THE ATTITUDE OF A BETHELITE

minimus

One of the most interesting things that I have noticed about being a Witness is the awe that is given to Bethelites. It seems that if you are a Bethelite, you are accorded special privleges in congregations. You are honored when you visit a Hall. You may be given money or gifts because of the volunteering.Most Bethelites that I have known tend to be self righteous and arrogant especially the younger ones. Many of those that have been around for years look in disdain toward the "newbies". Most Bethelites that I have known (and I know a number) drink alcohol quite a bit. Bethelites are an interesting bunch. I also know some who are very balanced and I believe "stuck" in their environment due to age or health or lack of skills....What do you think about the "average Bethelite"?

VioletAnai

As a child I always thought that being at Bethel would be an honoured experience. The two bethelites I did know however were both strange, both male, single and in their 40's and both recluse. Does working at Bethel do this to a person?

Valis

Average bethelites are usually the geeks from hell anyway...maybe a lot of the older people revvered them, but most of us youngsters thought they would never get laid....the best example i knew of was one who had to marry some dub girl who couldn't even speak English to EVER get laid..*L* I think he's probably an elder by now..

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

minimus

I like it...He's a Bethelite....He'll never get laid.....too funny

Pathofthorns

If the average JW lives in a box, then bethelites imo lived in the center of the box with little or no clue how the outside world functioned.

I was not a fan of them and living close to the Canada branch I grew up in congregations where there were strong anti-bethelite sentiments. Many felt they were out of touch with reality and lived a relatively cushy life. Whether that was true or not, they certainly didn't live in the real world and could not relate to day to day life and were just clueless about everyday things.

The further one travelled away from bethel, the more they were 'worshipped', most likely because they never really had to put up with them on a weekly basis.

I got the feeling many bethelites were very afraid of the outside world and prayed if they got married their wife would be accepted into bethel. In the end many treated me with much respect and would no longer give me advice (counsel), but seemed more interested in understanding life on the 'outside'. I think they realized they were getting more and more out of touch with reality.

There were many bethelites that I liked but ultimately most seemed very 'programmed' and almost robotic in their whole manner. And yes, for the most part they seemed to like to drink hard but had to cover it up. I remember once showing up to bethel in cutoff jeans, a tank top with a case of beer and I soon learned that I should have sleaves on my shirt and a garbage bag to hide my beer.

When I made my exit from the organization, it was the bethel elders in my hall that seemed to feel the most sad and who I think understood my reasons the most but they just seemed so trapped and scared. I feel bad for them. They will be the ones that suffer the most when reality hits.

Path

JT

I used to be a bethelite and all the comments for the most part are on the money-

keep in mind that in the org- we have no colleges to attend so the best way i can describe bethel is -- it is the jw version of Harvard or Yale-

and just as many lawyers who attend such schools are given greater "AWE" the same with jw

Bethelites are seen as ones making GREAT SACRIFICES- WHILE i do know bethelites who lived off the $90. a month and they had it rough most do not- in fact some live very well

2 exp

My mentor JR Brown- JR is best friends with Larry Gramham the singer also pioneer and wt conductor in the Hollywood Hills Hall in LA- my roomate and I attended a gathering at Larry's house in the hollywood hills ( he sold it and lives in a condo now, but it is very nice i understand) during a summer conventions

THERE WERE NOTHING BUT BETHEL HEAVIES, LOCAL HEAVIES, COs and DO's there- we got invited thru a pioneer bro in Larry hall'\

even though i was a bethelite who was pretty much hooked up by the friends all the time,

I could not believe the way the other half LIVED

ANYWAY JR caused a stirr at bethel when he got a AN INFINITY Q45 CAR

do you know how much a Q45 sells for- esp when you consider JR gets about $90.00 a month

word is Larry hooked my boy up-

case #2

Harley Miller - some of you may recall who he is in the wt his exp is called a Navy Petty Officers story

anyway we used to live next to Harley and his wife in Towers and one day the housekeeper got our mail mixed up-

