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That whole "Great Principle" thing made no sense. God can't communicate except to what he is, i.e. spirit? But somehow that spirit that he "created in you" can communicate to your mind?

Oh gosh, I will also add that I do not believe I was / others were totally a victim of circumstances (unless they were children; I experienced traumas thruout my childhood that did make me more vulnerable to adulthood abuses, but-)- to a degree, I put myself in the position of being groomed, of taking unwise risks, etc, as other victims have. Thank goodness we accept what responsibility is rightly ours so we can heal, recover, gain boundaries, warn others, and move on.

Well, am recently back from the CFFM 25th Anniversary "Reunion" weekend in Tipp City OH. A Very Wonderful Time for the most part, especially (for me) hanging out Saturday night singing lots of the old songs together, a healing time of joy and time traveling back to the GOD-blessed inspirational "I belong here" times, which a part of me still cherishes apparently. So there we were in the hotel lobby, some folks older and wiser most likely, but still enjoying "Daddy's Arms", "Eagle Inside", ETC together. Why not?? I just wept afterwards... Cleansing, delivering, connecting to the past with a new more whole me... Validating GOD'S good moving and Jesus' excellent working I think, in spite of EVERYTHING else that began to unfold later. (I am very loosely connected to CFF; attend some weekend conferences in OH, and went to annual Family Camps in NH until Covid; enjoy teachings on their website occasionally.) I am specifically writing about a few other things too- Tonya Schroyer, love her to death!, handled The Way several times briefly- shared again about being full of condemnation etc when she finally got out, but also said "We were taught well". And "I had a good beneficial time in the Way, I know some ppl didn't"... But let's remember that his tombstone read "I wish I were the man I knew to be." Then later four folks were honored with ordination among them Sarah Wierwille Guigou, and she spoke: "I love my father... Some people need to be grateful and remember that if it weren't for him, they would be dead. People stopped the move of the Spirit, (God did not stop working as much as He could)." I stopped to think how the youngest daughter of vpw would feel, what she may have experienced hate-mail-wise, how she was kept from visiting her mother, or attending her funeral I believe. HOWEVER, having learned about the many powerful sexual abusers getting away with all of the cover ups, the knee jerk reactions of victim blaming and doubting, the deep suffering of the victims on various fronts and levels, and the general IGNORANCE of people re: trauma and PTSD, I would have worded my statement a little differently if I were Sarah.- I would have added "I know my father hurt and abused many people, and some of them are still suffering from the traumas they experienced in the Way. For this I am deeply sorry, and if there is anything I can do to help with their healing, I am available. Victims need to be heard, and their experiences validated." The angry hurting side of me wants to help her add more, if I may- "My father was a lying, cheating, f____ing B_ST_RD. He abandoned his family. He betrayed my mother over and over. Yes his tombstone read "I wish I were the man I knew to be", but that was mostly a sanctimonious, hypocritical, self-pitying, facade. I pray for God to have mercy on his soul, and trust that He will bring justice for every single victim of my father's lust and power abuses. Amen." Thank you again for this safe place to process and voice these things!! Maybe I should connect with someone at CFF about this so that I am not just venting here without actually addressing things. But I know blasting ppl doesn't work... Asking Qs is probably the way to get ppl thinking but not sure if that is really needed for myself or them... I have already written to Kevin Guigou and he was kind, so maybe that is enough for now. AND I talked with Sarah as well two years ago without laying any specific blame on vp, but therapeutic counseling is not her forte, which is fine. To God be the Glory, great things He is doing, and Lord I/we have an eagle inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God bless!

Thinking back at some of the places I worked, fear was used a lot. Like fear of getting fired or doing something the wrong way, or somehow shamed. TWI went further than that, trying to get deep in your mind and life and be afraid of every thought.

Funny he said that in the class but promoted fear through the way tree, turning the tree upside down and killing the leaves. As Bolshevik said somewhere back a few posts, fear was institutionalized. The no fear thing was all about getting you through the 12th session anyway. After that you were fair game.

