The GB as JW celebrities

Rubyvixen

I am really,really curious as to how other people back while in the Org viewed the GB. Even more curious as to if anyone got to meet any of them and what the impressions were.

Because my oldest brother (older than me by 14 years!) was first at the Watchtower Farms and then Brooklyn Bethel and my uncle is a member of the GB, my mother tended to flaunt these facts and look for every opportunity to go to either place with her Bible Studies (these terms are so weird to use after all these years lol).

Watchtower Farms always struck me as a really bizarre trip. Sometimes we would stay in the 'cottages' that WT Farms had on their property which was just...odd. It was a two hour drive from Queens (where we lived) and since my brother knew people there, he would arrange to have different people in different departments show us around. It was largely to impress my mother's Bible Studies and I always in a way found it impressive as well to see the level of organization and the upkeep of the place. Everyone seemed so devoid of real personality and over-the-top fresh faced and happy.

Whether going to Brooklyn Bethel or the Farms, we always got in for lunch there which was always signaled by a bell, enough food for an army (an army of JWs) and they always seemed to be serving chipped beef and mashed potatoes >. and milk. We would eat our food and then hob-knob with some of the pseudo-bethel celebs, everyone with super fake smiles often acting like they had such pressing things to get back to.

I think the art department was always my favorite.

Our Brooklyn Bethel tours were always a study in how much we could walk between the buildings and exclamations of how 'clean'! and 'orderly'! everything was. Every department down to the Printing Room seemed to have someone willing to talk about the fascinating work they were doing and sometimes even had little displays showing the history of the area (example : the Printing area always had that display with the colored see through pages showing the multi-color print machines...*rolls eyes*).

One thing I remember vidily was their own computer system which I would love more info on since it seemed odd then and seems even stranger now to recall. It was call MEPS or something like that. My brother worked in that department and was always quick to point out how it was unique to the WT.

We would often meet with my Uncle before or right after lunch.

I think I was always struck with the extreme disparity in the 'accomodations' of my Uncle as opposed to the small-bland hotel-esque rooms of the rest of the bethelites.

Not only was my Uncle's office quite large with a very swanky view of the Brooklyn Bridge but he had quite a large number of trinkets and sculptures from his 'travels' around the world (all on very important WT business of course I am sure :P...funny how everytime he got sent overseas , it was in the poshest of accomodations and funnier how he somehow had all this expensive memorabilia to show from it!). He also had paintings of his (he loved to replicate paintings of the old impressionists)...nice hobby which I am sure he had tons of time to devote to while everyone else in Bethel seemed on a strict work regimen.

His office was not the only thing swanky. He shared an enormous 'apartment' with my Aunt (a very eccentric lady much younger than him who spent some of her time doing watercolor painting...again, nice hobby making time). I was always slightly embarassed that we would see this and take my mother's Bible Studies with us RIGHT AFTER seeing how the other Bethelites lived in small studios with drab decorating and a housekeeper to come and pick through their stuff while they went off to their departments to work. It was such a GLARING difference. There was my Uncle's apartment with gorgeous carpet, nice paintings, painted a nice hue, with lush furniture and tons of space (they would even sometimes get food brought to them! so they didn't have to go down to the cafeteria). How the hell did that represent the whole vow of poverty motto?

He also was the voice of Jehovah for many convention dramas throughout the years which somehow added to his whole aura of 'importance' (he has quite a voice).

Whenever we would go to an Annual Meeting (at the Stanley Theater back then in NJ, talk about a swanky place to have your Annual Meeting!) and my Uncle was there, people seemed to talk to him with such reverence. It always made me so disgusted. Even at assemblies and conventions, there would be groups around him, almost like they were about to ask for his photograph.

Anyway, there is so much more, but I am drinking my morning cup of coffee here at work and my brain needs to catch up.

Anyone here ever go on tours of any of the Bethel facilities? or meet the GB? Share! So curious as to other's views who may not have been as 'connected' :P

ithinkisee

Not sure if you wanted to - but saying your uncle has "quite a voice" sort of gives you away.

I was a Bethelite and was actually in a congregation where several GB members went to. (Your uncle was not in my hall)

You live in Queens so you know how much a 2-3 room apartment goes for - and especially there in Brooklyn Heights.

