Memory Lane and Brooklyn Bethel

by new boy 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  Anna Marina

  New Boy - I remember reading your account of James Olson. It was very sad. How many of these suicides would never have happened if people's trust in Jesus Christ had not been destroyed by this lying organization?

  About the time I was reading your book, I had a conversation with a man who studied but never became a JW. He told me how devastated he was to hear of the suicide of a young wife. The reason he was devastated was because of the look that he had once seen in her eyes.

  She was married to a cruel 'brother' who was being groomed to be an elder. Therefore the elders protected him. But the wife was going to the elders asking for support in her difficult situation. She was not allowed to speak about what she was enduring. But the man who was studying could see what was happening to her. She was being treated really, really badly.

  One day it was as if she was urgently trying to speak to him just using her eyes. Her eyes were saying to him 'these people are mad.'

  At that time he was confused and just did not know how to help her. He left off his study but he never forgot her and he cannot forget her face. Later he found out she had committed suicide. He feels she killed herself because she was completely messed up being gaslighted and lied to.
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  Fisherman

  Randy reports in his linked article about the apostasy back in the late 70’s but there were several causes: Nothing happened in 1975 and people were looking for other interpretations of prophecy, change of leadership because Knorr was dying and this resulted in loss of unity when the leader was demising, people back then in that era also had that tendency to interpret the Bible on their own.

  In 1976, they changed the 4 year Bethel rule to 1 year and a lot of people that were expecting 1975 left including couples and others that were there a long time, and disgruntled who could not leave before 4 years. Some who stayed —except the newboys who didn’t think about leadership or doctrine— got involved in personal interpretations of the Bible and Schroder strongly felt it was influencing the thinking of JW. Schroder came down hard on that because he felt it was confusing the faith of JW. They wanted to put a stop to it.

  People get angry and offended an hurt and believe their position is right and they leave or they get kicked out. but the 2 main reasons is 1975 and Knorr loss of power.

  NYC streets were perilous back then. Car breakins, muggings, armed robbery were the common place. But inside wt complex you lived in a different world. That was your reality.