Anyone notice that "The Great Principle" was based on something that CHANGED? "God is Spirit, and God can only give what He is- which is Spirit." "God is Spirit, and God can only communicate with Spirit." Wherever he plagiarized those from, it's obvious he didn't UNDERSTAND them since they contradict so obviously when he phrases them. "God gave manna. God is NOT manna." So, the first statement is BLATANTLY wrong. If the second is supposedly true because spirit only communicates with spirit, then eventually there is a disconnect. "God, who is Spirit, teaches His creation in you, which is now your spirit, and your spirit teaches your mind. Then it becomes manifested in the senses world as you act." Well, how did my spirit teach my mind? Spirit communicated with not-spirit there. Is my spirit more capable than God Almighty, who IS Spirit?

EXACTLY...... And further, when you sit back and think about it.....wierwille, in all his narcissistic glory, attempted to become mediator between God and man. Step aside Jesus Christ and holy spirit......wierwille's got this. sarc/

I mentioned that TWI plated the seeds of their own destruction. Even though so much of what they promulgated was illogical nonsense, some of the methodology encouraged us to look at Way doctrine critically and question it later on when we weren't so ignorant or naïve. Understanding verses in the context, in light of Biblical era customs etc were all good tools for understanding the Bible - tools that Wierwille undoubtedly intended merely as cover for his agenda of command & control, but turned out to be effective means to unravel the BS.

It gets worse when you see the twisting involved to try to make this nonsense apply after that. In Genesis 3, Man has sinned and lost spirit. God communicates with him without any problems, making a voice (the first mention of the word "voice" in Genesis, the first time an audible sound is actually needed.) God can communicate any way He wants to -He is God. Makes the Universe, organizes the stars, fine-tunes details for the Earth, the biosphere, the plants, the animals, the humans. Communicate with something that isn't spirit? Sorry, too difficult! What is this nonsense? Anyway, then we get nonsense like Balaam's donkey had to have spirit upon him. Why can't God ALMIGHTY use a bit of that ALL MIGHT and make a miracle where a donkey briefly can talk and reason as a donkey? We also get the incident of "the writing on the wall". The Babylonian smart people couldn't make sense of it. So, according to vpw, it was "written in spirit" (WHAT? SINCE WHEN? ONLY HAPPENS HERE IN ALL OF SCRIPTURE) which is why they couldn't understand the writing. Couldn't possibly have another explanation, something more simple. FF Bruce had already explained that decades before. Somebody (like vpw) who was poor with languages couldn't even imagine it was a mundane TRANSLATION problem. The writing, if read in ONE language, was "weighed, numbered, divided"- and the specifics of what was weighed, numbered and divided was not provided- there you needed revelation. Read in Babylonian, and the writing- missing vowels like it did made it easy to mistake ONE language for the OTHER- and it read something like "a dollar, a quarter and change" (I'm paraphrasing, but it would have been a money denomination, a smaller one, and something like spare change.) Not terribly hard to understand the confusion when trying to make sense of something when reading it in the wrong language. Anybody who wants to discuss incidents of confusing language should probably start a new thread in Humor, or possibly Open. So, having to distort all sorts of incidents to try to make this silly explanation work is far too much work, and it's unproductive work because it makes one MORE confused, not less.

I will always find it amusing that the people who promote a book extolling the virtues of "be sober, be vigilant" can, without a hint of self-reflection, complain about people who are "woke," which is the same thing. Oh well, expecting people to be consistent when they mix religion and politics is a recipe for disappointment. Stick with religion. Take your politics elsewhere.

