The Governing Body scenario is nearly identical to that in 1977 - no power

by Dogpatch 59 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    Just look at a listing of the corporate officers - none of them are on the Governing Body - for a reason. And they are alive and have been with the Society for years, most at Bethel. Not all are dead.

    This is no big secret or mystery, folks! Just corporate effforts to prevent anyone from getting too much power. Why do you think they have been prepping for a hostile takeover for the last 2 years? All their main mag. articles reek of fear and hate-mongering-apostates.

    Perhaps some of you would do good to "look outside the bun" and study other cultic movements and the circle of life and death they follow. It's simply VERY COMMON. Do you think I'm trying to brag about this stupidity? Do any of you work in real big corporations with crooks at the top who hoard power but yet are unknown to most of their employees? That's the best spot to be in!! They can deny any culpability.

    But you CAN see it at the lower levels, like in the congregations. The older ones who had their day of power-hunger are not interested in becoming known - it does nothing for them. I was appointed a Bethel elder at 25, just a couple of months after they officially changed the lowest age to 30 in 1977. They always have unwritten loopholes and policies. Sure, I got the "GB" power bug, but by the time I was appointed I was almost over it. I just felt stupid.

    TACTIC: Get the drones to do the dirty work and get laughed at. They NEED the GB to make sure to put on a good face... and eventually those on the GB will take their place (assuming they last that long).

    Yes, years have passed, and they are not quite the same, but this is just perpetual human nature that repeats itself ad nauseum.

    The big problem is, no matter how much logic or evidence I have, you really have to be there and be perceptive, and know the right people. That's why few of you seem to believe me. No worries. It doesn't really change anything - they all eventually will be clones of their masters. :-))

    I notice that it seems no former Bethelites are commenting who spent years there and knew a lot of heavies. This is really old news - it has happened before several times in WT history. Think of all the class distinctions, etc. "Ruth and Naomi" classes, etc. Simple as dirt. Same reason they put the new boys in the laundry and housekeeping for a time or perhaps for good. It's all a power play... and a sick one at that.

    What may be confusing is that these few old guys are just keeping a lid on their PR... they don't care about doctrine at all! They don't write articles. They don't speak in assemblies much or even travel. Just power. So they can let trhe GB do whatever they want - but they will be chastized if they stray from the pig pen. So it always looks like the GB is in charge, as they are in the public eye.

    Perhaps none of you work for shady corporations - maybe that's it. But at least you must watch TV and see this stuff continually. Is it the fact that it is a RELIGION make it so confusing?

    The GB is in their new boy stage... sooner or later they will be the big players. It took the new ones appointed in 1977 several years to brownnose their way to the top. It was smarmy and comical.

    Okay, here are a couple of links that will help you "get it."

    http://www.randallwatters.org/randypt1.htm

    http://www.randallwatters.org/randypt2.htm

    http://www.randallwatters.org/randypt3.htm

    http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/bethel.htm

    political cartoons from inside Bethel

    QUAK'S CARTOONS reveal inside secrets!

    Witch Hunt at Bethel (1979-1980)

    part 2

    Quak's secret cartoons from the pressroom

    Pressroom Conversion Tales

    Warren Schroeder from Bethel on Freddy, Kline and the apostate books! (original)

    Cabeen's Secret Book

    Even Farkel tells us a lot HERE

    Our dear Leolaia tells a story:

    Rutherford's smear campaign (a must read) (original)

    Warren Schroeder from Bethel on Freddy, Kline and the apostate books! (original)

    If you can read these and not "get it," you need to go to Bethel for a few years.

    Randy

    from Leolaia's story:

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/rutherfords-smear-campaign-must-read

    Leolaia 9 months ago

    The story begins with Mr. Moyle's resignation letter.

    #1
    Olin R. Moyle to J. F. Rutherford, 21 July 1939
    : "This letter is to give you notice of our intention to leave Bethel on September 1st next. These reasons for leaving are stated herein and we ask that you give them careful and thoughtful consideration.

    Conditions at Bethel are a matter of concern to all of the Lord's people. Nowhere among imperfect men can there be perfect freedom from oppression, discrimination and unfair treatment, but at the Lord's headquarters on earth conditions should be such that injustice would be reduced to the minimum. That is not the case here at Bethel and a protest should be made against it. I am in a good position to make such protest because your treatment of me has been generally kind, considerate and fair. I can make this protest in the interests of the Bethel family and of the Kingdom work without any personal interest entering into the matter.

    Treatment of Bethel Family

    Shortly after coming to Bethel we were shocked to witness the spectacle of our brethren receiving what is designated as a "trimming" from you. The first, if memory serves me correct, was a tongue lashing given to C. J. Woodworth. Woodworth in a personal letter to you stated something to the effect that it would be serving the devil to continue using our present day calendar. For that he was humiliated, called a jackass, and given a public lambasting. Others have been similarly treated. McCaughey, McCormick, Knorr, Prosser, Price, Van Sipma, Ness and others have been similarly scolded. They have been publicly called to account, condemned, and reprimanded without any previous notice. This summer some of the most unfair public reproaches have been given. J. Y. McCauley asked a question which carried with it a criticism of the present method of Watch Tower study. For that he was severely reprimanded. Your action constituted a violation of the principle for which we are fighting, towit, freedom of speech. It was the action of a boss and not that of a fellow servant. Securing an efficient mode of study with imperfect study leaders is no easy task, and no method yet produced has proved to be one hundred per cent perfect. You stated that no complaints had come to you concerning this method of study. If that be the case you have not had all the facts presented to you. There is complaint in various places that the Watch Tower studies have degenerated into mere reading lessons. It may be that the present method is the best that can be used, but in view of known limitations honest criticism should not be censored nor honest critics punished.

    Brother Worsley received a public denunciation from you because he prepared and handed to brethren a list of helpful Scripture citations on fundamental topics. How can we consistently condemn religionists for being intolerant when you exercise intolerance against those who work with you? Doesn't this prove that the only freedom permitted at Bethel is freedom to do and say that which you wish to be said and done? The Lord certainly never authorized you to exercise such high handed authority over your fellow servants.

    Since the Madison Square Garden meeting there has been a distressing condition of restraint and suspicion at Bethel. The ushers were placed in a tough spot but did an excellent piece of work. They exercised care and diligence in watching arrivals at the Garden, and prevented a number of suspicious characters from entering. They were on the job immediately when the disturbance started and quelled a disturbance which would have otherwise reached serious proportions. But for two weeks following the convention there has been constant criticism and condemnation of them from you. They have been charged with dereliction of duty and labeled as "sissies". To see some of these boys break down and cry because of your unkind remarks is, to say the least, saddening.

    The brethren at Bethel have thoroughly demonstrated their loyalty and devotion to the Lord, and do not need to be berated for wrong doing. A suggestion or a kindly admonition from you would be more than sufficient to check any wrongful action, and would eliminate resentment and induce greater happiness and comfort for the whole family. You have stated many times that there are no bosses in the Lord's organization but the undeniable fact cannot be evaded that your actions in scolding and upbraiding these boys are the actions of a boss. It makes one sick at heart and disgusted to listen to them. If you will cease smiting your fellow servants Bethel will be a happier place and the Kingdom work will prosper accordingly.

    Discrimination

    We publish to the world that all in the Lord's organization are treated alike, and receive the same as far as this world's goods are concerned. You know that is not the case. The facts cannot be denied. Take for instance the difference between the accommodations furnished to you, and your personal attendants, compared with those furnished to some of your brethren. You have many many homes, to wit, Bethel, Staten Island, California, etc. I am informed that even at the Kingdom Farm one house is kept for your sole use during the short periods you spend there. And what do the brethren at the farm receive? Small rooms, unheated thru the bitter cold winter weather. They live in their trunks like campers. That may be all right if necessary, but there are many houses on the farm standing idle or used for other purposes, which could be used to give some comfort to those who work so long and so hard.

    You work in a nice air conditioned room. You and your attendants spend a portion of the week in the quiet of country surroundings. The boys at the factory diligently work thru the hot summer months without such helps, or any effort made to give them. That is discrimination which should receive your thoughtful consideration.

    Marriage

    Here again is shown unequal and discriminatory treatment. One brother left Bethel some time ago for the purpose of getting married, and, so I am informed, was refused the privilege of pioneering in New York, apparently as an official disapproval of his action in leaving Bethel. On the other hand when Bonnie Boyd got married she didn't have to leave Bethel. She was permitted to bring her husband into Bethel in spite of the printed rule providing that both marrying parties should have lived there for five years.

    Harsh treatment of one and favored treatment of another is discrimination, and should not have a place in the Lord's organization.

    Filthy and Vulgar Language

    The Biblical injunctions against unclean, filthy speaking and jesting have never been abrogated. It is shocking and nauseating to hear vulgar speaking and smut at Bethel. It was stated by a sister that was one of the things you had to get used to at Bethel. The loudest laughter at the table comes when a filth or near filthy joke goes through, and your skirts are not clear.

    Liquor

    Under your tutelage there has grown up a glorification of alcohol and condemnation of total abstinence which is unseemly. Whether a servant of Jehovah drinks alcoholic liquor is none of my business, except in giving a helping hand to a brother who is stumbled thereby. Whether I am a total abstainer is nobody's business but my own. But not so at Bethel. There appears to be a definite policy of breaking in newcomers into the use of liquor, and resentment is shown against those who do not join them. The claim is made, "One can't be a real Bethelite without drinking beer." Shortly after we arrived it was arrogantly stated, "we can't do much with Moyle, but we'll make a man out of Peter." A New York brother intimated that I was out of harmony with the truth and with the Society because I didn't drink liquor. A New York sister stated that she had never used liquor or served it until some of the Bethel boys insisted upon it. A brother who used to drink liquor to excess became a total abstainer after getting the truth. He knew that a single drink of liquor would start him off to his former drinking habits, but in spite of that brethren from Bethel insisted upon his imbibing liquor and inferred that he was out of harmony with the organization through refusing. Total abstainers are looked upon with scorn as weaklings. You have publicly labeled total abstainers as prudes and therefore must assume your share of the responsibility for the Bacchus like attitude exhibited by members of the family.

    These are a few of the things which should have no place in the Lord's organization. There are other more grievous injustices but I have had no personal contact with them and therefore do not discuss them.

    It hasn't been an easy or pleasant task to write these things to you, and it's still harder to make this protest effective by leaving Bethel.

    We sold our home and business when we came to Bethel and fully intended to spend the rest of our lives at this place in the Lord's service. We leave in order to register most emphatically our disagreement with the unjust conditions related in this letter. We are not leaving the Lord's service but will continue to serve Him and His organization as fully as strength and means will allow.

    Neither am I running away from battling the Devil's crowd in the courts. I expect to return to the private practice of law, probably in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and hope to be in the fight in every way possible. With this letter I am enclosing a statement of the major cases now pending in which I am actively participating. It would be unreasonable and unfair to drop these matters into your lap without further assistance or consideration. I am ready and willing to press these issues in the courts just as vigorously and carefully as though I remained at Bethel, and will do so if that is your desire.

    We have considered this action for some time, but this letter is delivered to you just as we are leaving on a vacation trip for very specific reasons. First: It is desirable that you take time for thought and consideration of the matters herein set forth before taking any action. Hasty and ill considered action might be regrettable. Second: Frankly I have no desire for a verbal argument with you over these matters. I have had plenty of occasion to observe that a controversial matter does not receive a calm and reasoned discussion of the facts. Too often it turns into a denunciation of some person by you.

    I am not interested in that kind of a wordy battle. These statements are the reasons presented by Sister Moyle and myself for leaving Bethel. If we speak erroneously or wrongfully we are responsible before the Lord for so speaking. If we speak truthfully, and we stoutly content that everything here related is the truth, then there is an immediate responsibility on your part to remedy the conditions necessitating this protest. May the Lord direct and guide you into fair and kindly treatment of your fellow servants is my wish and prayer.

    Your Brother in the King's service,

    Olin R. Moyle.

    P.S. Should you desire to write to me concerning these matters during vacation a letter will reach me at Ticonderoga, New York, General Delivery after July 29th.

    undercover 9 months ago

    marking

    Leolaia 9 months ago

    The matters in the letter were elucidated further in the 1943 civil lawsuit:

    #2OLIN R. MOYLE
    A. You mention in here, I believe, Mr. Woodworth and Mr. Van Sipma and Mr. Ness and others as having been what you termed trimmed publically, that Mr. Woodworth was called a jackass, and that MacAulay and McCormick and Knorr and Price and Van Sipma and others had been scolded and upbraided severely and publicly reprimanded, is that true? A. That is true....Q. Did they ever object to you concerning the correction that they received from Judge Rutherford as the head of the Family? A. One of them told me that he certainly did not like receiving that kind of treatment. Q. And who was it. A. Nathan Knorr....Q. You say here that they were labeled as 'sissies'. Is that what they were called? A. That is what Mr. Rutherford labeled them at the table.... Q. Do you recall some incident in July involving a chair with Mr. Rutherford? A. During the conferences over the Madison Square meetings we were called into the room, I think they call it the radio lobby or audition room, by Mr. Rutherford. There a number of us, Grant Suiter was one, myself and two or three others, were there and Mr. Rutherford, right after breakfast table. As we entered the room and were waiting for the others he sat down in a stenographer's chair, a small swivel chair. The chair tipped back and almost threw him onto the floor and he rose up from the chair and grabbed it with his hands and threw it the whole length of the room towards the center of the room....

    Q. You state in here regarding discrimination on the part of the Judge to his own self against the other members of the Family. Just what are the facts upon which you base that?... A. His accommodations on the seventh floor, his air-cooled room, compared with the quarters under which the boys worked in the factor, compared to the quarters which the farm lads had out on the farm. I thought that was discrimination....The boys in the Bethel, especially those at the farm, had very small rooms and they were unheated....It was small enough so that with the bed and two trunks and I believe this small dresser, there was precious little room, not much room to spare to go around....The point of the objection was that the claim was made that all at Bethel were on a par, were equal, we were all alike, we were all Brethren, there was no boss, no one had rights any better than the others. The point I was making was of discrimination, that he had many places, not just a room; a whole house, and from what we heard, a very commodious one in California, whereas some of the boys, especially those on the farm, had dinky little rooms and without heat. That is the point of the discrimination....Q. What was there about holding an elevator open for Mr. Rutherford at times? Do you know anything about that? A. Very frequently, especially on Sunday evenings, the elevator would be held open for him. I might state that the elevator there is a self-operating one and used by the members there to go up to the different floors and when Mr. Rutherford and his group were returning from Staten Island or elsewhere this elevator would be held open for them and those who went up to the upper floors would have to walk up during that time. Q. Is that the only one in the place? A. That is the only one in the place. Q. Was that held open for long periods of time? A. Quite lengthy periods, sometimes....Q. You say that the Judge violated one of the rules in the case of Bonnie Boyd, is that correct? A. The point I made was that there was discrimination. Q. He discriminated? A. Yes. Q. What facts do you base the discrimination upon? A. On the information given, that the one person [Bonnie Boyd] married and was allowed to bring her partner into the organization, and the other person [Eddie Broad] married had to leave, and was not even permitted to do pioneer work in that locality....

