My Bethel Esperience Part 19

by new boy 23 Replies latest jw friends

  • dedpoet
    dedpoet

    I've enjoyed reading your memoirs of bethel,new boy, but this one was truly heartbreaking, and I find this somewhat disturbing:

    Jeff told me yesterday that they sent their other son to Bethel a year after Jimmy died.

    They obviously didn't learn from what happened to Jimmy then, or maybe they wanted someone in the family to be a "success" after Jimmy's "failure".

    Crazy people.

  • mouthy
    mouthy

    Oh newboy.... Please write a book for all to read.... I am absolutly floored at all that you have written & I have been free since 1987 when they kicked me out, (found by God in 1990)I have family still with that WICKED organization. Let the WORLd know what is going on behind closed doors. I picketed with a bus load every Oct ...Did you ever see us??? or hear of us????Oh but I forget you left when again???? I only started in 1991 Thanks for baring all you endured when you lived in a wolf pen

  • truthsetsonefree
    truthsetsonefree

    A moment of silence for James Olson. That is so sad.

    tsof

  • I quit!
    I quit!
    Jeff told me yesterday that they sent their other son to Bethel a year after Jimmy died

    Well that's about as warped as it can get. What were these people thinking? If you didn't know Bethel was a real place you'd think it was out of a science fiction horror movie,

  • VM44
    VM44

    "Jeff told me yesterday that they sent their other son to Bethel a year after Jimmy died."

    I was wondering if the parents remained Witnesses after what happened to their son at Bethel. This answers my question.

    Offering up their children to the Watch Tower god!

    --VM44

  • truthsetsonefree
    truthsetsonefree

    Something just hit. KEEP THE BODY!!!!!!!! Wait a &*%$#&@ minute! And what do the parents say? that is utterly unbelievable and even suggest coverup. And Bethelites sign an agreement to this effect? Does anyone have a copy of their agreement to do this?

    tsof

  • juni
    juni

    Just a thought that came to my mind.

    The JWs don't send their kids into the military as they liken it to sacrificing to Moleck (sp.?), but it is a nobel thing for a family to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Bethel. I wonder how many parents know what goes on there? Or perhaps they choose not to believe it so that they can be viewed as so spiritual as they have family members at "The House of God".

    My god, this is horrible. This needs to get out there and I'm thankful to you newboy for doing it and thereby helping others also to tell their stories. It can be cathartic as any psychologist would tell you.

    Peace,

    Juni

  • zack
    zack

    The first time you said they "keep" your body in one of your earliest experiences was the first time I heard of it and I temped at the Farms.

    Anyway, it chilled me to think of the cunning involved in an obligatory pledge like that. To sign over your remains is simply beyond the pale.

    I can understand providing a burial place if one's body is not claimed by a relative. What do they fear? An autopsy? A worldy relative giving

    one of their Bethelites a worldly funeral? A cross marking a Bethelite's grave? Too sad. Jehovah's Happy People!

  • brunnhilde
    brunnhilde

    That's just horrifying. Thanks for sharing your stories, new boy...

  • undercover
    undercover

    Tragic story...

    A friend of mine went to Bethel and couldn't hack it...he came home less than a year later, broken and in shame. That was about 25 years ago. He never really recovered. He's lived his life believing that he wasn't good enough...at anything. He suffers from depression and as middle age creeps in, his health is deteroriating, partly due to, I believe, the depression and anxiety of not being "good enough". He still goes to the meetings and in service, but he's a marginal witness at best. He doesn't feel worthy of doing anything more than showing up. Another sad case of how this religion can fuck someone up.

    I couldn't help but notice this:

    when you enter Bethel you sign over a permission slip for them to dispose of your body.

    Is this accurate? Can other Bethelites comfirm this? What the hell is this about? If you had no family and wished for Bethel to take care of funeral arrangments, if ever needed, that I can see...but if you have family and preferred that they handle any funeral arrangements, is that not possible? I'd like to see a little more info on this.

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