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What a total load of bullocks. How much more inventive can TWI be, in belittling people? Most everyone you meet has a debt - a mortgage - that they are working to pay off. It's cheaper than renting, often. (Even though my mortgage is quite a lot of money, it would be nearly twice as much to rent a similar place - and I couldn't rent anywhere remotely habitable for what I pay in mortgage... a grotty bedsit, maybe?) (Actually, I couldn't even afford to rent a place!!) Debt has risks, true, but there are risks in not having debts. Much better to help people think about their money in a proper manner, learn to budget properly, and work out the best way to borrow if there is really no other way. My church hosts a Christians Against Poverty debt centre to help people in debt. Helps them manage finances, gives them a compassionate hand up when they're crushed by debt, sets up debt plans and even bankruptcy (so as to give a fresh start). Isn't that a better way to encourage people with debt - rather than beat them over the head with Bible verses? And the gentle compassionate approach - guess what! - leads some people to choose to become very thankful Christians.

So I ran into a TWIt a bit ago. They were explaining to me the new hierarchy in TWI. Besides the BOD, and the Corpse field leadership, we have a couple new classifications of leaders: 1. Household Fellowship Coordinators - for those with no debt 2. Bible Study Coordinators - for those with debt. Apparently the hard-line stance TWI has taken against mortgages and student loans has intensified. All of the followers of TWI have been complaining about the debt policy for the last 10 years. The BODummies response is this. Make a new layer in the caste system. Now tadaaa, we have a new lowest level of leadership in TWI. What pray tell, would be the difference between these two classifications of people, you ask? Hmmm. Well, I guess one could coordinate the study of the Bible, but can't coordinate fellowship right? So one group you go to and you can study the Bible, but because they have a mortgage there isn't the same full sharing relationship? What's next - rules for how long you can hang out after fellowship? Joe, I'm sorry but it's 9:00pm. Since you're in a Bible study, not a fellowship, I'm afraid you're going to have to leave. You're welcome to read the Bible and sit in the meeting, but you can't really fully participate in the cookies because you have a mortgage. Sheesh - you don't even have to go to a Westboro Baptist church for the service. You can experience all of the same ignorance and hate right in someone's home. And chip in $10 at the same time where $8 of it goes straight to the pope at HQ. Aren't you so glad you have a new president? Making cutting edge rightly divided decisions like this? I mean with these decisions we should see the Way on the magazine covers of all the Christian periodicals as the fastest growing church in the world, right?

Good article on rationalizing mistakes – thanks for that link Bolshevik !!! The article reminded me of how much the TWI mindset is geared toward masking cognitive dissonance – or how to explain away the issues when TWI beliefs come in contact with reality. We were encouraged to base financial decisions on ideas like “putting the word first” – things put forth in “Christians Should Be Prosperous”, teachings on the law of believing or other nonsense that went along the lines of wishful thinking (ok – there, I said it). If you did not receive the desired results then obviously you deviated from the “sound principles” in TWI doctrine – you did something wrong. Another thing is that life is complicated enough – without adding the impractical complexities of TWI doctrine that justify giving reality the cold shoulder. In my opinion, nothing does more to cloud one’s understanding of how things work than to navigate life’s journey based on TWI’s convoluted-treasure-hunt-map of life. At first, it was so scary for us applying for a home loan so soon after leaving TWI. But as we went through the process it got simpler and less stressful – it was one of those ah-yes-this-is-what-adults-do moments. Another thing that bugs me about their “no debt” policy – it’s a rather dogmatic interpretation of Romans 13 owe no man anything but to love one another. Personally, I lean more toward the NIV translation of Rom.13: 8 - Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another...to me, this conveys the idea of being financially responsible to any debts you may have – and even though you eventually pay them off - you are still indebted to love one another. Looking back - I guess I am also suspicious of leadership’s motivation in pushing “no-debt”. I remember a line of thought that stuck with me after I got off the WOW field – something like you should be ready to move in 24 hours – I got it from somewhere – maybe a teaching of vp’s – I don’t know….I remember another “gem” – to travel fast and far in this ministry you have to travel light… Anyway, I think those “gems” really helped leaders persuade folks to go WOW, Corps, to go into other programs, or even just move to another part of town to open a fellowship there - since they were not tied down with any financial responsibilities. Hopefully the old clunker held together by Way bumper stickers would get them there safe and sound…And just think of all that money people waste in home ownership – with repairs and improvements – when that money could go to TWI of course!

Just remember everyone's situation is different. Use this "Rent or Buy?" Calculator LINK Then you can decide how well you've managed your God's money. If you still can't make a decision on that, just remember there is always THIS

I daren't even begin to imagine how nuts this page would have been over the last few months if there'd still been a Political forum. Or how even nutsier it would be after tomorrow - whichever candidate wins - neither of whom appears to have much merit. But that's another story, and not one for here.

I personally confronted dictor in his bunny hatch motor coach in early 1983. I have recounted the utter futility of this idealistic (on my part only) endeavor to "practice what we preached" here at the GSC several times. Dictor Paul denied and lied about his immoral, aberrant and pathological behavior, and took those lies proudly to his waterlogged grave. Geer gleefully carried the lies to myth-legend status to serve himself and Walter Cummins as the true "mantle carriers"......LOL! They're still working in their "eagerly awaited" advanced class redux. Hope they get it done in time to compete with jallyroll Lynn and "rev" Gerry wrenn and their Wierwille revisionism. A bunch of fat leeches feasting on the blood of innocent and sincere ex-wayfers by spoon-feeding them the same old pablum and self-serving man-of-God, take the place of the absent Christ doctrine their faddah in da woid used to suck the money out of his followers. Still works on the waybrained like the charm it was when Dictor was alive. Dictor is still the good ole cashcow for these jerks. They continue in their Vic-shaped identities to this day, demonstrating incredible capacity for lying, self-delusion, convenient selective memory loss, and fraud. ALL (wrenn, lynn, seed, finnegan, geer, cummins, schoenheit, maurice goulet, Lester Wiley carver, TLTF, SOWERS, and a host of other twit offshoots around the world) succeed only to the extent they can keep the ex-wayfers enchanted by the apostle/mog for this our day, and time, and hour(sic!) legend of their faddah-in-da-woid. There are still a couple of thousand of ex-wayfer a wandering aimlessly that these leeches can attract. Or, is it attack? So.....I am definitely in the confront-the-dang-out-of-them-all mindset. How can any rational, compassionate human being be a part of acquiescent assent to their banal .... through silence and indifference?