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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/21/2020 in all areas

  1. Quote- WordWolf replying to Mike B- [There's some who claim it's evil for us to expose what vpw and lcm did- but those same people are not outraged that they did it. To them, it's worse to expose vpw as a plagiarizing rapist who drugged women than for him to have drugged and raped the women. I'm NOT exaggerating.] Me- Yes, keep the image/idol sacred, do NOT pull it off the pedestal. Protect the abuser not the abused since he is 1) their HOPE, they have too much invested in "the way" and 2) re: connecting to the suffering caused by him, they are afraid, mind-controlled, and disconnected in basic ways from human need, love, empathy, suffering, their own and others. Quote- Mike B- I believe we were taught more Truth than any other organization on the planet, and I still believe that to be true. " Quote- WordWolf- [Due to vpw plagiarizing some quality Christians, I believe we were taught some Truth while in twi, but not everything we were taught there was Truth or truth. Furthermore, there's plenty of quality Christians who've never heard of twi, vpw, or anyone connected with twi. vpw did his best to put forth that himself was some great one, that ALL the quality teachings he had were from him, and that all Christians everywhere else were flawed and INFERIOR to twi Christians. I believe all of that was error- to say the least. The idea that God wasn't relying solely on a plagiarizing rapist to get things done is rather comforting- and rather sensible, IMHO.] Me- THANK YOU, YES with a few additional thoughts. If I may share, it is still very painful to me that I was totally duped for 35++ years by certain men (and women) who damaged my life and my family's lives so effectively- vpw et al, then chris g and co, with their "their rightly dividing The Word", etc. Yes God rescued me when I was lost, thru the way ministry; yes I learned some invaluable unique truths. Yes, the community and programs were places where I could initially gain some attachments and safety in my recovery from previous traumas, until they were no longer safe places, and re-traumatizing occurred. So several things are coming up, if I may share and process further: 1) brokenness- the sexual abuse/promiscuity, the mental abuse plus the emotional neglect, and the Cultic dogmatic withdrawing mindset caused severe brokenness in my life, in my marriage, and then in my children's lives due to the dissolving of said social/spiritual community, divorce, and their father's brokenness. 2) Posts re: emotional/mental vulnerability to and total acceptance of a "benevolent" father figure's views/life style/culture; resulting auto-pilot, lack of focus, mind control, self-sacrifice, ETC. Also, for those with an intellectual background perhaps, the whole "mathematical exactness and scientific precision" promise drew us in. What a deception. So you teach me (over and over again), I receive it repeatedly deeper and deeper... 3) Naming vpw as a plagiarizing rapist- good! And I would like to attempt to en-capsulize the man with the additional names of deluded/deluding, extremely narcissistic, extremely controlling, power/money stealing, psychopathic [i.e. a person having an egocentric and antisocial personality marked by a lack of remorse for one's actions, an absence of empathy for others, and often criminal tendencies], plagiarizing rapist. 4) It has been a LONG HAUL to find and actually trust God my true Father and Jesus my true Lord, Savior, and Friend. But it has been worth it. SO WORTH IT. 5) Breaking soul ties and attachments based on deceivers' truth mixed with lies, their abusive leadership, and my naive trust/shortsightedness- it's still a journey out of trauma victim realities.... E.g. I loved the "Victim to Victor" blue book chapter and (supposed) author... Now I say YES! to GOD"S TRUTHS AND DELIVERANCE, and NO! and to the plagiarizing poser!! I was a victim who thought I was wrong and you were right. But no longer. Think I will read DWBH's words until they sink in- "... you hypocritical, whited sepulchers. You are anti(against)-Christ in words and works. You are vain babblers...You are an insult to the Lord who bought you. You are a false teacher... You preach for filthy lucre's sake... You bow your knee to Baal. You are anathema to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Heavenly Father. You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Your "ministry" is a sham and a fraud. You serve the god of this world. REPENT! Ask God for forgiveness and apologize to those whom you have despitefully used. You have raped and plundered The Good Shepherd's precious flock. Their blood is on your hands. You cannot fool God! You cannot hide from the Righteous Judge either. You return to your own vomit, day after day, year after year. The blood of the righteous which you have shed screams through the ground against you. My only prayer for you is, "May the Lord have mercy upon your souls." AMEN.
    2 points
  2. I agree with Waysider…and I like the dichotomy that Skyrider mentioned (“we” or the group vs me the individual) - and that got me thinking on how I’ve readjusted my values scale over the years since I let TWI. I don’t know if trying to live a good, kind and honest life can be considered a “noble cause” but I can say with a clear conscience that’s something I’ve tried to do all my life. And that’s probably what frustrated me the most in trying to be a successful sales rep for TWI. I bought into the supposedly noble cause of “moving the Word over the world” but most of the time I felt like a failure because of my inability to get people signed up for the class. You’d think (using my personal scale of values) being friendly, helpful and sharing stuff about the Bible with all who crossed my path would count for something – but I can’t even begin to count the number of times leaders would stress we should spend 80% of our time with the 20% who want to “move the Word”. Which in way-speak meant (depending on what level the 20 percenters were at) take the class, go WOW, go way corps, go in some program…it basically means you should motivate people to do whatever TWI says is “doing the Word”. Talking about how I let TWI’s priorities outweigh my own scale of values is not to say my whole time of involvement was a totally bad experience. Life is too short to paint my experiences in such broad strokes. I met a lot of good, kind and honest people and had a lot of good times too (usually good times didn’t revolve around official TWI functions…like when some of us went up to a little bar in Albion not too far from Rome City. And I don’t know how many quarters I pumped into the Juke Box and waited and waited and waited for Glenn Frey’s “The Heat is On” to play. Finally, as we were about to leave, the song came on and our little group of wayfers went nuts on the dance floor. Yeah – good times…btw, I also learned there how to get the most bang for the buck abiding by the 2 drink limit rule – by “discovering” Long Island Iced Tea…yowzer the good times!!!). Honestly, it was the good people (some were in leadership positions) and sweet times that made life in TWI bearable. But it was the a$$holes (some who were in leadership positions) along with the corporate agendas and insidious machinations that made life in TWI almost intolerable.
