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Watered Garden

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Everything posted by Watered Garden

  1. I remember some guy coming back to Charleston after taking the Advanced Class and sharing at a beach "do" bonfire thing about how "Star Wars" was sooo spiritually devilish. He said that they had been taught that it promoted (gasp!!!) the Holy Trinity; Darth Vader the Father, Luke the Son, Yoda the Holy Spirit. As Mr. Garden snorted sarcastically on the way home, "Gee, and I thought it was just a great science fiction action flick!" Which of course, is all it really was.
  2. I girl I knew on the WOW field, C**dy Sh**lds, went into the 7th Way Corps. She went home for Christmas break and while her parents were out shopping, she put the barrel of a .45 in her mouth and pulled the trigger. Her parents blamed LCM. That's all I know. She was a happy enough little camper on the WOW field, though. A woman I knew in FLO who was also in the 7th WC told me this. She was not known to lie, at least not then.
  3. When I was a WOW I ministered to/prayed for a girl with a migraine, who received immediate relief of her pain. When I lived in Charleston, SC, I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. I went to the ROA for one day only, flying home as I had a new job and no serious vacation time. I spent most of the day at the House of His Healing Presence and I wrote it one of the books there. Almost a year to the day, my lungs were clear on x-ray. This disease could have progressed to invade my nervous system, brain, etc. In August, 1994 I was diagnosed with Type I insulin dependent diabetes. I was told that I had committed a sin which had caused God to withdraw His hand of protection from me. No one knew what the sin was. Finally one former friend suggested it was because I didn't believe that LCM was The One Man Of God For This Day And For This Time And For This Hour. I've prayed and prayed but I'm still diabetic. Does God listen? I'm sure He does. Is there a lack of my faith or believing or whatever? I dunno. Do I blame God? Never!!! Do I blame myself? Not so much any more. Many churches today teach the above doctrine. It's used as a tool to intimidate members with guilt and self-condemnation, just like TWI uses it.
  4. Chockful, that was awesome! Driscoll is such a .... dick.
  5. Yep, that about covers it. Leaving a trail of broken hearts and lives in his wake, just like a lot of other bozos.
  6. Now that I think about it (I've heard/seen this video before) he reminds me of a guy who for years has done furniture store commercials in this extremely loud, urgent, high-pitched castrato voice. The tag line is "PRICES ARE GREAT AT AMERICAN FREIGHT!" I always want to remove the vise grips from his externals and tell him to take a nice warm bath. I went back and listened to the first couple of minutes...UGH! He really does sound like that commercial! He is such a cheap trick, a ham actor, and again, WHY would anyone do anything other than RUN LIKE THE VERY DEVIL in the opposite direction from this screaming little b#st&rd?
  7. The Acts 29 church plant we attended does not have women's Bible studies, fellowships or anything of the sort. Their pastor says women are gossiping, lazy, backbiting busybodies (a Driscoll quote, I believe). One of his most precious doctrines is that no female will be allowed to speak from his stage. He has had strong, intelligent women in that church and two of them (a friend of mine and me) have left. Women are to be squashed into submission by their husbands. I don't even understand this Biblically. I understand the culture of Jesus' time on earth, but He was decent enough to women, so what's the big deal? If Driscoll thinks he is following in the footsteps of Christ, maybe he should have a peek at the Gospels and see where they lead him.
  8. "According to Andrew, at Mars Hill, the cliche “it takes two to tango” isn’t true. Why? Because Pastor Mark teaches that women are “weaker vessels,” and therefore, when a girl and boy engage in consensual sexual activity, it is always assumed that it’s the man’s fault because he failed to lead the woman (or “weaker vessel”) toward righteousness. (And everybody knows that women can’t find righteousness unless a man leads her there. Ugh." Is this official church doctrine? If it is, I'd like to see book, chapter and verse. I would be totally amazed that anyone would put up with this kind of nonsense if I hadn't been a TWI-bot myself. A church discipline contract? Is that even Biblical? A few years back we attended a Mars Hill Church plant. Their church planting division is called "Acts 29" and Driscoll of course is the present of Acts 29. The young pastor and his wife worshipped the ground "Pastor Mark" walked on, much like our last branch leader and his wife worshipped the ground LCM walked on. I could see it coming from miles away and we left after we studied the statement of beliefs of that outfit. That church plant is now studying Driscoll's new sex manual, one chapter per Sunday. Wonder how they'll teach the chapter on "positions?"
  9. Re: the sixth corps guy who nodded off: If your blood sugar is high enough, you WILL nod off. I'm surprised that VP, being such a great and might man of God, didn't get revelation that this guy needed some medical help or at least ministered to him for healing of his blood sugar imbalance. But then that wouldn't have scared the daylights out of the rest of the hapless souls in the room, would it? Shame on him! Shame!