your post brought to mind something I shared of how we deceive ourselves / cognitive dissonance on another thread - see here "How do we handle the internal conflict that arises when facts or events contradict deeply held beliefs? In his groundbreaking book, When Prophecy Fails (1956), Leon Festinger and his co-authors sought to answer that question by investigating a doomsday cult. The group was led by a Chicago housewife who claimed to channel warnings from the fictitious planet, Clarion. Through automatic writing she was told that the Earth would be destroyed by a cataclysmic flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. The faithful quit jobs, left spouses, and gave away money and possessions, in preparation for the arrival of a flying saucer that would rescue them. When the flying saucer did not appear, and the flood did not happen, the cultists changed the narrative, and then changed it again. They convinced themselves that their clocks were wrong. When they recognized that their clocks were correct, they set a new time for the arrival of the spaceship. When that event failed to occur, they convinced themselves that God had chosen to spare the world at the last minute because of their good deeds. To explain this behavior, Festinger coined the term “cognitive dissonance.” This theory states that when there is discordance between our beliefs and external events or actions, we either change our actions or change our beliefs. Many people are reluctant to change their behavior, so they double down on their belief. In the case of the Clarion cult, so many had sacrificed so much in preparation for Armageddon, they were unwilling to change their actions, so they changed the narrative of their belief." From: Psychology Today: 5 Faces of Deception in a post fact world == == == === = The Advanced Class was the perfect booster shot that not only renewed but increased the disharmonious effect of PFAL...students found it was easier and quicker to fight off reality...as a bass player with a wooden ear I liken it to a “stupid-natural” ability to be even more out of tune with the state of things as they actually exist.

Mark Strong is correct. Strong: Tucci (for comparison: George

The following is the back cover text (I did not add extra space between paragraphs): This biblical teaching book is solely based on scriptures from the bible. Many bible verses are quoted from or referred to before or after the author teaches and provides godly spiritual knowledge. In addition, factual and informative reference books that include the definitions of the original Greek words that the bible words were translated from are quoted from to help our understanding. The author primarily promotes Jesus Christ in this book, while basing his views of Jesus Christ from bible verses, especially from the New Testament. Perhaps the author could be considered a cheer leader for Jesus Christ. The author primarily promotes Jesus Christ instead of one individual denomination or church. Hopefully many people that are part of different churches or denominations will learn from this book. The author wrote this book to serve and help people instead of wanting to lord over people like the Pharisees and Sadducees often tried to do in the first century when Jesus Christ lived his natural physical earthly life. We only have one Lord, Jesus Christ who represents God’s love and is our loving savior.

Yes, wierwille used well-worn tactics in his modus operandi. In closed-door settings, he would opine and deflect attention from himself onto "undisciplined" corps...... and play the victim. His corps letters utilized this manipulative tactic over and over again. But on occasions when he could not contain his anger, wierwille's aggressive outbursts were sadistic (deriving pleasure through others undergoing discomfort or pain). He would continue his tirade to exact a level of fear, humiliation and discomfort over the individual(s) that satisfied his malignant narcissism. In hindsight, it is apparent that wierwille's passive/aggressive tactics were a major portion of his narcissistic playbook. For example: The 1979 Advanced Class in Athens, Ohio was a big event with wierwille teaching live the advanced class. Promotions were going out nearly a year in advance. Like at Olympics, wierwille wanted a "torch" to be carried from Rome City, Indiana to Athens, Ohio.....ie *Rome to Athens*..... to symbolize this great event. Small groups of runners were assembled and assigned to run thru key towns and cities to rally attention...... and in Van Wert, wierwille wanted 40 RUNNERS to run this section. Why? Wierwille wanted to *stick it to his old church and congregants* that his ministry was thriving. Why do I remember this so vividly? I was one of the forty runners who ran thru Van Wert that day. In my opinion, wierwille was defined by malignant narcissism........ All decisions and actions had wierwille's self-absorbed ego front and center...... .

