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129. PFAL has too much double-talk. A moment of clear thinking: In PFAL wierwille emphatically states there is a way to describe two groups that are different from each other – “all without exception” and “all without distinction”. That’s enough to make a thinking person go “huh?”

Closed-door meeting with a delinquent cheerful giver: I’m sorry guys, but I’ve had it with this money-grubbing penny-pinching two-bit ministry. How the hell do you get Old Testament tithing laws and a few New Testament accounts of collections taken up for the needy to mean in this day and time and hour I’m supposed to send fifteen percent of my income to some fat-cats in New Knoxville? Yeah…I remember it now…just like it was yesterday…when I signed up for PFAL, it said on the back of the green card the class increases prosperity. I thought it meant my prosperity – not the ministry’s.

Countless “Huh?” moments like this arose for me. However, I learned early on not to inquire into the logical fallacies, absurd claims, linguistic stupidities and blatant errors. There are only so many exasperated, condescending sighs a “student” can take. This is why I put “teach” in quotes. Victor and his acolytes don’t know what it means to teach. The embarrassed avoidance of questions and the further confusion caused by the gaslighting, condescending answers, along with the brutal schedule and duration of “the class,” are all designed to wear the “student” down to a dull edge of compliance.

Doctors rely on much more than a hunch when diagnosing schizophrenia. Although there is no test that can be performed in a laboratory to determine its existence, there are well defined symptoms that define the disease, as set forth in this article. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-is-schizophrenia-diagnosed

This is hilarious! And so sad.

Thank you all for providing perspective and treating me like a golden retriever when I ask obvious, even stupid, questions. This is all so absurd, but I know it's true. I'm dumbfounded... Mmmph... just... wow... no words... except... What does the Bible say about caring for widows?

I mean, it's really revealing when you think about it....revealing especially when considering the directors efforts with GSC.

I'm confident (as a former accountant) if twi WANTED to take care of Dorothea, medically and financially, they could have gotten around it.

According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), charitable aims are stated in the following: "The exempt purposes set forth in Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and the prevention of cruelty to children or animals. The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erection or maintenance of public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency." Sooooo... advancement of religion.

TWI is a registered charity, is it not? What are its charitable aims, as stated on whatever charitable body oversees suchlike in the USA, or would it be in Ohio? While "care of the elderly" could be a charitable aim for some organisations (though not in TWI's constitution), there could be ways around that.... maybe. Y'all got me thinking. About charitable aims. Huh, I will start a different thread when I've sorted some things out.

No sir you are not making any of this up. I was front and center for all of this when I was at HQ. In fact, unfortunately, Im the one who found her after she had fallen by the circle in back of the EOB when she was out walking. I saw her fall, called for help, and stayed with her until they arrived. She was somewhat lucid but very confused as to what was happening with her or even why I insisted (very gently) that she remain in a comfortable position on the ground until ERT arrived. I never saw her again and was a pallbearer at her funeral. TWI is correct in that they legally cannot provide healthcare but are dead butt wrong for shuffling all her expenses onto her family and washing their hands of her. That was Rosalie all the way with a lot of consenting voices as usual. All heck broke out around HQ with the rumors and such. Just for the sake of accuracy, Ros-a-lie did pay for lawn care after the lawyers came through and educated them on running a cult legally but before that absolutely paid nothing. She paid a ridicouloously low price to have an entire 5 man mowing crew pull up with zero turn mowers and take care of her estate. But it was a paper trail that proved she wasnt taking private innurements. And I mean ridicoulsly low btw, so they failed the private innurement test on that note as you are supposed to pay market rate.

Considering there's no question about rosa-lie getting free lawncare, boat care and housekeeping by twi staffers, I'm sure a little creative accounting would have covered for someone who needed vital services - who was so integral to twi's history. There was no question about twi not covering anything. In fact, when she was being ushered off-grounds to an elder-care facility, the news broke here. All over past and current twi membership, suddenly all heck broke loose. All anyone could talk about WAS how twi threw Mrs W out in the street, or things along those lines. Things got so out-of-control that twi contacted the GSC admin and insisted they be allowed to tell their side of the story, and have something posted by them ON THE GSC to settle this. I SWEAR I'm not making ANY of this up.

"He was a mean man."