  10. I don't want to get too involved here, because I know some Greasespotters love and adore the Reverend Mr. Driscoll as a great man of God. As long ago as 2008 I saw him as a cult waiting to happen. The "discipline contract" is ridiculous and not Christian at all. I realize they quote a lot of Scripture, but hey, the Devil quoted Scripture to Jesus, so I guess anyone can use Scripture to back up their error if they look for the right verse to twist. Driscoll and his wife, Grace, have a new book out titled Real Marriage which my former church is studying diligently. I read a lot of reviews, and it is basically a sex manual. For someone who absolutely forbids his followers to have any kind of sexual relationship whatsoever, The Reverend Mr. Driscoll seems inordinately interested in the subject. Their book is very very detailed about their own marriage, physical relationship, her "sin" on a senior trip that caused her husband horrible grief and regret when she confessed to him, and I guess the chapters about sex how-to's and can-we's are very lurid indeed. I have no intention of reading the book. I just mentioned it because I think the whole group of elders shows a voyeuristic interest in everyone's sexual experiences. There are two areas of my life that are no one's damn business unless I invite them: The bank book and the bedroom. This guy is as Geisha says, out of control. Edited to add: His view of women as basically stupid little chickie-boos is outdated. I don't understand how any intelligent, strong woman can put up with his BS.
  11. I was a medical secretary/transcriptionist from before the earth cooled until 2007, when I retired. I can tell you that they come in all sizes, shapes, temperaments and attitudes. I can remember a chief resident who strutted around like he had a hemorrhoid problem, thought he was God's gift to women and everyone else. I can remember doctors who stayed up all night with a sick patient in hospital. I can remember those who took the Hippocratic oath seriously and those who were in it for the money, and who earned no respect at all from me. Some of them were geniuses and some didn't know beans from barium. The last doctor I worked for was one of the bravest souls I ever knew, someone whose deep faith in God gave her strength to treat dying children with love and compassion beyond belief. If you don't connect with your physician(s) you simply need to find one you do connect with. And if someone spoke to me as that fool ophthalmologist did to Krys, I would tell him/her to take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut. That's inexcusable.
  12. We flew to southern Florida and back last Memorial Day weekend. Out of Columbus, my husband flunked the full body scan and got the full body patdown, being touched where no man has ever touched him before. Turned out he had a dime and a nickel in one pants pocket no one had discovered. Apparently coins don't show up on the scanner. I on the other hand mentioned and displayed my insulin pump and breezed right through. They took a disk of cloth or paper, had me rub my hands on the pump, then rubbed the disk over my hands and took it to a machine, which told them it did not contain explosives. On the return trip, it was I who set off major alarms, repeatedly. Suddenly remembered the pump, so they went through the same routine and I passed. Looking down as I gathered my belongings I saw what I had forgotten to remove and not one of the moderately alarmed officials had noticed. I was wearing a nice wristwatch, and that, not my pump, was what was setting off the alarm. Brilliant, just brilliant.
  13. What was most disconcerting to me was friends suddenly disappearing as if swallowed by quicksand, only faster. No explanation, no "Joe Schmo decided to pack up and leave." Or, "Suzy Smith wasn't listening and obeying, taught something the MOG says is not to be taught, questioned the color Mr. Limb Leader wants his kitchen painted," whatever, and we had to kick them out. It was just as if they'd suddenly died, only no body and no funeral. Scary.
  14. I would just like to add a footnote to Chockfull's excellent post. When Chockfull discussed people being "cast out, fired, slandered" that means exactly what it says. Most of the people he mentioned or referred to had been faithful followers of TWI for decades, and overnight, they were gone, baby, gone. Then, whoever was the prez at that time would throw a screaming conniption fit about their "lack of salt, unfaithfulness to The Word, slothfulness, stupidity, disloyalty to the leader", whatever came to the twisted mind of the screaming slanderer. Afterward, no one who wished to avoid the same fate would dare to acknowledge that hapless soul's existence, would snub them, hang up on their phone calls, cross the street to avoid walking on the same side as the outcast. This was called "marking out and avoiding" that person. It was total ostracizing. It broke up marriages and families. The trickle-down effect was also in play. Some of the folks here, through no fault of their own other than to ask their home fellowship coordinator or branch coordinator an innocent question, were given the bum's rush, and NOT ONE PERSON FROM TWI, WHERE THEY HAD SPENT COUNTLESS HOURS OF SERVICE AND TO WHOM THEY HAD GIVEN THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF ABUNDANT SHARING, WOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR EXISTENCE ON THIS EARTH. NEVER! People who had done anything and everything to benefit their friends, their brothers and sisters in Christ, found the same "brothers and sisters" never speaking to them, no Happy Household Holiday card, no answering the phone or reading their mail. They were considered dead by the ministry and the faithful followers of The Way. Probably the main reason was fear of suffering the same fate, and the paragraph below should explain why: Our last branch leader, a young man who worshipped the second president of TWI and emulated him a lot, once taught that "at the moment you leave the Household of The Way, whether of your own volition or whether WE decide you are unworthy of the privilege of fellowshipping with us, at that very moment the Spirit within you dies; and shortly thereafter, your physical body shall die also, because it is impossible to exist outside of the household of faith." So, that's why I say RUN LIKE HELL IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. PS: I've been accused of the sin of harboring bitterness against the leadership of TWI. Not so. I've forgiven them. I've forgiven my former friends. But, to paraphrase The Who: I WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!
