Bethel experiences sound like a prison sentence.Why even go?

by goingthruthemotions 24 Replies latest jw experiences

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  LivingTheDream

  Like Barbara, I didn't find Bethel to always be a bad place while I was there in the 1980s. I actually have some fond memories of it. Of course, I have some bad memories too.

  Since I see that some of you are relatively new to this board, you may not have read my previously posted Bethel Experiences. So, here's an example of a story that I look back fondly on. It's a story about governing body members I knew there:

  A Bethel Memory #7 - My GB can lick your GB

  --

  Here's a different story of the opposite kind, one that I don't look back fondly on at all. It's about abuse of power that can go on at Bethel:

  A Bethel Memory #8 - If it walks like a duck... then you're a brief wearing fairy

  --

  Brock Talon
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  wisdomfrombelow

  When I thought of this topic it made me think of why some people want to go to boot camp -- it is not fun and prison might be easier for the short term. People do things because sometimes the perceived benefit outweighs the stress. I would never want to climb Mount Everest bit some people yearn for it. Some people like the structure and the fact that someone makes all their meals for them. I wanted to try it when I was younger but realized that I am too much of an individual to enjoy and conform to institutional life.
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  Justnowout

  The sisters sit and talk all day, the brothers do the bulk of the actual laundry work. I speak of whence i know.
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  cult classic

  When you are deep in the cult, an opportunity to serve at Bethel is taken as a gift from Jehovah. I fell in love and served in Brooklyn when I swore I would never date a Bethelite. I've had family and friends in Bethel all of my life. A few are still there. It is a relatively high standard of living. 3 full meals a day. Housekeepers, laundry and dry cleaning services. Salon and barber services. Auto mechanics to repair your vehicle, carpentry and sewing personnel. Plus any extra money you have gets to be spent on vacations all around the world.

  Add in the privileges of being a Bethelite among mere r&f publishers and it's a pretty high life. That's the upside of Bethel life.

  I saw some treated disrespectfully from the moment they set foot on Bethel property. And for them it was a true hell hole.

  The downfall is steep and swift when you wake up and/or are kicked out and must face reality.
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  New Worldly Translation

  I remember there used to be a story read out a lot on the platform about a guy who worked at bethel for 30 years making cheese for the restaurant. Turns out he's allergic to cheese or hates cheese or something and would have preferred another job but didn't say anything. This was always held out as a great example of being meek and submissive. It put me right off bethel tbh.
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  MysticMage

  Yup they present being a slave as being a privlege.

  Bethel and full time service is slavery!
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  Balaamsass2

  At the time I went to Bethel they were asking for help. I signed up and was called up three weeks later. I guess for many of the same reasons young people signed up for the military after 9/11, duty etc. I also worked on many quick builds, pioneered, and went to the "need was greater" for the same reasons. Dumb kid who believed God "needed" me.
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  jwfacts

  I knew after a tour of bethel that I would hate it but went anyway. I thought it was what Jehovah required of me for the short time before Armageddon. I never expected there was ever going to be the need to save for retirement.
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  fulano

  I enjoyed most of my time in missionary-service, not sharing the home though,.....but hated Bethel! No other word for that, now after leaving the cult I understand why, I am an aquarius, we just don't like the lack of freedom and independency.
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  DATA-DOG

  I saw Brother Herd lurking on the shadows when I toured. I got an "inside tour" and even went to the secret library and GB board room where the manic happens. Then some weird black dude comes creeping around the corner, 25 feet away. He says nothing, no , "Hi! Brethren!!, I love you so much!" Nope, like a Sasquatch caught in the headlights, he disappeared into the labrynthian passages of the upper chambers, never to be seen again... THE END.

  DD