by sir82 37 Replies latest jw friends
Was talking to an ex-Bethelite who is still very well-connected to those in the ivory tower.
He says that there will soon be a(nother) large number of US Bethelites who will be "reassigned to the field" as pioneers and special pioneers.
He did not give his source, but he is pretty reliable. Incidentally, he was "reassigned to the field" in the last big purge about 7 years ago.
I imagine those so reassigned would be pretty teed off. Let go just before the golden lakeshore palace was completed.
I've been expecting that. I think they will continue the pattern of using them until they get to the point that they could start to be a liability. They take away the prime of their lives and then ship them out so they won't have to be responsible for taking care of them when they start to get older.
I hope this does happen.
I wonder if there will be a higher up dissenter because of this?
It will piss people off.
Also, the JWs in bethel are more media/technology savvy than they were 7 years ago.
Just thoughts.
The more this has happened over the years, the more that Bethelites should be wise to what could happen. I've been hearing about layoffs for years and years - and it has happened time after time after time.
When do we reach a stage of saying, "Are these individuals blind? Did they not see what happened to those who were there before them?
As much as I feel empathy for people who volunteer their life and livelihood for a religious cause and then experience being used and spat out, I also keep in mind that there is often a kind of wilful blindness to those taking up roles at Bethel: They very likely have not genuinely felt much for their predecessors who were spat out for if they had felt empathy for them, they likely would not have sacrificed their own lives and livelihoods. Oh, and although I am sure their are excellent exceptions, I am inclined to think those who make it to Bethel are a rarefied, special breed who lap up the achievement! Don't tell me it is all for altruistic purposes! The kind of clamoring for privilieges is super-heated in this organization. Maybe that leads to wilful blindness??
I will not be crying foul when the latest crop of Bethelites are put out in the cold. I will be thinking, Learn from this - be wiser next time an organization expets you to give your life for its furtherment.
The next thing that should happen is for the older members of the GB to pull a Pope Benedict and "retire" to their lakeside residence leaving "newly anointed" Helpers to take their place. Better yet, announce new light: God has said the end is so near that non-anointed Helpers can now serve on Governing Body. This would guarantee that the flock will eat up the "End is So Near We Can Taste It!" claim.
Frank
The crazy part is...there is a kid in our congregation who is all
starry-eyed & gung-ho about going to Bethel. He has applied and is
breathlessly awaiting his invitation.
He graduated from high school last year. He is really talented & fairly smart. He'd easily thrive in college. If he were a normal kid, he'd go to study drama or music or something in the fine arts.
Instead, he rides around with middle aged "sisters" who are pioneering with him during the weekdays. He has a piddling little minimum-wage 10 or 15 hour part time job somewhere, and daddy pays for pioneering ($25,000 Jeep, free gas & health insurance, free rent to live at home, free family vacations to Europe, etc.)
It makes me sad - all his high school (worldly) colleagues are just starting out on grand adventures, and he rides around in a car 6 hours a day with middle aged women who blather on about menopause or guacamole recipes or some such.
And
20 or 25 years from now, Bethel will unceremoniously kick him out the
door with a "keep warm and well fed, dear brother!". By then daddy will
be retired, and the gravy train will have stopped. He'll scrounge around
between dead-end part time jobs, hired by cynical "brothers" only too
happy to underpay him in his desperate state. He'll have to work
continuously, well into his 70's or even 80's, as he will have no
retirement savings and virtually no Social Security.
So much wasted potential.
It's hard to feel any compassion for those kicked to the curb.
My feeling is that these "Bethel Brothers" think they will be an exception, that they will rise through the ranks and they will be indispensable.
The graveyards are full of indispensable people.
