I met Loesch once at an international convention. I remember everyone around him was thanking him for his "wonderful talk" (which was quite boring actually, absolutely nothing new there and he is not a good speaker anyway) and I just wanted to run away from the scene (or ask why dont you get rid of that 1914 already...)
Andersinfo: Swingle - Sydlik - Fekel - Jackson
by TheOldHippie 40 Replies latest jw experiences
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TheOldHippie
When you mentioned that Sydlik dod not come around as a Bible scholar - his talks were rather impressive, were they not? I have a DVD that some US JWs distributed after his death, and they have collected some of his talks both as audio files and some as - what do you call it - movies, DVD, you see and hear - and I have the impression some of his talks were rather famous, loved and cherished by the JWs.
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metatron
Let me tack on some more details on Barb's excellent post:
Yes, Sydlik was a funny character. I remember how he used to "sport" with his wife (old English word from King James Bible). It made me think of more normal men, from the Bible like Abraham with Sarah.
Swingle was reported to have casually told a visiting elder at his table that the Society intended to find some way to disfellowship Ray Franz after he left. They wanted to trump something up to 'finish him off'. Swingle might have been a bit racist too ,but that was within the context of the times.
Ray was way ahead of the rest of the GB on the Bible, even Fred in some respects. His knowledge of the Scriptures pissed off Knorr out of jealousy.
Jackson privately made flippant,dismissive comments about the Society's chronology/prophetic dates. He also remarked that the Society's anti-marriage policies (at that time in Bethel) were "grieving the Holy Spirit".
metatron
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AndersonsInfo
Oh yes, Dan's talks were impressive. He was an excellent and interesting speaker. But he was not scholarly in his research. He lacked the critical thinking skills that Ray Franz excelled at. Whether he knew the Bible as well as Ray is something I can't offer any insight too. What I was saying is that Dan wasn't known at Bethel for being a Bible scholar. It was just the way he came across to others.
One thing about Dan I want to mention is that I found him difficult to read. Sometimes I felt uncomfortable talking to him. He gave off vibes like what he was thinking wasn't what he was saying. At times I felt like he wanted to continue a conversation and say what he really felt, but stopped himself short before he let the cat out the bag.
I found that so many of the ole' timers at Bethel did not trust their "brothers." They were so hurt by so many people over the years that they wore masks. Once they allowed themselves to let down their guard, they were neat people. I absolutely adored Arthur Worsley. Once he began to trust us, we saw the real Arthur and he was such a wonderful character.
Interesting comments, metatron. Yes, I heard that Jackson was flippant. It was a characteristic of Covington too. These men were not the sanctimonious types, that's for sure.
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AndersonsInfo
I think we're talking about the same Jackson. I thought he was still alive in 1982 when we went into Bethel and died shortly after. But I could have him mixed up with Maxwell Friend. When we were in the Infirmary for our new "boy" person medical examination, I saw an old, old man in a wheel chair who a nurse was fussing over. Someone said it was Jackson or maybe it was Friend. I just can't remember now.
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yknot
My original KH loved both Covington and Jackson...... considered them a good representation of the Texas Brotherhood.
In the stories I was told, both had 'grit' to their character.
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BabaYaga
Even with all the talk and inside dirt on the Governing Body, this incident is what jumped out at me:
I was friends with a young woman in Bethel who spoke five languages and was brilliant. She was a concert pianist and an accountant. She was assigned to Home housekeeping. One of the Office overseers wanted her in his department, but didn't go through correct procedure to transfer her. He got into lots of trouble with the Building Office for bringing her over to his department for a few days on a trial basis. I saw the hot verbal argument between the two men in the hall one day. She was punished by the Building Office and sent to Shipping. None of this was her fault but she was punished. Her husband went to Dan Sydlik and he made arrrangements to transfer her to Writing where she was sorely needed. However, by that time, she and her husband were so angry that they left Bethel and they left the Witnesses a few years afterwards.
Thank you, Barbara.
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SirNose586
I wonder how many other brilliant minds didn't get put to use at the org. I guess that's good news, that the org is deprived of apt minds.
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metatron
"deprived of apt minds"? Good Grief, yes! Read some of the older posts about consultants who went to Bethel and you can get a sense of the cronyism and sheer 'dumbth' they have to deal with.
For Pete's sake, their massive printing conversion away from decades of lead linotype (resulting in huge savings) was conceived and researched by brothers who later turned apostate. If you have a brain, you tend to leave.
metatron
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Narkissos
I still remember one talk Sydlik gave in France from the leitmotiv sentence he used throughout, "the best is yet to come". Not particularly deep but very cleverly constructed, powerful and rhythmic through the recurrence of the catchphrase (I used to refer to him as "bro. Cyclic" after that -- it's phonetically closer in French). I was introduced to him when he visited Bethel but also noticed he was quite evasive to questions (which weren't even meant to be embarrassing). An attitude I also noticed with Schroeder on another occasion; I was invited with him for dinner in a Bethel room, everybody had a lot of questions but he was obviously not willing to talk, and that turned out to be rather frustrating...