Posts by new boy

My strange Bethel courtship started with me trying to meet Mike Stillman's sister, Even though he worked in the ink room next to my elevator, we were not good friends, he was just a little to "country" for me and on the self-righteous side too. They say. "There is nothing more dangerous in combat then a new guy with a map!" Well, there was nothing more dangerous at Bethel then a self-righteous new boy.

Anyway one beautiful September Saturday morning, in 1972, we were walking to the factory, Mike happen to be walking with me, and he looked around and said. "God, I would give anything to get out of this city on a day like today." I said. "Well, I have a car and no place to go, you have a place to go and no car."

He wasn't quite sure of me, but next thing I knew, we were on our way to Rhode Island. It was him and me and four of his nerdy friends.

Needless to say, it was a great weekend. Debbie who had just turned 19 was happy that her brother finally brought someone home with him, who wasn't a complete hillbilly, like his other friends.

She lived in Newport Rhode Island with her mother, Elaine and step father, Ben Reagan. They had just moved to Rhode Island from Louisiana. One of the reasons was, they wouldn't make Ben an elder down there. So they moved to where the "need is greater" in the hope that Ben could finely get promoted. Plus they could be closer to their son, Mike. At the time Rhode Island had the worst ratio of Jehovah's Witnesses to normal people in the USA.

Ben Reagan was a real winner. He looked and acted just like "Gomer Pyle" only dumber. He would walk around and say things like "Your fat, I'm fat.....we’re all fat." Or he would say. "I know one thing about Debbie, she is tired." He would say that about 30 times a day. He would pat everyone on the head, like a small child. I'm not sure what that was all about? He was definitely three clams shy of a clam bake.

Of course a year later, they had made this mental giant an elder. I'll never forget the day I was sitting in the living room with him and he gets this phone call from some poor black sister that was in his congregation. She had been crying her eyes out because her worldly husband had just beat her up.

This is what Elder Ben said to her. "Well, you must have done something really wrong for him to get so mad. Just have another beer and forget the whole think.”

I just sat there, I couldn't believe it. This guy couldn't pour sand out of boot if the directions were written on the heel. Yet, this guy was leading the flock of God.

So, Holy Spirit is what puts these guys in power? After Bethel, I knew that was definitely wasn’t true.

Her mother Elaine, was another winner. She was as cold as ice and was a major hypochondriac. I think she was allergic to everything, including air. Naturally she was the one who brought the Jehovah’s Witnesses teachings into their family. Just like my crazy, hypochondriac mother brought the religion into our family. The crazy ones think it’s a great idea.

Debbie who loved her real father Bob, would get her face slapped anytime she would even said his name. Bob left her psycho bitch mother back in the 1950's and married another woman. He was of course dis-fellow shipped. It was his only way out of his nasty marriage.

Debbie and her brother had wrote Bob a letter, when they were just kids, saying they had no desire to see him ever again! That was their mother's idea of course, sweet woman that she was.

After we got married in 1974. We got some "New Light” at the Taunton dog track, district convention that summer. The society said, you could now have limited contact with dis-fellowshipped ones.

In September we decided to drive to California to see her real Dad. She hadn't seen him in over ten years.

Debbie was so excited to see her real Dad, who she loved so much. I found him to be a very sweet and kind person. Nothing like Debbie’s psycho mother. It was strange sitting in his living room showing him and his wife the pictures of our wedding. The wedding he wasn’t even invited to go to.

In 1976 he and his wife came to Rhode Island to see us. He had a great time together and it turned into a fun summer. In 1978 he came to Louisiana for a visit to see his first granddaughter Kelly.

All good things come to an end. A few years later, in 1979 "The light got brighter” once again. In 1979 the society said we are going back to the "old way" or the old light which was not the "new light" they got back in 1974. Yes, the "new light" would of course cancel out the old “new light” of dealing with dis-fellowshipped ones. We were all told we had to go back to the old way of dealing with dis-fellowshipped people by shunning them.

One day in the 1981, Bob called us up. He said he wanted to come up to Oregon for a visit, to see us and his only grand kids, my children.

I said. "Come on up Bob, we would love to see you!" Debbie grabbed the phone out of my hand and told him. "That he wasn't welcome now and that he couldn't come up to visit anymore." All because of the "new light."

Debbie who wouldn’t talk to him anymore, did send her father a subscription to the Watchtower and Awake magazines but for some odd reason the magazines didn’t replace the companionship and love he could have got from his family. Because a few years later one morning, we got the phone call.

