Leaderboard

In the past three years, I've crossed paths with MANY twi followers in the coffeeshops and supermarkets of the city. Some of them will visit with me for a couple of minutes, some won't. Several of the gung-ho corps that I've encountered, are NO LONGER corps. Some of the twig coordinators NO LONGER run a fellowship in their home. A couple of long-standing advanced class grads told me that they RARILY WITNESS anymore. And to think.....this is a sampling of twi's followers that have crossed my path. Are you guys seeing this? I even crossed paths with an ex-corps guy who stated, "We stay out of their (bod) shix and they don't get involved in our shix." There seems to be a huge DISCONNECT on the rise with twi's "followers." Maybe.......that's why twi's faithful rarily witness anymore??? skyrider

Well, if they were still doling those out in 2006, I'm guessing they still are today. Lifers being rare is kinda the point... somehow they think by handing me a certificate I'm going to feel all tingley and special, and that will make me keep drinking the cool-aid for another 20 years. It doesn't get much more lame than this, folks.

The buggy whip market has tanked.

would you ?? Its definately a bad case of embarassment to say the least Wnw

(Having left less than two years ago...) When I was still there, TWI had NO life at all. How could they? After you have enough "new" people horrified by the screaming forehead, lawsuits, old leaders that "disappear" overnight and constant turmoil, how do you stay "up?" You can't. Unless you are delusional, one can't help but notice that the place is getting smaller and smaller and smaller...

HMMMMM...does a well placed kick in the azz count for this topic?? Or should I post it in "Got your wallet now, Baby!"

Didn't we just have a thread on how so many seem to lack longevity period? It is no wonder they are handing out certificates to those who make beyond a certain point!

I was just out of college and visiting a friend in Arizona. We had actually gone to Kitt Peak that day and were returning. Her husband was driving, she was asleep between us as we sped through the burning Sonora Desert. Her husband and I looked at each other over her sleeping head and said "Wow!" WG

If you asked me were I lived or where I was working at the time, I could tell you. But, honestly, I don't remember being aware of the event as it actually happened.

No. It just means they have a product that is no longer wanted or needed. Now, of course, if their product was both wanted AND needed------

I was glued to the set. And switching channels. Listened to Walter and then to ABC, the science guy on that station was really good. With all the animosity going on between parents and youth those days, It was the one night that everyone was focused on something, whether your hair was long or short; whether you listened to Lawernce Welk or Spooky Tooth. That night one of my coworkers from the supermarket became a father. I remember going by and visiting them a few days later and talking about how memorable her birthday would be.

Krys your right it was hot. I was at school I also will never for get it. The entire school a least a couple hundred sat in the hall way on the cold floor in the heat. no air conditioning in the school then and I guess they had only one tv, cause we packed in the entire hallway. I remember the teachers looking at all of us like they wish to God we would all just disappear as they watched the TV... with such concern and focus we could do what we wanted... they could care less. Then they shouted watch this and we saw the man take a step and I remember Walter Cronkite crying and putting his head in his hands. As we left to get the bus many of the teachers stayed and just let us leave watching the tv many were crying. your right about watching the future Krys it gives us all hope to know our past and the progress or adventures we have made in mankind.

I'd love to have one of those 'Fickle Finger of Fate' awards, that Ham posted above. The way award they can keep-though the 14 years spent in ,felt more like 40.

Does that mean TWI closed shop?!!!

Was a reason ever given awards for sticking around? I remember them starting but thought it was weird at the time. The folks getting them seemed a little awkward. One couple had been in 20 years, were dumped from the corpse and still kept slaving away. And they got a piece of paper? Woohoo!!!!! :blink: So what were the levels? 20 and up? JT

Mrs. W was the uh, gold standard for faithfulness, or whatever.

This is probably what they hand out now..

