Leaderboard

I think this is a very valid question because there is inherent power in groups. The Catholic church talks about the mystery of the "communion of saints". Haven't quite figured out that one yet but it's a topic to explore.

I find certain characteristics of different cults remind me of TWI. The whole Plaffy witnessing running classes to me reminds me of the JWs and their dogged determination to “witness” meaning putting a watchtower pub in someone's hands or referring someone to JW.org that seems pretty similar. The Mormons have all their positions as voluntary like bishops and Q70 or Q12 but demand the tithe out of followers. That to me is similar to the Way how they handle staffing and money. The Way Corps to me seems a lot like Scientology’s Sea Org. A billion year commitment to making the world “clear”. Using people paying them nothing shuffling them around doing the bidding of LRH or Miscavidge. So to me The Way seems like a blend of a number of cult tactics and characteristics. Like a cult souffle.

And WHY do we buy those demands? It's certainly NOT logic. Could it be the human condition of needing/wanting to belong to a group with whom we FEEL comfortable, sharing beleeefs in common?

“Above all, stand.” ”Commitment” ”Just beleeeve it.” ”Rely NOT on your own understanding.”

Greasespotters know this already from experience, but cult "experts" tell us emotion--mainly fear of losing something or not getting something-- is the prime motivator in cult decision-making circumstances. i.e. I'd better learn God's Word if I want to know what God wants me to do, so to learn it, I should take this PFAL class. On and on and on and on the hamster wheel turns...

PFAL and the collaterals are replete with logical fallacies. One of the very early fallacies in the corpus is a non sequitur: John 10:10, therefore keys. Logical fallacies, errors and stupidity are embarrassingly apparent everywhere. They literally leap off every page. Only the willfully ignorant and the duped intent on beleeeving them into accuracy can't see them.

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.

Hi Rusty Duck. Glad you're checking out this site where so many find so much valuable and helpful info and support. Wishing you the best in your journey away from The Way. Penworks a.k.a. Charlene L. Edge author of Undertow. Attached is the first chapter of the book. Enjoy. It's also available on my website. https://charleneedge.com - where you can find my blogs about fundamentalism and cults and TWI. Hiding-in-Plain-Sight.pdf

At Rome City we had pizza with chicken liver toppings...from the very chickens we killed! this belongs in a movie Silence of the Chickens

Familia and fig pep I like. Wheat berries.... no thanks. That was hands-down the worse breakfast served at Emporia.

I made this comment on another thread: And I think it deserves an explanation. My life was bettered by the way ministry in a sense. Basically, goal setting, self discipline, working a wide variety of menial (some worthless) jobs, working with and meeting a variety of people, I mean Im not gonna lie and say it was all bad. Overall, I became a better person from those and other experiences. However, I could have accomplished the same thing and in a much better fashion than was accomplished in TWI without all the rigamarole foisted on me by the way international. And lets not sidestep that God isnt cancelled by the way international. Certainly, God has had his hand on my life for a long while now. So any improvement in a person's life, wherther from God or just from hard work, the way international not only wants credit but they demand blind obediance and undying loyalty. With that out the way, my life was damaged way worse in other categories due to the doctrinal/practical error they teach and I used to believe. It wasnt until I started unravelling the ball of yarn of my life that I really began to understand just where I had been lied to and how those lies led me astray in my relationship with God/Christ and other Christians even. Then there's the ethical side of things that led me to speak openly and candidly about all I have been exposed to with the way international's underbelly. It's ugly and was worthy of RICO charges. I will not give tacit consent by going away silently. I will not share in their sins by helping them cover it all up. But yeah, my life was made marginally better due to my experiences in the way international, right before a giant wrecking ball came through and left me in a mess that's taken years to climb out of. Anywho. The way I see it is if it took all the junk Ive had to endure to get where I am today it was worth the fight, and may the information and exposé I have contributed here continue to find it's way to those who need to see. We have taken a work amongst the bruised and broken hearted and brought healing and freedom to many. Thats for certain. The content on GSC is a huge piece of the puzzle in me finally leaving TWI back in 2008.

RnR is basically a twig teaching calendar to share the wealth among ex Corpse who didn’t get attention while in TWI. Now they can do the equivalent of teach a STS and maybe host a class like Rico’s once or something. And hold home fellowships just like they always did. It’s basically not any different material wise. Except dumber. I listened to a few teachings. It’s not better than TWI. Quillen has that other Way Corpse program doubling down on those principles. V2P2 is a mini moglet so they feel successful. Yuck. There are many many others. Paul describes them accurately as shipwrecks of the family faith.

Exactly! In the 1980’s, it was mostly region and limb guys who started splinter groups… because they already had years of compliant followers in their state/region. When wierwille died and twi was in disarray working through the wrangling of geer’s encroachment, it was quite easy to break away and take their followers with them, From what I understand, Charlie Quillen did the same thing in Illinois breaking from CFF in Ohio soon after Shroyer died. Now, the R&R group took a different approach. With corps coordinators mounting a charge, they rallied disgruntled corps grads from around the country and did a Facebook Meeting to explain their grievances. Once twi got wind of it, “top leaders” were marked/avoid and thus, no restoration of twi. LOL Personally, I think R&R will fizzle away in another 5-8 years. Too many egos. Too old to garner support. Too many corps grads who know how the game is played. Too old to dip into SS checks and support a losing battle.

It's ok according to some if the jokes are God breathed.

No he just “borrowed” them for a while to write the “literal translations according to usage”, which were much better than scripture.

IMO stop referring to the "founding president" of TWI. At that time he was the only president. Not sure if it would be accurate to call the first and only, the "founding" prez, as if the corporation had existed longtime. Did he refer to himself as "founding prez"? Or just as "prez"? It would be accurate to call someone (anyone) the "founding" pres when there'd been at least one other pres. Let's call him the "floundering prez" or the "fondling prez" or if you prefer (and this is accurate like a hand in a vagina glove) the "fukking prez."

Interesting that you bring this up. My friend and I have been looking at quantum physics and, as it turns out, it fits perfectly with what Jesus Christ said about believing, and also what it says in Psalms about guarding your heart because out of it are the issues of life. I have always believed that science is pretty good at explaining how things work. For example, chemistry explains the reactions of mixing certain chemicals, and physics explains action/reaction. But until recently they couldn't tell us why, at the root of it, these things work this way. But quantum physics points out very clearly that there is a spiritual energy in everything. So, while the bible tells us what to do and the benefits of that, quantum physics is now explaining what is happening at the microscopic level and smaller. Invisible, in fact. And from what I've seen so far there is nothing indirect about the relationship to "things of God".

"The Way is a fellowship of the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ for the manifestation of the more abundant life. A follower of The Way is filled with and manifests power from on high, holy spirit, and freely avails himself of fellowship meetings for spiritual nurture and growth. The Way fellowship is cemented together by the Spirit of God with each individual believer being transformed by the renewing of his mind according to the Word of God." TRANSLATION: The Way Ministry is a pyramid scheme, where the top Pharaoh/Pharisee mandates policy, and the workers obey with daily tasks of servitude. The servant-follower obeys the chain-of-command by adhering to teachings, classes and home-group meetings of weekly conformity. The Way Group masks its coercion and cohesion by utilizing scripture and factions of pseudo-Christianity to entice new recruits. The deeper chambers of this pyramid reveal that all of these workers and their servitude is for the leisure, lust and longevity of the man-god ruling over them.