Robert Stillman with no family to love him, blew his brains out with a 38 special. Yes one more casualty of the Watch Bible Bible and truck society.

”By their love you will know them.”

With over eighty thousand people getting dis-fellowshipped a year, how many thousands of lives has this cruel shunning policy taken?

The whole dis-fellowshipping and shunning policy was something Knorr dreamt up. March 1, 1951 we all got the new light on it. So the first of hundreds of thousands of people started to get dis-fellowshipped in 1952. It didn’t even exist in the first seventy five years of the organizations history. The word itself "dis-fellowship" doesn't even exist in the Bible.

That "new light" is funny stuff. Sometimes it gets brighter then dark again. Then bright again, but one thing that new light is never, it is never wrong!

Right?

7

Chapter 33 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

chapter 33. starving outside the load’s house.

there is no fanfare when you leave bethel.

they didn’t care about you while you were there so why would the care about you now you are leaving.

new boy

Chapter 33

Starving outside the load’s house

There is no fanfare when you leave bethel. Why should there be. They didn’t care about you while you were there so why would the care about you now you are leaving. In fact some thought you were nuts because you didn’t want to join their country club. So some took it personally and let you know how stupid you were to leave the lord’s house just a few months before 1975 was to arrive.

Someone buys a 3 dollar box of ice cream at lunch. The waiters cut it up into ten pieces for the whole table and you get a "good bye" card from everyone. Everyone at your table smiles and shakes your hand as if to say we were just kidding.

The tradition in the press room is they make a handmade card with some jokes about you in it and give it to you.

There is no thanks for the four years of your life. Just like in the prison movies the gates close behind you and you’re standing there by yourself.

There is no exit interview. So I gave myself one. I wanted answers. I wanted more, I wanted someone in a position of power to tell me something. Maybe even give me some hope again.

I did what I was told to do there. I worked hard and kept my mouth shut for the most part.

I had looked behind the curtain at the great and powerful OZ and was truly disappointed. There must be more, I thought maybe I missed something.

I decided I would see Bob Wallen, he was Knorr’s personal secretary at the time, and also the person in charge of all the missionaries around the world. He had been one of my table heads in the lower dining room. He seemed to be a humble person. I really liked Bob and his wife.

On my last day there I went to Bob and asked. "Bob what was this all about? I mean there are somethings going on here that are just not right!" He said. "I know what you mean. I look at these poor brothers in the bindery and I think that there but for the grace of God goes me. I want you to know, I have told the powers that be that we need to make a few changes here.” He motioned into Knorr’s office. “You, can help us by going back home and telling them how wonderful it is here!" "What?" I said. There is just a year left until 1975 and we really need the help here. So go back home and tell them how great it is here. Or if you can't say anything good about the place, please just don’t say anything at all."

Yes, tell the people about how wonderful it is here in god’s “spiritual paradise.” But please don’t tell people what’s behind the curtain.

Bob was just like all the rest there, who had invested their whole life in the dream, the illusion.

I think I got my answer. For the powers that be, the end justifies the means. Knorr once said. “I can replace any of you with just a twenty five cent postage stamp.” The individuals in the organization are expendable.

They say you only real power you have in life is personal boycott. I guess it was time for them spent another .25 cents and fine another new boy.

That is why few ex-Bethelities talk about Bethel. No one would believe it them if they did. I wouldn’t have.

Thirty days before I met with Bob, I had turned in my notice. Ester Lopez couldn’t wait to give me a dig. At one of my last lunches at Dixon’s table she had her chance.

I was wolfing down my lunch and looked up and caught her eye. She smiled and said. “You better eat everything on your plate because you are going to starve when you are on the outside.”

I didn’t say a word but I thought. I would rather starve to death on the outside of this place, then sit in here with you self-righteous assholes! They really thought they would get special treatment being at the headquarters when the shit hit the fan during the “Great tribulation” that was coming in just a few months.

Forty years later and still no “Great Tribulation and no Armageddon.”

Yes, the world did come to an end. The world ended for Knorr and Larson, Couch, Franz, Henshel, Suiter, Lang, Wallen, Wheelock and all the other Bethel heavies. Just like it had ended for Charles Russell in 1916 and for “Judge” Rutherford in 1943. Even Ester is gone but the organization is still there.

