Leaderboard

With some victims it is possible that maintaining some form of rationalization for the past actions is necessary for them not to experience a psychotic break. I am sorry for what happened to her and the extremity of what was necessary to live with it. I look at the Nexim cult as to the extremity of what goes on with manipulation and control in the sex categories. TWI will have varying degrees of that going on, or at least did in the past. I don’t think the current leadership acts that way but they are heavily invested in covering up VPs faults there because they have doubled down on his class PFAL Today.

When I was a young man raised in the Catholic Church I so much wanted to please God. But the biggest thing the church taught me was condemnation. When ever I would have a sinful thought it would send me into a tail spin of condemnation, and as a young guy you can imagine the sinful thoughts I was having minute by minute, hour by hour, etc. I would pray and pray begging God to cleanse my mind. I even sheepishly went to my priest asking him what to do. He didn’t want to talk about sex, but said he would leave some church literature hidden inside the confessional, for me to study. The promised readings never showed up. This really made be feel giulty that mymoriest forgot about me. So after high school graduation I dropped out of the church and never went back. Staying away from the church really left a hole in me spiritually for years, and felt I was hell bound, until one day a guy sat next to me in a cafe and started witnessing to me. He said if you believe Romans 10:9&10, you will go to heaven come hell or high water. Also God can work miracle through us….all we have to do is believe. I signed up for the PFAL class immediately and hurried through all the other classes so I could operate signs, miracle, and wonders. Even went WOW, WOW Ii, and signed up for the Way Corp. But along the way I didn’t see any signs, miracles, and wonders happening. Didn’t even see someone get over a cold by having hands laid on them. This really got started me doubting what TWI was all about and seriously wanting to leave. But by then they had their hooks in me saying if I leave all my rewards will be lost. Blah, blah, blah, you know the rest. Thr reason I finally got out was gecause they marked and avoided me. So stumbling about again with God going to make me a grease spot by midnight, I felt terrible. Finding GSC was a life saver and got me at least on an even keel. Then seeing all the trouble my life had been in because of God, I began thinking what good had he done for me. Slowing I began reading articles about people who were happy not believing in God. I have never been happier and more content since becoming an atheist. My daughter was born and raised in TWI, and is currently a happy Catholic. But if I were raising her today I would steer her away from any religion or God.

Another excerpt from the WaPo article some of you may find this interesting: Religion offers ready-made answers to our most difficult questions. It gives people ways to mark time, celebrate and mourn. Once I vowed not to teach my children anything I did not personally believe, I had to come up with new answers. But I discovered as I went what most parents discover: You can figure it out as you go. Establishing a habit of honesty did not sap the delight from my children’s lives or destroy their moral compass. I suspect it made my family closer than we would have been had my husband and I pretended to our children that we believed in things we did not. We sowed honesty and reaped trust — along with intellectual challenge, emotional sustenance and joy. Those are all personal rewards. But there are political rewards as well. My children know how to distinguish fact from fiction — which is harder for children raised religious. They don’t assume conventional wisdom is true and they do expect arguments to be based on evidence. Which means they have the skills to be engaged, informed and savvy citizens. We need citizens like that.

For the benefit of the other readers, I'm going to attempt to fairly translate what Oldiesman said. (Whether or not I agree with him.) He said that expression and image- "Father in The Word" was a powerful image and made an impact. As such, he uses a variation of that expression- "mother in Catholicism"- for the woman who encouraged Oldiesman to return to Catholicism. I don't think he meant to be misunderstood- I think I understood him just fine- but he might have been just a little bit clearer in his communication.

I certainly don't speak for Oldiesman, but my take was he meant his Mother in Catholicism was encouraging him to go back to Catholicism.

Maybe they WOULD be free to inquire, free to find out. ------ This topic hit hard for me recently. It's an issue that I've been concerned about for years. My son, 14, has been forced to go to Wierwillian fellowship his entire life. I've tried to imagine how the deprogramming will go when the time comes. Would it be hard? Would he M&A me? We have never talked about God, religion, belief. I've never brought it up, nor has he. Until two weeks ago. He told me his mother says an administrator at his school is or has or a devil spirit. I immediately yelled, "BULLS HIT!" Since he brought it up, I seized the opportunity correct his indoctrination, but he stopped me mid speech with a raised hand and said, "Dad! I know! Don't worry. I know it's bulls hit." He then let out a long, hard belly laugh at the absurdity of it all. I wept tears of relief and gratitude. He asked me why I was crying. "Joy, Son," I said. "Tears of joy." Last week we were going over some vocabulary and spelling. The word was pneumonia, I think. I casually remarked this should be easy to remember, "Because Greek...pneuma hagion... same stem...means breath...you hear that phrase every Sunday, right?" He replied, "Oh, I don't know... I've never heard that... but I don't pay attention at fellowship. I'm usually sleeping with my eyes open." Again, I wept. He then asked me when he can stop going to fellowship. I told him whenever he wants. Everyone has a devil spirit. Even rap music is devil spirit, so says his mom. We laugh about how everyone and everything is devil spirit every day now. It's our inside joke. I'm laughing and weeping tears of joyous relief even as I type this.

Again today another former follower of TWI contacted me through my website. A woman. A woman whose story of abuse by Way leaders broke my heart. She is one of numerous people, men and women, who have sent me similar messages since Undertow was published nearly seven (7) years ago. I carry these stories are in my heart, and I honor those people's courage to keep on living despite grave wounds. If you are reading this and are one of these people whose story I now know in part, be assured that I admire you and cheer you on in your journey of healing.