That’s the challenge of trying to describe a very complex, problematic and charming cult-leader like wierwille - there’s not just one description that says it all. Usually in the Bible when someone has a life-dominating sin then they’ve earned the title – thus a pathological deceiver is called a liar, one who steals is called a thief. And since people are complicated beings – there’s nothing in the Bible saying you can’t have more than one life-dominating sin. I ain’t perfect. I’ve had a few life-dominating sins in my lifetime – even in TWI – that particular life-dominating sin was the pride I had for thinking I knew more about God and the Bible than anyone outside of TWI…shortly after I left TWI I got a little taste of the day of reckoning while I was shopping at the grocery store. Looking at the other shoppers – realizing for the first time… in a looooong time that I was no better than anyone else - - I hurried through my shopping holding back tears. Hey, I’m still a sinner – I have little bouts of temptations to lie, lust, seek revenge. I think I do pretty good not letting those ‘appealing things’ run and ruin my life. Been married 47 years – never cheated on my wife. I’m still somewhat of an a$$-hole but since I left TWI I no longer am a rising star a$$-hole Twig-coordinator Pharisee-wannabe. Now I just try to be a repentant a$$hole to wife, kids, friends, neighbors…I’m retired now – but in all of my work career I’ve never stole from work or exploited / abused others to get ahead. Excuse me for going on so much about myself on this thread – but believe it or not I do have a reason…or rather reasons – and here they are. I honestly think I am no better or worse than anyone else on Grease Spot Café – and there must be something in me that got damaged in my cult experience because I still have issues with low self-esteem and self-doubt. Low self-esteem – maybe from feeling I fell so short of that hollow renewed mind model we learned in TWI…I’ve always liked being sort of a people-pleaser – but in TWI that got taken advantage of big time and it seemed like I always disappointed upper leadership - maybe it was because they kept moving the goal post – and I often succumbed to their guilt trip tactics anyway - so I get that who am I to judge others vibe - even if wierwille manifested a cacophony of life-dominating sins. Self-doubt – sales as a career is not my thing, leadership and management are not for me either – you can’t be timid, introverted and unassertive – and that’s me Robert Petrie – sure I’m one ridiculously dapper dude. ~ ~ ~ ~ Any wierwille-sympathizers reading this please take note. This post is typical of what normal people do. This post is normal for what cult-survivors do. This ain’t politics folks! This is life skills 101 for the young and naïve who got suckered into a destructive and manipulating pseudo-Christian organization. keeping all that toxic cult mindset bottled up ain’t healthy. unpacking and sorting out the intellectual and emotional baggage is very helpful to one’s well-being. It’s normal to acknowledge the hurt. If you still hold wierwille in such high regard – then I challenge you on this – there might be something out of whack with your scale of values. So sorry - I'm not gonna get guilt-tripped every time I say something negative about you-know-who. The more I think about it, the more I think big wierwille fans need to recalibrate their powers of discernment. You see, big wierwille fans are using a reference point that is skewed - which is their beloved super-duper-hypocrite teachings on the love of God thinketh no evil, anything done in the love of God is okay...and it is by that standard they get all up in arms of anyone who dares to bring up any valid criticism of wierwille. Oh, we're not loving. Oh, we're not forgiving. Geesh - give me a break...if the media - hell - if the general public knew of all the hypocritical bull$hit wierwille got away with - you all would be laughed out of the country for defending such a hot mess. damn straight! At least I really tried to walk the talk when I was in TWI - and I think that’s true for a lot of the folks that I served , fellowshipped with and worked under. That’s way more than wierwille’s stage-act. Pharisees have a double standard. They hold all the peons like us to a squeaky clean and submissive rule of thumb. But the big dogs of Pharisee-Central get a free pass! They claim they love God and neighbor but they do as they full well please! wake up and smell the bull-$hit ! You know damn well if wierwille ever got wind of you exploiting, abusing, character assassinating, sexually molesting any other TWI-follower - - he’d get all holier-than-thou on your a$$…it’s okay for him but not for you. That’s the double standard! but you know - I think the hypocrisy of Pharisee-Central may have an attractant for those who already have proclivities to exploit, abuse, character assassinate , sexually molest others - like a moth drawn to the flame. People like that can smell opportunities a mile away. I was clueless to the wife-swapping that went on at Rome City campus because I was focused on trying to be the best little old TWI-believer that I could be. I was dumb enough to think PFAL was the gold standard of the Christian lifestyle. I thought wierwille was the real deal. I believed his 1942 audible promise from God story. ~ ~ ~ ~ Self-doubting-low-self-esteemer types get chewed up and spit out by harmful and controlling cults. You have no idea what emotional and intellectual turmoil I go through when we discuss the invisible idol that was embedded deep down inside. Reverential admiration…like idolatry is love. I had… …maybe I still have a slowly diminishing love-hate relationship with wierwille and LCM - there’s both very positive and very negative feelings. I have not been so deeply abused, exploited or molested like some here have – maybe that would make it easier to snub these weird feelings…I’ve never been divorced. But I imagine there’s a love-hate relationship on both sides. Leaving a cult – maybe it’s like that – I miss all the good people and good stuff I got out of it – but I hate all the bad $hit…when something so bad is so close to your heart it's gotta be harder than brain surgery to get it removed. I come to Grease Spot Café for a lot of reasons. Expose TWI. Promote freedom of thought. Encourage others to develop cognitive skills. Help and pray for others. Soak up the therapy. Have fun. Enjoy the company – I’m not alone on this unusual journey. Thanks for letting me get all sorts of vulnerable here…oh yeah, another selfish reason why I make myself vulnerable – I’m into developing meaningful and profound relationships with Grease Spotters. now it’s time for me to climb back into my Iron Man suit , which I got cheap at Syms Clothing Store ( “An educated consumer is our best customer.” – yes, that Syms Clothing) before they closed down. Okay I’m done! Go the mass has ended…thanks be to God!!!