Jehovah's Witness LEGO - The Bethel Boy - #pillowgate

I had planned for a while to do an episode on someone going to bethel. i had intended making the focus of it being something the congregation pushed or encouraged young men especially to set as a goal. someone who goes to bethel is viewed as the height of spiritual progress, putting jehovah first in your youth.

With the release of leaked videos made for the purpose of training and warning and controlling young people upon entry to bethel, that had to be the focus of this subject.

It was important to include a few other 'truths' in this video. for example in the application form, section 3 asks some amazing questions.

They ask about the music and movies you have watched and any pornography viewed. but then they ask if you have had a homosexual relationship, if yes EXPLAIN. then you are asked if you have been envolved in child sex abuse. and notice here they dont ask, 'if yes EXPLAIN' no! they ask 'IF SO, WHEN?' so being an abuser is not as important as when you last did it? surely it should say, if yes, top filling this application in!

Question 4 seems just ridiculous in the light of the questions that preceed it. hat is your hours for the last 6 months??? really? he ticked yes for child abuse.. but he had done 100 hours a month for the last 6 months. so he can join us in bethel?

What i find equally disturbing is the fact that people with a disability need not apply.

I understand that there will be hard work and many hours required of an individual, but someone could for example be in a wheelchair yet able to do a full days work. discriminating against people who are not in good physical health is just aweful and is yet another reminder that bethel is stuck in the land that time forgot. its like living in the 1950s


The LEGO episode only included a few short minutes of the induction video and frankly i mocked the whole thing by swapping phrases around to make it sound like they were promoting masturbation, flirting and sexual immorality.

It was simply not within me to take anything about this story serious! HQ and other bethels around the world have a long history of inviting young man to all live together while in the bloom of youth, many of them struggling with their sexuality. and while they may have surpressed their gay nature in their home congregation, once they find themselves surrounded by a number of other young men in a similar situation it can become increasingly difficult to not express their true self.

Much of the video for the men focused on homosexual encounters, which suggests it is something that happens in the heart of the spiritual paradise where all these exemplary young men are supposed to be keeping jw.borgs high moral standards.

Of course the insight book [a bible word dictionary] describes bethel this way:

To address a point made to me regarding the use of camp voices, a known and often over used stereotype of gay men. I don't by into the current politically correct world in which we live. everyone feels offense and what people say about a given group. Its true, stereotypes can be offensive to some, and yes im sure gay men are offended by the use of a camp voice to portray someone who is gay, but with my medium of choice [lego] i have only my voice as a means of conveying character and so any and all stereotypes will continue to be my go to.

Just like giving an old guy a 'whistley' voice is judged as necessary to indicate old age, a camp voice is needed to convey gayness. im sure many old men dont whistle when they talk just as im sure many gay men are not camp, but i have to create different characters with differing accents and styles, and since its only my voice being used, i must use some extremes to create differences.

This brings up another complaint. that my accents are too 'THICK' making it too difficult for some to listen and comprehend what is being said. if English is not your mother tongue i can only apologise for making things difficult for you. if english is your first language and you are struggling, i cant help you. Great Britain is a small island full of various accents, but they all speak English!! im not reading the news, im creating characters with one mans voice! if i simply used my narration voice everyone would sound the same, hence accents of various thicknesses. usually its people struggling with the scottish accent, maybe i could help those that struggle with English by providing subtitles.

_______________________________

This weeks project is to finally get around to creating a channel advert type video. ive not decided whether to use clips from existing episodes or to create something new... i guess we find out next week.

DUBTOWN - the life of a jehovah's witness through the eyes of LEGO PEOPLE

Last summer [2017] I began making LEGO stop motion videos depicting the many aspects of life as a jehovah's witness [JW]. beginning with only a few lego bricks a handful of lego figures and no knowledge of how to go about stop motion i made my first video.

With my mind bursting with ideas and stories I quickly set about making more. A great little play on words came to me, 'BEARD FRACTIONS' and so episode 2 came about. highlighting the ridiculous JW law that beards are banned. no respectable man in good standing in the congregation wears a beard... well, not a full beard! moustaches on the other hand, which is essentially a beard fraction is permitted with no resulting punishments by the wolves [elders].

unsaid though is the idea that blood fractions are also ridiculous! they are produced from stored donated blood but somehow are ok yet larger blood fractions like plasma is banned!

Episode 3 focusses in on the wolves role a little more. and their job as judges, jury and executioner in the congregation. they hold your spiritual life in their hands and can execute you even on circumstantial evidence.

with limited amounts of lego and therefore set building óptions and stories being limited i was able to produce a video every week. i was able to sustain this more or less right up until the new year [2018]

looking back over my videos is painful as i observe the poor sets, the poor camera work and overall cringe worthy production. but thats just my critical eye. others seem to enjoy them and it was cheap therapy for me to help me process the pain of waking up and greiving over my religion.

With the new year i bought a new camera.  a shiny canon with a nice lens. between that and an ever growing collection of lego, i wish to make videos of a hiogher standard this year. finishing a story on a set day is no longer the goal, but rather, a higher standard of movie making. hopefully videos this year will prove to be more refined and slightly more professional lol. we shall see.

i began with a big story,  the BLOOD ISSUE! or as i called the two part episode, DOES IT BLOODY MATTER. i took the time to learn properly the masking required to make lego fly, my first results i was pleased with.

Next up is a story resulting from the release of secret bethel training videos dealing with masturbation flirting and poreia. that video is in production now and hopefully released by the weekend...