"Advanced Class '78 was our first Advanced Class...and that's probably the where and when of the first really big red flag that popped up for my wife and I. My wife got into a big argument with her Twig coordinator over the technical details of how to get born again of the wrong-seed - the Twig Coordinator was emphatic that there was a specific ritual one had to follow...whereas my wife's side of the argument was like my own, that there was nothing much taught on exactly HOW one gets born again of the wrong-seed..." wierwille's scary little bugaboo didn't even make sense on paper. Look- if we accept his premise that the devil can only make inferior copies of anything the true God makes, and can only corrupt or twist what's already there, then there was nothing before Pentecost of which to make an inferior copy! If the flesh and the spirit really are separate and don't overlap (you can't punch a devil-spirit with a flesh fist), then what flesh-and-blood ceremony could PERMANENTLY attach ONE to the OTHER? Further, there's no "percentage" in it for a smart "devil" to make an obvious target like that! In all the other schema, we see a person, and we see a spirit, and sometimes the spirit goes to the person, and they interact- a man speaks words from the spirit by possession, etc. Then the spirit leaves for a time- short or long. There's no benefit to keeping one spirit stuck with one person all the time, especially when it's easy to just kill the flesh-and-blood person. That raises the obvious question of what that would do to a spirit that was locked into a person who, say, was burned at the stake or beheaded. So, there's no point for a devil to come up with the system in the first place, nor to lock one of his agents in place needlessly. He's not known for loyalty- he's known for feigning loyalty and abandoning people as soon as it's expedient (just like vpw- hey, maybe that's how vpw got knowledge of spirits, by direct, long-term contact...) A specific ritual makes NO sense. Flesh-and-blood rituals to affect a spirit shouldn't have an effect. it's also a twi thing that the devil tailors his approach to the times and the cultures- so a ritual used by ancient Etruscans would not resemble a ritual used by anyone in the 20th century. The subject was vague because wierwille made the whole thing up from whole cloth. Supposedly, the Old Testament equivalent were "sons of Belial" - but by usage, the only thing we ever see about them is that they have a reputation for being DRUNKEN FOOLS. (Hey, I recognize wierwille again!) Everything else was what vpw himself referred to as "private interpretation", and is also known among other people as "bull$h1tting everyone." So, one does not "get born again of the wrong seed" because there is NO SUCH THING. It did not appear in the Bible. It was simply an occult (hidden) doctrine of wierwille's, who used its existence as another control mechanism because he, supposedly, had the inside track. After all, there were no other ministries or churches out there you could learn about this! :) So, he invented a new, secret thing, and congratulated you all for being mature enough to understand it. ]

A typical Way-brained approach. It couldn't just be that it was raining; after all, YOU weren't the one who hit another vehicle, you were the one who was hit. The Way method was always find a way to overthink every aspect of life and make you get down on yourself for not believing.

Oh hey! I see I am now an Apprentice and have a leaf symbol. No doubt that means I shouldn't "leaf" this place just yet.

There was an upgrade to the software. No rules have changed. Probably some glitches in the upgrade.

Oakie! Well, your own life has certainly taken a different turn from what it might have done in TWI. Likely to have been a lot more enjoyable than if you'd still been in. So glad you're participating in the real world. Not the box they tried to force you into.

23 years out of The Way Cult Corporation for me.......but then, I started eyeing the exit door in 1993. Martindale started, in haste, his purging campaign to "sanctify The Way Household" with repeated purges. What a religious farce. I was the Oklahoma Limb Coordinator at the time.....and found myself trying to protect people from twi's heavy-handedness. What a roller coaster ride of insanity......Insanity on Steroids Always good to see you Oakspear. .

How often does twi promote "Come, work on staff at hq" to advanced class students? How many newly-corps graduates are *assigned* to work staff-servitude at headquarters each year? Time and again, twi brochures promote the corps program as a lifetime of Christian service.....sending men and women forth to "move the word." YET, every year it seems that twi assigns 25% - 33% (if 12 graduate from corps, then 3 or 4) are lassoed for staff jobs. The pay sucks. The novelty of being around spiritual bigwigs wears off. No upward mobility to speak of......and who wants to be micro-managed for years? Besides, if monotony does kill you.....boredom will. Anyone who has a lick of self-motivation and dignity sees how staff-servitude is a dead-end job. At the bottom end of a seniority list.....the newly-corps grad must live on grounds in a trailer unit or founders hall. There is no such thing as a weekend......and surveillance of one's actions is 24/7. Twi loves to exploit the youth when their energy level is high, perception is generally low.....and they've been trained to obey upon command. Usually, after two or three years -- the light bulb goes off. I just finished the Netflix series on Downton Abbey. I'm sure that they took plenty of liberties to add drama and flare to this 6 Season series (2010-2015)....but there seems to be some documentation to this privileged life in the past few centuries. Those *above the stairs* were waited on at their beckon call with endless dinners, social events, dignitary gatherings, royalty visits, and pampering at every turn. Those *below the stairs* had their own caste system of hierarchy.... the butler, valets, footmen, lady's maids, head house manager, head cook, assistants, etc. etc. And, (spoiler alert)........ by the end of the 6th Season, this way of life (in 1925) is COMING TO AN END. Those *below the stairs* know that working in service is fading away. There is NO future in it....for the youth. They need to find their own way forward to secure their future, livelihood and retirement. Sure, an old stately butler can live out the remainder of his years basking in his staff-servitude to his lordship.....but that's about all. The financial troubles of the great castles and prominent mansions are mounting and the structures are under constant repair. Having 30, 40 or 60 on payroll to sustain the grandeur of its prominence is biting into its longevity. And, I would contend that twi/staff servitude is the same. Long gone are the days when 450-490 staffers filled departments ranging from Reflections, Bookstore, Divine Design, Carpeting, Cabinet Shop and Upholstery. Those who live on grounds and receive meager wages for their work will pay the price down the road. That is why, I believe..... that twi hq is a shell of its former self. The days of exploiting (most) staffers is over!! People DO NOT STAY....because it is obviously not in their self-interest to stay. Those *below the stairs* see how the game is played......and plan accordingly.