    Q. Now, tell us what facts you base these charges on in the first paragraph under the heading 'Liquor'? Q. First I mentioned the fact that I was a total abstainer was nobody's business but my own, but at Bethel it appeared not to be case. That was so. After I went there I made no claims or anything as to my own drinking. I told nobody that I was a drinker or not a drinker at all. But after we had been there a while there would be allusions to it as we would go up and down the elevator. The boys would remark there, make allusions, wish they had a barrel of beer around, how nice a barrel of beer would be, which I took to be aimed specifically at me as being a total abstainer. Other cases, another member, not of Bethel but on the outside, a man by the name of Nelson, one of the Jehovah's Witnesses in one of the units around there, told me one time I wasn't in harmony with the Society if I did not drink liquor. I had been offered liquor at his place and declined it. Q. What else? A. This policy of breaking in newcomers there, we heard that from several different persons...Beer was served some nights at the factory when they were working overtime and I heard of some of the boys bringing in stronger stuff....It was the attitude towards it. I have no objection to anyone drinking beer or wine, that is their own affair, as I state in the letter, and remarks were made at the table casually by the president, Rutherford, concerning that, and at one time he did label total abstainers as prudes, a term which I did not think was applicable....Q. What did he say? What is it particularly that gave rise to that statement? Q. I may have these mixed up a little bit, but if I remember right, that was in connection with the case which happened when the boys were working overtime at the factory were served some beer, and that night in the very late hours the alarm bell in the Bethel rang, and there was quite a search and disturbance over it and an investigation was made. The president of the organization inquired at the table several times as to who pushed that button and rang that bell during those late evening hours, and in the course of that discussion it came up that possibly someone of the boys did drink too much, and feeling the effects of it had pushed that button and rang the bell as a joke in those late hours. There was further discussion of it and in the course of that discussion the Judge did make the statement that those who didn't drink at all were prudes. Q. Did he approve of pushing the bell by the boy that had too much? Q. Most decidedly not....

    Q. And you withdrew without seeing first that he had somebody else to take your place or trying to settle these matters with him? Did you ever go to the Judge and talk with him and try to settle these matters? ... A. Because in the time that I was there, when I had seen the cases where people having an idea in opposition to him were scolded severely. They were not given any chance to speak, and as I stated in the letter, were trimmed. Q. Trimmed? A. Yes, sir, scolding, in other words. Q. Who were they? A. George Hannan was one. Q. Who else? A. McCormick was another. Q. What were the facts in each one of those cases? A. George Hannan's case was in connection with this Madison Square Garden riot. George was one of the ushers and at one of the sessions concerning those ushers the claim was made against George that he had not performed his duties properly. George tried to explain. The Judge shut him off as quick as that. He said, 'You needn't say any more,' in a strong, brutal, rough tone of voice. Q. What else? A. And these other cases that I have mentioned in the letter. Q. What are the circumstances? A. They were similar. Q. What are the similarities? A. Take the case of C. J. Woodworth, which is mentioned. Woodworth sent a letter to the Judge as we were sitting at the table in which he made reference to a calendar. Woodworth had written an article on the calendar in which he had developed a new form of calendar, and in this private note to the Judge he stated that he felt as though he was using the devil's tools or using something of the devil in using the old calendar, and that day at noon the Judge jumped upon Woodworth without warning, calling him a jackass, and Woodworth said, 'Yes, Brother Rutherford, I presume I am a jackass.' 'Yes, you are a jackass,' he said, and Woodworth said, 'I am sorry.' 'Yes, you always say you are sorry. I am sick and tired of it,' and he put it much more forcibly than I could ever do....Q. What is there about the word jackass that you object to? A. I don't have any objection to the word jackass. I did have the objection to a man, the head of a Christian organization as it is claimed, using his brethren in that manner. That is one of the reasons why I sent that letter.....There were two scoldings given to MacAulay. One was shortly after we came there. The cause of it was prior to our coming there, but from the conversation at the time it appeared that MacAulay had asked some letter to be returned concerning some actions of C. J. Woodworth and Judge Rutherford scolded MacAulay very, very severely....He told MacAulay that he was butting in on things which were no concern of his, that if he continued to do such things, he had better pack up and get out. His voice was loud and strong....Q. You mentioned also in the letter an incident about Worsley? Yes. Tell us about that. A. Worsley was a young man who sat at my table. He had some position in the Brooklyn unit of the company, and the Judge spoke to him one day at the dinner table very roughly and in a loud voice, and accused him of going forward on his own hook preparing a paper or list of Scripture citations and giving it to the members of the Brooklyn unit without his authority. He scolded him. He made reference to the fact that he was English, and that the English always considered themselves altogether too smart and running ahead, and removed him from the official position which he had with the Brooklyn unit. And the thing which he did was giving this paper with Scripture citations on to help the members of the unit in their work on calling on the people. Q. Did you state when and where this took place? A. This took place at the dinner table while the family were eating dinner. Q. About when? A. That was about the third year I was there. Q. What was his tone of voice then? A. Angry and loud.

    #3
    PHOEBE MOYLE

    Q. At these times that you mentioned at the meetings, and particularly the meeting at Bethel, was Mr. Rutherford's attitude at that time such as a father towards a son? A. I don't recollect of ever seeing an occasion like that in my lifetime. Q. What was his attitude? A. Well, the attitude was one of being autocratic, austere and officious....Q. Did you hear any smutty stories or talk at the table? A. I did. Q. Can you give us any details about that? A. Yes. One instance, I think it was after the Madison Square Garden meeting, a lad at the end of one of the tables told of his experience in meeting a woman.... and he was out selling the books that day, and she said that she believed that what he had was the truth and that she would tell her priest what kind of a son-of-a-bitch, I guess it was ... bastard was the word that was used. She spoke of telling her priest what a bastard he was and the Judge at the end of the table said, well, he didn't know about him being a bastard but he knew that he had a lot of little bastards running around. Q. Was that said in the open? A. Yes, sir, that was said at the table. Q. And they did indicate that they heard it by any commotion? A. They laughed. Q. And were there any other occasions when you heard any bad language? A. Well, going up and down the elevator at the office we used to hear plenty of it and I remember one time going back into the ladies' rest room, and I suppose my face was pretty well flushed, and one of the women [Helen Howlett] said — she laughed to think that I was blushing, and she said, 'You will get used to that. I used to blush when I first came here but we get used to that after a while' .... Q. Was there anything whereby Mr. Rutherford was referring to a Scandinavian accent? A. I don't recall a Scandinavian accent, but we had a man sat at the table, Dececca, his name was, and the Judge would seem to delight in calling on him, and when he had answered he would imitate him and mimic him and used to tell him to talk English so he could understand him. Q. Did the Judge say anything about his attitude towards women on any occasion? A. So often he did. Q. What did he say? A. I can't remember. We would go back to the office just heartsick with the stuff he said....Q. Were you present at any of the these occasions if they occurred of scoldings by Mr. Rutherford of Mr. Woodworth? And MacAulay, McCormick, Knorr, Prosser, Van Sipma, and Ness? A. I think I heard them all. Q. And also Worsley? A. I think so. Q. What was the attitude of Mr. Rutherford on those occasions? A. Well, he would yell at them. Worsley, he didn't give Worsley a chance to answer and just took away his job at the Brooklyn unit, and later he was put back in. Q. Was it an attitude such as a father towards his son? A. Hardly. Q. Do you remember anything about a matter affecting Elizabeth Galyas? A. I do...She worked in the Mailing Department. There were three other boys working there and she and I were friends, very good friends....Well, they had been telling smutty stories to her and this day, when I was filing, she stood right up to them and said, 'I don't know what you think I am, but I am not taking any more of that,' and she said, 'I am going to report you,' and they just laughed. Q. Did you see any liquor around there at any time? A. I was the empty bottles, many. Q. Where did you see them? A. The first year I worked on the third floor and I saw them in the rooms of the men and then I saw the empty bottles, the whiskey bottles; I had to take care of them and put them into the place where the houseman took them away....Q. Did you resent the action of any of your sisters or brethren towards you while at Bethel? A. Well, I did not like the inference that I was — well, that I couldn't take liquor. Q. What individual — was that a man or a woman? A. Usually the men going up in the elevator.

    Band on the Run 9 months ago

    Leo,

    Do you know if Moyle broke with the Witnesses on doctrinal matters, too?

    Leolaia 9 months ago

    He had some doubts he held privately. In 1938, Rutherford changed the teaching on Armageddon and the paradise earth, with new light that the paradise would be repopulated mostly by the Jonadabs who would reproduce and "fill the earth" with their offspring. Moyle did not feel that was scriptural, but he was willing to wait on Jehovah. It was after experiencing a smear campaign by the Society that caused him to doubt that the Society was really Jehovah's organization.

    BTW, I would ask people commenting on this thread not to post any other material from the trial until I've concluded posting the excerpts .....I would like to present the story in chronological order. But feel free to discuss what's being posted. :)

    EndofMysteries 9 months ago

    any pdf's of the original?

    Leolaia 9 months ago

    While he was on vacation, he mentioned his resignation to friends he corresponded with, expressing his hopes for reform at Bethel.

    #4
    Olin R. Moyle to Brother H. L. Philbrick, 25 July 1939
    : "Here is another matter which will undoubtedly be more or less of a surprise to you. Just before leaving on vacation I presented my resignation to the Society's president to take effect September 1st. I did so as a protest against the unjust conditions at Bethel. I expect to go back to Wisconsin and open up an office for the practice of law again. You are familiar with some of the conditions existing at Bethel and therefore know the need of a protest. My resignation is a long story and I haven't the disposition or the energy to write the details this morning".

    #5
    Olin R. Moyle to H. L. Philbrick, 28 July 1939
    : "It is difficult for one on the outside to appreciate the conditions existing at Bethel. An honest facing of the facts and facts are difficult to face leads to the inescapable conclusion that a dictatorship exists there. There is no freedom of speech, or even freedom of conscience at Bethel. That is sad but true. I have not waved one inch in my allegiance to the Lord and His organization. He permits these things to continue for some good reason and will undoubtedly clean them out when in His good pleasure he deems it necessary. Nevertheless we have a responsibility to protest over wrongful conditions and that is why we are leaving this place. I have no personal controversy with Brother Rutherford, and am glad that I have not. At present it is practically impossible to discuss a controversial matter with him face to face. In my letter of resignation to him I told him that a discussion on such topics was not a calm and reasoned discussion but turned into a denunciation with him dominating the scene. That is the reason why I gave him my resignation in writing with reasons, so that he would have time to calmly consider the matter. It is depressing and hard on the nerves to even write concerning this matter. To go through it is ten times worse. Therefore we are hoping that we can still serve the Lord back in Wisconsin free from oppression and injustice".

    #6
    Olin R. Moyle to Mr. John G. Miller, 29 July 1939
    : "We are camped on the bank of Eagle Lake, which is one of the beauty spots of the Adirondacks. It is a lovely place, nice and cool, and we are getting a much needed rest. There are five of us here. Three from Philadelphia and the wife and myself.... Here is some more information which will be somewhat of a surprise to you. You have been at Bethel and know something of the conditions there. Whether they were as bad or worse at the time you were there, I do not know. They are bad enough now. JFR has been on the war path this summer and frankly speaking, there is a great deal of injustice. Table trimmings have been plentiful and a lot of other things occur which should not have a place in the Lord's organization. The Lord permits it, I presume for a good purpose, but I have felt for a long time that a good protest should be made. So we made it just before leaving for vacation. I sent the judge a letter of about five pages giving my resignation as general counsel to take effect September 1st. In that letter I protested against the unjust happenings at Bethel and urged him to remedy the conditions at Bethel. I expect to go back to Wisconsin and hang out my shingles again for the private practice of law. Whether the judge will use me any further in the cases now pending, I do not know. The extent of participation in the court battles of course depends upon what he says. This doesn't mean that I have left the truth or am leaving the truth, although I am aware that many will consider that to be the case. At Bethel it is generally considered that anyone leaving there has become a heretic. Nevertheless I still believe the Society is the Lord's organization and that he is using the judge greatly at this time. I haven't any personal set-to with the judge and am only protesting and leaving with the hope that the protest will thus be forceful enough to cause him to think and remedy the conditions, so that the brethren at Bethel can have some degree of freedom from restraint and comfort during their busy days there".

    Ding 9 months ago

    Very interesting, Leo!

    Leolaia 9 months ago

    Yes, here is the trial transcript: http://archive.org/details/OlinR.MoyleTrial

    Lady Lee 9 months ago

    as usual excellent work Leolaia

    Leolaia 9 months ago

    #7J. F. Rutherford to Olin R. Moyle at the Meeting of the Board of Directors, 8 Aug. 1939: "I have been at this desk for 22 years. I have had many accusations from the 'evil servant,' but never had I had a worse one than this, if as bad. The complaint about me having different places in which to reside is the very language of the evil servant class....The brethren everywhere know the facts, and they know that I do not own a foot of land under the sun; that these provisions have been made to further the kingdom....I have been criticized in this letter for having an air-conditioned room. Brother Van Amburgh will bear witness to this, that my office is the hottest room in the building, right under the roof and difficult therein to get good air....I think the criticism about that is a cold-blooded cruelty, no matter whom it comes from. If it enables me to work, why should somebody criticize except one who has the spirit of the evil servant. Every rebuke I have administered has been given, as I believe, in the interest of the Society. The Apostle Paul was the special spokesman for the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Watchtower has stated, Timothy and Titus pictured the Society and as the Lord through Paul instructed them so the Lord through the Society directs others. The Society speaks by its official Head. To Timothy Paul said: 'They that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.' (1 Tim. 5:20) ....

    As I have often stated to some of the brethren, it hurts me far more to administer a rebuke than it does the one who receives it. If I see something in the organization going wrong, as I believe, then I would be unfaithful to the Lord if I did not rebuke such wrongdoer....I have made no discrimination with reference to marriage. When Bonnie Boyd got married that was her business. It was my business to determine whether or not she should remain in the home. I either had to let her husband remain here or else dispense with her services. She had been my secretary for fifteen years and the most efficient one that I have had in the office. She has taken dictation for everything I have written, speeches, magazine articles, Watchtower, books and booklets. It was for me to determine whether she should remain in the office.... If others in this house use filthy language, that is their responsibility. The statement that filthy jokes are told at the table and that the family laughs at these and these only, is a damnable outrage and any man who says that such is the case is a deliberate liar....