Well - you missed that piece of history, but I hope you learned how important these pinnacles of history are. Did you watch the inauguration? There were so many people and no incidences to detract from the moment....that's a first! I just used that for an example. Keep your eyes open and watch the future!

I was at the local pool with my brother and sister and my best friend Meri Lou. One of our mom's would pick us up right before dinner. The pool sold sno cones or we could walk across the street from the park to a little store to get a snack. There was a group of kids from our school who went there most days so there were always kids to talk to, and we spent many hours diving for pennies. I had a crush on a red haired boy and Meri had a crush on a life guard with really blue eyes. It was much fun!

i wasn't alive yet. it's hard for me to imagine.

There was a long time between the landing and the time that Neil Armstrong actually walked down the ladder. I was watching the TV with my family and after what seemed like hours of Walter Cronkite explaining it from every conceivable angle and no action I was getting antsy and bored --my friend Bobby Lynch walked by-so I bolted out the door for a game of wiffleball, with my mother screeching You're missing history!!..."call me if anything happens ma".. I checked back in about 20 minutes later--still nothing---so I went for a ride on my stingray bike over near my friends house, we hung out for awhile near a big rock then I thought I should get back...I got back home a few minutes later, the fam hadnt moved at all, i got a minor scolding then sat on the floor in front of the TV....a few minutes later Cronkite started talking about the door to the LEM opening--which was the first action in hours--- about 15 minutes or so later Armstrong sort of floated down the stairs, stood on the bottom for a minute then stepped off and uttered his famous words I had good dreams that night

they wanted to give me a 20 year certificate in 2006. I'd already kinda left by the time they offered, and they offered many months after my 20th anniversary of taking piffle. now, who knows? seems like lifers must be dwindling by now.

Only awards I ever got from TWI were The Green Wiener and The Purple Nurpple.

Thank you very much!!!!

Y'all have this all wrong! MOG is "Molester of girls." See kids, initials are always explained right there on the bus, in the context or they've been abused before. But I'm glad you can't see it in the original. JT

amazingly ignorant creatures we are with strokes of pure genius recognizing who/what is our power reveals much there is a self still being revealed selfish? yes, but not all the time an interesting way of listing the the seven sirg like the conquering of something we never thought was there could probably fit them all into transition/transforming.....anywhere in all faiths and in awkwardly clear moments of in between faiths certainly nothing much we can do to stop it happening as if selfishness holds any power to attain an instinct for preservation, not knowing who is preserving what but letting go of self for the purpose of just wanting to know a step back pushes us forward unwillingly pulling us into worlds of faith, new eyes opening inward/outward, seeing our nakedness open, we may think all see us all works together I hear, it's timing is good for all i think 4 can be the most vicious yet rewarding but not the end, as it has flavors of all seven to be tasted 4 as i see it anyway, where you know it ain't you doing it anymore and not to be held captive by it's illumination a time of openness that requires honest emptying of the self (breath out) to be filled

seems... the majority of people today live in the first four "faiths" and the majority of religion today happens in the first and second "faiths" and all degrees of "faiths" have happened, do happen, and will happen in the context of most all religions and the ancient wisdom traditions of the world were inspired by (and aspire to) life in the "highest" "faith" it is people who have different degrees of faith...and interpret and apply text from different "faiths"...NOT the religions ... the "original" role of religion since the dawn of time is like what geo pointed out ...and more "religion" is not only a response to the severe nature of existence but is a "chain reaction" of responses to responses all "religions" contain the full range of responses just as do "non-religions" but the histories of all the old world religions are full of people whose "faith" was of the 5th kind and beyond not only did they include an objective worldview in their doctrine and practice they served where rational thought fails like everything else ...they were "the ones who died while living." not irrational...simply one or more degrees of post-rational but as with all stages of faith each is somehow hellbent on obliterating the neighboring stages ...particularly the previous one ... in general... ...our selfishness resists others "taking our power away" and so resists membership and rationality...but finds a home in pluralism ...our mythicality resists people being selfish but also resists evidence that debunks our myths ...our rationality resists cultures and subjectivity but also resists the wilderness of contextual complexity ...our pluralism resists all previous for being hierarchies but also resists most natural hierarchies and structures of life each "faith," when held above all others, offers a "flattened" view ..a view that we may cling to as if our lives depended on them but each "faith" is perhaps best understood as a temporary place, at best ...a place we are already always being pushed and/or pulled through anyway quite against our will ...or anyone else's so perhaps more valuable than any one stage of "faith" is 1) the capacity to honestly examine one's own "faith" and 2) the capacity to "leap" from one "faith" to another of course...i may be describing the most difficult act of all ..like flying through the space between two different realities

