Bethel Family "Manual"?

by Valis 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • William Penwell
    William Penwell

    A quick read of the Bethel Manual is enough to make a person Under the heading "Visitors in the Home:

    VISITORS IN THE HOME
    Someone is appointed by the brother in charge to show visitors around the home. If you want to take someone through, you may get permission to do so; but if the one in charge believes it is best to have a regular guide take your party through, it is for him to decide. You cannot just take people around the premises of the Society anytime you want to. Please obtain permission each time. The overseer in charge is the one to decide what should be shown to visitors and he will arrange a regular route to follow during working hours. Before anyone can be invited for a meal or invited to stay overnight, permission must be obtained from the over- seer in charge. Arrangements should be made in advance. Please understand that if they are not, your request may not be granted. Visitors who are calling for just a short time will remain in the visiting room or lobby of the Bethel home until the one they are visiting is called and meets them there. Any person invited for dinner must be registered and he will be given a place to sit in the dining room with his friends in the Bethel family. Always keep in mind that we are limited in the number of guests we can have for meals because of space, cooking arrangements, pur chasing of food, etc. You should not invite visitors to meals on weekends when meals are served cafeteria style. There can be exceptions to this, but permission must be obtained, otherwise it may be necessary to limit your guest privileges for a period of time. After the meals or during the evening it will be permissible for members of the family who invite guests in to see them to take them to their rooms and to entertain them. All such guests must register "in" and "out" of the home, and at all times while in the home they should be accompanied by a member of the Bethel family. Of course, on such oc- casions nothing should occur in the rooms that would disturb other members of the family in the home. If any one is in a room alone with a member of the opposite sex who is not a close relative, they must leave the door wide open. Special arrangements can be made with the overseer in charge for you to have members of your own family who are Jehovah's witnesses stay overnight in the Bethel home.

    They talk to you like you were 6 years old. Do this, do that. Then the thing about leaving your door open if you have a member of the oposite sex in your room!!! What if your name was Leo Greenless and prefered young boys? Oh that would be OK as long as they were of the same sex. Or what if a person was into incest, still they are a close relative and according to the manual it would be OK to close the door.

    Will

  • blondie
    blondie

    To put the direction on flushing in context:

    There was a time when the Bethel family was mostly single men. The old Bethel residences operated much like dormitories; rooms for sleeping (some with sinks to wash up in) but no commodes (toilets) or showers/tubs. The guys had to throw on a robe and go down the hall to a communal sink/shower/toilet area. Like being in the military. I guess some of the crabby older male Bethelites got tired of looking down in the toilet and seeing that some young newbie Bethelite had forgotten to flush the toilet or had left a "floater."

    Also you were instructed to hold down the lever and "watch" everything go down.

    One brother was called to Bethel as a 50 year old man (he had special skills), and he had to go through the same training. He was the one who told me the flush thoroughly story. He said, "Can you imagine a 50-year-old man being instructed in the fine art of flushing?"

    Blondie

  • 4JWY
    4JWY

    I just read the whole "Manual" ~ should be retitled, "LIFE FOR DUMMIES" ~ what a load of crap! The whole thing sounds like a storybook for 3 year olds.

  • DaCheech
    DaCheech

    I love the "illness" section. If you get ill too long (chronic) on your first year you should be sent home

  • Neo
    Neo

    Wait, this is just the beginning!!

    Dwelling Together in Unity is only one of Bethel's Talmuds. They also have the Branch Office Procedures with additional "1,177 policies and regulations"!

    We serve not only Jehovah God but we are under our 'mother' (the organization). Our 'mother' has the right to make rules and regulations for us... This book, entitled Branch Organization Procedure, contains 28 subjects; and its sub-sections involve regulations and administration. In it there are 1,177 policies and regulations...this is an improved, fine-tuned organization, and we are expected to follow its policies. If there are some who feel that they cannot subject themselves to the rules and regulations now in operation, such ones ought to be leaving and not be involved here in the further progressive work.
    (Albert Schroeder, speaking to elders of the Bethel family on May 29, 1980)
    source: http://www.freeminds.org/history/whathapp.htm
    And you can read a lot about what's inside the book right HERE!
    Neo
    (I just posted this in a similar thread. )

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