Bethels could still serve as pilgrimage shrines-quietlyleaving

by Lady Lee 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Lady Lee

  I've been here a long time and this comment by quietlyleaving finally hit me

  Bethels could still serve as pilgrimage shrines

  While the WTS criticizes the many people in the world for their pilgrimages they just don't see that those tours of Bethel which are so organized are the exact same thing.

  You get a tour of a publishing company. Instead of religion icons and symbols you get books, magazines, printing presses and a short step into all that is needed to accomplish this great publishing empire, like housing, and feeding the "volunteers" who do the work as slave labor.

  You don't even get a history lesson except a few artifacts to show they do have a 100+ year history but they are very careful to hide any real info.

  • Do they even have pictures of all the past presidents?
  • Do they have pictures of the GB?
  • Do they take you to where that GB meets to deliberate on the spiritual matters of their teachings?

  Those tours really are pilgramages whether they want to call them that or not. People are enthralled with every new bit of info, taking pictures as they go to share with people back home to prove they really did go to a Bethel. Stan Milosevic has quite the shrine on his website http://members.shaw.ca/theotrip/index.htm

  If you have never seen Brooklyn Bethel or Patterson or the farm at Wallkill, or the Canadain Bethel take a virtual tour.

  You will also see that all that donation money has gone to creating their own little paradise right here on earth.

  No wonder they have no idea how the average JW lives to support the WTS
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  OUTLAW

  What JW does`nt want to tour Bethel?..

  Everyone who go`s,talks about it later..Often..

  Many take photo`s..

  I agree,Bethels are shrines and much more..

  Think about how many JW`s that would love thier children to sacrifice their lives,to work at Bethel..

  

  ..........................
• 

  quietlyleaving

  lol

  At one Bethel they have these tall poplar trees as screening and they look really sombre and otherwordly - like a graveyard or crematorium.
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  straightshooter

  I remember one co condemning those who visited the Florida Disney World but not the U.S. Bethel. Bethel was suppose to be the goal of all jws to visit and experience.
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  Leprechaun

  “You get a tour of a publishing company. Instead of religion icons and symbols you get books, magazines, printing presses and a short step into all that is needed to accomplish this great publishing empire, like housing, and feeding the "volunteers" who do the work as slave labor.

  You don't even get a history lesson except a few artifacts to show they do have a 100+ year history but they are very careful to hide any real info.”

  Slave labor is right; if you was not a Wanker going into Bethel you will be latter.

  When you think about it they really are not 100 + years old, it was after Russell’s death that” uncle Joe and Franz took over and apostisied themselves from the Bible Students who were not a religious organization in the true sense of the term as the Jehovah's Witness's understand themself's because Russell did not believe nor aprove of the concept.
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  daniel-p

  Interesting topic, lady lee. Yes, the more I look back on it, the more it seemed like a pilgramage for witnesses to be coming all over the country to see some rather mundane activities, and therfore completely absurd that they would want to do so. Of course, in their mind, it is hyped beyond belief as "Jehovah's earthly organization in progress."

  When I was a Bethelite I started to see how it wasn't really like that... the overseers wanted everything to be working just right for the tour groups, and the young kids were reminded to look smart and not to fool around or otherwise behave their age. I was like, what a minute, we're just normal people and this is a place with work that needs to be done, not some kind of Willy Wonka factory run by magic. To be sure, they run a tight ship at the various Bethel facilities, and it can be a model facility of effeciency. But effeciency itself is hardly an indication that God is in charge. After all, it was Ford who invented the assembly line, and Taylor who perfected the transformation of humans into servo-units for the production machine. Jehovah has nothing to do with it; it's hard-ass work and rational management choices.
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  OnTheWayOut

  I have been to Brooklyn and Wallkill. Only visited Patterson when it was still all mud and most buildings were under construction.

  Back in the day, I got a very Disneyworld-like feeling, except it's Watchtowerland, at Brooklyn. Looking at the weblink here, Patterson is much more so of the Disneyworld whitewashed fairytale land.

  All they need to do is put a moat in and have tours from the boat. Real-life volunteers could serve as the animatrons and they would have something similar to "It's A Small World" at Patterson.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLXg-6XZlp4&feature=fvw
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  daniel-p

  OTWO, they could have board cut-outs of witnesses in exotic "native dress" popping out from the sides with their literatrash extended from their hands!
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  JWoods

  Great idea - it could become the new Coney Island Boardwalk!
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  undercover

  Instead of a Disney - Pirates of the Caribbean ride they could have a Watchtowerland - Proselytes of the Armageddon ride