At Bethel it was at times ordered that you MISS the meetings due to a hot job (page 3)

DaCheech

1 bethellite couple who got put of to pasture (during layoffs) "special assigment pioneering", is now in the midwest working their ass off just to keep their apartments. they are exhausted and were not prepared for the real world

life is to short

Factfinder

I when I was a bethellite I NEVER missed meetings a lot of bethellites do not miss meetings but a lot do. I know of many who would go though snow storms and take two trains to the meetings, to to all lengths to get their. I knew of UltraSpiritual ones who auxilary

life is to short

Sorry I hit the wrong button, I hate that when I do that, but anyway some at Bethel did the show, they did what they were or thought they were supposed to do maybe they believed the lie, or liked the pats on the back I do not know.

But many did not. I know of one sister who came in with me and she never went to meetings. They even had a local needs part on making sure you never miss meetings and my girlfriend who was in her congo told me that a local sister came up to her and said it is sad that the only ones who miss the meetings is the Bethellites.

I do not know how the sisters got by with missing, I was to honest I guess because if I missed one I was talked to, but other knew the ropes how to get by with it.

As far as Brothers they were required to miss, demanded to miss if the job was hot. They were over worked to the max. I knew of one brother who was married who was working 16 hour days 6 days a week and part time on Sunday. That was required. The job was hot.

Sorry for the miss post.

LITS

factfinder

Thank you LITS, this is really opening my eyes more regarding what bethelites and bethel is really like. The bethel brother I know is like you- never misses meetings. The fact that there were alot that did just shows me the image I had of bethel was also wrong just like their being gods organization. I am surprised. I'm learning more and more how bethel REALLY was and its a lot different than how I viewed it or how brothers described it to me. Its a good thing I did not apply for bethel back in 1978 because it would have been a very dissappointing experience for me and I would have left and probably stopped being a witness. Of course now we would say that would have been a good thing!

I found bethel facinating and a special place. Of course my interest in printing and bookbinding helped in that regard. Well, thanks to yours and the other former bethelites who share their experiences here I'm getting a clearer picture of how things really were.

Crisis of Conscience

@ factfinder - I served in Bethel in the past. And while not once do I remember being encouraged to miss meetings, as a "new boy", I was told that Bethel came first.

I do even remember getting "counseled"(TM) about me going to an onsite bookstudy at Bethel rather than supporting my hall's arrangement. I was told to support my congregation.

However, there was a Bethel brother in my hall that was involved in a video project for a few months. He wasn't seen for at least a month at a time causing others to ask me if he had left Bethel. He was working about 18 hours a day for this project. He was definitely overworked.

He was a ministerial servant in the hall, and obviously would have missed being involved in field service because of this. Yet he was NEVER disqualified.

After I left Bethel I asked elders at my hall about that. 'If you are encouraged at Bethel to support your congregation, why does that go out the window when a big Bethel project comes up?' Naturally, no answer, or rather, no really good answer. 'That's the arrangement of the slave.'

The same actually applies to those with positions in the Regional Building Committee, or RBC, and I believe those involved in International Construction. Those projects come FIRST, even if you miss meetings and/or field service. I've overheard elders talk about how they've gotten little, if any, field service time because of being involved in all this. And for months at a time! Yet no disqualifications.

Double standard at its very best! And I witnessed (no pun intended) it firsthand in God's house. Gotta love it!!

CoC

Satanus

I don't see it as a double standard. All of it, the meetings (sales meetings, really), fs, production of mags, construction of printing factories is all for the same thing. It's just that the construction of factories that produce the sales material is more important than the sales meetings. The production of the sales material is more important than the sales meetings.

There is nothing spiritual about any of it. The wt god is purely an imaginary figure head in all of this. There is no 'spirit' eminating from the imaginary wt god to support any of the sales people or direct the gb.

S

factfinder

@Crisis of Conscience- thank you for your experience. All of this paints a somewhat different picture of bethel in my head then the one I had! The brother who was working on the video project- what was his name? the brother from my original cong who has been at bethel since 1976 works in the audio/video dept at patterson and has had much to do with a number of videos. He has been in that dept since 1995 and his wife works in the art dept. he had worked in brooklyn from 1976-1995 in the shipping dept, pressroom and most of the time in the pressroom office. It was always interesting visiting him there-he'd show us generic magazines (no titles) for lands where the mags are banned, very small paperback editions of the live forever book to be hidden in your tie in lands where the work was banned and he provided me with edition figures for most of the books! It was very interesting. But I did question him on the new generation teaching, I have not heard from him since. Where in bethel did you serve? what made you leave if you don't mind my asking, thanks!

@satanus- sadly it seems your view of things at bethel may be true. Just a very large, international publishing house. Not at all the "house of God' in truth.

factfinder

sorry I had double posted this and so erased it in an edit!

life is to short

Thanks factfinder for you commits. There was a lot of good memories from Bethel that I have.

I also did not mean to make it seem like that brother who worked 16 hour days did it for ever it lasted for a couple of weeks but he did continue to work overtime for 8 months just not with such a heavy schedule. He also had to work on his local KH during that time.

Also the PO in the hall we attended when we first came back from Bethel was the head of the RBC and he miss a month at a time, no field service nothing. Also HMC brothers were the same.

But not for the rank and file who need to feed their families they needed to quit their jobs if they interfered with meetings. Sad truly sad.

LITS

At Bethel it was at times ordered that you MISS the meetings due to a hot job

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