Leaderboard

All you really need to do is find 11,780 upvotes for Waysider's post. oops - is veiled political humor a no-no?

over the years many fahrvergnügens have gushed over my grapeness and asked me "how's come you so smart and figure eight all this stuff?" With some Gleem Toothpaste in my eye and tapping on the side of my head I say one turd "Kidneys" take that Norm Crosby !

Orange. Because ice cream has no bones.

138. PFAL facilitates wierwille imposing his will on my life. This is a tough one to figure out – and it took me a few years after I left TWI to do it. For me the difficulty was in sorting out what the Bible (and by extension God, and of course the mysterious inner working of the Holy Spirit ) inspires me to do and what wierwille said the Bible demanded I should do. In the first session of PFAL wierwille presents some problematic ideas: 1.The greatest secret in the world today is that the Bible is the revealed word and will of God. 2. It’s a secret because people don’t believe it. 3. The Bible means what it says and says what it means. In one fell swoop wierwille paved the way for his esoteric interpretations ( see previous item # 136 ), an us-versus-them mentality ( see item # 34 ) , and fundamentalism (see item # 62 ). Let’s look at this trinity of trouble: 1.Is it a secret? It’s almost funny …more like sad - how gullible I was – being young and naïve – that I bought into his contradictory concept that even though in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions The Bible is considered to be the sacred text for their belief system…who knew ! All kidding aside, I think the intention may have been to lure students into wierwille’s circle of trust. Being raised Roman Catholic I already trusted the Bible – even though it was a very simple understanding of its themes. I learned to trust wierwille because he seemed to know so much about it. **** 2. Do people believe it? This is where we separate the dogmatists from the cool cats. There is a world of behavioral differences between our cat and dog. Dogmatists are like the alpha dog – the dominant one in a pack setting – the pack submits. Alphas achieve and maintain their position by strength and aggression, social efforts and building alliances. In our home, I’m the alpha dog. Dogs are social animals. Anyone who sees the way I relate to our dog and cat will witness how much I love them…spoil them…I’m more of a pet valet, I enjoy tending to their every need. Dogs are so compliant. We all know of someone who mistreats their dog – they could kick the dog for having a bad day at work – but that dog still loves the grouchy owner, and greets him with a wagging tail when he comes home from work tomorrow. To me cats epitomize the free-spirited type. They’re independent, compliance is NOT in their DNA, they have their own hobbies and interests, and conduct extensive research in the art and science of chillax. zzzzZZZZ ZZZzzz (fyi our cat is a professor at the institute of research for long naps ... ...as you were, kitty zzzZZZ ZZZzzz ) Reflecting on my time in The Way International, I was more of a frustrated cool cat trying to fit into TWI's dogmatic group-think pack. The cult-leader (during my time in it was first wierwille, and then Craig ) was the alpha dog and in a military-type chain-of-command instructions, directives, priorities, goals, agendas and such are passed down to the rank and file. Truth be told, even though I decided to go into the way corps leadership training program (at the time thinking it was God’s will ) being a leader…a pastor…a preacher…a teacher…an administrator…a motivational speaker…or a sales rep have never been goals for me. I’m more of a technical research and support guy – something pretty much useless at TWI. If you haven’t already read it, you should check out Penworks’ book Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International . She worked in TWI’s research department. Amazon’s description of her book says after she “was promoted to the inner circle of biblical researchers, where she discovered devastating secrets: Wierwille twisted texts of Scripture to serve his personal agenda, shamelessly plagiarized the work of others, and misrepresented the purpose of his organization. Worst of all, after Wierwille died in 1985, shocking reports surfaced of his secret sex ring. Amid chaos at The Way's Ohio-based headquarters, Charlene knew she had to escape--for her own survival and her child's. Reading like a novel, Undertow is not only a brilliant cautionary tale about misplaced faith but also an exposé of the hazards of fundamentalism and the destructive nature of cults. Through her personal story, Charlene Edge shows how a vulnerable person can be seduced into following an authoritarian leader and how difficult it can be to find a way out.” end of excerpt from Amazon page When wierwille said It’s a secret because people don’t believe it – I think what he really meant was those outside of his ministry do NOT accept his unique interpretation of the Bible. **** 3. The Bible means what it says? What further compounds the problem of wierwille’s dogmatic fundamentalism, is his inane concept that the Bible interprets itself (see item # 22 ). Just pause for a moment and think about what an affront that is to logic, linguistics, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers – not to mention Bible scholars, translators, and textual researchers. We’re talking about a compilation of 66 different books written by 40 different authors over the course of an approximately 1500-year period, using basically 3 different languages, spanning a variety of cultural, political, and geographical settings. Scripture interpreting itself is nonsensical because it implies no other agency is needed. Even today when clear and accurate communication is essential an interpreter or translator is necessary to explain or express the sense of words and phrases between countries of different languages and cultures. Note there is an intermediary or go-between involved - a person who acts as a link between people of different languages / cultures. The ancient biblical manuscripts were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. A translator of those texts is building a bridge to connect disparate people of another time, culture, and language with people of today who speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, etc. ~ ~ ~ ~ So how did PFAL make it possible for wierwille to force his will on my life? The class pushes a materialistic attitude – where material possessions and physical comfort become more important than spiritual values. ( see item # 127 ) . To attain those things wierwille also asserts a student must use the law of believing ( see item # 6 in starter post for this thread ) . One way to describe my 12 years of TWI is vicious cycles of cause and effect that would intensify, and aggravate each other…which frustrated and disappointed me to no end! Like many prosperity-gospel ministries, wierwille fed followers a load of unbiblical expectations (aka cult-leader bull-$hit ). Having a problem receiving those “promises of God” ? Introducing the hard sell - the vicious cycle: You need to sit through the PFAL class again to build your believing – or take this class or that class or go into this program or that program to gain experience and build confidence in how God can work mightily through your believing. In a sense you’re not following God’s will. You’re conforming to the will of wierwille. You’re making choices based on the agenda and options the cult-leader has laid out for you. ~ ~ ~ ~ About 6 months after I left TWI, while developing a list identifying the doctrinal and practical issues (after dusting off 12 years of ignored red flags I had sensed ) in TWI, I read a thought- provoking book Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View by Garry Friesen, J. Robin Maxson (note this is a 2004 edition, the one I bought was a 1980 edition ). To whet your appetite, you might like my brief notes on another thread about God’s sovereign will vs God’s moral will – click here > my post Feb 10th 2023 4:22 PM God's sovereign will vs moral will . This and another book Beyond Seduction: A Return to Biblical Christianity by Dave Hunt were extremely helpful in the effort to extricate myself from the wierwille-centric decision-making process and the delusion of magical thinking.