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My thoughts are that by reading VPs definition of righteousness serial killers and psychopaths would fit the bill. They have zero moral conscience of wrongdoing and could stand in the presence of God unaffected by any sense of guilt. Similarly, justification. Just as if you had never sinned. Who needs constant reminders that they are ok despite their living patterns? Those who sin A LOT. And are worried about it. No I think the “sonship rights” are little more than a man whose moral conscience bothered him and who was trying to manipulate scripture to feel a little better about himself. ”I wish I were the man I know to be” ”He was a mean man”

You said it before I said it. There are some good things in PFAL, but that's because they were pinched from someone who'd put thought in, and who may himself have been inspired by God. Also some good things in the RHST part - for the same reason. The trouble is trying to sort out the truth from the fanciful, reconciling the conflicting messages and versions of whatever "the class" says, etc. Not being able to sort out truth from - from what isn't - is confusing and distracting. It's a poisoned apple (from a poisoned tree). Not all of the apple is poisoned, but you don't know which bits are and which bits are safe to eat. Best thing to do is discard the lot. Heck, for all I know, the confusing bits were deliberate - to confuse, to distract, from the other garbage that we were supposed to take in subliminally. If you're still trying to reconcile "all without exception" with "all with (or without) distinction," you're missing some other perhaps more serious junk.

Great post and to pull a sentence, well here we go. I put forth that the doctrines on sonship rights, etc, coupled with the wierd practices lived out by those in TWI go a long ways to desensitize our conscience to things we should be sensitive to. TWI's definition of righteousness pretty much numbed my conscience out. I mean I put that junk into practice for drum roll....12 years, like T-bone. Was in TWI from 96 to 2008. Amazing how much damage can be done in such a relatively short time. However let me give a few examples of desensitizing that happened while I was around: - Dirty jokes told by the directors during any class having to do anything with sex - and I mean CRUDE jokes...guess that verse about coarse jesting didn't apply to the directors. - Common practices in the way household such as condoning casual sex because God would want you to get your need met. Literally my first fellowship coordinator counselled me with exactly that advice. - Cliches such as "loosen up"...Ive was told to loosen up quite a bit in my early years in TWI. Personally, by the time I enetered the way internatinal I had been quite the hound dog already and was done having one night stands and such. I mean it gets old..it's not fulfilling and people always get hurt. The way pushes licence to sin and then tells you not to feel anything about it as long as nobody's believing is affected. So as long as everyone can live undisturbed in fantasy land then everything is ok. Disclaimer: I understand that TWI put out a class called Living God's Word as a Family where they quoted scripture and rightfully stated that sex outside marriage is contrary to God's will. However, that is nowhere near enough to rectify all the damage that was done by VPW Craig and countless others who were whoring around every which way they could. Not to mention those practices are ingrained in TWI's various subcultures.

101. Develops a parent to child attitude and tone interacting with other members of the body of Christ who have not “taken the class”

I'm no fish expert, but that appears to be a Common Sucker.

100. The hook

Gotta say your experiences are interesting considering the timing of the loyalty oath, what happened in NYC/State during that time, the fact that community service was a foreign concept, etc. It add a lot of insight because they were willing to consider community service as a viable in-road into the community but when it was your idea it wasnt a good idea any longer. Is that from leadership feeling outshined? By the time I came along in 96 any form of community service was expressely frowned upon unless you were using those avenues to sell classes. Also, along these lines and on a personal note. I feel that service in the community is vital for a Christian. So on a side note, I enrolled my teenage son in a private school starting in 2021. It's not a religous school it's a Waldorf School. Waldorf is an educational style that, for my son at least, has been far more effective as an educational method with it's non-lecture/test model; though lecture/test is a part of the systesm...anywho. The students are required to contribute 25 hours per year of community service. It can be anything beneficial, so there are no requisites on where to give, only that no monetary compensation occurs. It's really fun figuring out how and where to give. He is going to work at my wife's job next Tuesday before thanksgiving serving at her Thanksgiving work party. Well, my wife works healthcare and administrates an adult day care for the mentally handicapped. Most of these guys are wards of the state and pretty low functioning and its a HUGE deal to interact with them, especially for something like Thanksgiving Dinner. Of course I take the time to talk over scripture, giving, service, etc. It has a certain sense of satisfatcion to have my son on a better trajectory than I was and also taking the Christian walk out of wonderland. The way international has this pretend spiritual arena they live in and their own seperate sub-culture and totally adversarial to society. Christ did not conduct himself that way in the gospels...so yeah.

cool - I'm glad you brought it up though - never hurts to clarify

Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. There is so much wrong in PFLAP that the attempt to justify what might be right yields diminishing returns. Let's say 1% of PFAL is good. The effort required to parse the material and sift it down to that 1% seems, well, misguided at best and ultimately futile. Whatever might be good has already been and continues to be taught by millions of others. It's all bad, and the 1% that is good doesn't change that.

As you have been with pretty much everything you've posted on GSC over the last two decades.