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The purpose of marriage is to move The Word. God sends revelation the head of the marriage first. I'm not sure this message that being male is wrong is helpful. Question the institution that serves no purpose and is built to fail.

The paradox, as I remember it, was that we were taught that WE were the "called out," the special ones because we had the "rightly-divided" truth. Yes, I remember reading and hearing about the two greatest commandments. But, again, for me, it wasn't until the early 1990s that I began thinking in terms of introspection. M. Scott Peck taught me, when I read his main work, The Road Less Traveled, to reflect on what I was thinking and doing. It wasn't until years later, and screwing up my marriage because of the male-dominated social orthodoxy that I even started to figure it out. The curtain didn't come up all at once to enlighten me about my psychological problems. It was a process. A journey I'm still on. Wierwille's crappy example, unfortunately taught me more than his crappy class did. That's why I appreciate people like Pavlovitz, Stephanie Foo (author of What My Bones Know), Brene Brown (Atlas of the Heart) and MANY others. Like Penworks, like Skyrider, and other current denizens of GSC. So, my conclusion, is that we very emphatically WERE taught by both dogma/doctrine and by example to be major jerks. And I was one of them. Thankfully, I never attained a powerful status or position in TWI or I have to now figure that I would have many more people to whom I would have to make amends. Being so damn sure of knowing what's right about God, or any related spiritual matter... well, going back to the OP for this thread, I believe Pavlovitz seriously understated the point. But I guess his use of a particular figure of speech in that regard can underscore the importance of it. The difference now is that I'm not a 19-year old know-it-all airman trying to sell a class. I hope others lend their insight on this subject even though this post feels like a closing argument.

Ill readily admit I was a gigantic jerk up until about the year 2000. I followed the example of others who had been around longer than me and were way corps. Not everybody is a jerk. I actually held the Bible in higher esteem than anything way leadership had to say. And that started on my apprentice year, the year 2000. Personally, I did everything in my power to treat people with love and respect. I wasn't perfect at it and I probably stepped on a few toes along the way, but if someone said something to me I would be as meek as possible to them and do all I could to apologize for my faults. My main concern to this day is standing approved before God and not men.

I think they trained us to be jerks by example, but I think it could have been avoided. I did not agree with everything everyone taught, but I respected the hell out of a lot of these Corps trained "jerks."

That is a special kind of stoooooopiiiiiiid.

Hi Tiredgirl. Others might offer you coffee and cake on the house. I just want to send you a hug.

"Christian" was pointed out to be a derogatory term at one time in TWI. The Way is centered around the thinking of one twisted individual, therefore the "rules to life" are very restricting, and these maladaptive habits create a lot of internal friction, since control has been handed over to the organization. Thus anger. I advise the acquisition of a potato cannon immediately.

Coffee here is "on the house". So, that's nice. Welcome.