sized white dude #4: Well, we could all get a work-out right here if we want to right boys?... [grinning...]
Dude #1: Yeah, how about we do some "power lifts" guys? Hee hee.
Dude #2: Yeah. hee hee. "Power lifts".
Dude #3: Sounds good!
Me: What? Power lifts?
Dude #1: Yeah, you see, we like to 'nitiate the new guys here by "power lifting" them into that trash bin over there!
Dudes #2, #3 and #4: HaHaHaHa. yeah. power lifting! hee hee. let's do it.
Me: Whaa?
Dude #2: Yes, you didn't hear about our initiations? You haven't been initiated yet. To be one of "us". You gonna get dumped.
Me: What? You're going to drop me into that 6 foot tall bin over there? It's empty. I could get hurt.
Dude #3. Oh well, twist like a cat.. make sure you land on your feet... [stupid looking bucked-tooth grin]
Me: [incredulous] Gulp.
Now all four of them start coming closer to me, all with an evil look in their eyes, chuckling.
Me: [trying to barter with them] Look guys. I'm here at Gods House doing His work, you shouldn't be hazing brothers like this. This isn't right.
They come closer, look more menacing...
Me: [Changing from scared to angry, fight mode full on] OK, here's the deal assholes! I have no doubt the four of you together can probably over power me and maybe get me into that trash can, but I swear to you this: the first one of you that touches me is going to get my full fury. I'll break his freaking face wide open, break his arm, break his neck if I have to. The other three of you will have to pry me off that guy and have to get his eyeballs back from my hands. [wild eyed, probably looking a bit crazy right now, huffing and puffing]
They all stop. They stop smiling too. Look at each other.
Me: [seething] Well, who's it gonna be?
Them - no particular order: Aw man, we're just joking. Yeah, dude, chill. Hey boy, you're alright. HaHa, man were you mad! Ooh, this boy's an animal. Whooie, I like this guy!
...and so on.
They slapped my back, told me I was "one bad boy" and welcomed me to Bethel.
Nice place.
To this day I don't know if they really were going to do that to me or not. I had heard about hazing before I got there, but somehow had never imagined I would be a victim. I guess because I was a little on the buff side and people generally didn't mess with me, it didn't seem possible. All I know is that I had never been manaced like that before in my life and never was again since. Only in Gods House had I been treated like that and on my first days there.
I hate that memory and even though later I became sort of friends with these guys (not sure why, self preservation I guess) I never forgot it and never really looked at Bethel the same way again. It was a shame, they took my innocence away from me about the spiritual paradise on my first days at Bethel and after that I was on the lookout for more assholes.
Found them too.
LivingTheDream