At the time Reagan was on office and he had a letter from the White House on OFFICIAL ENVELOPE

AND HE ALSO had what i realized were quarterly statements from AT THAT TIME EF HUTTON the brokeage firm and Bear and Sterns

word is he runs a biz out of Bethel and the heavies know it- I know in the 25 columbia hts garage he had a new BMW 3 series parked down there- what a 35K car on a $90.00 a month bethelite income

so while some bethelites are poor others live well indeed

I will repost something that you may find interesting it is called

G- JOBBING REPOST--

################

What is G-JOBBING___

It is called Government work- it refers to GOV employees being lazy and just getting a check

well it has to do with bethelites being too lazy to go out and get a real job so we do side jobs to make money while at bethel

and you can make alot if you are in the right "Trade" electrician, plumber, tile setter, roofer, etc and it is all tax free

the Congo in NYC would pay you to work on their halls since most jw in NY are white collar and not tradesmen

we even did work for NONJW- using WT tools , supplies and Trucks and since it was always at COST it was cheap --can you imagine what it would cost to rent a FLATBED truck in NYC to hall Dry wall 2 blocks- smile

all you needed to do was to get the guys who worked in that dept to requisition it under their name- they didn't even need to be there , but they would get their cut- lot of Elders headed up these work teams

so we would use the buying power of the Society to get these supplies for halls and bro in there home many times

some guys were clearing $3,000 a month tax free- bethel has cracked down on it by requiring you to sign a VOW OF POVERTY which is a form from the IRS saying you will not do any side jobs-

also the waiters did lots of G-JOBBING if anyone has been to bethel for lunch they are always impressed with how over 6000, folks can be served in less than 20min- well this is were the waiters come in at

folk like to use the bethelites at thier weddings to serve their guest
and if you are talking references just watch the mothers and fathers who have daugthers getting married in a few weeks come up to you afterward and ask you to do thier kids wedding

so the money rolls in beside everyone figures who BETTER TO HELP THAN THE LOWLY BETHELITES

smile

the BREAKER was some guys did a job and the person filed for it on his taxes --of course the IRS wants to know who do we get our money from

well I'd be Damn-- if it ain't some guys who is suppose to be living off $90.00 a month smile

so the society got involved and shut down most of the best money making jobs-

from what I understand you can still do it but you have to go through a lot of hoops

so many guys were missing meetings on the weekend and wiped out on Monday that flags started going up- we had this old nurse Called Sophie ----all my god she would worry you to death if you called in sick on a MONDAY were you out late Sunday night- what time did you get in, etc

old bag man

we had a plumbing job that was bidded out by a Congo in Queens with UNION NYC plumbers that was for $32,000, $36,000 and there was another bid price

so the elders asked the bethelites could we do it- it was a complete job from the street to the inside of the hall to toilets and sinks and tile job

well we could not ask for a set price but only tell the elders WHATEVER YOU BROTHERS WANTED TO GIVE US

well they presented it to the Congo and they came back with $25,000 offer and it would be just 5 of us and they would supply all the manual labor through the local bros.

we are talking $5,000 a piece - no taxes -in a weekend baby with a few follow up days to clean up any leftovers

one of the guys was a MASTER PLUMBER SO HE always got the permits we needed from the city- due to the large amount we got cold feet so we talked with Ralph Walls about it and he told us we needed to consider how would it look with that sum of cash in 2days of work- where in fact it would have been no work at all since we would have merely been overseeing the local guys doing all the digging of the trenches SMILE HEY YOU GOT TO LOVE IT MAN

so we turned it down- DAMN I SHOULD HAVE DONE IT

there is one guy and some of the bethelites on the net know this guy he ran the ROOFING DEPT as the overseer and was (REMOVED FROM THAT JOB FOR THIS REASON) and since all the roofs in NYC on the halls are flat--they are always leaking due to water standing on them

well he would take SOME OF his crew and knock out a roof over a weekend and man he was clocking over 3K amonth, not bad considering you don't have any expenses

but the most famous G -JOBBER OF ALL TIME WAS a bro from out of Texas if I'm correct- any bethelites here will correct me if I'm wrong on the state he is from

any way his name was James (JIM) Spencer he was the photography overseer and he had access to the society's $Million dollar cameras and film and processing equipment and he used to shoot WEDDINGS ON THE WEEKEND- hey like I said YOU GOT TO LOVE IT