The day I left it was pouring rain. I really screwed up, I found out the night before, as I was packing things up, that I had way under estimated how much stuff I had. I had two large suit cases, that I could barely shut the lids on and a large army duffel bag. I would guess about 200 pounds of shit. My Van was in Rhode Island with the engine out of it. I was taking the bus to Rhode Island.

It was only four big blocks to the Subway station. It took me forty five minutes to get there. The longest forty five minutes of my life. It felt like the scene in "The Shawshank Redemption" when he crash out of sewer pipe in the rain.

I would carry or drag my belongings only about twenty to thirty feet at a time. I would have to stop. I would sit there on top of one of my suit cases, panting for air. I was drenched to the bone and mad as hell. How could I have been so stupid? After a few minutes, I would gather my strength and drag my shit another twenty to thirty feet.

As I was sitting on my suit cases in the rain, many people were walking by me and giving me strange looks. Most people are not surprised at anything they see in New York.

I sat there soaking wet, with everything I owned. I thought back to four years earlier, when I only had 140 dollars to my name after that first cab ride to Bethel. Now, I was leaving Bethel with one hundred and sixty bucks. Not bad after four years. I was leaving with a twenty dollar profit.

I missed my first bus to Rhode Island and had to wait four hours for the next bus. So I was pissed off at everything, Bethel, New York City, the subways and life in general.

There in the bus station I made two vows.

1. I would never work for anyone ever again. If I was going to work for a "Jerk" it might as well be me!

2. I would never be and elder or in a position of any "Over Sight" in the organization, the biggest thing I learned at Bethel was, that power corrupts people. I decided I would never sit in judgement of one of my follow brothers or sisters.

114

JW Stumper Questions - List You Best Here

by pale.emperor in

hi guys.

sooner or later we're going to get a jw knocking on our door.

just like when we were jw's doing the knocking, it's good to have a question prepared to get them thinking about their own beliefs.

new boy

Here are some of the few examples of how your light has gotten “brighter” over the years.

On the resurrection of men of Sodom

1879- They will be resurrected

1952- They will not be resurrected. “The light got brighter?”

1965- They will be resurrected “The light got dimmer?”

1988- They will not be resurrected “The light got brighter” once again

About the separating of the "sheep and the goats"

1919- It will take place after the time of tribulation

1923- It is taking place now, before the tribulation. “The gets brighter?”

1995- It will take place after the time of tribulation. “The gets dimmer?”

Then you have the ‘Lord’ in Romans 10: 12-16

1903- 'Lord' refers to Jesus

1940- 'Lord’ refers to Jehovah

1978- 'Lord' refers to Jesus

1980- 'Lord' refers to Jehovah

So yes the "light gets brighter" but I guess God is on a dimmer switch sometimes! But who knows maybe it’s not god changing his mind about all this stuff. It’s just the confused church leaders, just like other religions!

I know all this “new light” stuff is pretty confusing. So just ask any Jehovah’s Witnesses about it. They won’t be able to explain it either.

1

Extra information for Chapter 27 50 years a Watchtower Slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

my friend jim pipkorn, worked at a funeral home in the lower east side of manhattan.

it was always fun visiting him at his place of employment.

one saturday afternoon, i went to his funeral home to pick him up to go to a movie.

new boy

My friend Jim Pipkorn, worked at a funeral home in the lower east side of Manhattan. It was always fun visiting him at his place of employment. One Saturday afternoon, I went to his funeral home to pick him up to go to a movie.

“He down stairs in the basement.” The owner told me. I looked down the stairs and shook my head no. “It’s OK.” He said, as he smiled. I really didn’t want to go down there. Jim must have heard us upstairs talking. “Keith come on down, here they won’t hurt you.” So I walked down the stairs.

As I expected there were dead people down there. Two guys in white aprons were hunched over an old dead man lying on a porcelain table. There were tubes and needles, blood pouring down the table into a waiting bucket. There was another old dead guy on an embalming table next to them. He was naked with a strange look on his face. This dead guy also had a sixteen ounce can of Rheingold beer seating in the middle of his chest. As the undertakers were working, the oldest one would reach over and take the can of beer off the dead guy’s chest and take a swig from it.

Another time I was at Jim’s funeral home. Jim was by himself in the basement and showed me a large refrigerator were they keep the dead people. He rolls open one of the drawers and rolls out a dead black pimp. The guy had been stabbed about twenty times. Than he rolled out a dead women in her twenties. There wasn’t a mark on her body. She was very pretty…what was left of her. She had no hands or head. They had been surgically removed.

