JBean,
Yeah, I totally agree with you! I remember when I visited Bethel and the farm a couple of times I was put off by the living "by the bell" lifestyle. I was especially disgusted with how prayer was used as a bell to excuse people from lunch. At the time it just seemed so disrespectful to use prayer - a channel of communication to God - as a signal. In fact, it was a completely superfluous prayer anyhow, there was already a prayer before the meal. It just really irked me at the time.
rem
"We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking." - Mark Twain