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Another musical genius who died early due to alcohol and drug abuse...

Sorry about that Raf! From now on, I will only comment on her non-political stuff as time allows-- Sure wish we had a little political corner...

Yeah. Thanks for noticing. Oldies, come on, man. :)

I could say a lot about the Israel/Gaza situation, but that would start getting too political. All I'm saying is : be prepared to take another look at whatever you hear and think: the news, scripture/theology, anything you're interested in - from a different angle, perspective. I also like this guy's take on living the gospel: short, simple, and often very profound. Rev Joseph Yoo, Korean minister based in Texas Facebook

A) YES, I do! b) I know that TWI restructured the criteria, so that a "faithful believer" is one who goes at least twice a month and a "non-faithful" believer is one who at least attends one home fellowship within a 6-month period.

This great song was a hit for the Miracles, the Beatles and Percy Sledge:

You may ask what the book "validates that some of us have been talking about for so long." At the top of my list would be VPW's misogony, his vindictive attitude towards Christian denominations, and outrageous claims and opinions about what God does and doesn't do. He tells that story about when he heard God tell him audibly that He'd teach him The Word like it hasn't been known since the first century if he would teach it to others. And the phony snow story ensues. Anyway, for some people, they may be wasting their money to buy the book (at this time you preorder it on their form, which lacks a field for your street address, so you have to put that in the same box as the state). For others, it might be worth it to get the book and see for themselve VP the conman who double-talks his way through answering questions Whiteside puts to him. Elena was a nice lady but totally starry-eyed like the rest of us back then. She interviewed me and many others at HQ back then and shaped the material into a propaganda story. I could be wrong, but I don't think there's anyone in the book that's still involved with the original Way organization. They're either running Way offshoots, or, like me, have rejected any connection with VPW teachings or fellowships. Some who are featured in the book have passed away, like Del Duncan, Ian (Doug) Murphy, and George and Bernita Jess.

Agree! News reports (from independent media) proclaim over 60,000 + innocent Palestinians have been murdered in Gaza by Israeli Military onslaught. Complete hypocrisy from a religion that touts "thou shalt not kill" as one of its commandments. Or else, "Israel" is not who many think they are.

Expand your vision, people. The world is not the USA. And the vision presented by news sources in the USA is very biased, one way or the other, with insufficient apolitical reporting, and not much international reporting. There are many countries outside USA - it's true!! It really is!! There are 50 countries in Europe, 54 in Africa, 48 in Asia, 12 in South America. 195 countries altogether, sharing this planetary space. That may mean 195 different cultural outlooks, problems, benefits. Life works much better if we can work collaboratively not competitively. We are all INTERdependent. Not INdependent. So please - take the time to think of what happens elsewhere, and how what goes on in one country - your own, wherever that might be - affects those in other countries. And for those here who still profess Christianity, there's another viewpoint on top of any cultural viewpoint. See a bigger picture, folks. Monte Madder on seeing a bigger picture and on news sources: Facebook

A) Do you have the official names of the organizations by which twi are currently known in each of those countries? B) If the official census in twi is 600 per country, the actual number of people is possibly 300. Many of us are aware how easy it is to get on that list, and how slow it is to get off that list. I am sure my entire family was on that list for many years, but a maximum of 3 of us were in at all, and I am sure at least 5 were listed with them, more if splinter groups are counted because of when we showed up. I am aware that when twi consolidated their mailing address, the oldest person was the one mail was sent to, despite being one who almost never attended. (I am confident we all used the same mailing address, and that is why twi saved stamps that way.) Hey, twi claimed 100,000 people for membership when the largest membership they ever had was around 24,000. The higher number was based on how many people signed up for pfal.

Here's a video that popped up on my YouTube page, no doubt because I've been watching Monte's videos; thought I'd post it here:

I know Rocky, but I would love to help people all over the world to overcome the chains of TWI. Have a good day!

The challenge we face is not beyond telling the story of what we know or experienced first hand. IF TWI "missionaries" in Africa or South America abuse people, it will be up to people they know to seek out GSC or any other outlet telling the stories.

I got your point BUT, TWI inaugurated a HQ right there (DRC) with lots of press. (CHECK THE PICTURE) About South America, when Geer arose, many different ministries (splinters) were formed such as "Word Over the World" in Argentina and "The Way Corporation" in Chile... both have around 100-150 believers. The number of people participating in TWI in Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela is around 600 active participants per country. How do I know that? Because I had access to the census that TWI requested annually from the coordinators of all the countries...

