George Couch Dies - Brooklyn Bethel

by SadElder 30 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Ah, yes, W-A-C, Bethel won't be the same without George and his morning worship comments! Here's a few quickies:

  • Commenting on the noise that us bad, bad single brothers made when we cheered during Monday Night Football and the sound would echo down the hallways: "Brothers, there's no need for all the hootin' and hollerin'. The television works only one way. They can't hear you."
  • On not visiting nightclubs in NYC, specifically Greenwich Village: "Brothers, why in the world would you want to go somewhere and eat from the same plates and forks, and use the same doorknobs as homos?"
  • On not taking visitors to Greenwich Village: "There's no need to take your family or friends to the village to see the homos walking around in dresses and carrying purses. They probably have plenty of people like that back where they live."

  The memorable quotes could go on for hours, but you really need to hear them from George to understand his style. When I was still in Bethel, a Brooklyn Bethelite told me that the deaths of two people would change the world forever. The death of Fidel Castro. And the death of George Couch. I suppose that George's influence had faded enough in last years that Bethel really won't change much after all.

  I knew George's nephew very well. Awesome guy that I unfortunately lost touch with. Ben, if you ever turn up here at JWD, send me a PM buddy.
• 

  besty

  At the Cleveland, Ohio, convention in 1942, more than a decade before we came to Bethel, Brother Knorr gave the talk "Peace—Can It Last?" He made it clear that World War II, then in progress, would end and that there would be a time of peace that would provide an opportunity for an expanded preaching campaign.

  Anybody able to refute this belief with a WTS quote? Didn't they also teach that WWII was the precursor to Armageddon?
• 

  ninja

  hey besty ...see here....particularly paragraph 5 on page 265 and 266....
  http://books.google.com/books?id=kSZL8BWc9KcC&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=%22peace+can+it+last%22&source=web&ots=FUeD2RwH_D&sig=sewWPfd-l0_u9wmRFk6oHzA2w14#PPA265,M1
• 

  blondie

  The UN was charter in January of 1942 and this was in the news. Not hard for Knorr to make his prediction. Just previously Rutherford felt that WW2 would lead into Armageddon and had predicted that Nazi Germany would prevail over the US and the UK.........hmmmmmmmmmm.

  Not much of a prediction that in the summer of 1942 that the League of Nations would come out of the abyss....just read the papers.
• 

  NewYork44M

  I met him several times growing up. My father was in a "Pioneer Home" in Baltimore in the 1940s around the time of WWII. My father used to tell this story of how cheap Couch was. The only time he took the Pioneer Home group out in his car was when the car was low on gas and the he would make everyone pitch in for gas money.

  My father tried to keep in touch with him through the years. I remember as a young boy visiting his brother's dairy farm in Pennsylvania. I was also on a international convention with Couch and his wife circa 1972. We went to Austrailia and New Zealand.
• 

  besty

  cheers Ninj
• 

  snowbird

  I once thought he was the "Translation" Committee George - Gangas.

  Sylvia
• 

  besty

  So Rutherford says WWII leading to Armageddon but wait...New Light...
  
  Knorr says WWII will lead to period of peace then Armageddon.
  
  Changing prophecy with the benefit of hindsight = always one step behind events and always new followers to mislead as the older ones die off.
  
  Should be a good formula for a few years yet.
  
  RIP George Couch - I hope you made a difference.
• 

  minimus

  Couch loved recliners.

  Couch hated loveseats.

  Couch is a funny name.
• 

  No Room For George

  BTTT, after EE mentioned in another thread that this character was possibly responsible for the vow of poverty and the anti-G-Jobbing policy in Bethel. I've never heard of this guy. It's fascinating and scary how much influence these folks have had over one's life, and yet many of them you've never met, never heard of, never seen, wouldn't recognize them on the street, and yet they're directly responsible for the direction your life has taken upon birth.