another interpretation of tongues of angels...a range of possibilities ...a simple poetic game of how the logos of "the Word of God" seems to change from "faith" to "faith"...whether in a religious context or not 1) faith in some degree of subjectivity above all..."the word of God" is in supernatural forces...particularly those that "my me" finds most beautiful and miraculous...those that "are good to me." Forces that are "bad to me" are not to be trusted. "Its all about me." Interior individual view. 2) a reaction to the failure of subjectivity above all...as early as 3 or so: ...faith in some degree of inter-subjectivity above all..."the word of God" is in supernatural myths...where a culture shares their trust in a particular story of a supernatural universe. "We rely on this story" (as it is understand) above all to tell us what to trust. Members only. Group interior view. 3) a reaction to the failure of inter-subjectivity above all...as early as 7 or so: ...faith is some degree of objectivity above all..."the word of God" is in true reality...we only trust what can be proven to all people...what can be measured...what can be demonstrated...what can be explained...what can be controlled....what can be reduced. Proven experts only. Individual exterior view. 4) a reaction to the failure of objectivity above all...as early as 12 or so: ...faith in some degree of interobjectivity above all..."the word of God" is in truths and realities...where truths are found in contexts within contexts within contexts...trusting complex interdisciplinary comparisons and wider systems above all. Everyone is allowed to add. Group exterior view. 5) a reaction to the failure of inter-objectivity above all...as early as 18 or so: ...faith in some degree of aperspectivity above all..."the word of God" is in all perspectives...where all perspectives are parts of a whole...each are valid and support each other...and each has its own path of development to a "fullest." Not only can human conflict can be understood, but one's own innate perspectives and unconscious programs and habits. 6) a reaction to the failure of apersectivity above all...as early as 25 or so: ...faith in some degree of non-perspectivity above all..."the word of God" is concealed in shadow...whenever all previous perspectives fail and life throws a radical curve that challenges everything we thought we trusted...we learn how much there is to trust about not-knowing...how "the unknown majority" of "the word of God" is outside of our experience. 7) a reaction to the failure of non-perspectivity above all...perhaps prior to becoming some sort of "elder human being": ...faith in some degree of nonduality above all..."the word of God" is simply already always all alls and everywhere. We trust all perspectives of life...but not in opposition to the even greater mysteries we will never know. All are together in one. God has no opposite.

I tried it and it works fine. What was the error message? Did you try a different browser or clear your cache?

Then I would have to answer to ICACTOGS (International Committee Against Closing Threads On GreaseSpot)

I just took the plunge with linux, mainly as a media server. I'm using Ubuntu. There are plenty of online resources. And the linux community has just about anything that you would want, most for free.

if you had more users on your system each user would have a home directory, as does root. As a user I cannot look into another users directory. Since linux is based on Unix they both are multi user systems. it wasn't untill windows NT i think that windows had the ability to be multi-user. what can I sat they are a tad slow on the upbeat.

