My Bethel Memories (page 2)

Bryan

Oh my God! Where was the Holy Spirit!

Thanks for the story. Sounds like making lemonaid out of lemons.

Good for you!

Bryan

Have You Seen My Mother

ithinkisee

I have two nephews there now and I think they are pretty naive and really gung ho, I wonder what the reality of the place is going to do to them.

I don't know your nephews, but I do know that we made it pretty hard on some young naive guys. Some friends of mine lived on the top floor of the Standish building and they had a roommate that was sorta like this, and he constantly talked down to the rest because of all the partying and goofing off. One night it was about 2am and we were partying and had some girls over from NJ, and he came out screaming and yelling that he needed to sleep. THen he went back into his room and tried to sleep. The other guys in this room all ran into his room banging pots and pans and flashing the lights off and on. Then they all piled on top of him and grabbed him and threw him into the shower with his blanket and still in his sweatpants.

Oh I also remember his name rhymed with a certain genitalia - so the guys never letup on calling him the actual genitalia name.

I'm not just saying this to save face, but I honestly did not take part in this. I sorta stood back and laughed, because the kid was waaay self-righteous - but I remember thinking "I didn't see this on the Bethel tour brochures." In fact, with alot of stuff that went down at Bethel we would always say, "I don't remember seeing this on the Bethel tour brochure!"

If your nephews don't have a bunch of immature spaz's for roomates like this guy had, they can probably do well. In fact, there are alot of self-righteous types that completely insulate themselves with similar types and function quite fine. They actually progress alot too, I think it is because it validates some of the longtime self-righteous types that their course of self-righteousness is legit, so they give these young self-righteous types more responsibility.

-ithinkisee

ithinkisee

Somebody on these lists once wrote (I'm paraphrasing):

This organization is built in such a way that it rewards hypocrites and liars and punishes honest ones looking for truth.

As a hypocrite and liar at Bethel I enjoyed more rewards than I ever imagined when I first arrived there.

That makes me sad.

-ithinkisee

doogie

I was always dissapointed that ex-bethelites never seemed to be willing to talk about what went on there. It was always so shrouded in mystery and mystique.

i was thinking more about what bigdog said. i can only speak for myself, but i used to be really embarrassed about my experiences out there. i was so immature and inexperienced its not even funny. i acted so differently back then than i would now. but i just think, when you're surrounded by people who for the most part have just left home for the first time, you're going to have more than enough immaturity to go around (like ithinkisee's pot banging story). anyway, that may be part of why some don't talk too much about bethel.

what_Truth?

Never went to bethel but I did take a tour of the Toronto branch when I was 10. To me the coolest part was when the elderly tour guide showed me how her bed folded out of the wall. In hindsight i feel like a retard.

XBEHERE

Laying out on the roof of the 30 Columbia Heights building (the one with the big neon Watchtower sign) to get a tan.

I remember doing this once or twice instead of going to lunch. I pretty much kept my nose clean at Bethel, I wasn't SR but also wasn't a hormonal, teenage lunatic (no offense) I guess back then I really believed everything and I felt that I was doing good. In other words, I was naive to say the least. I do remember the drinking at Bethel, the first place that I ever got drunk, we were making fruity drinks in someones room and well I drank more than I should have. Honestly it was an accident. Drinking definitely is a problem there though thats for sure.

I remember a friend of mine telling me that his friends roommate, a brother who at the time was working in the service dept., heard this brother (also a bethel elder) well.. as he put it "choking his chicken in the bathroom". Evidently he was a moaner. Again this is hearsay but what else would moaning and grunting especially in the bathroom be interpreted as? I thought it was funny at the time anyway..

I think... what years were you there if you dont mind me asking.

JustTickledPink

My mom took me to visit NYC Bethel when I was about 10 yoa. I can remember touring the factory floor and the big explanation of how they invented the MEPS ?? system that helped translate literature into other languages and what a big deal that was to them. I also visited the Farm and thought that the barn with the animals was the most interesting part.

I also visited Europe when I was 18 and again at 19. We went to the bethel in France and since we were 4 single pioneers that were 19yoa, 19 yoa, 22 yoa, and 29 yoa... we were given the grand tour by these cute French brothers. We were invited to eat a meal in the big dining room and I still have pictures from that day. It was really fun, there were a few that could speak English and they blew off work the rest of the day just to hang out with us before we went back to Paris. The cutest guy though was married.

Big Dog

XBEHERE, that was one of the things that I had always heard, that drinking was sort of out of control at Bethel. Interesting to have that confirmed. I'm not surprised at all by it though, given the limited stress relief options.

candidlynuts

The Society even has little houses scattered around the city, some of my work involved going to those houses and doing stuff. They used those houses on many occasions to house Lawyers and other important people who have families so the lawyer can go into work at Bethel and their family can still have some semblance of a normal family house and school and stuff.

ooooooo more real estate! how much does a house in brooklyn go for?

GetBusyLiving

The place sounds more like Sodom and Gamorroah than "the house of God".. there was also a huge problem with gay stuff going on there as well, no?

I grew up in a really small town and a conservative Kingdom Hall to say the least. My older brother went to bethel when he was 18 and came back three years later. He was the most straight edge guy you could imagine before leaving and when he came back he was relating stories of drunkeness and hot bethel sluts..

He had to go to bethel to become worldly. lol

My Bethel Memories

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