    Liquor: This charge is vicious. I have always been open and aboveboard about such matters....You denounce me as the 'god of wine', which is the meaning of Bacchus, which is the word you use. You had to go to mythology and not to the Scriptures and find this name for me. Mythology proceeds from the Devil and other wicked spirits. Jesus made wine, the apostle advised that it be taken in moderation and you are welcome to compare their statements to that of the evil spirits, if you wish. If your statement is not of the evil servant then I am not able to understand it....Now I say this to you, Moyle, you have allied yourself with the Devil; you have willingly, without any just cause or excuse even, withdrawn yourself from the Lord's organization, and you are going back to the Devil's organization to engage in the practice of law. I have never known any man to withdraw from the Lord's organization and go into the Devil's organization that ended up right. When you say you want to continue to fight for the Lord, there is not a person in this presence that believes a word of that. Henceforth you shall never represent the Watchtower by my consent. This Resolution has been adopted. I shall follow it. You have served notice to leave September 1. You need not wait but move out of the house this day. If you wish to join the enemy and fight, do so. I have no use for a quitter. I am sure the Lord God has no use for a quitter. You are a quitter".

    #8:Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Watchtower Society, 8 Aug. 1939: "BROTHER HEATH: Moyle, I wish to propound to you this question, Are you a Jesuit? MOYLE: Absolutely no, a thousand miles from it. BROTHER RUTHERFORD: You might explain, Moyle, why you were so familiar in the court with McDonald, patting him on the back, when you knew he was one of the leaders in the assault on the Lord's organization at Madison Square Garden. Had you performed your duty to our brethren the situation would have been far better for us now in the fight with the enemy who attempted to break up the Madison Square Garden meeting".

    #9:Resolution adopted by the Board of Directors, 8 Aug. 1939: "For four years the writer of that letter has been entrusted with the confidential matters of the Society. It now appears that the writer of that letter, without excuse, libels the family of God at Bethel, and identifies himself as one who speaks evil against the Lord's organization, and who is a murmurer and complainer, even as the Scriptures have foretold (Jude 4-16; 1 Corinthians 4:3; Romans 14:4). The members of the Board of Directors hereby resent the unjust criticism appearing in that letter, disapprove of the writer and his actions and recommends that the President of the Society immediately terminate the relationship of O. R. Moyle to the Society as legal counsel and as a member of the Bethel Family".

    cofty 9 months ago

    Marking - Thanks Leolaia

    sabastious 9 months ago

    Oh my. Based upon what a friend told me about his experience at bethel, it hasn't changed much!

    -Sab

    Emery 9 months ago

    Wow this is great so far! What a friggin moronic bastard Rutherford was....this is the guy who had the drunken revelation that the heavenly hope closed for everyone in 1935....my goodness this should be made into a movie.

    Leolaia 9 months ago

    On route to Wisconsin, Mr. Moyle wrote to friends describing what happened next.

    #10

    Olin R. Moyle to Mr. Confehrs, 9 Aug. 1939: "The lightning struck yesterday. JFR called a meeting of the W.T. Board of Directors. My letter was read and the Board recommended my immediate dismissal. Then the letter was read at the table at noon, and the family unanimously supported the action of the Board of Directors. Therefore we - the Moyle family-were ordered to pack up our goods and get out that afternoon. That was some task but we got them packed, and I am now waiting for the moving van to start them on the way to Wisconsin. Therefore - don't send any more letters to me at Brooklyn. I don't have an extra copy of the letter to JFR at hand just now but will send you one in due time".

    #11Olin R. Moyle to John G. Miller, 10 Aug. 1939: "The lightning struck on return from vacation. Tuesday morning the judge called the Board of Directors together and asked me to be present at the meeting. My letter was read and the Board recommended that I be expelled from Bethel immediately. That noon the three of us, wife, Peter and myself were ordered to pack our goods and be out before night. It was some task but we got our goods together, got a van, and are headed westward. The judge consigned me to the evil servant class, called me a religionist. Heath claimed that I was actually a Jesuit, some someone is busily circulating the story that I recommended to parents in Massachusetts that it would be good to send their expelled children to a military school. This is the beginning, so before long I expect my reputation will be pretty well shot to pieces. I am removed from participation in all cases, and the judge says that as far as he is able to present it, I will never again represent any of the brethren in court. All of this comes for making a personal, private protest to JFR against some of his actions. I'm not complaining. It's not pleasant to be kicked about in that fashion, but I'll continue serving the Lord and fighting the enemy in every way He gives me opportunity".

    #12Olin R. Moyle to Brother G. W. Chambers, 11 Aug. 1939: "Since vacation things have happened fast - so fast that we are now ex-Bethelites and on our way to Wisconsin. Tuesday morning the Judge called a joint meeting of the Boards of Directors of the two cooperations and asked me to be present with them. At the meeting my letter of July 21st in which I protested over some of his actions was read. The Boards took prompt action by recommending that I be immediately expelled from Bethel....The family under presidential pressure supported the action and a large number of them promptly snubbed us in good style....In addition Bill Heath claimed I was a 'Jesuit'. That's not a joke - an actual claim. And some other unknown person started circulating a story that I had advised parents in Massachusetts that it would be all right to send their expelled students to a military school. So it appears that before many weeks go by I'll have a pretty black reputation among the Lord's people. But we are not complaining. We are going back to Wisconsin and shall do all we can to give witness to the Kingdom and fight the modern Philistines.... We must get back, get settled, and get to earning some money so we can continue to eat. We are pulling our trailer and dodging the big cities including Pittsburgh. In all probability the story will in due time come to you and other friends that the letter I sent to JFR was a malicious, libelous document. I'm not giving it general circulation as I do not care to start a rumpus throughout the organization. It contained my reasons for deciding to return to private practice and I shall use it where necessary to defend my good name, and the good name of my wife and son. I value the friendship of you and Sister Chambers, so if any such stories come to you, I will be glad to send you a copy of the letter to you any time that you feel you would like to read it".

    Chariklo 9 months ago

    I'm imagining a Hollywood blockbuster here...it's got the makings.

    Who would we star, say as Rutherford?

    irondork 9 months ago

    Thank you for going to all this trouble, Leolaia.

    Glander 9 months ago

    Thank you, Leolaia. A fascinating read. I have read parts of it before but putting it in chronological order brought it to life.

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    Nothing is quite what it seems, is it? :-))

    That's why I WATCH people more than listen to what comes out of their mouths.

    An old Indian trick: keep your ears to the ground!

    Pay no attention to the Wizard in the corner. BAD TOTO!!

    Randy

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    "Toto, I don't think we're in KANSAS anymore!"

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    GB in 1976 - who was REALLY in charge?? :-))

  • LostGeneration
    LostGeneration

    Ahhh dogz once again posts his links from his glory dayz at bethel...tooting the horn advocating the "mysterious man behind the curtain" all the while leaving the rest of us in the dark.

    This is so tired and played. The GB run the show, yes they have their "special pets" like Smalley and Rusk, and they have to listen to legal.

    Unless any "evidence" proves otherwise, im calling bullshit.

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    from:

    Warren Schroeder from Bethel on Freddy, Kline and the apostate books!

    Hi Randy, Just a hello from Warren Schroeder, Bethel: 5/79 to 10/82.

    Over the years I lost touch with some common friends and was looking for a couple of names which I found through the ex-JW sites. I live in the East Village with my dearest wife, who teaches at NYU. We sometimes think we're the oldest people in the neighborhood... I just turned 53. We can't imagine living anywhere else.... well, we can imagine, but not any time in the near future.

    I think back to my years at Bethel with great fondness, even though many of my closest friends were dismissed and treated badly during the "purge". I made many good friends in and out of Bethel. Many of us knew we were part of a significant movement inside Bethel which also found its influence into a few small local NY groups outside of Bethel.

    The powers seemed to tolerate the loose and liberal talk for quite a while. The Towers and Squibb construction was complete, or near complete, and the Bethel population was growing very fast. It was buzzing and alive. Bible reading groups and bible commentaries were popping up everywhere. Construction and spending money, including new 4-color presses and faster bindery equipment, was foremost and took priority with the "management". Dealing with the heretics was put on hold a bit, at least until the great property grab in the Heights was completed.

    There were a couple new books published that were nothing like the typical FWFranzesque prophetic calculus manuals. These books were not typical fare, and you could see the puzzled looks when they reached the book study groups and meetings. Biblical commentary within scriptural context, with applied critical thinking, was a daunting task for the star-struck and lobotomized organizational faithful.

    There was a point when the committees finally started their inquisitions. I had a total of 3, 2 of which that included Don Adams (twice), John Booth, and some Bethel elders I don't remember, and finally a one-on-one with Karl Kline in his writing department office (this was likely due to my relationship with R. Lengtat, who I had studied with for about a year). The Karl Kline meeting was most memorable. Karl got quite fired up, doing all the talking, and began drooling on himself. He always seemed to have a slight speech impediment. He had 2 open books in front of him marked on various pages that he read passages from and stated the heresy of the ideas and how opposed these ideas were to "Freddy's". He named the authors, clearly mentioning Ray Franz and Rinehardt Lengtat. The books were "Commentary on James" and "Happiness".

    I do not recall the particulars of the discussion now and which were the problem passages. It was an event to watch him so animated when he was simply sitting slouched in a chair. As far as the real purge, guilt by association was easier for the elders to deal with than figuring out what you really believed. I knew how to answer the "what do you believe" questions since I was primed by Chris Sanchez and Nestor Quilan, who I had met with once, during their series of meetings with Bethel elders, and again, right after their liberation from Bethel. In the beginning of the purge, who I knew and talked to would be problematic. I was certainly "small potatoes" but the committees wanted information about others. I got away with mostly saying I didn't know anything about how any person believed on specific doctrines. The first committee I met was easy because it was early in the hunt, and the inquisitors were a bit lost as a group by not being very focused on anything in particular. The 2nd committee was a few months later and made me sweat a bit more. They had their people lined up and their questioning fine tuned, mostly with one person asking all the questions. Overall, the meetings were short and, for me, ended with a little talk about bad association and reading worldly bible commentaries.

    This is all so much water under the bridge and much more since. I was never disfellowshipped and never resigned as a JW (with some criticism by a few others that I should do so). By 1984 I never thought to attend a Kingdom Hall again out of my own volition. I have never looked back with regret, or that my unpaid work at Bethel were a waste of my time.... I was a little later than many in getting my college education and attaining other economic benefits, but it was an irreplaceable learning experience, being a progressive free thinker inside a closed minded group, and surviving relatively unscathed. I look back and retell the story for an interested audience. I reflect on who I am today, very different than who I was as a young JW. Bethel was an important turning point in my life. If it could have the same results I could only wish the experience for others.

    Cheers,
    Warren

    DogpatchRe: Warren Schroeder from Bethel on Freddy, Kline and the apostate books! posted 5 years ago (6/18/2008)




    Post 2138 of 4089
    Since 12/26/2000

    ...so, Randy asks Warren to cough up some more stories...

    Hi Randy,

    It would be a book to discuss all the details of the studies inside and outside of Bethel.

    Greg, Randy Mangels and myself studied with R. Lengtat and his roommate Mark, through 79 until it became too precarious for Lengtat. Inside the Writing Dept. Gene Smalley focused and did what he could to subvert RL's position in the Writing Dept. Lengtat described Smalley, Klein, and Schroeder as the kind that would read newspapers all day just to pluck some morsels that would support the existing endtimes doctrines.

    Karl Klein absolutely idolized Fred Franz, which was most apparent when I was called into his office for some readjustment. Lengtat was the wunderkind who had the respect of R.F and E.D for his scholarship of scripture, ignoring the Fred Franz calculus that had shaped JW doctrine for so long, and this association would also become problematic for him when the dissention came to a head.

    In his room he had drawers jammed full of documents of commentary on Daniel, Ezekiel and the prophets, and whatever. In particular, I remember reading several chapters of Ezekiel in some of the readings. I believe that Greg was the only person he trusted to hold some of the commentary to copy some parts. Greg very likely still has his large print referenced NWT, in which he wrote into every margin and crevice comments from our studies with RL. (Too bad RL didn't read Benedict Spinoza's critique about revelation and Ezekiel's writings... rightfully calling him insane). RL would carry documents on his person at all times. He was always seen clutching his leather briefcase to the side or chest. It was speculated between our small group that whatever it was it was in there was probably his quiet ticket out of Bethel.

    It did prove to be something, since he was not publicly disgraced on his exit from Bethel and was actually awarded a stipend, in the name of "Special Pioneer" when he left for Seattle. His father was living there and he moved in for a short period. WT may have needed his help to complete some research, I'm not sure, and I didn't ask since he was completely paranoid, and maybe rightfully so. RL and I stayed in contact for another 3-4 years, but it began to slow when he and I both realized that I was moving farther away from the things that he was still interested in studying and believing. We also had several Bible readings inside Bethel which included outsiders like Connie Ingargiola, Laura Driscoll, Mario DeCuitis, Donna Fried, Michelle Tessa, and Ron Leeds, from Long Island. We also met outside in their homes.

    There was also another group from WT Farms that I knew but did not stay in contact with. The Watchtower Farm individuals were more connected to the Long Island group and we met mostly on ski trips and other recreation. I also did readings with Cris, Norma, Nestor, and his wife (name?) a couple times in my room. It was getting closer to their demise and everything just stopped between us. Near the end I made a visit to see them in Spanish Translating (Bldg #1).

    I had quite a bit of liberty of movement through the factory as an electrician, and I was becoming better known with all the supervisors and was able to go just about anywhere without question. At that time, I knew something was wrong as Cris said he could not talk to me and had a meeting. He and Norma would be gone within some hours or days. So much chatter for now. I've attached a picture of Sherry (my wife) and myself from 3-4 years ago.

    I also had brain cancer surgery at the end of February. I'm ambidextrous, so the surgeon needed to be concerned about how my brain would react to cutting in certain locations. This required me to talk to the surgeon while he probed and cut my brain. I became more famous afterwards when he told me that I have a rare and special brain. I asked what he meant and informed me that I was cross-dominant, and in his words, said it was a DaVinci brain. Well, cool then. He could only remove 45% of the GBM4, which left a lot of questions about my survival chances. I've been through the radiation and chemo and a recent MRI shows the tumor gone, which is amazing. I am in a clinical trial at NYU, which apparently works, and will continue with some more treatments of chemo and Avastin. I have regained quite a bit of my energy since the radiation terminated about 5 weeks ago. I posted a picture on the net which shows my zipped up head. Here is the weblink:

    http://www.circuit-ed.com/uplds/inbed_side.jpg

    Best,
    Warren

    yknotRe: Warren Schroeder from Bethel on Freddy, Kline and the apostate books! posted 5 years ago (6/18/2008)


    Syrian Arab Republic

    Post 1305 of 9865
    Since 8/24/2007

    Thanks Randy and tell Bro Warren...thank you for sharing too!

    I love reading about those type of experiences, it helps me to understand why all of sudden the JW world was cast into darkness when previously light had been allowed.

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    LOL

    LostGeneration sez,

    Unless any "evidence" proves otherwise, im calling bullshit.

    So what did bullshit have to say, Lost?

    :-))

    Actually I just made the whole thing up!