“Why?” I asked Jim. “Because whoever killed her knew that if she could be identified, the killers could be caught. She had no birth marks or tattoos yet they still identified her. How do you think they did that?”

“I don’t know feet marks?”

“No such thing. She had an I.U.D. that had a serial number on it.”

7

Chapter 32 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

chapter 32. jerking off on the subway .

"you boys want any soup?

you boys want any soup?

new boy

Sorry, three hundred pound women.

7

Chapter 32 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

chapter 32. jerking off on the subway .

"you boys want any soup?

you boys want any soup?

new boy

Chapter 32

Jerking off on the Subway

The first guy I ever saw who was really pissed off with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and especially Nathan Knorr was a guy we called "Mr. Frog." We called him that, because he always wore a green suit. He would stand in front of the 124 building, just before lunch with hundreds of Bethelites swarming around him. His fist was clinch raised to the heavens, screaming at the top of his lungs, on the evils of Knorr and his organization. Many of new boys wanted to kick his ass.

“Mr. Frog” was really Bill Norris. The story goes that he went through Gilead but did not graduate and while there got engaged to another Gilead student. Knorr was not happy about this at all and sent Bill’s betrothed out on assignment to some place in Africa, there by splitting up the couple forever. Of course, the girl could have chosen Bill over her assignment but we all know what the organization can do to normal human emotions, feelings and attachments. At any rate, he married another woman. However by flunking out of Gilead and then losing the love of his life it took it took a toll on his marriage. After having two children he left his wife and moved to New York to make a career out of tormenting Nathan Knorr and the Society. The funny thing is that his ex-wife remarried in the 70's and by the mid 90's she, her husband and Bill’s son all left the organization!

There was this one crazy old women, we called her "Lady Margret." She was fat and ugly and looked like she hadn’t taken a bath in years. She lived in "The Margret Hotel" before it burned down which was next door to the 107 building.

She would follow us Bethelites down the street, yelling obscenities and every foul name you could think of. “You mother fuckers.” She would yell out. Not one sentence didn't have a curse word in it. One day I was walking to the factory, just a month before I left Bethel. She was there, standing on the corner. She pointed her boney finger at me and with a strange look in her eye said. "You boys want any soup? You boys want any soup? You boys want any soup?” I looked over to my friend and said. "I don't believe it, it’s the first time in four years she hasn't cursed at us." The very next second after I said that, she said. "You.....black bastards what any soup or not?” We just laughed,

Yes, you saw it all in New York and especially on the subways. I saw old guys masturbating right on the train in front of a car load of people. He was in his own world for sure.

One late night coming back from a double feature on forty second street this four hundred pound black guy who looked totally crazed got on the train wearing only a pink tutu. You just knew he wasn’t going to a costume party. It was hard not to stare but you never wanted to make eye contact with those people.

Don Breaux the circuit overseer I admired so much was a "golden boy" for sure. I found out his job at Bethel was the 124 receptionist. So his job there was welcoming all the tour groups that were coming to check out the lord's house. No factory or machines for Don. I told him years later. "Don you were never at the real Bethel." He smiled, he knew what I meant. Just before Don was leaving Bethel to get married he did make eye contact with the wrong guy. I cost him a broken nose. He told me that while he was sitting on the train one day he glanced up and caught a guy’s eye for a split second. A moment later the train pulled into a station. The guy jumped up out of his seat and walked over to Don. “What the fuck are you looking at?” Before Don could say a word the guy hit him as hard as he could in the face. It was probably the only time Don wasn't golden.

We were hated my many of the locals there in Brooklyn Heights. The locals and the crazies all agreed they didn’t like us in the area. Sometimes people not in the Heights hated us too.

We stuck out like a sore thumb. All these white twenty year olds dressed in our suits and ties with our over loaded book bags. Even in New York you could spot us a mile away.

Ronnie Kleinman was sitting on a train coming back from a meeting one night. This big black guy with his five year old kid by his side stood up and walked over to Ronnie and stuck his finger in Ronnie’s face and looked over at his little boy and said. “Son this is whitey… you hate whitey!”

There were lots of beggars on the trains too. One lady could role her pupils back in her head so all you could see is the white of her eyes. She had a cup in one hand and cane ion the other. She made great money.

