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Leylanny. We Frankensteined her name from parts of all our other kids' names. Turns out the name we made up exists. It's an alternate spelling of Leilani, which is Hawaiian and means "Heavenly garland of flowers" or "Royal child." So basically we named her Princess.

In Undertow, there's a person named Patrick Ryan who provided a blurb in one of the first pages of the book. I met him through the International Cultic Studies Association. He had a sister who'd been in The Way, so he had a personal interest in my story. For years, he's been working as an exit counselor with another person, Joseph Kelly. They compile articles about cults and send a daily newsletter called Cult News 101. Here's a bit about him and a link to an interview: Cult Stories: An Interview With Cult News 101 Founder Patrick Ryan "There’s a small but dedicated social media community that focuses on the world of cults and if you start following accounts, the algorithms at sites like Twitter and Instagram will eventually funnel you towards Cult News 101, which aggregates stories from newspapers across the globe. When we first found the consistently updated trove of articles, I was curious who was aggregating all the content. Was this a true crime rubbernecker? An A.I. bot programmed to feed AP dispatches? Or was this the work of someone with a vested interest in spreading the news from Cultland? A few exploratory clicks around the web proved that the accounts and the site that hosts the insanely large archive of backdated stories were the work of two exit councilors: modern cult deprogrammers Patrick Ryan and Joseph Kelly, who both have experience on the inside of coercive organizations themselves." " ... I finished the interview by asking Patrick Ryan why it’s important to tell cult stories. I pointed out that I felt that these stories illustrate that coercive control has proven to be a feature of humanity, which he agreed with. 'It’s a bug, it's a feature, and it's the whole history of mankind. It's nothing new. You know, the history of humanity is oppression of people, of a certain class with money and wealth or swords and spears oppressing other people, making them slaves either physically or mentally. It's the history of mankind.'"

Now, now..... Remember that we can also forgive Stayed Too Long. Forgiving doesn't have to equate with "forget what the person did wrong and restore them to a position of authority." We've had posters claim that was expected in the past, but that's not required at all- nor is it sound or sensible. If I know a store does shoddy or dishonest work, I'm certainly not going to shop there. If I know a proven deadbeat and professional sponge who lives off of the generosity of others, I'm certainly not going to recommend them for a position of authority. We can forgive lcm- while steering well clear of him and whatever money-making scheme he's cooking up lately. Forgetting is applied independently, and one can forgive while keeping barriers to limit exposure to twi brass and the like.

Unbeliever interruption: The reason behind the phenomenon you describe is that God is a fictional character whose attributes developed over time. Superman could not always fly. But after a while, he could. Same with Yahweh. He was originally a humanoid. He became Spirit when the plot dictated it. He was originally smart and wise. He became Omniscient when the plot demanded he be all-knowing. He was stronger than his enemies, but he did not become omnipotent until much later. When you look at the earliest scriptures in light of the later plot developments, you can't make sense of them. So you invent figures of speech to make figurative that which was literal from the start.

In case anyone's wondering why I took Raf's turn, I was saving us all some time. Raf's busy, and didn't want to be "up" on so many threads at once. Either there was going to be a big pause until he took it, or he was going to announce a free post. So, I figured this would be a moment when he'd thank me for jumping in- since, at this one specific moment, I wasn't busy. (Can't always guarantee that...)

I can forgive Stayed. Well within my capabilities. Has he asked for forgiveness? Sounds to me more like a lecture hit and run. We get quite a lot of those on this site actually. Lecture hit and runs. Is he of a mentally impaired or unaware state where he “knows not what he does”? LCM too. Knew him personally. He has never asked for my forgiveness for anything. Right now he is teaching new interpretations of books of the Bible to an imaginary internet audience and none of those teachings seem to carry any awareness of being wrong or changing. His own daughter has posted on here concerned about his ongoing influence. I mean sure I’ve got my version of Jesus blanket forgiveness for those who are unaware of their evil impact. Do these two examples fit the bill? Where does the verse in Romans about not taking vengeance because vengeance is the Lords fit in? If the Lord always forgave everyone and required everyone else to then what would He have to take vengeance on? This whole topic and the wrong dividing of scripture around it by the cult TWI has kept more people in bondage and whitewashed more evil by leaders than any other I know.

No what makes you an @sshat troll is to be lecturing people about “what God wants” when you don’t believe in God. What I meant about not rehashing it is not getting into stupid damn arguments about “forgiveness”. Kind of like this has turned into.