    "Bethel is TRULY a spiritual paradise!"

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    More bullshit for LostGeneration:

    http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/NewBoy.htm

    New Boy's "Life At Bethel"
    (circa the early 70s)

    by Keith Casarona

    Biography

    52 years as a J.W., born in 1949 in Azusa, Calif., raised in Glendora, Calif. My father was D.Fed in 1961 for not going to the Kingdom Hall he was assigned to, {AHHHHH the love} by 3 brothers who later all left or got kicked out of the borg too! Pioneered in Salina, Kansas 1968-1970. Was at N.Y. Bethel 1970-1974. Worked in the laundry, under Ken Dowling {AHHHH the love}, bindery, East freight elevator in Bld.1 ended up HOE ROW Spanish Awake, under Richard Wheelock {AHHHHH the love}. Married in March 1974-July 2001,My Wife left me after a 27 year marriage, because I no longer wanted to be in the borg. Lost my sister, 99% of all my friends {AHHHHHH the love} and could have lost my 2 children, but they were treated so badly {AHHHHH the love} because I left, that they left too. We all are doing fine now. Now my ex-wife will have nothing to do with me, them or her grand children. She turned her back on her own father who was D-fed in 1958! He later blew his brains out, because his 2 children, would have nothing to do with him, plus he was not allowed to see his only grand children {my children} AHHHHHHH the LOVE!!! and why? The only thing he was doing wrong was smoking. My father could see me and my children even though he had not been a JW for 40 years and he was smoking too! The only difference is, he even knowing it was all bull.s**t, got reinstated back in 1965 so he was just "inactive"; for 40 years. It is absolutely amazing what you can get people to believe in!------------------"by their love you will recognize them";-------THIS STATEMENT WILL ALWAYS BE TRUE! ---------Adolf Hitler said......."The bigger the lie, the easier it is to make them believe!"

    Part 1

    I went to Bethel March 21,1970. At the time you had to be a pioneer for two years to apply, by the time I left in 1974 they were calling people in who had never pioneered......average stay was 5 months ( they had signed up for 4 years)......the reason they left was......well, it was hell.

    One of the reasons was, Knorr hated Bethelites, but he loved the Gilead students and why? Because when they screwed up they were thousands of miles away!....Just before I got there, they had kicked out over 60 homosexuals (at one time) ....The would kick out 1-2 Bethelites a week. He always had nothing but problems with Bethelites.. He would say "I can replace any of you, with a 25 cent stamp"...... Before I went, people told me that at Bethel, Knorr was called "Pa Pa". I never heard that in 4 years, I did hear people call him "King Knorr" They said the place was full of love...instead it was run like the military ...by a bunch of Germans, Knorr, Suiter, Henshel, Franz, Swingle, Larson, Wheelock, Weisgarber.....very unfeeling and cold.

    The only place that wasn't cold was the laundry in the 119 building. Over 100 degrees in the summer months, with no A/C, in was in a basement with no windows. Some of us would have to take salt tablets or we would pass out from the heat. I took them, because I worked on the clothes dryers (add another 10 degrees) I also ironed and steamed sisters clothes. I also worked in "check in" were we sorted all the "brothers and sisters" dirty clothes......Great job for a 20 year old "brother" sorting all those bras and panties. LOL......We called the guys underwear "Twinks" because if you opened them up, there was "a surprise in every package" Some days we would fold underwear all day......the rule was a pound a minute.

    I worked there for 22 months......it was the penal institution of the home. Sometimes if a "bother" turned in his 30 day notice (before your time was up) they would send you there, to sweat it out. Or if you messed up in other departments like the waiter crew, they would sent you there, if you screwed up...Like my friend Gary Kennedy who was sent there after he destroyed $300 worth of plates in one crash......He was a "happy-go-lucky" type who really didn't fit in.

    They wanted him out!.....so they put the screws on. My overseer Ken Dowling had a meeting with the check in crew and said "we were to report anything Gary said (that wasn't the party line) to him" He latter said to me and I Quote "Gary will DIE at Armageddon because he doesn't do what I tell him to do".."You do believe that? brother Casarona"....."ERRRR...."YES sir" I said...When you are 20 years old and they give you (when you get there) the Bethel handbook "Dwelling together in Peace and Unity": Where it says that your Bethel overseer is basically appointed my God.....What else would you say? We were to report anything we heard or saw to the "brothers" in the Bethel office (Gestapo) You really didn't know who to trust and everyone was a possible informer.....With the righteous new boys being the very worse.

    My first table was upper dinning room, Houston Roberts table head. Some tables were fun, this one was boring, the table head would set the mood for the table. IF you missed to many breakfasts (morning worship) he would turn you in. He had the personality of a bowl of "creamed spinach" He had been at Bethel for 10 years and was waiting to get married. His girl friend sat across from me and had been there for 3 years......they had 1 more year to go before they could have sex...The rule then was 14 years in full time service, before you could get married and stay at Bethel...ah the love.

    Has for the food, everyone talks about. Breakfast was O.K.( most of the time it was Ice cold after Knorrs rantings) lunch was the best meal of the day and dinner sucked. Hardly anyone went to dinner a hundred guys out of maybe 1300 went....not because we weren't hungry....the food was bad, leftovers or squash stuffed with mystery meat. Most the time there just wasn't enough food ..If you sat on the table with 7-8 hungry guys, by the time the plates come around to you, the food was gone......You pass the plates out again wait 5-10 mins. to come back...they would pass the plates around the other direction,... get to you and quess what? nothing left, now its pray time and there is no more food after the pray. You had 15 mins. to eat.....None of the big shots ever went to dinner and why?...It sucked.

    The shortest Bethel stay was 20 seconds. One "brother" drove up on his motorcycle, as Bob Lang (Bethel office) was walking across the street in from of the 124 building. He asked Bob "Is this Bethel?" Bob said "yes it is".....He said "great I'm here to report in" Bob said "is that your motorcycle?" He said "yes, why?" Bob said "because you can't have one of those here"......"no?"....NO! "O.K" the brother said "BY"........and drove off........lucky guy. P.S. no bikes were permitted either.

    Part 2

    Back to the food......The saying was "Its the best food in the world before they cook it" The coffee was the really bad. They would take a 55 lb. bag of good coffee beans and boil the .s**t out of it. The joke was if anyone could find the guy that made the coffee, and kill him, our production would go up and Armageddon could finally come. When they had liver for lunch only half the family showed up, which (saved them money)....and old timer named Wilbur Ruth about 85 years old would..would walk through the factory and tells what was for lunch each day, (we never knew ahead of time) he would say "liver to make you quiver and ice cream to make you shiver".......

    Poor Wilbur......One day my friend Tom Plank operator of Press 6 and me pulled Wilbur aside and asked him why he never got married "Oh.......I WANTED to, but back in the 30's and 40's we couldn't get married and stay at Bethel we had to made a vow of celibacy.....and Armageddon was going to COME any day......When Knorr showed up with a wife after an assembly in the early 50's that changed everything.......but for me it was too late........I was in my late 60's......Who would have someone like me?"

    Then there were the married couples......who never had kids (not allowed to at Bethel) Some of those women were down right bitter...Armageddon was coming any day, why would you want to have kids?

    One of the bitterest old ladies there was Ester Lopaz ...One of "sister" Knorr's best friends. I meet her on Doc Dixon's table it was, what we called a "dead" table. Dead because no one talked to each other. You had the righteous "company men" and the factory workers on the same table. You would go, eat and get the hell out of there.

    At Bethel when a plate of food came on a table, the table head would pass it down the right side, then when the next plate came, it would go down the left side, so everyone would get a fair chance at some food. Not on the good doctor's table his wife would always get it first.....so if you sat on the other side, close to the end you were screwed. One day we were having fried chicken......by the time it got to the end, all was left was chicken backs...so I took three backs...they passed it out......came to the end again.....all backs.......did it again....all backs.....So there I'm with a plate of all chicken back bones piled high...Dixon looks over at me and says "You sure are making a PIG out of yourself, brother Casarona"!.....

    The love started my first day at the table. Ester said "Who are you?"..."I'm brother Casarona"...."Well, were are you from, brother Casarona?" I said "Kansas" (though I was raised in California, I pioneered in Kansas, you would never tell an old timer you were from California they hated Bethelites from California, way to liberal) She said "well, where were you from before Kansas?".......I said...Errrrrr California"......she said "IT FIGURES" (all ready judged)..."Well" I said "you sure can feel the LOVE on this table!"....She said "WELL sometimes love is to correct the brothers when they NEED it"......I said "WELL SISTER Lopaz I think I'll let the BROTHERS do that".........so the war began.

    After 4 years, I turned in my 30 day notice in February 1974....everyone thought Armageddon was right around the corner.......and thus any one leaving Bethel, the house of God ( and his protection) the biggest possible fool.....At my last lunch at Bethel, Ester looked over at me and with this big grin said "You better eat EVERYTHING on your plate.......because when you leave here, you are going to STARVE!".....I didn't say a word, but I thought to myself, I would rather starve out there, then eat one more meal in here with all you self righteous assholes. I guess God only had enough power to save those at Bethel.

    10 years ago I made my only trip back to Bethel...I made a point of tracking "sister" Lopaz down. YES!....... The old bat was still alive....well in her 90's. I had her paged.....She looked at me and said "YOU, YOU.......YOU".....I said "Yes its me, and you were WRONG!"......I grabbed her hand and put it on my belly and said......"I DIDN'T STARVE to death, as you can see!"

    I was in the group that got the first new boy talks in the spring of 1970. There were 8 of them, Knorr gave the "sex at Bethel talk" (or why there is no sex, at Bethel talk)....I would give a $1,000 bucks for a copy of that talk.....there were 53 of us guys and 3 "sisters" in there...the girls faces were red.. One of the quotes was Knorr saying "I don't want you to do anything with IT, except PEE......for 4 years"

    I was also the first group of Bethelites to be assigned out to other congregations. Before our group, you would have to go to Brooklyn Heights or King County for a year.......If you were good, they would give you an outside hall. My hall was Inwood.....at the very tip of Manhattan. It was a 45-60 mins. subway ride. So book studies was a 2 hour train ride, for a 1 hour meeting.

    On my first ride there......I met a guy, a Bethelite who was leaving after 4 years, My first day was his last. He was only 24 years old.......He looked like 40......So I asked him "Do you have any words of advice?"......."YEA".......he said....."Keep your mouth SHUT and do you work......they don't give a .s**t about you here".......WOW I thought this guy as a BAD attitude! That will NEVER happen to me! HA!

    Well if you want, I guess there will be a part III........I'll tell you how I helped kill someone there.

    Part 3

    Don't get me wrong.......There was no one more self righteous then me at 19. Moved to Kansas at 18 to pioneer and even printed up cards that said.......

    "HAVE SWORD WITH TRAVEL"---------contact Casarona: Salina Kansas------ AAA (Available After Armageddon)-----SS (sacred service).....

    Oh, I was full of myself! Thought of myself as a spiritual gun fighter. To defend TRUTH, JUSTICE and all the WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY stood for. Little did I know I had no chance of winning my first big gun fight!......We have meet the enemy.....and he is US.

    There is nothing more righteous then a new boy at Bethel......So there you are at the center of the WORLD WIDE WORK.......HOME of the GB....You know you are going to see the "Shakina Light" at any moment....Then it happens ..The lies, the pride, the cruelty, the politics, the favoritism,..You say to yourself.....well it just a few people I'm SURE the "brothers" in real power have no Idea what these overseers are doing.....So what do you do?

    There is a chain of command.....and one thing you would NEVER do is go over that overseer's head that is called "END YOUR BETHEL CAREER IMMEDIATELY"....most of us who went there, wanted to make it our life's work.....

    We saw it many times...Some overseer would pull some .s**t. Like what my overseer said about a sister that worked in the laundry. He told my roommate that "That sister L...is like a cow in HEAT she wants it bad.".......Not a disfellowshipping offense.....but nothing a loving "brother" would say. Sooooooooo

    The new guy would go to Max Larson in the factory or George Couch in the Bethel home and tell him what happen.......After they heard the story....the first question they would ask is "So tell me BROTHER?.........how LONG have you been here?"....they would say something like " 2 years sir!"......".Well brother (newboy) brother Pompous has been here 22 years!......thank you for coming by"......goodbye Bethel career.......2 months later he would be on a sewing machine in the bindery...the Penal institution of the factory. (the laundry was the penal institution of the home)

    It is a "Good old boy country Club" and you are NOT a member. You are not even considered a real member of the family until your 4 years are up. Then, when you have eaten 4 years of .s**t and told them you "LIKE it" you can become a "company man."......and become one of them. seg Heil.

    So anyway.....back to the gun fight...The stuff my overseer was doing....well the stink was rising to the heavens, but what it do?.....Our assistant overseer told a X CO what was happening. He said A LOT of these things were going on and some one should step up and say something. So him and 2 other X COs felt the same way. The were the 3 Freds. There names were FRED BARNES, FRED FREDEAN and FRED HILMO. Great men who had of vision of truth, righteous.......fairness......but those things had no chance in the gun fight with the "country club boys" the real power at Bethel.

    They asked anyone that had a problem with and overseer to come to the towers library. Over a hundred brothers showed up and started telling their stories........Oh my GOD. So after all was said....Fred Hilmo said he would go and talk to Knorr about it.....So he told Knorr what was going on. Knorr said "we should have a meeting with all the brothers (REBELS) to have a discussion on these matters".....You know what he was planning to do. He was going to play Jehu on their asses!

    My time is running out......so tomorrow I will tell you in Part 4, about the big shoot out known at Bethel as "Black Thursday" until then.

    Namaste my friends

    Part 4

    Black Thursday September 1972

    Knorr gathered all the Bethel "Heavies" and GB to the KH in the 119 building. The Three Freds (circuit overseers).....and about 50 brothers.....that's right only 50. The other guys chickened out, they knew it was going to be a blood bath. I was there with 7 others from the Laundry......

    It started out with Dan Smolley (not even 30 years old and partaking) telling about what Max Larson (head of the whole factory) told him "there was NO WAY he was one of the ANOINTED!" Max at the time was a member of the great crowd.......I mean how could God pick him, some kid? When Max was there at Gods house for over 40 years?......Sometimes I wonder how God picks those anointed guys anyway, God can be strange sometimes.

    Well the stories.........kept flowing....They were shaking the pillars of the the organization! Knorr got MADDER and MADDER.......he would have loved to have killed us all, if could have! Everyone knew these men were above the law. How dare we....Where the hell is JEHU, when you need him?

    As Knorr was ranting.........all of a sudden Fred Franz stood up and said "These men are appointed to there positions of (power) responsibility NOT because of their spiritual qualifications. BUT because of their secular abilities!".........The room was silent.

    Knorr said "we will LOOK into these matters".......END OF MEETING.

