Bethel: Pathway to Apostasy

by Black Man 72 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Jez

  I visited the Georgetown bethel once. We had friends there and so got a 'behind the scenes' tour. We met one of the GB, can't remember his name, LOVED horses and had sculptures of them in his office. His office was in the legal dept. I have a picture of myself with him. (I will have to look in my album to see if I have his name in there) We ate lunch at the farms, AWESOME food, but it is sooooo Amish. The men come in and sit down to a huge meal while the women stand and wait and serve. Their job is to cook and clean up after the men that work on the farm. It is so friggin backwards, I could not stop smiling (trying not to giggle) when one woman served 2 kinds of pie for dessert. At LUNCH time! I felt so sorry for these woman.

  Then we ate dinner at Bethel. I was expecting some feeling to decend on me of peace and respect etc...but these ppl were just eager to eat and get out of the cafeteria. No one said hi to us, they went in cliques and ignored us, the prayer was terrible, we were out of there so quickly. I can't imagine living in such an atmosphere of 'just get it over with'.

  Paradise? Ha, more like a low security prison.

  Jez
• 

  upside/down

  Jez- I had a similar experience when "ascending the mountain" to see Bethel. I was so NOT IMPRESSED, and yet wanted to be.

  When I relayed my experience at a meal with the CO and some friends... there was silence. Then later I was counseled for being "negative" and painting the org badly. All I said was the truth... they said I have an obligation to sugar coat it for the sake of the "weak" "friends".

  ugh!

  u/d
• 

  LongHairGal

  Upside/Down:
  
  I know what you mean about being told to sugar-coat things for the sake of "weaker brothers". In my cong. we had certain older (pioneer) sisters who would sugar coat things to the young-uns and talk privately among themselves about the real deal. One such phony slipped in front of me with a remark I wasn't supposed to hear and promptly changed the subject.
  
  LHG
• 

  Black Man

  Tijkmo:

  The whole g-jobbing thing was a trip, because at the time that I was there, Bethelites only got $90-95 a month. If you had to catch the subway out to your congo, that money was gone with a quickness. Bethel was good financially if you had a sponsor (rich family, relatives who would send money, if your congo was financially supportive, etc.), but for the most part you are dead-broke. A lot of Bethelites did g-jobbing, but it was only the ones who didn't have the good connections who would get caught and/or asked to leave. I remember some of the brothers in electrical or photography who would g-job, but since some of them had been there for awhile and knew the loopholes, were able to escape being punished.
• 

  Black Man

  zugzwang:

  Yeah, I hit the library myself and delved into a lot of the older publications. When you read them, it seems like it was a completely different organization, like night and day. And yes, a lot of it was mad-disturbing, because the JW's of yesterday are the apostates of today and vice-versa. The alarm really started going off in my head when I did comparative reading with the publications. What I liked is that the library also had different bible versions which let you further compare a lot of the text.

  And yeah, the whole shoulder-to-shoulder thing is a joke. It is nothing more than a cut-throat competition. I found that I really didn't have problems with the GB or older members of the family (even though they were sheltered and out-of-touch), but I had problems with the ones trying to climb the ladder and make a name for themselves at your expense. Those ones were a major pain-in-the-ass. It's sad that for a lot of them, there biggest goal in life was to be a table head or foot. I once got counseled because I made a "negative" remark about there "being more to life than striving to be a table head." The whole experience is VERY status-quo.............
• 

  Black Man

  greendawn:

  oh, yeah they were VERY anti-hip-hop. I've known several that were kick out (ASKED TO LEAVE) for having hip-hop or hip-hop influenced music in their rooms. As always, they would attribute it to holy spirit uncovering the disgusting thing in the midst, when in reality it was a nosy-ass housekeeper looking to bust some balls...............
• 

  Narkissos

  To me Bethel (the smaller French version) was certainly the pathway (or highway?) to apostasy. In the negative and the positive though:

  It certainly demystified the "holy of holies" in my eyes (especially in the translation dept., where translators usually felt free to exchange their impressions on the material they had to translate).

  On the other hand, as a young overzealous pioneer coming from a remote countryside, and who had spent years involved only in "theocratic" activities and reading only WT literature, I was quite surprised to meet a lot of nice young people, usually "born into the 'truth,'" who were way more open-minded. There I began to cultivate other interests -- such as travelling, mountain-climbing or astronomy -- and especially to read a lot of "worldly" stuff (novels or philosophy, initially to improve my writing skills and then pour le plaisir). There I began studying Hebrew and Greek by myself. When I resigned, after 5 years, my apostate future was clearly drawn.
• 

  greendawn

  So Black man there was a lot of self serving treachery and boot licking going on , a most unchristian ambiance in the very centre of the spiritual paradise of "jehovah's organisation", and the usual excessive zeal in applying the letter of the law by our modern day pharisee friends.
• 

  Dogpatch

  When I first got to Bethel in 1974 we got $14 a month plus $16 for subway tokens if we needed them to get to our congregation (which most did, as it was a 45 minute ride for me to East Brooklyn). You got your clothes from the hand-me-down bins. I could watch one cinema a month on that, gave $5 back to Bethel as a "tithe" (yes, I was an idiot), and the rest went for toothpaste, etc. Sometimes the friends in the cong. gave us money also. :-)) G-jobbing was common even back then.

  I came in with a group of 80 who had signed up for 4 years, and by the ned of one year half of those had left, couldn't take it or were so sick of seeing men all day they had to get married. I fell in love with a girl there who is STILL THERE, she was single back then and sat next to me at the table every day. She was shocked when she found out I liked her, so I dropped it and she later transferred tables. :-))

  Many who go there lose all faith in the Borg, others are like those who go to seminary and lose faith in various aspects of Christianity or Jehovah or whatever. When you see how everything REALLY works and how much the GB are TOTAL MORONS and like small children, you can never look at them the same.

  Randy

  check out the Bethel Chronicles: http://www.freeminds.org/bethel/bethel.htm

  and why I left: http://www.freeminds.org/history/whathapp.htm
• 

  FreeWilly

  And what exactly do they do with the "evidence"? Do they say, "Hey Bro so-and-so, I found a _______ while searching your room" or "I heard your call about your g-job", letting the person know they were being spied upon?

  Yep. And their not ashamed about it at all. Usually it originates from some snoopy housekeeper or neighbors listening in to the music that you playing. Then the Home overseer starts snooping.

  My friend had an Instrumental jazz CD titled "Bustin". His home overseer questioned him about the title and what it might be alluding to. Another friend was given a first and final warning to get rid of his Stone temple Pilots, Greenday and Red Hot Chili Peppers CD's. Another Temporary worker was told not to apply again for having Metallica. They also look through your Video collections. All this to allegedly keep Jah's house "clean".