I'm still a Bethelite. What-A-Coincidence wrote:
Satisfying how? Healthy meals, your laundry gets done, a medical staff, no bills except a telephone bill, etc. Those are the positive aspects. Then again it depends on who you associate with, some Bethelites are clowns, some are down to earth, some are Borged out. Some overseers Lord it Over. Some are down to earth. I had both. One was a total jerk and another was like a father.
To me that's one of the worst parts of Bethel life! It takes your iniciative away...some Bethelites have the same syndrome prisioners have (I have forgotten the technical name...), they can't live a life outside, you "unlearn" lots of things that are necessary to the "outside" life. I grew up without a father and learned to make my own money since I was 12.....I had to take care of myself and my little sisters, because mom had to work all day long. I cooked my own meals since that age. Now, here I am at Bethel....do you really wan't to know HOW BETHEL REALLY is?
Go, watch the movie "The Island".....anybody who has been a bethelite will agree. Some of the bethelites will make funny jokes about how that movie really portrays the inside life.....
If you have seen the movie (which metaphorically could also apply to the organization itself) there is one part where the main character asks the Doctor (which controls everybodys moves, even if they have too much sodium in their urine): "There must be something else than sitting here and waiting for the Island...." Go and think what that means...
This might be funny to some of you, but we are not very far from the "checking your urine" situation. This bethel overseer told a sister that she can't eat certain foods, chocolates, etc. because Bethel is paying for her treatment and he considers those foods as bad (he was talking about chocolate specifally). The sister told him that the doctor (outside Bethel) haven't told her to do a special diet......
The control is sickening! Only my two pennys on the subject....
OH, and prayers? One of the staff members in Service Department told me that one day he wrote that letter to some poor old pioneer sister, encouraging and so, and at the final sentence he wrote something along the line "and we pray for you and your well being".....his overseer (a very harsh man) told him to take that sentence out, because it sounds as we sit here praying for others and that sounds childish......make it business like!