    Soooooooooo........What happened? There was ONE committee meeting. It was with my Laundry overseer...They gave him a slap on the hand. He was moved out of the Laundry...and by the time I left Bethel 2 years later, was promoted...to where else, the Bethel office! He was "a company man" and "company men" always take care of there own......Just look a the elders in any KH.

    They didn't kick the 3 Freds out (bad publicity and we know how the "brothers" hate publicity)......instead they just make their lives living hell.......They even put Fred Barnes (in his 50's) on a "gather" a machine that even 19 year olds have a problem staying up with........He had a heart attack...they were kind enough to take him off it.

    The rest of us "Laundry boys"......we were screwed. We had done the unforgivable, by binging up wrong doings of Bethel overseers...Our Bethel careers were over.....there was only one thing left to do, serve our time and get out.

    I was sent to the bindery....It made the Laundry look like haven. They put me on a sewing machine. It was the night shift. A sewing machine, is a machine were you sit and sew signatures together in a flipping motion that you do 40,000-50,000 a day. After three months, I was put on a bindery line were you would stand, all day between 2 machines. You would take the book out of the "rounder" and put in the "back liner"----16,000 to 17,000 times a day. If you begged your line overseer .......he might give you a 10 min. break to go to the bathroom every four hours. They could have bought a machine to do the same thing but it only cost them $22 a month for a warm body to do the job.......The saying was "there is no shaft at Bethel, every job is a privilege of service"...I don't care if you pee on me, but don't call in WATER!

    One time a army general come through on a tour of the factory.....He was shaking his head. The tour guide said "I'm sure you could get your troops to do the same thing"......He said " Are you kidding.. No way"

    Harold Dies was a fruit cake.......a lot of those old timers were weird......guys in their 70's that never got married. A friend of mind went to his room in thr 124 one time, it was winter time it was a little chilly in the room........so Harold asked him if he was cold........he said "a little" Harold had a fake fireplace in his room so he went over and turned it on. It had a 25 watt light bulb in it, it even made crackly noises....He said " isn't that better?"....and then there was the "Dick Dasterdly" incident.

    Part 5

    Bindery.......5th floor Building 3 bindery line 5...... The machines conquer all.

    Standing in the same spot, doing the same motion thousands of times a day....You would get the 1000 yard stare (seen in the war movies)......The first week, you would think about everyone you ever meet....the next week you would think about every movie you ever saw.......the next week, about every place you would like to travel to.........the next week think about every mistake you made.......the next week, someone would walk up and ask you "what are you thinking about?"

    "NOTHING".......you would say....you were brain dead.

    There is eternality!..........Some hours felt like it.

    A good friend of mine, Jim Pipkorn (also from the Laundry) who was also shafted to the "end sheet gluer" in the bindery, got so depressed that for months, he would come back to his room make himself some dinner and go to bed, at about 7:00 p.m.......I asked him why he was doing that, he said "It makes the days go by quicker"

    We were counting our time........It was just like Viet Nam. You would ask a guy how long he had left. He would say "3 years 2 months to go"........we would say "You Poor bastard......that is after 1975, so you will never have any sex"....You should have seen the look on his face.

    Of course there is no racial prejudice in the Lords house!....About 20% of the Bethelites were black......About 60% of the guys in the bindery were black. When I asked Calvin Chyke (assistant factory overseer) why that was, he said it was "because the black 'brothers' have a NATURAL rhythm".....which you need on the machines.

    I was dying every day.......I prayed "please God Get me out of here."

    I found this picture of this old guy with grey hair, he was praying with a bible and a loaf of bread on a table, hands folded, maybe you have seen it? I hung it up in my locker. One day my floor overseer Phill Gouckinbil saw it and said "what is this?.......This guy is not a witness! Because that is not a new world translation bible on the table" I said that "I thought he was! That he was one of the anointed ones, behind the the iron curtain and that was the only bible he could get!"......"mmmmmm" he said.

    Well It must of worked....I got a job change 2 weeks later to the east freight elevator building one. I thought I died and went to heaven......I could walk around and I was my own boss......WOW freedom.

    That is were I meet the press room animals.......Great guys.

    There was the 5 floor ink room which was the "mash unit" of the factory......these guys got away with murder. ....they had coffee breaks. They even had a place they could hide and one of them could take a nap, as the others were on look out. Their overseer was Norm Brecky........I really cool guy...who would go to bat, for his boys, which he did do, more then once.

    One day, down by glue room, I was standing there with Mike Stillman and 3 other guys Mike had this big wooden paddle about six ft. long. He was beating the harden glue with it and saying "FEED THE ROUNDER (a cruel bindery machine)....SLAP......FEED THE ROUNDER ......SLAP!...please don't beat me, brother overseer......FEED THE ROUNDER........SLAP!"....We were all laughing...Just then walking up from behind us was none other then "Liver lips Linderman".....head bindery overseer! He stood there for a minute quaking......finally he said " Just WHAT do think, would have happened if it was a TOUR that came over that bridge instead of ME!".....Mike Just stood there, with his paddle over his shoulder and said......."Well I guess they would think we normal......like everyone else!" .......Oh MY GOD, we are so screwed, I thought.........Linderman stood there with smoke coming out of his ears and with a hateful smile said "YOU.......HAVE DONE A VERY BAD THING".....and walked off.

    That was it... thought.....Bindery here we come!.......But no, Norm came through again.

    That is, what is so nice about Bethel, it is the love! ......and there is NO fear of man. LOL

    Part 6

    I 'm sorry all of this is not in order.....I'm writing as all this comes back to me.

    My first room assignment was room 33 in the 129 building....It was and old building, built around the turn of the century,...The society owned it but it had worldly people in to...I'm not sure why but maybe there was a law that prevented them from being kicked out or something. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment (about 1000 sq. ft.) There were 7 of us in there, all new boys ( less then one year there). There was 2 guys in each of the bedrooms and 3 guys in the living room. I got the back bedroom with some righteous Spanish kid from Texas (forgot his name) The bedroom was about 10x10, there were 2 beds, 2 desks and 2 dressers in there. It was so small........you had to go out side to change your mind, LOL. Lots cockroaches.....we would have roach races...we would catch these roaches, put them in glass jar, draw a circle on the kitchen floor, put the glass jar in the middle and let them go.....the first roach that got to the circle.....WON!.....the prize was getting squashed.

    There was a 5 inch hole in our bathroom floor, next to the toilet....You could look down and see some guy sitting there on the can......so one day when this guy was sitting on his toilet, we got a glass of water and then flashed our toilet, (which he could hear) and through the water down the hole on this "brothers" head.......You should have seen the look on his face.

    Work is over at 5:40, so on Thursdays (my meeting night) we had to run home, change and jump on a subway train, about an hour ride (no time to eat) to make it on time to the ministry school. My congregation, Inwood, was about 80% black and Spanish......God I love the Black KHs...they are the nicest people you would ever meet. The best hall I have ever been in! You had to be down to earth and be able to "shuck and jive" with them......They (like most people) hated "uppity" people. I was lucky, there were only six Bethelites in my hall. Two tight ass company men, Daryl Christianson and Larry Fisher both elders and 4 new boys, me, Dennis Miller, Dave Poroit, and Mike Adams who I later heard had a break down at the farm. I heard he tried to kill himself.....I wonder why?

    Anyway if we were lucky, the sisters (at the hall) would give you some food in a brown paper bag at the end of the meeting, to take home with you we would eat it on the train......You would have to wait until someone else was ready to leave before you could go. The reason was at the time, we were suppose to travel in "pairs"....to prevent getting "mugged" and just about everyone who was at Bethel (in 4 years) got mugged at least once. They told us to have at least couple of bucks on us at all times. The reason was if you did got mugged and you didn't have any money on you, they (the muggers) would beat the .s**t out of you ......thinking you had it hidden on you somewhere and you just didn't want to give it up. You, just don't want to piss off those crack heads!...... it was hard at times to have even 2 bucks on you....One friend of mine ended up in the hospital after they took a lead pipe to his head. The reason he was a "white boy" in Harlem with no money......

    You would see the strangest stuff on the subway...You would be there eating your brown bag dinner and all of a sudden, some tramp would be there and start, "jacking off" right in front of you......Or the door open and some 400 lb. black guy would get on the train wearing a pink "tu tu"......and you know he wasn't doing to a costume party......THE LAST THING you would ever do, is stare at them. Don Broux (xBethel & XCO)......happened to catch a guy's eyes for 2 SECONDS as the train was stopping. The guy jumped up, went over to Don and slugged him in the nose.....and said "WHAT THE F....K ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" It was Don's last week at Bethel he got married 4 days later with a broken nose. Another friend of mine was just sitting on the train and this black guy walks up to him, with his 3 year old kid and points to my friend and says "DO YOU SEE THIS BOY?.......pointing to my friend, "THIS IS A WHITEY!.......YOU HATE WHITEY!....YOU KILL WHITEY!......then just walked off. Those fun New Yorkers......

    On one of those hot summer nights...... when we got no dinner, from the sisters, after the meeting. I got off the subway, clothes drenched with sweat. Walked back to the 129, got to my room and just started crying for no reason......I went to the kitchen open the refrigerator door to see a bottle of "cold duck" I had bought a week earlier....grabbed it and drank the whole thing in 3 mins...The room started spin, I laid down on my bed and after a few mins. through up on me and the bed I just laid there crying......"Are you O.K."...my roommate asked......"I'm sick" I said.......and I was....sick of heart.

    I thought It was really true........"they really didn't give a .s**t about us"

    Part 7

    People would ask me "how long do you plan on staying at Bethel" I would say "forever!.....or 4 years which ever comes first"

    Besides the about 48 hours you worked there a week, you would have other duties too. There was dish duties. Since the waiters worked about from about 6 in the morning to about 4 in the afternoon, they needed someone to do the supper dishes. About once a month the Bethel family got that privilege....Funny thing is you NEVER saw the heavies go them. They we fun especially in the summer time. The worst job was working the dish washing machine "HOT END" there was 2 brothers loading the front end and 2 guys taking the 140 degree dishes off the back end (your hands were on fire). That is were I first meet Dave Borga. He was the waiter that was in charge that night.......He put me on the HOT END......by myself.....he just set up on a counter laughing...It was like that "I LOVE LUCY" show were she is in the factory with a conveyor belt.......any way that was the last dish duty for me.

    Then you had the watchmen duties.....Once every 2-3 years in the home. It was an all night duty and started about 9 p.m. The Watchman would get a day off.......you would fill in. IT was very creepy. It was dark and you had to walk through all 3 buildings 119, 117 and 124 (not the 129) Three times and punch the time clock you had with you. At about 3:00 a.m in this dark basement of the 124 all of a sudden this guy jumps in front of me and SCREAMS......I thought I died. It was guess who?....It was Peter R......the real night watchmen, he said "he couldn't sleep.......and wanted to have some FUN with me"! what a JERK......about 2 years later, he was asked to leave Bethel....It seemed he liked to sneak into the sisters bathrooms in the 117 building and lock the toilet door......and do some free PEEPING. I guess all those long nights by himself....got to him. He is and Elder in Salem Oregon now.

    There was another guy, while I was there, who could beat that one.....He would sneak into MARRIED couples rooms (in the middle of the night) and lay on the floor next to the wife ....and copped a feel......Now you know why Knorr hated Bethelites.

    Any way we got side tracked...back to dish duties. Why do a dish duty?...When you could get someone else to do them for you. So we would trade them or sell them......There was this ONE guy Allen Richards who would do your 2 hour dish duty for .89 cents, that was the price a 1/2 gallon of "Canadian Ace" beer.....the worst beer ever made. I bet him felt great the next day! So if you could get some poor schmuck to do it for .89 cents and you could get some side job for $1.75 and hour.......do the math!

    Which brings us to the next subject......"G" jobs. NO ONE really knows were the name came from...But it is, any job you did to make more money....outside of the 22 dollars a month Bethel gave you.....They were many different types. Some guys in the press room ran "the paper route" started at 3:00 a.m on Sunday mornings........I did it once......not for me....Some guys did catering jobs at weddings, great tips plus you could keep all the half drunk wine bottles, when it was over. There was a waiting list, to work there. Some guys painted apartments....My friend Jim Pipkorn.....worked a funeral home in "the village".......The stories I could tell you about that place, that would be a whole 2 page thread in it self. Dave Borga, Jim Pipkorn's roommate was the King of all "G jobbers".....They still talk about him to this day in the "new boy talks"......He had a FULL TIME job working the night shift at toy factory in Jersey.........that's right almost 90 hours a week of work!......Need less to say he did last long, at that pace.

    I worked washing pots and pans in and high end restaurant 3 blocks from Bethel in "the Heights"....To this day, I will not order turkey and dressing in a restaurant....They would serve these little loafs of bread in there...and people would eat half of them.....they would put out their cigarette butts IN them......the waiters would bring them back to the kitchen and throw them in a box, on the floor, next week it was?.......well you guessed it!

    I also so worked in two liqueur stores one in "Inwood" and one in "The Heights" ....Hay $1.75 an hour GOOD money. I was making .08 cents an hour, working for Jehovah....I guess Jehovah doesn't believe in minimum wage.....the extra 10-20 bucks a week made a BIG difference, in ones comfort there....Once or twice a week, you could get a "Hero and a Quart" down at Pioneer deli (that was the name of the place, believe it or not).......If you were really rolling, you would buy a chuck steak and frozen french fries and cook it up in your room, on your electric skillet.....THAT MY FRIEND WAS LIVING!.

    One day at lunch on Doc Dixon's table the whole upper dinning room was pretty quiet. One table was really loud, it was the tour table....he keep looking over and giving them a look like "how dare they disturb my eating......I said "you tell they are NOT Bethelites".....he knew what I meant.......and said "I think you have a bad attitude about Bethel"....I said "I have a bad attitude about New York City." He said "Are you kidding......look at all the great things you can do here, you have the plays...and fine dining!"................I said " Brother Dixon....I don't know your New York City....Our New York City is a hero and a quart of beer once a week.......if we are lucky."

    I knew a guy who who was mugged in New York...The guy put a gun to his head and said "give me your money or I'm going to blow your BRAINS out"!....The man said " YOU better shoot....because I know one thing.....you can live in New York with out brains....but you GOT to have MONEY"!

    P.S...that is the only story, I have told that is NOT true.

    Part 8

    Well it is 4:00 a.m. in the morning and I can't sleep, so might has well write.

    Everything at Bethel is seniority...."how long have you been here?" If you wanted a better room you need some seniority, rooms would go up on a bid system. If you had more time in, then another guy, and a room went up for bid, you got it. If you were a new boy, and all your friends were new boys, it could be a year or two before you got a decent room and 10 years to get a room with its own bathroom, pre towers days. There were 2 man rooms, 3 man rooms, 4 man rooms, and 7 man rooms.....everything from an 7 man room in the ghetto, the 129 building, to a luxury apartment in its own building (like the good Doctor got). I don't have a problem with a system like that....a system that rewards seniority and education....