Lurking is the next best thing to posting but I always enjoy reading your posts, Oak !

I love trees, forests, being on mountains above the bushline/treeline looking down on forests, creatures that live in forests... I only have a small garden and I have planted several small trees in it. This city is full of mature and younger trees. The fringe of the city, where I live, has lots of wooded areas. Nice to walk in. My fave verse: Is 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Nah. It was the little leaf symbol on the 3/14 badge. Note, however, the 2/14 symbol is clapping hands. Yay!

It doesn't bother me that any of pfal was taken from someone else. I do and will point out that pfal was off the mark in many ways, in a positive manner that someone might hear, from the first session through the advanced class and more. I'm glad that GSC is here as a forum to voice these matters. And I am not alone, without these other members, including mike, things would not be said that need to be said.

wasn't that a Spanish pop star from the 80s?

lol, pretty obvious that someone thinks it's all about him

Delusionando

That last part is how there are fat people with malnutrition- they are eating plenty of CALORIES per day, but are not eating enough NUTRITIOUS FOOD per day. Not enough veggies, not enough fruit, and you can have all sorts of health problems. Granted, tiny amounts of fruit or vegetable in a day can prevent something like rickets, but that amount is far short of what we need in a day to avoid malnutrition.

That whole confess your sin for forgiveness was to justify wrong doing. Namely, VPW's sex life. Which some others adapted to quite quickly. Forgiveness is a way of life, a reality, not something that happens according to what is done or not done.

When it is taught and practiced that love is obedience what the heck do you expect? . . . OBEY!! Oh! . . . Says here Narcissists prefer fear, obedience and admiration over love and likability. Due to the inferiority complex and paranoia. I wonder if these matters have a connection . . .

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/13/whats-on-your-table-how-americas-diet-has-changed-over-the-decades/ https://www.precisionnutrition.com/eating-too-much-blame-your-brain https://smokymountainnews.com/lifestyle/rumble/item/31055-a-history-of-the-food-pyramid In one household one person could be vegan, another keto, another is alternate fasting, another eats whatever/whenever. How do you coordinate a society when one house seems impossible? Each person's solution is specific to them.

Your links are clear obesity/overweight is a growing trend and is a problem for everyone. There's no studies on the cause. You've cited a correlation on a small sample size and compared it to other issues, which would also require thorough studies as to there causes . . . Which I am sure exist.

Hmmmmm. That sounds familia.

During our brief tenure in FWC we spent a lot of time harvesting produce grown there. I distinctly remember apples, potatoes, tomatoes and perhaps onions. We were involved in making salsa; I've written about that elsewhere. They raised chickens, beef and pigs as well. Did we benefit from this largesse? Nope. It was shipped to HQ. it's a challenge to perform four hours of hard physical labor after a breakfast of one cup of granola and milk, and a delicious lunch of one cup of tomato soup and two zwieback crackers. On rare occasions we got chicken or other meats, and every day we had to exercise vigorously. I realized recently that this arrangement is very similar to a work camp in a communist country. We workers slaved away for the benefit of the elite, who graciously permitted us to have a few crumbs from under their gilded tables.

