Posts by exwhyzee

127

Anyone else an Ex Bethel "volunteer"

by BackseatDevil in

i was wondering if there were any other ex-bethelites on here.

i personally regularly went for temporary work at brooklyn then was assigned to the farm for a year and a half.

it was... one of the most bizaare experiences of my life.. so i wrote it all down (finally, after some 15 years) so i won't bore anyone on here with the details of the story - because bethel doesn't show up until chapter 15... and for you straight folks, it gets a bit gay in two places... but nothing gross.

exwhyzee

I cut and pasted the following from an earlier post I made.

I sat at the "A" table where the GB rotated and did the morning text and comments from. (Heard some interesting stuff there) Russ Kurzen was our table head. Most everyone in the GB and their wives seemed pretty regular except for Marina Sidlig who was a terrible snob,(sorry) but it's true, in my opinion.

I enjoyed my time there (because of the guys I made friends with) yet couldn't wait to leave. It was truly an altered state of reality. I still have dreadful dreams where I suddenly realize I have signed up for Bethel again and there's no way out of it. It's such a relief to wake up and find out I'm free. There was this whole political/rank/seniority thing going on there that was very puzzeling, I thought I was imagining it.

I had my whole months pay stolen out of my room one time. I had gone directly to my room after lunch when our pay envelopes were handed out ($40 cash) I hid it in my bottom drawer under my things. I didn't have a room mate at the time. I'm pretty sure it was my housekeeper who took it as she and her husband always looked very uncomfortable when ever I happened upon them in the halls. Or they would suddenly look away if I saw them across the dining hall. I hadn't even suspected her until many months later while trying to understand what was making them act so oddly. I went to the Bethel office to ask for help as this was all the money I had in the world. They were very suspicious of me and even indicated that I might be lying so they only gave me enough to get a few subway tokens for the meetings. I was already poor but now I was totaly broke. I couldn't tell the family back home because my Dad wasn't a Witness and this would have been a big reproach on the organization I felt. I was so disillusioned, I had gone through public school and never had a thing happen to me and here I was at Bethel the world headquarters and my room had been robbed. I only had enough money to get to Sunday meetings and quit going in service and no one noticed. If the Congregation back home could see their bright and shining Bethel Boy now.

I went back years later with my wife and sons. It gave me the creeps just being there. The familiar smells and the glazed over look on peoples faces, I'd forgotten all about that. Someone in the group we were in group said " I know this sounds really bad and unappreciative, but I'm sorry I don't want to spend anymore time here"

39

Hey I'm going to be a great Granny

by mouthy in

to twins!!!!!!

melanie ( my daughter that passed away in 1999 that had twins,)tara & ashley .

( who posted on here years ago.

exwhyzee

And I'm sure you will be a GREAT great grandmother. If they're naming one Grace, to be fair they'll have to name the other one "Mouthy" !

38

Too sick or injured but still made it to the meeting!

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

i once attended a two day special assembly with my gums bleeding after having 4 widom teeth pulled the day before.

i managed the two days by rinsing out my mouth all day long and placing cotton in my mouth.. one brother had back surgery the week before but attended a two day assembly by laying on a matress in the back of the assembly hall.

why he needed to be there i'll never understand!.

exwhyzee

We had a sister come to the Sunday morning meeting after having given birth on late Saturday night. She sat there with the baby like a virtuous Martyr looking like death warmed over. No one was impressed....everyone thought she was a fool.

14

Today is our 22nd anniversary!!!

by jeremiah18:5-10 in

jw
friends

i just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge today as my 22nd wedding anniversary.

fortunately its the 5th one for my wife and i outside of the borg.

i've been working out of town, my job has moved me to tulsa, family soon to follow, but get to spend a happy day with my wife (enlightened ephesian) today.

exwhyzee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DINuAWoxy4Q

32

When You Were A Little Kid, What Did Your Mother Say To Get You To Eat Your Vegetables?

by LoisLane looking for Superman in

jw
friends

i hated peas.

my mom would say, "the kids in china are starving.

eat your peas.

exwhyzee

We were so poor we had more problems than you'd find in a typical math book but getting us to eat wasn't one of them. Eating vegetables was for rich kids. For breakfast (if we were good) we'd sometimes get "toaster shakin's ". Mom (bless her heart) would tip the toaster upside down over the bowl we shared, give it a good shake then pour a little powdered milk over the deliciously burnt crumbs. To this day, the smell of burnt toast sends me down memory lane. I also didn't have any clothes as a kid which meant I couldn't go outside during daylight hours. Finally, on my 8th birthday my Dad (not a JW) got me a hat so I could at least look out the window. Later I started wearing the hand-me-downs of my older siblings but unfornunately I only had sisters.(that's another story) My sisters and I didn't have any real toys but we used to make up our own games. One of them was called "The Donner Party". Another thing we liked to do was to make toys out of whatever we could find laying around. One time we were rolling an old barrel down the street and some smart ass kid asked us if we were moving. He was one to talk, his brothers used to pee in the dirt and make their own mud pies. Not only that, their whole family shared the same hair brush...even the dog. The poor dog caught their head lice, they caught his fleas and they all had dandruff.