I've been playing with it for about 10 years. Although I'm not too familiar with Fedora I've generally stuck to Debian and SUSE. programming in Linux can be a tad different. Some people just use an editor such as emacs or vi to create a file then compile it with gcc if you written it in C or g++ if you wrote it in C++. I suggest using a graphical editor to start with personally I like scite. Next most people can look at the root filesystem if you want to do it from a command line and have midnite commander installed just type mc at the prompt. another way to look is at command prompt type ls (think list) and it will show you the files in that directory. to see the directory up the tree type ls ../. O h that's another thing in linux directories are separated by a backslash not forward slash. and lastly Hardware can be a problem to set up in linux although it has gotten much better. there are lot of sites on the web I can point you to, one place to start might be linuxquestions.org Have fun and just play around with it.

Another point is that many, many churches have been able to meet the spiritual needs of people much more than TWI ever dreamed of. Not just the spiritual needs, but the social needs as well. When I got involved in TWI the churches weren't "doing their jobs". I remember hearing (according to VP) that the church buildings were empty 6 days a week - only used for Sunday services. That is not true of today's churches - at least around here. The church we sometimes go to has a youth group, a mens bible study, a womens bible study, singles meetings, classes on basic Christianity, marriage, family, commitment, and much more. There's always something going on there - the parking lot always seems to be at least half full. And as far as "outreach" goes: they build "Habitat for Humanity" houses and go to homeless shelters to feed the needy. They donate their time and efforts to several missions. They don't HAVE to witness to get people to attend - it's just a natural extention of their good works and charity. Spiritually, the sermons are timely, thought-provoking and well done. Sure, there are doctrinal differences from what we were taught in TWI - but it's going to be that way with any other church or religious organization. TWI's doctrines were and are unique to them - and as far as I'm concerned - they can keep it all to themselves. Oh - and another thing that changed in the past decade or so is that we were instructed to not witness to anyone unless they had their physical stuff together - no losers in TWI anymore - no weaknesses! See, they were trying to "weed out" the weakness in those who were already involved - so of course, no one who was weak to begin with was really welcome. Most "non-loser" types who are well into their 40's have already become a part of a church or synagogue. They've raised their kids in them and contributed a lot of time and money to the denomination. Most are happy with their religious affiliations and aren't going to change for something that will offer them less than what they've already experienced. So - when the equation is: good churches + good works + good pastors, people & programs - charity + no weakness allowed = no new people in TWI! I know what my answer would be... "No thanks, no church with you..."

I think one of the main reasons they do not witness anymore is because there are no results. It appears that no one comes. In our area we witnessed incessantly, and some of us were very good at it. Oddly, no one would show. If they did it was short lived. I think it is a combination of our culture has changed and the how easily information can be accessed about a group on the Internet. By now, everybody with a computer has heard of the famous Google search technology. Go ahead, type in The Way International. At the top of the list is The Way's very green web site. Good job, Mr. Way webmaster. You meta-tagged yourself to the top of the list! All your problems are solved. NOT! Look over the right at the sponsored link, a letter from John Lynn exposing all the problems of The Way. Letter from John Lynn Look at the 4th, 5th, 6, and 7th links down. All detailed articles exposing The Way as a cult and very destructive. Here they are respectively: Google search The Way International 1 Google search The Way International 2 Google search The Way International 3 Google search The Way International 4 Look at the 9th article down: Google search The Way International 5 And that's just page 1.... where are the positive articles?. Where is anything good to be found about The Way International? Hmmmm says the new recruit! Maybe on page 2....... here is the 2nd article down. Desperate Google search page 2 And to the right in plain view is that letter from John again as a sponsored link. By the time the new recruit get to the 6th article Desperate Google search 2 she is running away from this group as fast as she can! In my opinion all they can do at this point is live in luxury off the millions they have and continue to be supported by the hard earned money of the few who still justify giving them a dime. The God business is good for those at the top.

Daddy, AMEN! Sitting in a Branch meeting listening to a cheap, tinny speaker attached to a phone while standing up and applauding someone you couldn't see? A home meeting with a collection of rag-tag tired old grads? Pretty depressing.