  15. It was a twig coordinator who suggested we take our son up into the mountains and take turns hitting him over the head with a 2 x 4 until he either learned to obey or died of his injuries. It was a branch coordinator who told us to "get rid of him" either by abandonment or by other means, as he could not in that particular state get the "men of God" to stone him to death." I'm glad glad for Galen, that he is once again in the fold, one of the chosen few who have crossed the bridge of believing into the promised land of the prevailing word. My personal suggestion is to run like hell in the opposite direction. There are lots of churches which teach Bible and better than those hapless souls teach and without demanding unquestioning obedience to leadership or putting legalistic, unreasonable burdens of their members.
  16. Don't know about names, but I wanted to find if anyone had researched the type of prayer called "prosukemi" and found it via Google - it was a post I'd written about someone needing prayer in the prayer forum here. Scared the stuffing outta me.
  17. One of my last branch meetings the little bug who ran the place stated that "if you leave The Way International, whether of your own volition or whether we decide you are unworthy of the privilege of fellowshipping with us, AT THAT VERY MOMENT the spirit within you dies, and shortly thereafter your physical body shall die also, because it is impossible to exist outside of the household of God." Uh, that was about 1995 or 1996. Guess what moron? I'M STILL HERE!
  18. The pictures of Rome City made me very nauseated. I had to stop looking at them. In one way it was sad to see it in such disrepair. In another way, it really was an evil place, especially for children.
  19. I actually remember seeing this live and in color and I think it was sometime in the very late 1980's or very early 1990's. I only watched the first couple of minutes, but trust me, it was just as boring in the original!
  20. One of the last teaching tapes we received in the mail, after we had left TWI but I had not had time to write and tell them to quit sending their propaganda to me, LCM, in that portentous, "it's the Lord, Noah" voice stated: "It is impossible to obey God without first obeying your leadership!" "Huh?" thought I. What about Acts 4:19 where Peter and John tell the Sanhedrin "whether it is better to obey you than to obey God, you be the judge."
  21. If you say "no thank you" no explanation should be expected. I don't think that's rude. If you turned and walked away, or said some nasty that would be rude. But we were trained (dare I say brainwashed) to think we had to respond in the affirmative. When Mr. Garden was in college, we shared a house with another couple who had a baby. Then the WC BL decided to bless us with her presence. She liked to run in the afternoon, and she felt it important that everyone she was around agree with that and accompany her. So she requested the mother of the baby go for a nice, invigorating, refreshing run with her, reasoning that the baby was asleep and wouldn't wake up for another half hour or so. The mother indignantly refused; what if the baby did wake up and cry and she wasn't there? (this was a very small baby, less than one year. Was the mother rude to refuse? He11 no she was prudent and she was right. Was the BL an idiot or a great woman of God with perfect believing? Do I really have to answer that?
  22. I suspect that may have happened already.
  23. I think this carried over into other areas of life. For example, if you felt sick that was a negative attitude/believing and if you acted and confessed "I FEEL GRRREEEAAATTT!" eventually you would start feeling better physically. One time in FLO, I was slated to accompany some other FLO's to Columbus and teach a twig there. I had the mother of all migraines that evening and informed my superiors that I was out of commission and would not be accompanying anyone to Columbus; there were better teachers than I involved anyway so they would have to figure it out. Next thing I knew, the women's coordinator and the house leader held me down in my bed and ministered to me! Did I ask for prayer? No I asked for a couple of aspirin and peace and quiet. I was told to confess positives, such as "I did not have a headache, I felt wonderful, I was healed". Needless to say, I went to Columbus and taught the twig. Wish I could confess a positive that my headache disappeared, but alas, while it did abate after a while, I still felt like crap the entire evening.
  24. I think from time to time we all did. I can definitely remember during my three months of he11 at Rome City having to pretend I didn't hate every single minute of it. In both programs (like Waysider, I was FLO) there were meaningless tasks repeated over and over and over. I still fail to see the greatness of washing that long staircase in the main building at RC with Murphy's Oil Soap then waxing and polishing it every single day, sometimes twice a day. As far as teachings go, some of the basic tenets of TWI were never explained to my complete satisfaction. Nor has it helped that I've gone to many churches and heard some of the same scriptures taught with equal conviction and a very different interpretation.
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