Anyway, I liked this post, it made me remember some things I had blocked hadn't thought about in a long time.

17

Elder writes a weekly newspaper article

by man in black in

hello, lately in our local newspaper i've noticed a weekly column that is written by a current elder.

when i left 6 years ago he was the po.

and for some added background info , if he saw someone who was df'ed or "spiritually weak" he would go out of his way, and do his best to avoid them.

exwhyzee

Perhaps the people on the street saw the two large angels who follow the elder everywhere he goes.

4

This kind of says it all

by Gojira_101 in

jw
friends

coming home from work this song came on the radio and it just hit me what the words mean to me now after everything i've been through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u036m7p6-ak.

gojira.

exwhyzee

I think this song resonates with a lot of us especially if you take the word "religion" literally to mean ones form of worship.

Actually the expression "Losing My Religion" is an old school way of saying that you've lost your temper or lost your sense of civility. "She kept on pushin' my buttons till I almost lost my religion " It's a way of saying you've really had enough, so much so that you forget all the niceties that your religious upbringing has taught you. You momentarily or permenently cast aside all that used to keep you in check. Whether you view the term literally or as an expression, the song can fit almost any circumstance one might find themselves in that is so intolerable they toss aside what they were always taught to believe, in order to survive the situation...the old rules no longer apply or work for you anymore. In many of our cases, we found ourselves in such a place and on top of that we also found out "our literal religion" was not true.

10

Jesus never started his ministry untill he was 30 years of age ! What should that tell us ?

by smiddy in

jw
friends

while this always bothered me ,i still wanted my 2 boys to be baptised as soon as practical so they would survive the big a or else get a resurrection into the new system of things.thats how indoctrinated i was.both my boys were baptised in their early to mid teens.neither have ever been disfellowshipped or disassociated themselves ,however both have nothing to do with the religion today.

(thankfully ) .

how many family lives have been ruined because children/minors have been baptised at a young age and in the majority of cases have committed trivial offences against watchtower policys/rules .sometimes with tragic consequences .. teenagers have a difficult enough time as it is dealing with changes to their bodies and coping with new emotions as they transform from boys to manhood and from girls to womanhood .. here in australia you cant get a car license and drive on your own till your 18 yrs old ,vote at elections , or drink alcohol at a pub.and many people will argue,that is too young to start doing those things as they are not mature enough .. yet the wtb&ts / jehovahs witnesses put life and death matters in the hands of minors / children ,as regards the use of blood and blood products ,fractions of blood ,what is currently acceptible ,and what is not.. an adult witness would find it hard to keep up with what is current and what is not current in the ever changing policy regarding the blood issue ,let alone a minor/teen who is expected to make a life or death decision at a critical time.. a teenager /minor does not have that capacity to make such an enormous decision about life or death ,when the wtb&ts acknowledge they often fail to make right decisions in trivial matters ,hence the disfellowshipping of thousands for trivial rules imposed by the governing body ,man made rules at that .no birthday celebrations,no smoking,no associating with a disfellowshipped baptised witness,no questioning what the governing body has said,accepting a blood transfusion,formerly a disfellowshipping offence , now stated ,you disassociated yourself from jehovahs witness teachings so you disfellowshipped yourself .

exwhyzee

It tells me I had no business knocking on doors at 6 and presenting literature I didn't understand or standing up giving talks that my Mother wrote for me that I didn't really understand. I was such a "good little boy".... but inside I was very uncomfortable and embarrassed.

14

When You Prayed...

by LoisLane looking for Superman in

at night did you kneel by your bed, sit on the edge of your bed or pray while in bed?.

at a dear friend's house for dinner, one time in praying over the food he said, "jehovah god, we fall on our faces before you".. has anyone ever said that or done that?.

just lois.

exwhyzee

The P.O in the Hall I grew up in always began the prayers at the meeting "It is with bowed heads and humble hearts, we stand before your heavenly throne...."

I went to visit my father's family in Europe for the summer when I was about 17. I shared a room with my Dad's much older brother. Each night he kneeled beside his bed and said his prayers. Even though he wasn't a Witness, I wondered how God could be displeased with or would destroy anyone like him.

54

Is This Site As Active As It Was In The Past?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i'm just curious if jwn is as busy as it was even a year or two ago?

.

sometimes it seems this place buzzes and other times, not so much....but maybe it's all in my head..

exwhyzee

If this site isn't as active as it was in the past it could be because that leaving the Organization isn't as big of a deal to the younger generation or those who weren't around in the hard core days as. In the last 10 years the organization is more like "JW Lite" compared to the pre and post 1975 days. Maybe those who leave now aren't as traumatized or as in need of a site like this.