    Oppppppps, did I say education......Yes, I guess I said it......Remember at the time......"higher education" was HIGHLY DISAPPROVED of (you can tell from my spelling)......and after high school, there was only ONE thing to do and that was to pioneer. We only had a few years left before 1975 and we didn't need NO stinking education, we needed to SAVE as many people as possible! A couple of people I knew, when to college and GOT so much SHIT for it, you wouldn't believe it. And they needed to get .s**t for it too.....because "the society" knows the DEATH of any religion is education and knowledge!...So that is why most of the JWs today, in their 40's 50's and 60's are blue collar workers.

    You were a real rebel if you went to college, then. Greg Chase was my press operator of "HOE 10" after Bethel he went to college to be a chiropractic physician......He told me years later, that when he was going to college, they hated him in his local KM, how dare he try and make something of himself .. However after he got out of school, different story...."The Brothers" called him DR. Chase......they loved him....they wanted him to go back to Bethel, they wined and dined him and his wife. They offered him a very nice "comp package"....he said "NOPE".

    Sooooooooo........at Bethel you were REWARDED for not listening to them about getting a "higher" education.....they treated you better (with more respect) and you got a better room, and a better job! They actually treated you like a real person. Guys would come to Bethel with a degree.....do you think they put them in the bindery? Nope ....they got a great office job, no machines for them. AAAAHHh.....the first glue of the "double standard" in the Lord's house ...those wonderful "unwritten rules." .......As they say if it looks like .s**t and smells like .s**t, and taste like .s**t, it COULD possibly just be.........

    Sorry, I got sidetracked again......Working in the Laundry I got to see into all the rooms there, except Knorr's (you had to be Jesus to enter there)......and there are some really nice ones. To save money, most of the rooms in the 107 and 124 buildings were dormitory style, with one women's and one man's bathroom on each floor...That's why it took so much seniority to get a room with a bath there wasn't many of them, then. They watched you like a hawk in the 124, 107 and 119. It seemed like that most of the tight asses lived in the 124 and 107.......though there was plenty of cool guys mixed in too.

    Then the Society bought the Towers Hotel. They opened up 3 floors for bid. GREAT rooms all with their own bathrooms. If you had a year or more, you could get in. You would have thought everyone would have wanted them, but since the hotel was full of worldly people, most of the tight asses stayed were they were. I was one, of the first people in the Towers, room T 211. I didn't have the seniority to get a room, but a guy on my table did, Steve H....and he wanted a new room mate........which brings me to my next subject,. ROOMMATES.

    Hay! There are all types......and God bless them all. But some of them could make your life a living hell. It wasn't unusual for a newer guy there to bunk with and old timer, but most of the time it was someone you knew, you either worked with, or went to the same KH with. When you were new you didn't have a choice.....you could get anyone.

    My old pioneer partner Roy Baty come to Bethel about 6 months after me. When he got there he was so self righteous, he made me sick, he reminded me of ME when I first got there. I told him "I don't want to be around you, now Roy, come back and we'll talk again in 6 months" He got of to a bad start, they put him in a room in the 124 with Eugene Alcorn, a black "brother" from Detroit. ROY hadn't even been there a couple of weeks and got a taste of "Bethel Justice.".......It seems he and his roommate Eugene got into a fight over the radio. Roy wanted if off at 11:00 p.m. and turn it off..... Eugene got up and turn it on.......Roy got up and turn it off........Eugene turned it on.......you get the idea........in the brawl, that followed, the sink in the room got busted. Now most guys would cover for each other. Instead, Eugene went to the Bethel office the next morning and told "the brothers" that, his white room mate wouldn't let him listen to his radio and beat him up, that is why the sink was busted. They hauled Roy in.....How it works at Bethel is whoever gets there FIRST with the story, usually wins...The reasoning is, only the righteous one would naturally report the behavior of the unrighteous one. So by the time Roy got there, the decision was already made.........Welcome to the bindery Roy. You really didn't want "the Brothers" to know your name at Bethel. Once your name got out there for any reason, once you got a "REP" you were screwed. "OH yes.....I've seem to have heard or your name, before brother Trouble maker" We have a machine just for you. You really wanted to be the man with no name a.k.a.THX-1138.

    I don't know what to say about Steve H.....my first room mate in a 2 man room, except he kind of creeped me out...he had all the mannerisms of an NPG (non-practicing gay).....and there were plenty of those there......and quite of few practicing too.. There were guys who loved the fact that there were 1000 19-23 year olds guys and few women at the Lord's house. Don't get me wrong!......I love gays NOW, but I 'm speaking from my mind set of 1972. This guy had way to much clinginess for me. He would say "So what are WE doing today?"....."I don't know....what ARE are we doing today?"....sorry Charlie.

    If you weren't Gay or and NPG at Bethel, you were homophobia.......I knew some Bethelites who beat the .s**t out of some gay guys in "the Heights" one night just for the hell of it. AH the love. There was this one new boy that got jumped walking to the squib building from the 124, by 2 thugs. It guess he was a black belt before coming into the borg.......He kick their asses one guy was dragging the other guy back to their car and begging him to stop the beating.......He went to George Couch the next day to turn himself in.....George said don't worry about it......He was our hero, we loved him.

    Part 9

    The the worst thing, someone could call you at Bethel, was a "Jack"...... As in " that guy is a real Jack, he doesn't work at all". The other term not used very much anymore, was "Pot Licker" used basically the same way. There has been some bad things done at Bethel. You name it, someone has done it...But the absolute worst possible thing, a Bethelite could do is be a THEFT! ......Hay! people having sex with each other people happens everyday...that's normal. But stealing from some poor Bethelite making .73 cents a day .....That should be a STONING offence...We had three of them, in the 4 years I was there....They would wait until we got paid (we got paid in cash) and go into the your locker at work and ripe you off. It never happen to me.....but, I had friends who had to borrow money to buy subway tokens....because of this "brother".

    One of these guys was one of the most self righteous assholes you ever saw. He would walk around the factory with an "Aid book" under his arm. He gave a text comment one time and said " I have walked the floors of the 124 at night and I have heard Rock n Roll music coming out of the brothers rooms."...Trying to out righteous even the GB.....sure enough 6 months later it was announced "Brother LeRoy Righteous has DFed for stealing"....Isn't that always the way it is, its always the "more righteous ones" you need to watch...."the best defense is an good offence."

    When some guy got kicked out of Bethel, Knorr would "Have him/her for breakfast" Meaning a half hour to 45 min. lecture on whatever their sins were. ......It was getting so bad that once or twice a week he would go into this rantings....it was very discouraging and it would have been nice to have had a hot meal sometimes......Soooooo..... When Knorr took one of his trips to the south pacific islands (always went in the winter time, for some reason) in 1973, while he was gone, the GB voted him off the text table!...... Boy was he pissed when he got back! The next week at the Gilead graduation he said "We are starting a new arrangement for the text comments the GB will now rotate, so that all members of the GB, will have a turn at leading the text comments and I DECIDED TO LET THEM HAVE IT!".......nice of him.

    Old Bethel Joke.......

    Phone rings in 5th floor bindery.....new boy picks it up and says "This is Jack's mule barn......which Jack ASS do you want?".....on the other end "DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?" new boy "NO".......other end "WELL ..THIS IS MAX LARSON FACTORY OVERSEER!"...... new boy......."Do you know this is?".....Max Larson says "NO" new boy says "GOOD" and hangs up...True Story.

    I got a new room mate in T-211 towers my old buddy Jack Sutton, one of the X Laundry guys. He was from Phoenix AZ.....I was from California......so we decided decorate our room in a western motif. We had some old western posters on the wall. One of the posters was of a bull fighter. The house keepers loved our room and had many of there coffee breaks there. Anyway one night about 8:00 p.m. we get this knock on the door......It is Curtis Johnson (newly appointed) home servant to the Towers. This Guy looks and talks just like the Nazis in "Raiders of the lost Ark" the one with thick glasses and smiling all the time. We said "come on in" he said "NO...brothers, I'm here to talk about the your room decorations"..."OK what about them?"..."We don't like them"...."Who is we"...."Well the Bethel office"..."really?"..."REALLY" he said....."Like, look at that Bull fighting poster on the wall, of yours...a tour might think we like killing animals."....."Brother Johnson NO tours come through the towers and we never looked at that poster that way"......"Never mind that, we want it down"......"Alright".....we said " we will take it down"........we never said when. When we moved out a year later we took it down...... Seig Heil!.....We haven't seen the end of our dear "brother" Johnson.

    Part 10

    There were guys at Bethel, who had GREAT jobs....Like Don Broux.....he was the receptionist at the 124 Desk....checking in and "checking out" ...all the bethel tours and "hot" sisters....on there way through the "Home tour"....That my friend, is NOT a real bethel JOB.

    There were guys at Bethel, that had GREAT congregations with maybe only 2-4 Bethelities in their halls. One Hall, Midtown had over 80 Bethelites there....... 3 old ladies 4 kids and a dog. Odds of getting a home cook meal on Sunday 0%. Roy Baty said he got cheese and crackers at some old sister house after he was there a year and 4 months. A good hall could make all the difference, on how long you could "gut it out" especially if you had a girlfriend there.

    There were guys at Bethel that, for them, money was NO problem.......parents sent them tons of cash every month, rain or shine.

    There were guys................that had all three, they were called "Golden Boys".........guys that for some reason, God was smiling down on them. They could fall into a bucket of s**t and come up with a rose in their teeth. They has good jobs, great KHs, money, a car, and more often then not a good looking "sister" on their arm......It was great just being around them......You thought that there could be a God after all.....That brings me two my next 2 topics: Cars and Women...If your are lucky they will both be FAST. lol

    A car at Bethel was total freedom!.......Why?.....The first two years there.... it was Bethel and your KH, Bethel and your KH.........unless you knew someone with a car to get out of the city. Your only free time was Saturday afternoon & evening.....So Saturday you would take the train down to Times Square and walk around looking for a good movie to go to, or walk all the way down to Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn. It wasn't unusual to not find one and walk all the way back ...... Sunday was service in the morning, meeting in the afternoon and if your were lucky, dinner with a family in the hall that night.

    A car could help change some of that. Some guys there had some nice cars too. Jim Pipkorn first had a 65 Ford Mustang rag top... then a 67 GTO. Dave Borga (Mr G Job king) had a 69 MACH 1, There was a 68 396 rag top Camaro.....anyway they all spelled...... FREEDOM. They did have their problems......one was parking, there was NONE back then......so you would have to drive around "the Heights" looking for a spot......If you got back late....that could take up to an hour driving up and down every street with in a half mile.....Or you could park illegally......which many did......sometimes you got lucky....If not it was 10 bucks, 25 dollars for a fire hydrant. The Kennedy boys (Jim and Gary) had a T-Bird and NEVER parked legal!.......they had Georgia plates.......and said what the hell....Well, one day they looked for there car and some other car was parked in their spot.........The city towed it. They went to the pound to get it....... The guy said $356.00 please... they said "KEEP IT."

    The other problem was break-ins.......If you had a rag top you would NEVER lock your car. The reason was if they wanted in, they would just take a knife to your roof, so you WOULD let them get in....... But you would put a chain around the steering wheel and brake pedal. So they could hot wire the car and drive away...........but there would be NO brakes. Some guys would put a kill switch in. You would always chain your hood and truck down.........Another thing you would do is always leave your glove box OPEN, to show them there was nothing of value in your car. If you didn't your side mirror would be broken by the next morning.

    We would see new cars parked on the street, in "the Heights"........in 6 months they looked like pieces of shit........ The reason is, most....... New Yorkers park by SOUND...... they back in, until they hear.... a CRASH.......then they move forward until they hear..... another..... CRASH....... and ..then they back up and hear the final.........CRASH.......now your parked..........lol

    After two years there, things got a little better, I had a fair job on the east freight elevator..... and I bought a car for ONE DOLLAR. ..... thats right one buck........ My roommate's girl friend's car, 1968 Fairlane, got totaled in a crash. The insurance paid her off and gave her the car. She gave it to me, for a buck. The car looked liked something out of "Mad Max"......it was a complete wreck! ..........every quarter panel was trashed....... It had been rear ended at about 40 mph. the trunk that WAS 5 ft. long was now 3 ft. long........It looked like s**t....... but it ran........ Believe it or not the 2 years I had it "They" (the worldly people) try to steal it 3 times.......but she was my baby and she was Freedom.

    I took guys to the airport......for $5........good money. I took the guys in my hall to the meetings, they gave me their subway money...... 5 times .70 cents per trip good money........and last but not least she could get me.....far... far away... "from the House of God."

    Part 11

    More about cars and N.Y.C.

    Back then hundreds of cars were stolen, in the city everyday! The New York Post said "The average life span of a Corvette (sports car) parked on the street was 24 hours!"...........One time coming back from R.I at 2:00 a.m. I took a wrong turn in the South Bronx..... NOT a place you would want to be in, that time of night......As I was driving around trying to find my way back to the expressway, I could see the sparks form the cutting torches, people cutting up the cars they stolen the day before..........I was Praying "Please God get me out of here"

    We would see cars that broke down on the Brooklyn Bridge the night before.....They were pushed to the end of the off ramp......... we would pass them on our way to the factory at 7:45 a.m.........they had no tires...........pass them again going to lunch......no trunk or doors...... pass them on our way home that night..........no engine or seats............next day, it was just the shell sitting there.

    A Brother in my Hall, got a flat tire on the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) A road that back then had so many pot holes in it..... you would swear it was shelled by mortars......Any way, he gets out of the car and starts jacking up the back end........Just then.....a car pulls up in front of him and 4 black guys jump out....... and before he could say a word, they start jacking up the front end of his car..."HEY what are you doing?" he asked ......."HEY MOTHER F.....KER!....YOU GET THE BACK TWO ...AND WE WILL GET THE FRONT TWO"......they said .... "But this is MY car".......he said .........."YA"...they said ......"YES" he said.....10 seconds later they were down the road......looking for more parts. This is a true story. If I'm lying am dying.

    They didn't always have to work on that Saturday mornings at Bethel......An ex-Bethelite told me that back in the 50s, that some Bethelites jump in their car Friday night after work and tried to drive to Chicago and be back for breakfast by Monday morning ......They didn't make it....they crashed the car and three of them died......So Knorr figured that if they had been working, that would have never happen.....New light, work on Saturday mornings......that man was a genius.......

    My soon to be brother-in-law Mlke Stillman.......had a 1946 orange pickup truck with a camper on the back, made out of old barn wood .........the camper door looked like an old out house door, with a half moon on the back.....and above the door it said ......."KEEP ON TRUCKING".......Calvin Chyke hauled him into his office one day and told him, that he was a disgrace to the organization......and how dare he put on his truck "KEEP ON TRUCKING"....when EVERYONE knew that REALLY meant KEEP ON F....KING! Oh...those brothers they just love to have fun with us. There are two types of people in the "Lord's house" the testers and the testees.

    As Bob Dylan said........"Some of us are prisoners.....and some us are guards."