I didn’t get mugged in N.Y.C while I was there. The rule of thumb was if you were there for four years you would get mugged at least once in that time period. I came very close a few times.

The factory area was a scary place late at night. If you couldn't find a parking space at 2:00 a.m. Monday morning you might end up over by the factory. Walking back from there, through the park was an adventure, good luck. The key was to walk really fast. You were always scanning at less two blocks away. If you spotted a group of strange people on a corner you would walk five blocks out of your way, to put as much distance between you and them as you could.

One of the best defenses is looking and acting totally nuts! One time it looked like I was going to be totally cornered. I started screaming at the top of lungs. “Mother Fuckers come and get it Mother Fuckers!” It helped if you had a little saliva running out of my mouth too. My head was doing crazy gyrations. I swear that saved my life.

Another time I was on this subway car by myself. Three teenagers come into on my car. Two from one end and one from the other end. There was no escape. I was by myself and looked like easy pickings. They started walking towards me. It was winter so I was wearing an army trench coat. When they were about 10 feet away, I put my hand under my coat, looking like I could have a gun on me, I grit my teeth and looked at them as if to say, you want to party, let’s go! They looked at each other and just keep on walking.

No one wants to mess with crazy people. I don't.......do you? If you are going to mug someone, you want someone who isn't going to give you any problems.

Sometimes on the subway we acted like we were crazy just for fun. A couple of times late at night we had fun with the commuters. Two or three guys would chase one guy from one end of the subway to the last car. We would corner the guy running to the last car and pretended to beat the crap out of him. People would of course be in shock. He would lay in a heap on the floor for a minute or two and then get up like nothing had happened. No one would try to help you of course. It’s New York City, forget about it.

Besides almost getting mugged a couple of times. The closest, I came to getting hurt while at Bethel was in the summer in 1972, at the Allentown Pennsylvania “The Divine Ruler ship District Convention.”

After a day of spiritual enlightenment, Jim Pipkorn and I went to this college bar for some beers. There were these college kids there that had their whole table full of these little empty 8 oz. green bottles. They looked, just like little bottles of ginger ale we used to drink as kids. So after having a few beers myself. I looked over at them and said..."Hey! What is 'Rolling Rock'? Some kind of soda pop?" These four jocks, got up and came over to our table and grabbed me, they would have bet the shit out of me, if it wasn't for Jim saying. "He is just a fool and an idiot, please leave him alone."

There was a time when I was in "Little Italy." with Jim Pipkorn again. There was this really big festival going on there, just like in the movie "The Godfather II." Jim and I were sitting in this door way watching everything that was happening. I was looking out at the crowd and said with a smile on my face. “These are my people (because I'm Italian too). I love all these old three pound women with moustaches!" Just then I felt this liquid running down my head and face and all over my clothes. I looked up to see a big fat Italian lady with a moustache, pouring the wine from her glass out on top of my head. I never saw anyone laugh harder than Jim at that moment. It was me sticking my big foot in my month once again.

A friend of mine was mugged in NYC. I guy pulled him down an alley and put a gun to his head. The mugger said “Give me your money or I’m going to blow your brains out.” My friend thought for a minute and said “You better shoot….one thing I know about New York you can live here with brains but you got to have money!”

PS. I hope you don't mind "Sparky" I used you information about Bill Norris here.

40

How Many Here EVER Considered Going Back To Meetings?

by minimus in

jw
friends

once i left ,i was done.

in over 10 years i didn't return except for my mother's funeral.

did you ever re enter the kh after you left?.

new boy

Actually I went back to the memorial this year and even partook. They were very surprised.

34

Thinking about the end of the Watchtower

by JeffT in

jw
friends

first, a word about the watchtower’s financial position: nobody (outside the watchtower organization) knows.

the wtbs is not required to disclose its finances, and doesn’t.

we can speculate, but that is all we are doing.

new boy

How many religions with over one million members have collapsed in the last 100 years?

Sorry guys it would take a miracle at this point.

38

Updates on the workload of Bethelites

by usualusername1 in

jw
friends

have the bethelites started cooking and doing their own washing yet?

how are they coping?.

paul.

new boy

Sorry, I wish i could get on the band wagon but this guy isn't telling us the whole story here. He say my "B" forty seven times. Plus he doesn't look at the camera. He was asked to leave Bethel and now he apostate? Something is not adding up here.