NOW CK THIS OUT I had a buddy who was in on the deal-- he worked at the Stanley theater- that is the most expensive assembly hall in the wt arsenal of assembly hall probably

you all know it --the million dollar chandelier- anyway one of my boys was assigned as a keeper when they used bethelites---- now they have a pioneer couple over there --old Ricketts and he is a LITTLE HUSTLER as well

anyway Jim would arrange to use the assembly hall to take couples pictures

and I tell you-- to have your wife coming down the GRAND STAIRCASE IN HER GOWN hey man we are talking GONE WITH THE WIND TYPE STUFF

well my boy could have folks over to the assembly hall after hours as long as they were his guests

man he didn't even know some of the couples

so Spencer would kick him a little "SOMETHING -SOMETHING" SMILE

anyway old Spencer got caught not reimbursing the Society for the equipment and since he was the Overseer of the dept no one really questioned what he was working on late at night

hey it was not your latest mag cover shot- smile

so the "Shit hit the fan" and my man was BUSTED DOWN FROM PHOTO OVERSEER

to working the Bindery lines in the leather gold bible section

it was so embarrassing cause about a month after he got SHAFTED we had an Open tour of the factory were the office guys and the home guys could come over to the factory and see how the book and mags are made

and you guessed it ---my man James Spencer is right on the tour route and all the office guys are walking through laughing their a$$ off at him sitting there sweating with a tee shirt and blue jeans on.

his roommate was Robbie Vela from Hawaii the big island ---he worked upstairs in the bindery on the hardback line and he told us that Spencer would come home from work when he worked in photo dept and there would be TICKETS FOR him to fly to Japan or Rome or anywhere in the world just to take a couple of rolls of film and fly back

man we are talking about living the good life- he flew almost as much as the guys with UPI or AP wire guys

single man living the life and since he was the PO in his hall up in the Bronx he had the best of both worlds in the local hall and at the big house

from what I understand HE MADE A KILLING

well it is now bed time and no more bethel stories until later

smile

James

PS this is the last one it's too good to let pass

now i earned my money when i was at bethel others don't

as you all know by now the spokesman for the wt is a guy named JR Brown as a black man we use to call the the Society's Louis Farrakan

the most powerful speaker every to Grace a wt mike esp in the black community

well anyway he is ACES with larry Graham and larry is always hooking him up along with 1000's of his fans

anyway when he bought his new car alot of the Heavies and i don't mean to get racial,but some of the White boys were not happy

As they would say in the black Hood ""This Negro went out and bought a $45,000 car"

my man drives a top of the line fully loaded "Q45"
now go figure how you and i can do that off $90.00 a month

YOU TO TO LOVE IT

minimus

JAMES.....THAT WAS G-R-E-A-T

jimbob

Hey jjrizo....I know Rip. Hell, everyone inside and outside of Bethel knows Rip. He's originally from Washington State. He's an electrician at bethel. I think he's still there. Last I heard he was in some high up position. I really think Bethel is just like any other corporation.....you gotta move up that company ladder so everyone thinks you're wonderful. You just don't make any more money....hell, you don't make any money. What a deal!!

sunshineToo

James, thank you for your story. That was so enjoyable. I'll be looking forward to your next episode.

William Penwell

I know some of the dubs almost worship the bethelites. If a bethelite spoke, it was as if God himself had spoke. I know one sister that was saying about this brother and she added "well he is a bethelite you know". I said so, and she replied "well you know they are closer to God's organization so they have better insight to things".

Will

THE ATTITUDE OF A BETHELITE

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