Fernand is also heading to open water: George

All of these images continually update, so the first is a snapshot of all current storms. George

There's a certain irony there. vpw once complained about "Rice Christians." His supposed book on the "Dilemma of Foreign Missions" complained that existing groups were seeing attendance on the basis of food being provided- in countries where finding food is a lot harder than in the USA (at least when he was saying that.) He and lcm criticized the RCC and said that they saw growth in the most broke countries. Now, we've got twi targeting Venezuela. Venezuelans fled the country by every method, including crossing the Andes mountain chain on foot because they couldn't find food or jobs. We've got twi, who targeted Zaire/DC of the Congo in the past and present, and there were already some complaints in the past with twi there that resembled the "Rice Christian" phenomenon. With the DC Congo, twi may be able to claim some numbers. However, as a whole, any attendees they find will be people with little to no income. (If they get people in Venezuela, I'd expect the same.) So, twi's investing time, effort AND MONEY on countries where it's unlikely they'll break even financially. I openly disbelieve twi's own reports that they have 20,000 followers in the Congo. I believe they might have gotten that many to show up to at least 1 meeting. We already know they wildly inflate their numbers at every turn, and I have no reason to think that, suddenly, the Congo's numbers are all accurate. twi plans on trying South America. Let them try. South America's already got local groups of every type. twi's late to the party, They'll have to actually compete with existing groups and attempt to get people to leave their own current place of attendance. it's a lot harder than it sounds.

Over the years, I've built many friendships with believers from various countries, and through their social media, I know they attended the Rock, so the 3,000 attendees ... could be possible. Regarding the ambassadors, a Wayfer posted a photo with a breakdown of the ambassadors: no more than 20 were from the United States; the rest were mostly from Venezuela and the Congo. Consider that there are approximately 20,000 followers of the Way in the Congo. Here in the states, it's difficult for the number of followers of the Way to grow significantly, because it's already well known as a cult by several people. However, in South American and African countries, it has seen slight growth..... This presents us with a challenge for Greasespot to reach people all over the world and not just in the usa.

I got to thinking again, and another page from the twi playbook is "get everyone else to pay for everything." Twi, as religious groups go, is expensive to continue in. You're shaken down for 10-15% of your income for a "tithe"(it went up to 20% once, and the word means "tenth".). You're shaken down for more than that ("abundant sharing.") They had "plurality giving", which was to hand over ALL of your income that you had left over after your expenses were covered. There's no counterpart in any other group I've ever heard of, and it was a shameless money grab. From the earliest days, vpw made sure all the classes and books were priced at retail prices, while doing all the production in-house-- which funnels extra money to the group. In fact, much of the materials were all bought on the cheap- auctions and so on, and machines were kept and staff had to make old, outdated machines work. It made them work a lot harder than needed, but proper machines cost money, and that means less money in the coffers for the cadre. (Religious groups generally keep prices low on their insiders.) So, in this case... How do we make more profit at the ROA? We either raise prices, or we cut expenses. If we raise prices, then we can't get all the people we want to show up. So, we cut expenses, and find things the innies require- and make them bear the additional expense. Let's see.... Got it! We lower or remove food services! Everybody staying on-grounds has no choice- they have to pay whatever the prices are. People there for the day won't care, they have the choice of buying food there or not. So, stop the expenses of bringing in most or all of the food, and that also works better with so fewer people in the group. We have many fewer people than before, but we require fewer of them to run things with fewer services. So, what do we do for food? We notify food trucks that we're having an event and they are welcome to show up. This means that they can actually charge the food trucks for the spot, and charge the food trucks for any electricity or water they use- if electricity is available, usually the truck provides their own. So, twi gets more money. The food trucks make it up by charging their prices at the event. The twi people pay more money for the food, but twi doesn't care. If the food trucks try to cut the nice Christian people a break, they make a lot less money on the event, and may not even break even- but twi doesn't care, they get paid when the truck arrives. So, this was a new variation on the same old themes. It was indeed something new, but it wasn't nearly as innovative as it might have sounded. All another way to wring money out of their people, and hang onto it themselves.

But it can be saved as a pdf document. I did.

American Mafia -- thorough and enjoyable to hear the history of the Mob. When she was in NY she lived in Astoria... so did I for a year or so...memories...

OK, well then, how about... That was right? Not bad. I'll need to think. I wasn't ready with another question so soon.

If you're having trouble finding 50s, 60s and 70s songs online on streaming stations, message me.

*blink blink* Yeah, your turn, and you earned it. I think the movie is under-rated, but I'm of the impression it's almost unknown. The cast includes Kim Cattrall, Peter Boyle, and Paul Sorvino playing himself. Now that I sat down to watch it again, I think it appeals more to New Yorkers and people who live in big cities. It's a movie that doesn't have a lot of violence or car chases, much swearing, and doesn't have a lot of sex stuff (and obviously no nudity.) For some people, that makes it a boring movie. A review I once read called it "a real yawner". I disagree. It has some action, it's got some laughs, and it is story-driven. If you get into the story, you'll enjoy the movie.