Chapter 14
The New Boy
The vast majority of the “sisters’ at Bethel are married. They called very few single “sisters” to Bethel. The reason being twofold. One, a “brother” could do more jobs physicly than a “sister” could do. The second reason why few “sisters” were invited there was because of sex. The new single “brothers” took a vow of celibacy for four years. Thus having a munch of good looking “sisters” around only created problems. A couple would met at Bethel, fall in love and leave before their contract was up. So the joke at Bethel was, sure they call in a few single “sisters” to Bethel but only the ugly ones.
It is a male dominated organization and a trip to the world headquarters will make this apparent. “Sisters” there would never have a job of any major oversight over “brothers.” Of course they are quick to tell you. “We are all equal in god’s eyes.” This of course is true. It just isn’t true in their organization. One more “Catch 22” between things said and things done.
It didn’t matter if you were the wife of a Gilead Student, Special Pioneer, Circuit or Distract overseer. The job you got there was based on how liked your husband was and were he was at in the peeking order. Favoritism ran rampant there, as is true in most their congregations around the world.
All of the housekeepers at Bethel are “sisters” and most of the “sisters” there are housekeepers. A few “sisters” worked in the factory but most worked in the home.
When a housekeeper got a new boy assigned to them, it was one of the few times a sister could tell a brother what to do. Of course we got all the jobs they were not fond of doing, like cleaning the bathrooms and toilets. New boys are feeling high and mighty and needed a little humility training anyway. We were shown how to take what was left of same bars of hand soap and squish them together to make one bigger bar of soap. We were taught the importance of saving money and not wasting precious resources.
She showed me how to make a proper Bethel bed. Bethelites got one new bed sheet a week. The old top sheet became the bottom sheet and the new clean sheet became the new top sheet.
The majority of the people there were single “brothers” under the age of twenty five. Since it was a sin and totally unacceptable to masturbate and a few of the “brothers” weren’t big on taking showers or hygiene, the smells and sights of what we found in those sheets were….. Let me just put it this way, I wouldn’t want my future wife to be a Bethel housekeeper.