Yes, I believe they are completely celebrities. They are revered as gods when they go out for visits to District Assemblies and so forth. They are treated the same way at Bethel.

The B.S. about the facilities tours always struck me as similar to the way the Jews were REALLY PROUD of their temple and looked at their temple as proof that God was with them - even at times they did not have God's approval.

I actually worked in the Office Complex at Bethel and even had a few conversations with your uncle. Out of all the GB members he was one of the more down-to-earth ones - at least from a Bethelite perspective.

If you haven't already, you should read Crisis of Conscience by Ray Franz. He was a GB member and he dedicates a few pages to the "celebrity-treatment" he received as a GB member. He mentions that it bothered him but many other GB members revelled in it.

-ithinkisee

LongHairGal

Ruby:

I went on two tours of bethel and one to the farm many years ago. I shook hands with many people but I am not sure if any were the GB. I know I have met several "anointed".

The impression I always had is that there is an element of "creature worship" or what I felt was undue "honor" where anointed are concerned (sorry if I sound cynical and please don't confuse it with consideration for somebody who is just "elderly"). I imagine there must be more of this where the GB are concerned. I always felt all of this nonsense is just a dangerous step away from kissing somebody's ring, etc.

RichieRich

Wow Ruby. I'm very interested as to who your uncle is... but I won't ask you to reveal that publiccly...

I went to BEthel in April, despite being a member of this site, and having the views I do.

Here's my thread on it, complete with pics..

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/89316/1.ashx

Also, check the first page of my topic history to read the story surrounding my trip.

Rubyvixen

I know the voice thing gives it away.

I am refraining from listing his name here totally due to Google.

I am pretty sure that some of the things I said here though probably made it quite obvious ;)

tijkmo

hi..ruby

yes i went a few years ago to new york and did the tours..i quite enjoyed them actually

but i do remember that when we did the office tour with a bunch of people from all over the u.s....i was quite struck by the reverence they afforded the gb members...i desribed it to others back here in scotland as a kid of goldfish bowl mentality...you know when someone squashes their face up against the aquarium and then taps on the glass to get the fish to move...thats what seemed to me to be happening when we passed the rooms of the gb members...it was not something that i had witnessed in the u.k..but then i had pretty much always been in congregations where there were annointed ones so we treated them normally...it was a funny experience though...funny peculiar not funny haha

on the subject of meps if i understand that correctly it was a system that was devised to print the same information on each page of the mags/books....with translation not always being word for word and allowing room for pictures and headings etc...i think the org went to several computer firms to see if they could do it but were told it wasnt cost effective because jws were the only ones who printed in so many languages..but i understand that since they developed it other companies now use it..whoever invented it could have made a great deal of money for him/herself but didnt...so credit where credit due i think in this case

Rubyvixen

Wow!! You even have pictures of the Stanley! I really assumed that by now, it was no longer used...interesting.

Those pictures take me back!

Big Dog

Yeah, they always reminded me of celebs, oh darn, what were their names? Got it, Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp.

ithinkisee

One example of GB-worship ...

When I first got to Bethel, Fred Franz, Gangas, and others were in my hall.

By this time Franz was pretty much a goner, but he would come down from time to time with his "nurse" in a wheelchair and visit the congregation. (our Kingdom Hall was actually in a Bethel building, and the Infirmary was above the KH)

The first time he came down he was in the foyer in the back and was immediately crowded in on from all sides. Everyone was saying hi and asking questions and getting pictures, etc.

I was actually disturbed by this, and the parallel of people crowding around Jesus came to mind. I still vividly remember this ... though it was over 10 years ago.

Another example:

A few months ago we had our SAD day and Bro Lett was the speaker. (What a TOOL ... but I digress.) One of the things he said at the start of the first talk he gave was:

"My wife is sitting over there, and that is where I will be at the close of the session. So if you would like to come over and say hi and pose for pictures, we encourage you to do so."

Ugh ... WTF ... is he Mick Jaggar or something?

-ithinkisee

ithinkisee

i think the org went to several computer firms to see if they could do it but were told it wasnt cost effective because jws were the only ones who printed in so many languages

Cost is not a factor when you have people donating money and not requiring any audit of where the money is actually spent.

-ithinkisee

The GB as JW celebrities

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