Jehovah's Witnesses and Bethelites and Social Security

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Hi yall,
I was watching a youtube video a while back and it was talking about the the Bethelite Religious Order in the Jehovah Witnesses. It said that earlier in JW history they were more about the "priesthood of all believers." However they decided to start a religious order for tax reasons because they realized that starting a religious order would help them tax-wise. These Bethelites live together at JW headquarters. I think the JW Governing Body may have done this because it would allow them to get out of paying social security because the JW's would take care of their Bethelites in their golden years.

However this apparently might not of happened. I heard that they kicked out some of the Bethelites when they were old and senior age. Some of them wound up homeless on the streets. They could not get social security benefits even though they were of age because they did not have their 40 quarters in the workforce. I just read that some of those people applied for SSI because they did not qualify for regular social security. I think this may amount to tax evasion on the part of the Governing Body because one of the only reasons why the feds have allowed them to opt out of social security is because they assumed the Governing Body would take care of their elderly in a similar way to how the Amish take care of their own elderly instead of being on social security. Some of these people are sent to their family back home if they have any.Also some of these people have given their home to the church so they dont have that asset to provide for them in their old age.

Bethel is where they make their publications and productions. Young JWs, especially young men, are urged to have going to Bethel as a life goal. When and if you’re accepted, you work and live there. It amounts to slave labor because they give you an allowance, not actual pay for work. They often kick people out when their position is made redundant, like if it’s replaced by technology. Sometimes they decide to replace older people with younger people. When they go back home, people in their home congregation are supposed to help them, but given the issue of poverty among JWs that often doesn’t happen. It’s a really sad situation.

I knew a very bright young man who went to Bethel. Everyone was extremely proud of him for it. When I asked what he was doing there, it turns out that he was serving food. People were gushing about him as one would expect people to gush about someone working for Doctors Without Borders. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with serving food, but he had a lot of promise and could’ve had a career in whatever field interested him if college wasn’t so frowned upon.

Here’s what the Watchtower says about Bethel:

I suppose that they could marry someone who has social security benefits, and at least get the spousal benefits. I've heard of marriage fraud for immigration, but maybe nobody thought about it for social security.

^ It could happen, especially since the vast majority of Bethelites are male. Women don’t typically go there unless they are married to a man who’s been accepted. Women aren’t allowed to take on any leadership roles unless there’s exceptional circumstances and a penis is unavailable. They mostly do stuff like housekeeping, haircutting, and nursing.

In the organization as a whole, there’s fewer men, so a lot of women stay single.

Well, if there are any old JW women who had regular jobs and who are collecting social security, then they could marry an old Bethelite man, and the Bethelite man could get spousal benefits. I think. There might be some catches, like having to have been married a minimum number of years.

EDIT: They would only have to have been married for one year to qualify for the spousal benefit.

https://www.ncoa.org/article/what-is-th ... l-benefit/

I think a Bethelite could often (but not always) find a middle-aged woman with a job to marry, too. Such a relationship wouldn’t be frowned upon at all because Bethelites/former Bethelites have high status unless they get kicked out for misbehavior. To get accepted into Bethel, you have to appear to be a model JW. It’s all very strange. I know someone who briefly served in Bethel and then went on to have other high ranking positions in the church. People gush about him to no end. It’s a bit difficult to hear seeing as how he sent me an unsolicited dick pic and complained about blue balls when I wouldn’t sext with him. Yeah, that happened years ago, but I don’t think that’s how decent men behave even if they are horny 24 year olds.

Brazil has an interesting dilemma called the "Viagra Effect", where an old retiree would marry a much younger person, and the younger person would be entitled to survivor benefits for many, many years.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/brazils- ... haraldsson

Which wouldn't help the elderly JWs without a pension.

I chanced upon a YouTube video about the JWs



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrO5Ap5CwOc

ExJW Panda Tower is a solid channel. The following video of his features two leaked sermons given by well-known Governing Body helpers that were meant for incoming Bethelites - the first one is for women and the second one is for men. The second one is more entertaining. (ExJWs call the leak “Pillowgate.” You’ll find out why if you watch it. ) It concerns very specific sexual behavior that’s not allowed at Bethel. The video is an hour long, but it’s hilarious and very much NSFW.

I don’t think tax evasion or even social security exemption is the biggest issue here. They are basically getting slave labor out of Bethelites because the organization doesn’t pay them a salary which is why they aren’t eligible for social security. People go to Bethel as volunteers. The organization often uses members in this or similar ways. When churches are bought, built, or remodeled, the Watchtower buys it or is at least involved with the loan from the bank, and the people in that specific church make the payments on the loan - to the bank or Watchtower. If it loses members or the organization decides it would be in their best interest to sell it for some other reason, the church is sold, and the money goes to the Watchtower. This happens a lot. The organization is more likely to take advantage of members than the government. That’s not to say that they don’t engage in shady practices, especially when it comes to stuff like failing to report child abuse, though.

You have to pay workers unless they knowingly and willingly sign up as volunteers. It’s a lousy situation because going to Bethel is considered one of the best life goals you can have and JWs are trained from early childhood on up to want to go there even though the lack of pay is no secret. My first boyfriend wanted to go and was devastated when he wasn’t accepted. Many JWs take trips to visit Bethel and tour the premises. I managed to only do it once - when I was 6 years old. At the time, Bethel was in Brooklyn, so my first trip to NYC involved solely visiting the cult compound. When we arrived and the reality of that fully dawned on me, I did the only thing a sensible child could do - I had a massive meltdown that lasted a solid 20 minutes.

Some people visit every year. I was given a hard time for not demonstrating a desire to go. When I talked about wanting to visit art museums as a teenager, my grandmother said: “They have pretty pictures at Bethel.” Their religious propaganda isn’t quite what I had in mind when I was thinking “art.”

Anyway, wanting to go to Bethel as a volunteer is indoctrinated in JWs, especially males, from a young age, so there’s no shortage of people who are willing to go and work in that controlling environment for free.