When I was around the age that many a good young men travel to the earthly HQ of jehover, I’ve had more than a handful of friends/acquaintances that went to Bethel as ‘normal’ and came back like they were put through the ‘Ministry of Love’ [aka, torture in “1984”]
One guy was Reg Pio, all the good stuff, went to Bethel and was kicked out after less than a year. Came back to the congregation an alcoholic, started missing meetings, and then stopped going altogether.
Another was the funniest guy I may have ever met. Everytime you went out with the guy it was a laugh riot. He came back to visit at a DC after a year, and was a robot. The life was sucked out of him, and his eyes were devoid of any soul. He didn’t laugh anymore, and when we sat in a group of old friends talking and laughing, he would just stare out with this blank look in his face. He went back to Bethel after the visit; last I heard he became a missionary.
Another friend, he was funny too, got sent back after less than a year. He was really bummed. Still had some life in him though. But what happened at Bethel weighed heavy on him. The final thing that got him sent back happened while he was a night watchman at the farms. Was driving the truck around at night doing the rounds, but I guess some brothers would do a little 4x4’ing. Well, I guess he was doing a little 4x4’ing himself back by the ‘launch pad’, and then got the truck stuck. He got a bro to help him & got out and back; but he got spotted by the overseer, got called in, and it was recommend that he go home. Saw him a few years later, still a decent guy, but he always had some inner conflict about the whole thing that he could never get worked out in his head it seemed.
Another good friend was always getting in trouble at Bethel doing stuff like smarting off to his overseer or goofing around while on a 3 month stint, then he would come back, then go back to bethel a bit longer, then come back, then go out again, and left after a third time. Just couldn’t hack it out there. Too damn strict he said, but it did teach him some responsibility he claims. He is still a pretty funny guy today, but is all damn serious at times about some things. IMaybe it's just him getting older. I think it is the ‘Bethel’ in him.
Another friend from the sticks came running back because while conducting a BS in the Bronx he heard gunshots, couldn’t keep his nerves together, and came home. Nice guy, but will always be a country boy.
Then there was the guy I ran into while I was doing slave [work a temp, save a Bethelite, is that the saying?] temp work.
I was doing some of my laundry at night because I was involved in some dirty work and didn’t bring enough clothes. One night a guy was in the laundry room with his Bethel mesh laundry bag off to the side of him, kinda balled up in a chair and just staring blankly at the wall. He had the bible in his hand trying to get it read for his first year as required.
He looked like he was sad and didn’t really want to talk, but that didn’t stop me. I started talking to him and came to find out that he has been at Bethel for about 8 months and HATED it! He was miserable.
So I asked him why he hated it. Was it because he is assigned somewhere different than where he was before when he did temp work before going at this full-time?
Ohhhhh , come to find out he never did the temp thing. He was born and groomed from infancy up to be at Bethel. Was Reg Pio’ing, put in his application, got accepted and came right out, and he was miserable.
I didn’t know what to say to the poor guy. Ya, that’s tough I guess. Maybe it will get better beofre the year is up.
Meeting him, plus all of the other many sad, angry, self-righteous, horny, or heavy drinking; or hell, all of the above people at Bethel quickly taught me that Bethel wasn’t for me. No way!
Don't get me wrong, there were some happy, nice people also. But I was expecting everyone to be all, "Happy, happy; joy, joy!" Finding a few unhappy people was to be expected, but man! The ratio was much higher than anyone back home would expect.
There was one guy I met while doing temp work that was the antithesis of this. Dave Schmidt I think his name was. His Dad owned a Kawasaki dealership back home, but he wanted to be a tour guide some day I think. Maybe he just seemed like he would be a good one. Great guy, lot’s of fun, great personality, and almost everything was a sexual joke to him. I think he almost broke his neck from rubber necking all of the time. He was a former full timer at Bethel for three years, but had to come back to NY after being home for a few years to do a temp 2-week stint to be able to qualify for International Work. I didn’t get why his three years didn’t qualify him, and neither did he.
Anyways, he showed me a few bars, took me on tours of Manhattan, knew all of the stories behind every building, went to So-Ho, Chinatown, almost made a new friend with a homeless guy because I didn’t follow Dave’s request to stop making eye contact with everyone on the street. He told me of all the drinking parties, the 'homosexual' stories [the "two guys wrestling in their underwear, and bam, now your a homo" talk], how freaking horny he and most other Bethelites were and how he just wanted to rub off even to a hole in the wall,
Ahhhh, I never expected Bethel to be like it was, that’s for sure.
There’s others too…
‘bout the rest of you?
Winston.