I long ago came to the conclusion that neither God nor the Lord Jesus cares about trinitarianism or otherwise. They've had 2000 years to correct the error if it's important to them. But no, if anything, trinis are getting more aggressive in pushing their PoV. Its seems to me that they'd rather you believed God in whatever form - trini or otherwise - and whether JC=G or JCNG doesn't matter. To trinis, he is God. To non-trinis, JC is the embodiment or encapsulation of all of God's goodness and righteousness, whilst being fully and only human. I go to a church that's really quite trini, but it's not really a discussed matter. What is discussed, preached and practised is kindness, trusting God, honouring God, believing God, and looking at Jesus as the model and the loving carer for the church. And far from being possessed, the congregation in general and the leadership in particular are working very actively to combat poverty, loneliness, and to bring the love of God and Jesus to a neighbourhood where many don't know at all, and who have daily problems that need practical help (which is given as much as possible). I have never heard a condemning word - "You've got these problems? It's your believing at fault. Your problems are your fault. Are you sure you're abundantly sharing?" Abundantly sharing? Heck, it goes the other way: the church supports with free meals and food parcels those who for whatever reason have the choice between "heat," "eat" and "feet" - paying for their gas/electricity, food for the kids, and clothing and other necessaries. Does that sound like "possessed" to you, Mike? Or does looking poverty or any type of distress in the face, quoting Bible verses and offering to pray but not otherwise doing anything - does that sound more "possessed"?

Yeah, but, Doctor said "Fear is sand in the machinery of life." OOPS. That was really E. Stanley Jones who said that. "Plagiarism ruins more mens' ministries than anything else."

Yep, and thats total BS. That is probably based on the law of believing, which traces it's roots back to the the new thought metaphysics movement made popular by Phineas Parkhurst Quimby then traces to Mary Eddy Baker (Christian Science Founder) and then to E.W. Kenyon and then to Wierwille. If you wannta get into it on this false doctrine then lets head over to doctrinal. But that quote "Fear ruins more men's ministry than anything else" is BS. You wanna know what likely ruings more men's ministries? Love of money, raw lust, and greed. If fear were such an all emcompassing factor that can just ruin lives then why wasn't it listed in the bible where the devil tempted Jesus? - Create bread out of stones to relieve his own hunger (not keeping God as his number one source of sustenance) - Leap from a pinnacle and rely on angels to break his fall. (tempting God, when God cannot be tempted) - Kneel before Satan in return for all the kingdoms of the world. (worship the devil and serve him) Anywho, I'm skating in thin ice here and don't want to derail this topic with doctrinal issues. I am happy to debate the law of believing in-depth. It's already been covered on GSC to the max anyway.

Wot? Isn't TWI now the softer, gentler, organisation (per RFR)? TWI changes people - brings out the worst in them. People don't change TWI. Lawyers have had a go at changing TWI, but they're only tinkering round the edges. Not the core beliefs or structural arrangements.

NO. Seriously? At this rate, you'll end up having to be your own best friend, as if you were half dog and half man or something. (BTW, Mrs Wolf looked over the quotes, and got it at "We ain't found $h1t!" I thought that was a giveaway line, also.)

Mike, Is it just semantics that you cannot figure out who are currently in charge at TWI? You call them the Board of Trustees and the Way calls them the Board of Directors on their web page. Same difference, no?

You have to appreciate the irony. When I was assigned to staff as way corps there were around 400 or so staff and many of them under the age of 30. A group of staff kids went over to grand lake in st marys and got drunk except one of the kids who was out getting hammered was T!m M@rtind@le. So they fired all the staff kids involved and didn't do anything to Tim except take his name off his door in founders hall, except it was still his room when he was home on weekends and away from college. So word got out and young people quit coming to work on staff except for a very few. Rosalie couldnt stand the younger staff because they were trouble makers in her eyes. She even came up with a youung adult fellowship and made sure it was scheduled on Friday nights so the "young people stuff" could be kept to a minimum. Now Rosalie is weaving baskets over at foxhaven and they have a bunch of new young faces. I hope these kids don't get screwed over and hurt in the end but that's likely as soon as any of them step out of line or come up sith some new research, etc.

why do I feel like I'm watching an advertisement for a retirement home ??