    I was walking to the the factory one morning in the winter of 1974. I walked by my car and some kids sprayed painted my car with the words "F....k you"........I thought......... did they really mean "Keep on Trucking"........I laughed to myself ..... I wished I had painted it on there instead of them......Oh yes!... I waited until someone said something before I took it off........"But.. brother I didn't put in on there.... I said...." "WE KNOW THAT......just get it OFF."

    God.........I wish you could have seen my car. I have a picture of her somewhere. "Road Warrior part II" I would drive down the FDR.......Radio on, with Elton John on playing "Rocket Man"......It was like parting the Red Sea.......a 1/2 mile ahead of me......... people start moving into the other lanes......They knew someone was coming............who had NOTHING TO LOSE.

    As Bob Dylan said....... "when you got nothing......you got nothing to lose."

    Two months before my sentence was up. "I was serving a 1 to 4 for impersonating a minister" ....I was walking to the factory one day, my car was parked next to the park. As I passed I notice that someone had taken a ball peen hammer to my wind shield, right where the driver looks out!.......As I looked down the street, I saw ALL the cars, new and old..... ALL of them had their wind shields smashed....then I looked up the hill.....all smashed...... I counted 53 cars with smashed windshields that morning.... someone had some fun the night before!

    Well that was the death blow for my baby...... They wanted 85 bucks for a new windshield. There was no way I could put another dollar into that car........ So I drove it up to Rhode Island (180 miles away) one Saturday, with no wind shield it, it was 25 degrees, heater blasting, hoping the cops didn't pull me over. I parked it at my soon to be in-laws house and parted it out........sold the transmission rear end to a friend, keep the engine and tires.......sold the gas tank to Roy Baty, he welded it into his van, because of the gas crisis, now he could buy 35 gallons of gas at a time........ In the end.......she looked just liked one of those cars at the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge.......R.I.P. sweetheart. My first real love!

    Next up............... Love and sex in the "Big House"

    Part 12

    They say love is what makes the world go around.....And at Bethel, us "new boys" would say..... "If God created anything better then SEX.......he kept it for himself!"

    How would we know?......Most of us never had it........Didn't make any difference.....We talked about it.......fantasized about it...........dreamt about it..........I' m sure because we couldn't have it. That is why we gloried it so much..... Hey! we were 20 year old virgins!...and some of us were in our 30s! We had some raging hormones going on.

    Most of the guys who left Bethel, got married with in a week after leaving the big house! I was different.....I waited 2 weeks!.....I had will power........LOL

    Before we talk about sex at Bethel........It would be good to talk about the history of sex in the organization........and they would say that started with Adam & Eve.......the real organization is less then 150 years old.......In reality its an 1800s religion.....with an 1800s morals mentality . The Victorian period.

    Any way back in the garden of Eden..........is were the real problem got started......in the organization's mind anyway. The first real question ever posed.......Had nothing to do with universal sovereinty as the church would have you believe, it was about ..........Ever LASTING LIFE with God........... or really GOOD SEX with a perfect wife for a few years........"Aaaaaa............GOD I think I will take the sex please!!!!".... Remember it said.......... the man was NOT deceived!..........He KNEW what he was doing..........in his mind the choice was clear..............everlasting life with God............. or a few wonderful years of bliss, with the women of his dreams, the love of his life!.............What a hero he was!!!!! ........He was the first man to die for LOVE and really GOOD SEX.........I say good sex because, who would give up everlasting life for an eternity of bad sex?........God didn't create no fool........What He did create, was a perfect man and a perfect women.........with a perfectly NORMAL and healthy sex drive. P.S. I hate to break it to you............. anyway the whole Garden of Eden thing is pure urban myth.....

    Churches think that Adam should have chosen God over his wife ...... and the Jehovah's Witness are no different. Religions are about control........and since most religions are run by self righteous men with control and sexual issues........ Men who want to supress women and sex........... for control and power. Churches that say "the head of the women is the man". God NEVER wrote that....... MAN wrote that!....Men have been using it against women for thousands of years......... to gain power over them.

    As a Jehovah Witness, sex is strictly FORBIDDEN before marriage........There is no sex before marriage and sadly sometimes very little after.........and since usually the only person you every have sex with is the first person you had sex with..............There is plenty of sexual incompatibility going on too........That is why more people are kicked out of the JWs every year for sexual reasons then anything else. 1 Sex out of wedlock. 2 Sex with someone besides your marriage mate. 3 Sex with your own kids or other people's kids.

    So ... that brings us to our Bethelities. Most of people that are called to Bethel, are single young men who are at their sexual peak...They signed a 4 year contract to stay (no matter what).........So you can see we are going to have some very interesting things going on there.

    Well were to start?.............we already talked about the gays and the NPGs.......plenty of those. The rest of the guys there, fall into different groups. You had the guys who had girl friends before they came (they asked them to wait)........the odds of them making their time, were almost 0% I knew of 1 guy that did that in 4 years that way. Guys that got girl friends in the New York area while they were there and guys that got girl friends back home on vacations.........Then of coarse there were some that just got a hooker on 8th ave.............next we'll talk about them all.

    Part 13

    Most of us went back to Bethel, thinking we wanted to make it our life long career......what better place to be right before 1975?....That dream ended for the vast majority after just few months there, when they found out that something was very wrong. Otherwise why would anyone want to leave a spiritual paradise?.... With only 2-5% staying after there 4 year commitment, and a very big percentage leaving before there time was even up. The average stay there in 1974 was only about 5 months. It was not a happy place........they were leaving in droves.

    Getting a girl friend and having sex, was looking better all the time........Hey! The GB were doing it, all the Bethel "heavies" were doing it. ....we wanted it too....Just why do you think Knorr got married?....Did he get married for companionship?......NO!.....There are over 1,500 "brothers" back there he could have that with them. He could do things with them .......sit around and talk about the Bible.......or go to a movie .......there were plenty of "brown noses" for that.............Did he get married to have children.....NO!.........it is forbidden to have children at Bethel .....Did he get married to have one person to be with, forever .......No!...... He was going to Heaven......she wasn't. So why did he get married?....it sure looks like good old....... S.E.X.......to me. Hey, even Germans like sex, too.

    So he and his buddies were able to enjoy that privilege ........I say privilege, because not everyone was permitted to have it ........Remember the rule HE made up? To stay at Bethel and get married, you needed a total of 14 years of full time service...........So you were forbidden to get married for any reason for 4 years, NO matter what, add another 10 years if you wanted to stay..........I didn't say FORBIDDEN did I?........Oppppppppsss I guess I did............But the BIBLE says that only those that have "fallen away from the faith, would be FORBIDDING others to marry!" 1 Timothy 4:1-3........so that can't be right.......Opppppppppss...I forgot the old double standard rule kicks in again, at this time!.........Catch 22

    They would say....... but you signed an agreement!.........Hey! your 19 years old you and you should have known what you were signing,...... right............and some would say..........Well you could always leave before your time.................Yes, If you didn't mind the reproach and the shame...........and the punishment..........you were not permitted to pioneer for 6 months, if you left early....Catch 22.

    So just why am I so upset about all of this...........For one reason it caused plenty of hardship and heart ache.........plus all the unhappy marriages........and all the unnecessary trips some poor souls had to make to the hookers on 8th ave......and even DEATH to some ...as I will tell you about in my last chapter..........Come on guys....... Wouldn't you think,........ a LOVING organization would have people's best interest at heart?...................as in "OH......Brother we are sorry to hear you are having a hard time here at Bethel..........and so you would like to leave?......GO, my friend and be in peace...........and may God be with you, and thank you for the time, you were able to spend here with us and of course,..... you can pioneer if you like"........Sounds like something Jesus would say.

    Opppppssss ...........Did I say loving organization............Let me think.........Yes!.... I think it says somewhere in the Bible......."By their LOVE you would be able to recognize them"......boy isn't that a"truth"?.............but its not "The Truth"..

    All the double standards......unwritten laws.......and bull s**t.....it was just to much for most of us. I say most of us because, there are some there that LOVE that kind of bull shit and fit right it. .......In "Catch 22" Yossairan said..."Let the Bastards thrive!!!"

    So most of us, we just wanted to find a little love.....and leave after out "tour of duty" was up. As the "brother" said.........."just keep your mouth shut and do your job".........then get the hell out!

    So back to girl friends and Bethelites.......As I mention, there was only one guy I knew, who had a girl friend before he went to Bethel and "made his time" there, that was Roy Baty. Part of the reason for that, was she was only 15 years old when he went there, in 1970............So she was waiting for him and he was waiting for her.

    That was tough for guys like Roy with girl friends back home, because........you only got 2 weeks vacation a year, (you got no vacation your first year)............so you got 6 weeks in 4 years..........many guys like myself, only got 4 weeks in 4 years, the reason being.............Instead of taking our last two weeks vacation....we would just shorten our 4 year stay. So I came on March 21, 1970............now, I could leave on March 7, 1974........The thought being, that any day NOT at Bethel........... WAS a vacation!

    So that leaves us with our next group...........Guys that got girl friends while they were at Bethel. With so many Bethelites in the New York City area.........By the time you got there, anything decent was already "snapped up".........with many halls having 10-20 Bethelites in them, the competition tough! With 60-70% of the halls being Black and Latino.........and 80% of the Bethelites were white, the saying was "the longer your there.... the whiter they look." So it was a 14 year old white girl, or a good looking black sister....If you had a car the selection got a little better with up state New York, Jersey or even New England.............But for the vast majority it was just good old N.Y.C.

    We saw it all too, every possible combination...... The 19 year old white guy from Iowa, getting married to the 36 year old, 250 lb. black sister with 2 teenagers 13 & 16, his step daughter was just 3 years younger then him! There were guys who got "caught in closets" with Bethel house keepers........Which was unusual because most of the sisters that were called to Bethel, were beat with an ugly stick. We joked about it and said that Knorr, once a month, would get all the applications of sisters, who wanted to come to Bethel, he would get all the Bethelites in the upper dinning room and have a slide show. He would show a slide of some pioneer "FOX" from California and ask? How many of you guys want this sister to come to Bethel? The place would go crazy with noise..........he would throw the application away....Next slide was of some "Dog".....how many want this sister?......You could here a pin drop ......He would say.....call her in now.....I tell you that man was a genius.....he knew, what we were all about.

    There was a guy in the service dept. who ran off with DO wife..........There were married sisters who left there husbands for some single guys......You know all the stuff you would see in any Kingdom Hall.

    Bethel tours were nice.........But most of time they were very sad.........You would see these great looking sisters go through on tour......They would give you "the eye".......You would give them "the eye"......Then they would get on the bus and leave....No way to meet them.......Sometimes you would see them later that day in the Bethel home, hanging around with some "nerd" from there home town........They might have asking the nerd "Don't you know any other Bethelites?'................Sure but they were Nerds too............

    Sometimes it worked out great.............I saw the love of my life......The lady I would marry, 2 weeks after I left Bethel, standing in front of the "ink room" in the summer of 1972 on a Bethel tour!

    Part 14

    My strange Bethel courtship started with me trying to meet Mike Stillman's sister, Even though he worked in the ink room next to my elevator, we were not good friends, he was just a little too "country" for me........and on the righteous side, too. They say "there is nothing more dangerous in combat then a new guy with a map!".........and there was nothing more dangerous at Bethel then a self righteous new boy.

    Anyway one beautiful Saturday morning, in 1972, we were walking to the factory, Mike happen to be walking with me, and he happened to say "God........I would give anything to get out of this city on a day like today"..........I said "Well....... I have a car and no place to go.........You have a place to go and NO car"...He wasn't quite sure of me, but........next thing I knew, It's him and me and 4 of his nerdy friends driving to Rhode Island.

    Needless to say, it was a great weekend and Debbie who had just turned 19 was happy that her brother finally brought someone home with him, who wasn't a nerd like his other friends.

    She lived there with her mother, Elaine and stepfather, Ben. They had just moved to Rhode Island from Louisana, (one of the reasons was, they wouldn't make Ben an elder) and to "help" the local brothers out. At the time R.I. had the worst ratio of JWs to normal people in the USA. He was a real winner..........Looked and acted like "Gomer Pyle".......only dumber. He would walk around and say things like "your fat,....... I'm fat.....were all fat" or "I know one thing about Debbie.....she is tired." He would say that about 30 times a day ..........and pat everyone's head.......I'm not sure what all that meant?.........Of course a year later, they had made this mental giant an elder.........I'll never forget the day he gets this phone call (I'm sitting in the room with him) from some sister, it his hall, who was crying her eyes out (because her husband had just beat the shit out of her) and he said to her........ "Well........you must have done something REALLY wrong for him to get so mad............Just have another beer and forget the WHOLE THING!".......I just sat there, I couldn't believe it....This guy couldn't pour sand out of a boot if the directions were written on the heel.........Leading the flock of God.

    Her mother Elaine, another winner..............Major hypochondriac......I think she was allergic to air. Naturally she was the one who brought the JW teachings into the family........Debbie who loved her real father, would get her face slapped anytime she brought his name up. He left her mother back in the 50's and married another women.......he was of course DFed.

    After we got married in 1974..........We got some "New Light......the light got brighter" and the Society said, you could NOW have limited contact with disfellowshipped ones..........

    By the way the term "the light gets brighter" really means we were wrong about something......so we are changing our option about it.......for the whole religion thing to work.......It HAS to be impossible for the Society or any church to be wrong, and the reason for that is...... IF it is wrong about ONE thing, it COULD be wrong about something else, RIGHT?..........So where would you draw the line? So the "light gets brighter" stuff works really well..........Oh by the way,..... I do the same thing now.......If I hurt someone or if I'm wrong about something.............I NEVER say "I'M SORRY"........I say "OOOPPPss.......light got brighter!".......but people think I'm strange when I say that.......I wonder why?

    Anyway we decided to drive to California to see her real Dad........She hadn't seen him in about 10 years............Both her and her brother wrote him a letter when they were kids, saying they had NO desire to see him ever again, that was their mother's idea.......sweet women that she is. So Debbie was so excited to see her Dad who she loved so much..........and what a sweet person he was.......I say WAS, because a few years later after "the LIGHT got brighter once again"............the Society said we are going back to the "old way" (or old light} of dealing with DFed ones....... by shunning them.....So one day in the 1980's Bob call us and wanted to come up for a visit, to see us and his grandkids (my children)..........I said "come on up Bob, we would love to see you!"..........Debbie grabbed the phone out of my hand and told him "he wasn't welcome NOW and that he couldn't come anymore for visits"..........A few years later one morning, we got the phone call.........he BLEW his brains out with a 38 special..........Ah the love.

    That "new light" is funny stuff........sometimes its bright then DARK......then bright again, but one thing it NEVER is.............wrong..RIGHT?

    So now you know about my two wonderful future in-laws.......Next up,...... the year and a half hell, dealing with them, up to our wedding.

