1000 asked to leave Brooklyn Bethel!

by cyberguy 75 Replies latest jw friends

  • doinmypart
    doinmypart

    It has been awhile since I posted, but I wanted to share this.

    I spoke to a recent Ministerial Training School (MTS) graduate and my cousin serving at WT Farms. My cousin confirmed that WT would like to lose 1500 Bethelites mainly due to attrition. Both my cousin and the MTS graduate said that not many brothers are applying for MTS, so WT is allowing Bethelites to apply to MTS and married couples at Bethel may be invited to future Gilead classes. Before sending these brothers back to the local congregations, WT wants to make sure that they will be good Society-men by sending them through MTS.

  • worf
    worf

    Bluesapphire,

    I couldn't agree with you more. This will have major fallout among the bethelites families, friends and this should also serve to wake up a good number of these bethelites out their borg sleep too. Since there are those who are showing that they don't want to leave, there will obviously be those who are forced to leave which will create more anger and rebellion as you mentioned in your post.

    The borg is trying to remake itself to survive, in similar fashion as brought out in the book "Thirty Years A Watchtower Slave". But this time it won't work. The wts is going down, as in the name of justice, it should.

    Worf

    Edited by - worf on 18 July 2002 15:17:47

  • Etude
    Etude

    When I joined Bethel back in 1974, I went in under the 4-year rule. After about 2 years they announced that you could leave after one year of service (meaning you wouldn't be ostracised when you went back to your home congregation). People were lining up to get out. That's why it surprises me that there were only a few takers. Maybe they're holding off to make arrangements for "life after Bethel". After all, there aren't many jobs trimming magazines and binding books out there in the world. There's always Motel 6.

    Etude.

  • WildHorses
    WildHorses

    My only hope is that the younger ones at Bethel realize that the older ones have no way of making a reasonable living, and decided to leave themselves so that the older ones can at least not have to worry how they will survive the rest of their life.

  • Etude
    Etude

    Worf:

    To echo your sentiment, when I was at Bethel I asked an older brother how he had persisted for so long (some 20 or 30 years) in his service. I was altruistic, but realized that life at Bethel was hard and sometime along the line I would like to have a change of life, marry and have sex. I expected a really profound answer. What I got was a story of how he entered Bethel as a young man, had a brief courtship with a sister who was a pioneer but was not very interested in him in preference to the "pioneer" work (she probably didn't want to go to Bethel) and how he just went on until he had spend almost 30 years there. I was deflated. I found it so pathetic and realized that he became comfortable there and probably too afraid to start over in the outside world even before he got too old to find real employment. I imagine that this is the case with many people there. My brother-in-law left because my sister got pregnant. Some brother promised him that he would have a job ready for him. It never materialized and he and my sister ended up living with my parents for a while. While this was happening, I started going to college. It's unbelievable that people from other congregations tried to pressure me to not go. What ignoramuses!

    Etude.

  • JT
    JT

    The comment was made----

    But liquid assets are slim and cash flow low. This cramps the style of the G.B. who used to be able to spend frivolously. .--All these things and more, show a serious lack of funds at Bethel. But the G.B. can't admit they are short, for obvious reasons. The end is not here. So we should not have money problems or shortages. Surely the "spirit-directed" Governing Body would not squandor the money, would they?

    Well I have to disagree somewhat in fact the cash flow has increased after the complete donation arrangement- if you search the net you will find the wt took in 1.2 BILLION the year before the donation arrangement went into affect and it dropped almost 500 million to around 700 mill

    Now Newsday shows they are listed in NYC top corps at over 900 MILL-

    FOR AN organization that has no payroll, that aint bad- true they have cost, but to have millions of sales folks they don't have to cut a ck to each month is unreal- consider how much Bill Gates would be worth if he got rid of his PAYROLL ALONE-
    The comment was made that the GB spend big bucks- perhaps in the days of Rutherford, but when I was at bethel the GB were not spending big bucks they mainly got hooked up thru "Perks" more so than cutting themselves a ck from the WT bank account and buying themselves a Lear Jet
    The below is from NEWSDAY SEPT 17, 2001

    FROM what I understand the wt is CASH Rich in fact that was one of the driving reasons why they SPLIT the org up into 5 parts

    From everyone I have talked to who are still and bethel and from what we all can clearly see

    THE LAWYERS AND THE ACCOUNTANTS are running the org- Writing and Service dept has to kiss up to these guys and it has pissed off a lot of guys- for years the writing and service guys came into bethel with 30yrs of fulltime service and now COLLEGE GUYS with 2 yrs as a jw come in and tell them what to do- case in point many articles in the wt must be cleared THRU LEGAL-

    CAN'T be TALKING NASTY ABOUT THE GOV TO MUCH NOW cause we got a case pending- as many observers have seen
    THE HARD HTTING MESSAGE that many of us Old timers were told we would see in the last days as turned TO MUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    HAVE YOU seen the pussy foot articles they have done on the UN lately

    Man when I was growing up we used to have on the cover of the wt Satan- The beast, and all the world gov on a string being held in the mouth of the beast with the "HO" babylon on it's back

    Not today my man- got to be MORE PC TODAY-

    When JR brown was asked can jw vote- did he say:

    " Hell NO we would rather die standing on our Feet and Living on our Knees
    smile

    nope he said - "It Be A conscience matter"

    yea right some folks on this board got their Asses beat for not voting in 1945 during the height of WWII patriotic fever and to be told it is a conscience matter is a joke

    Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York

    25 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, 11201

    718-560-5000

    www.jw-media.org

    Revenue: $951 million

    Industry: Publishing

    President: Milton Henshel

    Employees: 3,415

    It takes a lot of printing to supply more than 6 million Jehovah's Witnesses with the materials for their ministry. One publication, Watchtower, now has an average print run of 23 million copies twice per month, an increase of 7.5 percent over last year.

    "Our report for the year is different from a Wall Street company," said vice president George Couch. Indeed, the company's employees are volunteers who live and work in the Brooklyn complex.

  • blondie
    blondie

    The WTS can have a great deal of "hard" assets but if the "liquid" assets aren't there..........

    They may end up having to sell off property. I work for a large secular organization and without adequate cash flow it would come to a screeching halt in spite of all the property and equipment it owns.

    If I remember correctly, the WTS has been building mostly to house their workers as opposed to factories to print publications in recent years. Patterson is mostly an "educational" center with only the video/audio production there.

    Would it be probable that the facilities in Brooklyn would be sold and whatever printing done there be either moved to Walkill or Patterson, or outsourced?

  • doinmypart
    doinmypart

    This a bump from an old thread.

    Rumblings of layoffs began in 2002, and began in earnest in 2006. Here in 2008 the layoffs continue. My cousin mentioned in my post above, is being sent home after ~20 years at Bethel. He and wife were given option to serve "where the need is great" but decided to return home (his wife never liked Bethel). There are still others being released.

    I don't know if this is part of the original 1,000 - 1,500 targeted, or a new round.

    Funny how the Org works. Laying off employees over a 6 year period, eliminating middle management (Bethel Elders), selling off property, settling lawsuits out of court, special campaigns ad nauseam, doctrinal changes...and they try to act like everything is fine.

  • Octarine Prince
    Octarine Prince

    They come up with an explanation always.

  • OMG! Now What?
    OMG! Now What?

    They should be sued for running a slave ring then throwing them out into the real world. How could someone give up their life, never get paid, grow old and still survive. Like, what do they do with the workers when they get old and can't work anymore? Those people probably have nowhere to go, no money and will be homeless for the short time left in their lives.

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