question for any ex-bethelites....or anyone else who might know.. after serving (aka being slaves) at the brooklyn bethel my sister and brother in law are leaving because she is pregnant.
im just curious about something.
how long is it normally in such circumstances before a couple leaves?
I believe the vow of poverty thing started in the late 1980's because they made me sign one when I was at Bethel then. I believe it was to help them with the tax situation for the individual Bethelites.
I tell people that the only vow that I made that I have not broken since leaving the JWs is that one. :)
Jeff S.
many of you may know that i teach at a small christian liberal arts college in nebraska now.
my pre-med students sponsored a blood drive yesterday and asked me to donate.
so, i donated blood for the first time.
Hi Gang-
Many of you may know that I teach at a small Christian liberal arts college in Nebraska now. My pre-med students sponsored a blood drive yesterday and asked me to donate. So, I donated blood for the first time. It really was pretty easy. I felt a little light headed afterwards but it was not bad. In any case, I hope the blood helps someone out who needs it including those JWs who decide to take blood or the allowable blood components.
Jeff S.
question for any ex-bethelites....or anyone else who might know.. after serving (aka being slaves) at the brooklyn bethel my sister and brother in law are leaving because she is pregnant.
im just curious about something.
how long is it normally in such circumstances before a couple leaves?
When I was at Bethel and I asked about health insurance (after I got there because Bethel is not up front about these things.), I was never given a straight answer. So, my father bought a health insurance policy for me. We kept that quiet because I know others who bethelites who would buy their own policies and would be scolded for not being "satisfied with Jehovah's provisions."
So, unless things have changed ALOT over the last few years, I suspect that those individuals who are leaving because they are with child are on their own financially.
And....the pioneeryr poster has absolutely no idea what he is talking about.
Jeff S.
hey folks,.
i was sjust chatting with a current member fo the borg, and the subject turned to c. t. russell and where he is buried.. she said that the pastor is not buried in allegeny pa. and is not buried at the triangular representation of an acient building (he he fancy way of saying pyrimid), anyway he said his grave is in albany ny in a cematary for the wts bethelites.
is this another scam the wts is running, i have seen his gravestone and such in pics, and it is in pa not ny.
Hi-
I have been to Russell's gravesite in the Pittsburgh, PA area. It is in the North Hills. I have pictures of it and my brother-in-law video taped our visit to Russell's site. The pyramid is huge and can be seen from the road as you enter the cemetery.
I think your friend is confused. At Watchtower Farms there is a cemetery where many of the "anointed ones" are buried. The Bethelites refer to it as "the launching pad". I have visited that cemetery also.
Jeff S.
i decided to make a new thread instead of posting my response on the old one .
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?d=22330&site=3&page=2 .
sf asked:.
When I was first leaving the JWs, I had become inactive and I am sure many suspected me of apostasy. In any case, my wife had been invited to stand in the wedding of a JW. She was very excited to be in the wedding and so I went to the JW wedding with her. It was my first time being around the JWs in many months.
While I was getting reaquainted with the friends, an elder came up to me and in front of everyone there started asking me questions about why I had not been to the meetings. He then told me that if I did not get reactivated that I would die soon at Armaggeddon. I was livid. I would have left the wedding right at that moment had it not been for my wife standing in the wedding. After the elder told me that I put my hands up and just walked away without saying anything. The elder knew that he had pissed me off.
After the wedding at the reception, I told my wife what had happened and she was still a semi-active JW at the time. She was pissed and told my JW mother who went and said some things to this elder. The elder's response was to send a message thru my mother that he was sorry for the way he had spoken to me. He would not even apologize to me face to face.
Later my wife and I started reading the Bible together without the aid of the Society's publications. This same elder and one of his cohorts called on us as part of a shepherding call. They asked me if I was doing anything to take care of my family spiritually. I told him that every morning my wife and I would read the Bible together. The elders said to me that that was not enough. That the next thing we should do is see what the Faithful and Discreet Slave said about the subject after reading the Bible. This started the questioning about whether we believed that God was using the Faithful and Discreet Slave as God's channel. I had already told my wife that I no longer believed that God was using the organization as his channel. She was nice enough to interrupt the questioning and change the subject and the elders never got back to interrogating me on this issue.
Jeff S.
are there any former bethelites here that served in brooklyn, walkill or patterson?.
if so, when did you serve?.
i might know you if you served at brooklyn.
I was at Brooklyn from 1987 to 1988.
Jeff Schwehm
i was once counselled by the elders for watching 'knots landing'....it became widely known in the congregation that me and a few other sisters would rush home from field service to watch our favourite soapie.
if we missed it, we would ring each other up for an update...or...if we weren't near a tv we would ask someone to put the phone handset on the top of their tv so we could hear it...pathetic huh...but that was all the excitement we could scrounge up in our otherwise dull and uneventful lives.
one of the elder's wive's conscience got the better of her...and she confessed to her husband..lol.
While I was at Bethel, my Overseer called me into his office and counseled me for smiling too much while I was working. He told me it was not normal and it made him uncomfortable. (Yes, I did smile when he said this to me.) He also told me that I was not to speak about his counsel to anyone. (I immediately went and told other Bethelites on our crew what he told me...No one was surprised at his counsel, I guess he did that often.)
Also........one day while at Bethel, my roommate got the wonderful letter from the Home Overseer (translate this as home god). He was chastized for having a University of Georgia National Football Championship Coke Bottle on his dresser. They said it stumbled people to see that on his dresser. He was told he could take it out whenever he was in his room but before leaving the room he had to hide it away. (I kid you not, this was a very common occurance since the housekeepers and home overseers inspect the bethel rooms.)
One day, I was water blasting a room at the 360 Furman Bldg. I was pulled out of the room and handed a phone. It was my home overseer. He was mad at me because there was some kind of spill on my desk in my room and they were having a hard time cleaning it up. He asked me what it was. I told him that I was not aware of any spill on my desk and that it was news to me. I got a 20 minute lecture on how I should be more appreciative of the desk provisions that Jehovah had given me and that if my attitude did not change and if it happened again they would charge me for refinishing the desk.
Jeff S.
i heard a rumor that a couple of years ago the jw's actually outlawed french kissing too.
can anyone tell me if this is true and also whether or not there has been any "new light" shed on the policy since?.
thank you.
Hey Gang-
I do not know if it is official policy or not but I can tell you what happened to my brother.
My brother got caught french kissing the daughter of one of the elders in our congregation. This eventually was brought up to the Circuit Overseer who told my brother that french kissing was an unclean way to express emotion and that it was so unclean that even "dedicated Christians" do not engage in it.
Jeff S.
i have been separated from the jws now for 4 years.
the first year, i went into a deep and severe clinical depression.
i think that's what happens when you are 3rd generation jw, born and raised.
Hi DakotaRed-
The atmosphere among the JWs is sick. It is a large dysfunctional family with lots of "don't talk" rules. When someone has a problem, the problem is never with a policy enforced by the organization it is ALWAYS with the individual. I often tell people that "JWs are a breed of animal that eat their own." I cannot tell you how often I have seen people used up and discarded. But they are taught to be this way.
Years ago, when my brother-in-law left the JWs, his mother was complaining to him about being inactive. My brother-in-law told his mother that she should be happy he is no longer with the organization since God is always "sifting" His organization to make it clean. He told his mother that God got rid of him.
Jeff S.
i have been separated from the jws now for 4 years.
the first year, i went into a deep and severe clinical depression.
i think that's what happens when you are 3rd generation jw, born and raised.
Hi-
If you need to talk...email me.
Always remember that no matter what we are feeling at the moment God loves us all unconditionally.
Jeff S.