    The rest of the story is mostly odds and ends or outside of Bethel and is continued from these links:

    Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 (final)

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    Former Bethelite John Bechtel

    http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/bechtel.htm

    http://www.objectivistcenter.org/showcontent.aspx?ct=384&h=51

    In the area of psychology, John Bechtel's narration of his personal odyssey through the Jehovah's Witnesses, including ten years at the top of that sect, evidently fascinated his audience. "[It's] a story I will not forget," wrote Jennifer Baker, "both because it was told very well and because the speaker must have been very brave to leave such an organization." Reaching that same conclusion, many audience members asked for more: future lectures explaining in detail how a person thinks his way out of a cult.

    http://www.ios.org/cth--95-Speakers_Bureau_Interview_John_Bechtel.aspx

    John Bechtel gave his first public talks for the Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of five. By age nine, he was addressing audiences numbering up to 3,000. At 27, Bechtel reached a crisis of faith and resigned from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now a passionate advocate of "life, rationality, and your own happiness," Bechtel has a unique insider's view on the seductions of cults.

    Navigator: What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe?

    Bechtel: Let's start with what would probably be the most important issues. Jehovah's Witnesses believe in original sin, the fall from grace. They believe that since Adam's and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden everyone has been born in sin, and therefore they die, because the wages of sin are death. They believe that the only possibility for eternal life in any form in any place is through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That is, parenthetically, the only thing they celebrate; they don't celebrate birthdays or any other holidays whatsoever. Their communion, which they call the Memorial Service, is the largest attendance they draw in the entire year. They place a great emphasis on how many attendees there are at that ceremony because that gives them an idea how many new recruits they can anticipate in the following year.

    They believe that only 144,000 will be taken to a life in heaven. They will form a ruling class and will rule with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. But, they will remain in heaven after that period of time and those individuals are the only ones who achieve immortality. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that when you die, you're dead, period. And they believe that your only hope of future life is the memory of you that God holds and his ability and willingness to recreate you at some future time. So, the 144,000, when they die, are recreated as spirit creatures- their soul does not go to heaven because their soul is dead. Those who meet God's approval and who survive the end of the world will have the opportunity of living forever here on earth, in an earth much like the Garden of Eden. Even though you can live forever, you do not have immortality; it is still possible for you to die, should you have a fall from grace.

    Apart from those things, they believe in the end of the world, when God will bring all the systems of the world as we know it to an end, mostly through the use of natural forces such as hurricanes, tornadoes, natural disasters, and so forth.

    Navigator: How do you get to be one of the 144,000?

    Bechtel: You really don't. Jehovah's Witnesses more than imply that you don't have any chance of getting to be in the 144,000 because they were all picked years ago. The group of 144,000 began with the immediate Disciples and Apostles of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. A few were added to it over two millennia and whatever numbers they were short were picked around the turn of this last century. But they allow for the fact that some of the 144,000 may have had a fall from grace, and therefore need to be replaced to keep the number complete. I just read in one of their magazines that a guy that I worked with (when we were both in our early twenties) was appointed to the Governing Body. (This is their equivalent of the Pope-a collective Pope of about 18 to 20 or so leaders who lead by committee.) Being appointed to the Governing Body means that you have declared yourself to be of the heavenly class, and thus one of the 144,000. So, you decide that you are one of the heavenly class, and if you have the temerity to take communion, and can keep a straight face about it for long enough, people will accept it and believe it.

    Navigator: What was your involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses.

    Bechtel: I was born into it. My parents were extremely active true believers. They took most of what Jehovah's Witnesses taught them literally and tried to apply it. So, it was really all I knew when I was growing up. I wasn't allowed to associate with kids who weren't Jehovah's Witnesses. When I was 17, I left home to do missionary work for about a year and then I was called to their headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, where I had applied. That had been pretty much my chosen destiny. I went to headquarters; I was there for ten years.

    When I started, I did whatever menial tasks I was assigned, which included being a waiter, and working in the bindery where we put out over sixty million hard-bound books a year (and that was in 1968). I worked through a variety of jobs in manufacturing, until I was transferred to what they called a Service Department, which is where they answer letters from congregation elders and traveling overseers. (In the Catholic Church, it would be the equivalent of bishops or archbishops.) I began as secretary and eventually I got approval to be an author of the letters. I wrote for their magazines, I wrote speeches for the church leaders, and after a while I traveled widely to give speeches at their conventions.

    Navigator: What sort of letter writing did you do?

    Bechtel: A lot of the writing we did was like a "Dear Abby" kind of thing. We answered many personal and organizational letters. Judicial committees would want advice on how to deal with a certain situation, because Jehovah's Witnesses have an internal organization that matches the external. They have their own executive branch, judicial branch, and legislative branch. They make up their own rules, their own codes of behavior, they have their own systems of punishments and rewards, and they place greater emphasis on their own judicial system than they do on the outside world's.

    Navigator: Is it true that the recipients of your letters thought that these replies were essentially coming from God?

    Bechtel: Oh, absolutely. As a matter of fact, I got to be God, in that sense. That letterhead and that stamp of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society meant it was infallible; it was from God. Once that rubber stamp went on that stationary and it was mailed, it changed people's lives.

    There were people who lived and people who died based on what we wrote. For example, in the small nation of Malawi, Africa (in the 1960s,) the ruler was a Dr. Banda. Dr. Banda required everyone in his country to carry a political card. They had a one-party system in Malawi of which he was the leader, but he wanted everybody in the nation to carry a party card. Well, Jehovah's Witnesses refused, and as a result of their refusal to carry this plastic, many of them were killed. So, just an organizational decision like that caused people to lose their lives.

    Navigator: How did you get out, especially if they don't encourage questioning?

    Bechtel: I remember when I asked my mother (when I was 13 or 14) "what do you do if you don't believe this?" because even at that age I was struggling with some issues. Her response was, "you know it is the truth with your mind, so you must have a bad heart, so, keep on doing it and pray to God to give you a good heart."- This was quite a guilt trip. Closed systems do not encourage self-esteem, because self-esteem is mind-esteem, and the only way to achieve mind-esteem is to use it, to exercise your independent judgment. So, yes, they are a closed system and no, they don't encourage questioning, except when you are in the process of converting. Something very clever happens as you go through the conversion process. They encourage you to challenge beliefs that you were raised with, and then as they show you a different way of looking at them, they gradually teach you that because they have taught you the truth with regard to these matters, you should learn to accept these authority figures now as the chosen truth-givers. And from that point forward, questioning or challenging of what you are being told would be inappropriate.

    I had a growing difficulty with things that were being written and with things that I was expected to write. For example, in 1978, I put in a prospectus to write an article for their main magazine, The Watchtower. The title was going to be "Are You A Thinking Christian?" because I always thought it amazing how incapable the membership was of helping themselves and resolving the smallest issues by thinking, by logical, rational process. So, I was going to put out some practical suggestions for problem resolution. Well, my prospectus came back to me suggesting that I emphasize prayer, attending the five weekly meetings, and spending a lot of time going from door to door. I never wrote the article. I thought, "Okay, this is part of the problem." And as more of those things happened in my work, I developed greater conflicts between what I was expected to do and say, and what I could do and say in good conscience. It got to the point that I went home most days at three o'clock with a major headache just from the inner tensions, and that is when I decided I had to leave. I could not hold the job that I had and have the doubts that I had. So I left.

    When I left I did not know that I was going to leave the organization, I just knew I couldn't stay in the job I had. I was terrified; I was terrified of living in the real world. I had been living in the equivalent of a monastery for ten years with two thousand single males where we worked and studied and that's all we did. And the idea of going out and finding a job, finding a place to live and incurring bills and figuring out how to pay them- all of these things were totally foreign to my nature. I'd never bought a car; I'd never had any kind of credit whatsoever. Just things that everybody else takes for granted by the time they are 16 or 17 years old I had yet to learn, and I was 27. I had no real survival skills. I knew how to write. I knew how to speak. I didn't know how to hold a job or even find a job. So I was turned down by everybody, literally. I remember getting turned down by Truckstops of America to pump gas and also by Arby's when I applied for an assistant manager position. They didn't even test me. I didn't know what to put on an application... They'd ask, "Why did you leave?" What do I say? "Well, I'm, er, sort of a defrocked priest."

    Navigator: How and why do intelligent people get sucked into cults and fail to question?

    Bechtel: It is a commonly held fallacy that cults draw in stupid people or uneducated people, and actually quite the opposite is usually true. Cults are begun and spread and become successful because of intelligent and often educated people. Jehovah's Witnesses had many well-educated thinkers in it who made it move and made it happen. Jehovah's Witnesses attract people with an intellectual hook. Their main target is Christianity, and within Christianity, their main target is the Catholic Church. Jehovah's Witnesses come along with some really basic stuff, usually of a historical nature. Their appeal is an appeal to truth. They set up some obvious things in Christendom that are easy to knock down and they do so. Then they sow seeds of doubt about your entire belief system, which is really very easy to do. After that they say, "How can you trust the people who taught you these things? Now, whom should you trust? Well, obviously you should trust the people who have enlightened you, and that's us." That's very appealing. Also, they bring answers to the most asked questions: "Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do children die? What happens when you die?" They have very logical, simple answers.

    For example, the vast majority of Christendom, especially the fundamentalist branches, believe in a physical hell-fire, physical torment. So Jehovah's Witnesses would say something to you like: "Let's say you had a child that was very bad. You repeatedly disciplined him, emphasized why a certain behavior was wrong, and he continued to do it. Could you take that child and place his hand on a hot stove for just a few seconds?" You'd say "No, how absurd." They would reply, "Didn't your church teach you that God is love? How can you believe that this God who is love personified can torture bad people in a burning, fiery torment forever, when you couldn't even do it to your child who was bad for even a few moments?" Most of their answers to most questions were at that level: simple, straightforward, and hard to argue with.

    Navigator: What is the appeal of cults?

    Bechtel: Cults are a-cultural; that is, they are outside the mainstream of the societal mores that prevail at the time. Therefore they are often ostracized due to their differences, which inevitably tightens the communal bonds between them. Because they become isolated from the mainstream, it becomes even more important to reaffirm the rightness of their choices. A basic appeal of cults is a desire for certainty. I think another value of cults is a certain elitism: we have the answers, you don't, and you need us to get the answers. Another major component of a cult is a mission: either God needs us, or the world needs us, and we are the only ones who have been gifted and burdened with this mission, and we must do this. Another common characteristic of a cult is a central authority figure. When you have an infallible final authority who is not to be challenged, this leads directly to another component of a cult: coercion. Sometimes the coercion is a physical threat, but more often than not it is psychological coercion. You are perfectly free to leave, but you are scared to death to try. But, any one of these by itself doesn't make a belief system a cult.

    Cults show up in almost any field of human endeavor. Any time you organize a human endeavor it takes fanaticism to get anything off the ground. It took fanaticism to create Objectivism. It took fanaticism to break with the culture of Democrats and Republicans, to break with the philosophy of post-modernism and everything before it. The same is true of business start-ups. Those that succeed often quickly develop very strong internal cultures. For example, it took a very charismatic leader like Sam Walton to drag that whole organization along behind him. Wal-Mart today employs over a million people, yet it still it bears his personal stamp. So, yeah, there is a certain fanaticism; I mean, Sam Walton was a fanatic for what he did, and he had to be, or that empire would never have happened. So sometimes the difference between a cult and a culture is who is doing the name-calling, or time and acceptance.

    Of course, Wal-Mart is not a cult because its success is by definition dependant upon its interactions with the world outside of Wal-Mart. Due to their insular nature, cults keep the rest of the world outside, and the longer they maintain their closed society, the more likely they are to experience a break with reality. A break with reality can take the form of anything from fallacious reasoning to psychotic behavior. Theological structure within cults is often based on the classical fallacies of erroneous argumentation and logic. Within a closed society honest inquiry ceases to exist because they already know all the answers. Outside challenges to their beliefs are viewed either scornfully or as a form of persecution. When you commit to a position on anything that contradicts the facts of reality, you are also committing to continually reinforcing your adopted position, through consciously dishonest means if necessary. With circular reasoning the "logical" links in your reasoning are tenuous at best and the smallest break in the chain cannot be tolerated or the entire thing falls apart.

    Minds close when a movement's members become convinced of both the rightness and completeness of their knowledge. It is at this point that it becomes dogma to which nothing can be added or subtracted without official sanction. A close companion to this development is the apotheosis of the leaders and founders of the movement to the point where every detail of their lives becomes sacrosanct. Cults tap into the very human need for heroes.

    We need heroes because we need ideals to strive for. In the arts and especially literature, we are inspired by heroes who live their lives in ways we want to but often don't. When we take our heroes from real life it is very easy to imbue them with mythic qualities so that they more closely fit our ideal. Hence the need to venerate celebrities of many descriptions. In the real world the danger lies in projecting onto our heroes qualities they don't really possess. This lies at the heart of almost all cults and most likely it is when a cult member experiences the reality of their less-than-heroic leadership that they finally leave a cult.

    We want our heroes to perfectly embody in their personal lives the values that drew us to them in the first place. Regrettably, this usually doesn't happen in the real world, and we have to settle for less than perfect examples of our ideals. If we are committed to the faulty premise that the life of a leader must perfectly embody the values he taught/wrote, we are setting ourselves up for failure, for the smallest contradiction or inconsistency in their life will disillusion us. At this point, if we can say, "okay I subscribe to the ideals or premises these persons promoted, but I know they don't always live up to their own ideals," we are mentally healthy. We understand what an ideal is: a higher standard to aspire to, and in reference to which we and others can correct ourselves along the way.

    In movements that become cultish, the leader becomes the movement, and a flaw in the leader becomes perceived as a flaw in the movement. The true believer then has to choose between the reality of a flawed founder or leader, or he has to depart from reality and project onto the leader the perfection that is not there. Otherwise, he feels he would have to reject everything he believes in- something that could shatter the foundations of his life. To bring this close to home, if an Objectivist equated the philosophy of Objectivism with the person of its author and founder, he might feel compelled to reject Objectivism if he perceived some personal failings in the life of Ayn Rand. Unwilling to do so, he might then, as a substitute, need to justify every action of her life as being totally consonant with her teachings, and when necessary to project onto her the perfect qualities needed to maintain his premise. He has unwittingly bought into a reverse ad hominem argument, that a criticism of Ayn Rand is an attack on her philosophy.

    In the debate over cults I am reminded of what New York Times columnist Russell Baker wrote almost thirty years ago: "What I despise most about all minorities is their implied assumption that if the tables were turned they would be different." The desire to subordinate the facts of reality to our wish to believe (in order to fill a variety of emotional needs) is seductive and something no one is totally immune to. Cultish behavior can be a trademark of individuals as well as organizations. Ultimately there is no better defense against the lure of cultism than respect for the sovereignty of one's own mind.

    This interview was conducted for Navigator by Margaret Nicholson. Please call (845) 471-6100 for information about the TOC Speakers Bureau.

  • LostGeneration
    LostGeneration

    More copy/paste from the archives dogz?

    Yawn........

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