by JT 26 Replies latest jw friends
JT, welcome to the site.....and thank you for your posts. So much for the "poor Bethel brothers" living on just a tiny allowance and giving all their time to the service of Jehovah.
I always suspected as much, but it's still a shock to hear my thoughts vindicated.
I hope you'll stay around for awhile.....we could use some "class" around here. God knows that Waiting and I tend to drag the place into crass innuendoes and inane quotes.
So much for the "poor Bethel brothers" living on just a tiny allowance and giving all their time to the service of Jehovah.
I always suspected as much, but it's still a shock to hear my thoughts vindicated.
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I did know some bethelites who had to live off thier $90.00 amonth--
no family in the "Truth" and they got very little help from thier local hall due to having so many bethelites in thier hall
in fact they were the guys i used to see come down to the district conventions when i was growing up and they looked like Nerds with highwater pants and white socks and black shoes-
i never wanted to be like that or go to bethel- then i saw some Cool Bethelites come down when i was 17 yrs old and i wanted to be one of them- smile
but the Bethel Heavies do live well ---due to all those "Green Handshakes"
i used to work as the circuit acct oveseer and we had this bethel speaker come down for the weekend--- we had him on sat and he had a sunday talk as well for the Speical one day
i sat in the office and saw 9 elders put together $500 out of pocket to give him as a gift-keep in mind all his expenses are paid for anyway
i have no idea how much he got from the friends after he finished his last talk --but i do know that the little old sisters and lots of friends always gave his wife lots of envelopes
then he repeated the same talk program on sunday for the other side of the circuit. ALL CASH AND TAX FREE
there is this black bro at bethel who is the mentor for lots of black bro- A former DO --his name is JR Brown -a very POWERFUL SPEAKER
HE IS best Friends with Larry and Tina Graham the singer- from Graham Central Station----- this guy just recently bought a "Q45 Infinity"
WHAT'S THAT A $45,000 A CAR
my old roommate is still at bethel - works the Service Desk was telling me that alot of folks at bethel was Pi$$ed off with the fact that HE is driving around in a Q45 on $90.00 amonth
they get "hooked" up by the friends all the time
it is sorta like a Bethelite Perk-
I know even myself- who was a low life bethelite , my roommate and i were always being flown somewhere
many friends would come tour bethel and invite you out to visit thier halls Chicago,FL, LA
tHey would send you a ticket to fly out for the weekend to give a talk even as a MS
i recall going flying out to this hall in Chicago, i think every single sister in the City was there that sunday- SMILE-- NOT A BAD PERK I MIGHT SAY
so you can live well as a bethelite, so for me it wasn't any feeling of mistreatment BY THE BRO- it all came down to Dogmas
TO FIND OUT THAT YOUR entire belief system is built on sand-- and it hurts to find out what you beleived was the truth has turned out to be JOKE
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God knows that Waiting and I tend to drag the place into crass innuendoes and inane quotes.
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I ENJOYED ALL your post - we all add flavor to the dish with our different styles
cu
JT
Wow Jt, please stick around, you as well as others here are a wealth of information. Thanks for the story.
Guess we've gone off track a little but I just wanted to welcome JT aka "1"
I've enjoyed your posts on H2O and look forward to your insights. You have seen more of this organisation than most of us ever will. Plus you have much sensitivity to both those in and out of the organisation.
Thanks for joining us
Hi JT
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, welcome to the forum. Look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Welcome JT,
I read your post with tears in my as. As someone who was married to an ex-bethelite, your posts had a ring of truth. As someone who was on the inside track sometimes and sometimes not hearing someone else describe it hurts me somewhere deep inside. It is just so sad.
I hope my brother at the Farm will someday see these things, for I fear he is on the "fast track" too.
Thank you for your honesty. It is a breath of fresh air. It adds validity to the feelings I have been having for years.
Being raised around a lot of blacks in and out of the WT. I have to agree with you about the blacks and their feelings within the org.
Keep posting.
This is Thinkers Wife
I would like to add my welcome along with that of the others here. We all look forward to your posts.
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
I have personally always found this "fast-tracking" thing quite facinating. Being in an area near Bethel its interesting watching how they select these ones and "groom" them.
At the same time, I find it disturbing that they generally select these ones who've gone right from school to pioneering to bethel at maybe 19 or 20 years of age. The thing is these ones have no real world experience and that these ones are the ones that move up the JW ladder seems to explain how the Society is out of touch with the average JW.
I also noticed that much position and prominance in the organization is due to who you know and whether you have friends in responsible positions with connections. There's alot of politics to where you go and how far and how fast and i've always seen this and hated it.
For me, I'm glad I lived in an area where there has for a good while been a bit of an "anti-bethel" sentiment where you could feel comfortable not "reaching out" for these things. I was always disgusted when I travelled further away from Bethel that mindset that somehow these brothers were like demi-gods.
I think the attitudes that led to this class system are disgusting and irritating. Why should I have to clap to welcome some branch representative or any other man at a convention? What about the single mom who just took her 6 kids to the convention on a school bus?
Thankfully I see alot of quality brothers these days either stepping back or refusing to accept positions of responsibility. People are backing away from the "position is everything" mindset and are starting to look at a bigger picture.
I give alot of these guys credit for giving up that prominence.
Path
JT - awesome and very revealing info.
Thank you. Like Path, I give credit to any who can walk away from such "perks." And to all others who took a stand on injustices in any way shape or form.
True story (that backs up what you have revealed):
Back in the mid-'50's my mother an I went to the Baltimore assembly with "brother and sister annointed." On Saturday night, after the program was over, he took us to a very fine seafood establishment. (The prices left me speachless.) Three Bethelites joined us, one of them being MacMillan. At some point during the dinner, 'Brother
Annointed' handed each $500 in cash! There was a lot of 'boozin' going on that night (I can't honestly say whether MacMillan was a partaker, but probably). At somepoint 'bro annointed' put me in a cab to go back to our hotel. He asked the cabbie the fare and added a 5-cent tip! The cabbie groused all the way back said all JW's were really cheap from his experience - well maybe some of them had to be, but not 'bro annointed' he owned his own very successful business, brought a new Caddy every two years, had a huge wine cellar and belonged to an exclusive country club (for business purposes he claimed). Also, Mom and I sat with the rank-and-file, but
'anointed and wife' were up in one of those boxes you spoke of. Although 'dogma' was what eventually got to me and lead to disassociation - I think that night was a stepping-stone to questioning in general. P.S. My very beautiful mother, stayed with the 'boys' and came back to our room quite three sheets-to-the wind. Didn't even get up the next morning for the assembly, nor did 'annointeds' - I took busfare from Mom's purse and went on my own.
was your husband at the farm or down in brooklyn
i was in BROOKLYN-
assigned to a congreation up in Harlem- THE HOOD
SMILE
jt
