Bethel rules... fables or truth...

by MrMoe 25 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  MrMoe

  Can you all enlighten me, I have heard certain "Bethel Rules" and wanted to find out if they are fact or fiction.

  1. Only one item on any surface at any time (a phone or lamp etc.. as long as it is just 1 item.)

  2. Allowance of $80 a month for toiletries etc... (has that allowance gone up)

  3. No T.V. or radio or only approved programs/stations?

  4. Curfew (if so what time is the curfew?)

  5. No drinking inside or outside and if so it is limited.

  6. All belongings upon arrival are inspected (music etc...) and if not approved of they are thrown away.

  7. 30 minute meals.

  8. Assigned job and no you cannot transfer.

  If any of you have any other please add...
• 

  joelbear

  Its been a while since I was there 23 years oh my god. but here goes

  1. Only one item on any surface at any time (a phone or lamp etc.. as long as it is just 1 item.)

  Not true.

  2. Allowance of $80 a month for toiletries etc... (has that allowance gone up)

  When I was there it was $22 a month and you could request another $22 a month for travelling expense.

  3. No T.V. or radio or only approved programs/stations?

  Not true. My roommate snored up a storm and I fell asleep with my headphones on every night.

  4. Curfew (if so what time is the curfew?)

  Not true.

  5. No drinking inside or outside and if so it is limited.

  Don't know. I never drank while at the Farm.

  6. All belongings upon arrival are inspected (music etc...) and if not approved of they are thrown away.

  Not true.

  7. 30 minute meals.

  That's about right, but you had another 20 minutes or so of free time you could use as you liked. at the Farm, lunch was 12:05 til 1pm.

  8. Assigned job and no you cannot transfer.

  You can ask for a transfer but if you did it a lot you would be considered a BA, bad attitude.

  If any of you have any other please add

  anything left out of closet would be placed on the bed as a reminder to keep your room tidy.

  all appliances in your room had to meet Bethel guidelines.

  One funny note: I still have the habit of rinsing all the hair out of the sink after I shave since this was a Bethel rule.
• 

  MrMoe

  An elderly sister who was once at Bethel (she wants to study with me har har) said that when she went (about 20 years +/-) she and her husband could only have 1 thing on the table surfaces at a time - she always hated the rule and now has 1,000,001 nick-nacks everywhere.

  edited for a P.S. : Friend of mine went to Bethel with Heavy Metal CD's and they "requested" he throw them away - they inspected his CD's before he settled into his room - did they single him out?
• 

  individuals wife

  I heard that you get issued with a door key when you arrive and if you lose it you are reprimanded and given another. If you lose that one you do not get another... so what then? Are you a prisoner in Bethel?!?!
• 

  Seeker

  I'll confirm what Joel said, and expand a bit:

  1. Only one item on any surface at any time (a phone or lamp etc.. as long as it is just 1 item.)

  The actual rule is 2 or 3 items, in general. Basically, they don't want a messy surface, so they came up with that rule. I've known Bethelites who were called out of work to go back to their rooms to clear up too many items that were left on a desk. In one case, the 'items' were bound volumes, ironically enough.

  2. Allowance of $80 a month for toiletries etc... (has that allowance gone up)

  It has gone up, but not by that much.

  3. No T.V. or radio or only approved programs/stations?

  Competely false. Bethelites watch TV all the time, go to lots of movies (even "R" movies), groove to the radio just like everyone else. Hey, they're mostly 19- and 20-year olds -- what else do you think they will be doing?

  4. Curfew (if so what time is the curfew?)

  No curfew. Remember, they're mostly 19- and 20-year olds. They stay up laaaaate.

  5. No drinking inside or outside and if so it is limited.

  ROFL! Bethelites are the biggest drinkers of all. Now that the New York State drinking age was raised to 21, they very youngest Bethelites aren't supposed to drink until they are 21. But drinking is a big part of the Bethel culture.

  6. All belongings upon arrival are inspected (music etc...) and if not approved of they are thrown away.

  False. Of course, if you lace your room with questionable books or CDs, you may get spoken to. But if you smuggle porn into Bethel, no one will be the wiser (I knew a Bethelite who did just that).

  7. 30 minute meals.

  20, actually, though if you wish to stay longer and keep eating you certainly can. But you have to be back to work soon, and you may have to change clothes (depending on your assignment), so you'd better not take too long. Bethelites learn to be fast eaters. But hey, they are mostly 19- and 20-year olds, so wolfing down their food fits their style.

  8. Assigned job and no you cannot transfer.

  True, you are assigned your jobs, but you certainly can transfer. You can ask, or they may ask you to transfer, and they might say no, but people change jobs all the time as the needs of Bethel call for it. However, some people do get stuck at hated jobs for long periods of time, and they do sometimes assign junk jobs to people to see if they have a good attitude about it.
• 

  Stiffy

  Got a good friend in Bethal who does the following...
  1. Dosent goto bed untill 3AM
  2. Has a Radio, TV(With Satilite Hookup), And a computer with DSL connection(Stays up downloading MP3s). He also buys and sells DVDs
  3. His Roomate gets drunk lotza nights
  4. All his neiboring friends stay up late playing their music real loud.

  basically, its like a collage dorm from what he says :)
• 

  orbison

  when i went to bethel,,,,they had little fridges, where the wine was kept,,so yes theydo drink there,,,probably in coffee cups :)

  wendy
• 

  Seeker

  It is like a college dorm in many ways -- after all, you have a lot of people there who are college age. If they went to college, they would be doing the college thing. Instead they went to Bethel and they do the college thing there are Bethel. I keep stressing that we are talking about a bunch of people who are 19 or early 20s, so they act like people that age.

  As for hiding the drinking, I'll never know where the idea came from that Bethelites don't drink. They all drink, openly, all the time. It's no big deal.
• 

  Michael3000

  If you had any female visitors, you had to leave your door ajar (so as not to give the impression any hanky-panky was occuring).

  --Michael

  "Any day spent NOT knocking on doors is a good day!"
• 

  drahcir yarrum

  I was there almost 30 years ago and don't remember a specific number of items allowed on desk surface but that would have been more in consideration of the sisters who cleaned our rooms everyday. I think we got one clean bed sheet twice a week (could have been once a week). The bottom sheet was replaced with a clean sheet and it was then the top sheet until the next clean sheet was left.

  One bag of laundry once or twice a week. They generally did a nice job starching shirts but usually smashed buttons.

  No curfew. Many of us had jobs as waiters and other outside jobs on weekends. Sometimes I didn't get home until 3AM.

  Back then it was $14/mo. Inflation?

  Drinking was about the only fun thing to do. I rememeber getting in trouble by the Asst. Home Servant for putting a six pack of beer to keep it cold on my window ledge in the winter time because I didn't have a mini fridge. We used play some disgusting drinking games involving matches and flatulence. I'll say no more. Some of my buddies developed a taste for fine cigars after a good meal in Manhattan.