I agree with you about "Who's Nect" and äqualung". I'm more familiar with The Doors by their catalog than which song is on what album, but I know enough to know you just mentioned "L.A. WOMAN" and then quoted from it. I heard that Jim Morrison had to be re-interred. He was buried in a cemetery in France, but partiers kept visiting his grave and partying, leaving a mess behind for the groundskeepers to clean up, so they said he couldn't stay anymore. "How big a party animal do you have to be to be thrown out of places decades after you die?"

commercial, saw it when I was active, laughed then, and still a good one powerful living

Yeah that glazed over stepford wives look is common with those at the top. Those on the outside never see the real people behind all the fakery. They actually teach people in their videos to smile as big as they can so people can see the abundant life they are living. Fake and scripted, and notice they are putting young ministry kids up front now. Most all of the kids who get promoted are reverend and mrs so and so's child. Nepotism anyone? But heck, thats about all they really have to draw from anymore. Rosalie finished off Craigs work of running everyone off that potentially had a backbone. Anywho.

"During my 24-year twi involvement.....The most fiery, sustained confrontations from wierwille and martindale were leveled at dissenting leadership. Nothing else comparable to it! The most divisive, vicious, vein-popping, profanity-spewing and sustained-intensity periods of 'hatred' were unloaded in closed-corps meetings!! Most Fiery Confrontations Leveled at Dissenting Leadership [link] Malignant narcissism, indeed! Wierwille would NOT allow top-tier leadership or loyal followers to walk away unscathed. He had to have the last word.....even if they were gone, or dead. His sadism and aggression was profound when dissenting leaders left twi. Cunning to the core, wierwille knew that a trickle of exits could erupt into a flood. So, he would strike. Yes, vpw was a striker.....one of many behaviors that DISQUALIFIED him from the office of a minister, an overseer [ I Timothy 3:3]. The grip of fear was released upon his death in May 1985......and the exodus flood was underway. Some think that it was Geer's paper, "The Passing of a Patriarch" and ensuing power-grab that was the impetus of this exodus. I contend that wierwille's death and his relentless grip of ownership (master/servant) was the catalyst. Dozens of corps (60-100) were slipping out the back door each year, but then......300 more entered the regular corps program and 150 (??) into the family corps. The surge of excitement among the youth outdistanced the reality on the ground....even as wierwille's corps letters opined for the corps to stay in line.

People getting possessed from old way classes. When twi was using those exact same classes, they were touting how fantastic they were and everything. As soon as someone else ran them- with that being the ONLY thing that changed- not only were they useless, they were WORSE than useless because students could get POSSESSED from taking the class! I'm sure all of that hung off, once again, the mis-translation and misinterpretation of a SINGLE VERSE that twi then formed a doctrine around. They said "the present truth" meant the truth that was true now, as opposed to the truth that was true yesterday, or the truth that will be true tomorrow. But that's not how truth works. The truth remains true in the past, present and future (although events may change facts, like the current fastest world record for running the mile is faster than the record a century ago, but running the mile is still running the mile.) The :present truth" didn't mean the truth not of the past nor future. It didn't mean a gift. The "present" meant "HERE RIGHT NOW." We no longer had to wait for it, the truth had finally arrived and we had it! (From the 1st century church through today into the future.) So, It was the truth that was HERE, not a moving target that will keep changing whenever twi wanted to declare something no longer "true."

Started in 1975 and finally broke free in 1983. The lesson: do not break ties with your friends. They could be your lifeline. I did not do that...but things worked out for the better over time.

Don't be shy said the spider to the fly.

Took PFAL in 1985, Intermediate 1986, Way of A&P in 2005, Intermediate 2009... and then figured that 25 years was really ENOUGH!