by Newly Enlightened 53 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
They are also already in the process of training potential new, younger Governing Body members. There is much speculation around Bethel...
Exactly how do they "train" someone to become young new members of the JW GB?
Qualifications seems much too easy... simply become a delusional odd-ball charlatan dip$hit.
Does bethel HQ have a secret training textbook for that career path?
The only Bethelite I got to know was there for one year. This was before they built the Patterson Campus. He never wanted to speak about it and stopped going to meetings shortly after returning. In hindsight I should have taken that as a warning, but no I stayed in it and got baptized anyway.
I have reached a point that much like Simon said, if this report is real or not is unknowable. It is so easy to fake online evidence and very hard to determine fact from fiction.
One of my first encounters with philosophy was when I realized while in grade school that "TRUTH is congruent with reality." Later I refined this a bit to "TRUTH is congruent with observable reality." My JW mother would have disagreed and offered corporeal punishment had I been dumb enough to confide my finding with her.
Years ago when SilentLambs had the big demonstration in front of Brooklyn Bethel, a brave woman named Pat Garza accused Ted Jaracz of abusing her when she was a child in California. At the time her claim seemed to stretch the imagination. Today it seems more likely that Pat Garza was telling the truth.
A while after Pat came forward a man named Mark Palo claimed that he was abused at Bethel when he was a child and his parents worked as part-time translators in Bethel. I personally asked Mark to provide substantiation for his claim. He did. Today his story is considered by many objective persons to be true.
The infamous "Johnnie the Bethelite" disclosed some things that came true years later. Yet "Johnnie" was considered a fraud by many at the time.
Don't be gullible, but keep an open mind. There are times when TRUTH is stranger than fiction.
When this post first appeared, my immediate reaction was “here we go again!” Over the years there have been many false flags on JWN promoted as facts.
Why was I sceptical? The language wasn’t right. Can you really imagine a long time bethel elder speaking of “worldly shit “ and referring to the worldwide membership as the “rank and file”? I can’t see it.
The content of the article seems to be more catering to the prejudices of the readers than from a person wrestling with doubts of faith.
Having said that, I know from first-hand fact that there are doubters, even at high level, within bethel families.
But….My take on this particular article is to exercise great caution; there’s enough to highlight the borg’s failings without ‘hanging our hat’ on the unsubstantiated.
Just my .02c worth.
Cheers,
Ozzie 🍷
“Proof Conclusive”????
I”m with Simon, sorry.
This kind of “proof” often is made to make the ex-jw community look gullible.
The generalities are true. We know there are serious drinking problems there. And many are on depressants. Being on lockdown is no different then being in a minimum security prison. It has to be a pressure cooker! And as for the gb being paranoid, they don't exactly strike me as wise old sages
The generalities are true. We know there are serious drinking problems there. And many are on depressants.
Goodness me, how can that be verified?
Firsthand knowledge perhaps?
Just because a narrative feeds into our prejudices doesn’t make it real.
Ozzie 🍷
Is Billy the Bethelite the source?
Did he finally make it to Bethel Elder?
Wasn't there a YouTube video of a former Bethelite saying that he often went hungry because the staff didn't provide enough food? Then later other former Bethelites took issue with him saying that as their experience was people always had enough to eat. Some have said alcohol flowed freely. Others have said that drinking was moderate to nonexistent. Could it be possible that all the above is both true and not true at the same time? Maybe we should call this Schrodinger's Bethel?
As I said before, the only former Bethelite I know personally wouldn't say much about his year there. All he said was it wasn't what he expected. What did he see or experience? I don't know, but my guess is it just was a relatively normal atmosphere where flawed people do what flawed people always do. In other words, it wasn't this god inspired place that he imagined it would be. Simply nothing special and just a factory with its own dorm for its workers that has long hours without much else to do.
They are also already in the process of training potential new, younger Governing Body members. There is much speculation around Bethel as to when/if these new men will be announced as new Governing Body members, but time will tell.
I wonder how many, if any, of these "new, younger Governing Body members" will claim to be of the annointed? This may be the continued slow boiling of the frog on the whole 144,000 problem the Watchtower has with the ever increasing amount of partakers.