    1 point
  3. Well, my life's cause was and is as "noble" as I thought it to be. I will go to my grave saying exactly what I did and was trying to do my whole life with the message of God and Jesus Christ. I've done a lot of things, partnered with a lot of people - hell, today I pretty much did zip other than pray for some people which in and of itself is no small thing, to me, but I don't spend every day with the best efforts expended or doing them with the best or right people for that matter. My life is what it is - but I am a HELLA lot better for what I've done and learned than if I hadn't. In the big circle of life that sucks some ways and rocks in others - mostly it rocks. If I face my Creator at some point and He says I've been weighed and found wanting, I'll accept that - what else is there to do? In the meantime, I'm full speed ahead until you hear otherwise.
    1 point
  4. Yup, the millet is long gone, but the gut reaction lingers. Ugh. In case you don't know, that's an analogy for the "Word" that VPW fed us, amounting to a con of Himalayan proportions. And I should know. I've actually been to the Himalayan mountains … in May 2009. Socks, eye-witnesses willing to give their two cents are few and far between. I get "fan mail" through the Contact page on my website from former Wayfers either defending VPW and "shame on me," or from some too afraid to speak up or out due to relatives still in TWI or due to their own weariness … which I totally understand. Who wants to put themselves out there for criticism and hate mail, which I get now and then. But I knew that going into what I did ... publishing my story in a book. Wake up people, Wierwille set this whole thing in motion from day one. It was never "pure" but got corrupted later on. He was out to set himself up as "the answer man." PLEEEAASE. Sigh.
    1 point
  5. Autopilot is something humans do without conscious thought. That's what habits are. Much of what we do every day is done without conscious thought. 1.autopilot - a cognitive state in which you act without self-awareness; "she went about her chores on automatic pilot"; "too much of the writing seems to have been done on automatic pilot"; "she talked and he dozed and my mind went on autopilot" automatic pilot unconsciousness - a state lacking normal awareness of the self or environment
    1 point
  6. A great point there, Socks…you using the word “inertia” reminded me of something I found on Wikipedia regarding mindset “A mindset may be so firmly established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviors, choices, or tools. The latter phenomenon is also sometimes described as mental inertia, "groupthink", and it is often difficult to counteract its effects upon analysis and decision making processes.” I heard something on the news the other day about an investigation left on autopilot…This idea fascinated me so I found a definition of autopilot "The literal meaning of autopilot is a device that steers a ship, plane, or spacecraft by itself, without a person. However, the expression “on autopilot” has developed a different meaning. Here are some typical uses of the expression “on autopilot,” which should make its meaning clear: He wasn’t thinking very hard, he just did his job on autopilot. Instead of driving to school my brain was on autopilot, and I started driving to work! By the third week of her campaign for mayor, Quimby was making all of her speeches on autopilot. As you can tell from the examples above, to do something on autopilot means to do it without focusing on it, without thinking about what is happening." In a sense I can think of a certain mindset as being on autopilot. Where I’m doing something, going through the motions without really thinking about it. I agree with you - things could change – but that depends on if top leadership is willing to make the effort to change the direction of the existing mental inertia. That's a pretty tall order.
    1 point
  7. It's good to see the different backgrounds and experiences we all brought to "The Word" of God. I had and have little tolerance for what I call "imperial entanglements". Raised Roman Catholic and well educated in the religion I dropped all but the ideas and some of the beliefs by the age of 18. Straight forward teaching and reading in and from the Bible brought me back to Christ and a consideration of the Biblical history of mankind as more than a myth. So I went from a faith defined by ritual and tradition to a faith defined by relationship and the immediacy of that relationship's experience. For the time I was in the Way I deliberately accepted what we were doing as something that I was willing to try so I could see where it would go. I already knew from my first couple years of rebirth into the Christian faith I didn't need another church or another Pope or another set of rules and regs. I bought into the work so that I could see if we could succeed with teaching and music, and the overall vision of "WOW", and reaching people with Christ and the teaching of the Bible. So I never gave up my family relationships, we were always in touch and I considered them about the same as I always had and I was fortunate that they loved me and cared about what I wanted to do. I never felt that VPW's "Way Family" culture he built worked. I got what we were trying to do and I was part of it for several years but it suffered from a form of stasis, caused by how it chose to grow. Ironic, yes but not uncommon in how organizations grow. If an organization tries to dig itself in and establish a rigid culture it can implode while exploding. Messy. The Way's culture was hierarchical, structured and controlled by a central authority. We would say "its the Word" but in practice the central authority of the organization as the Way Corps took prominence in the hierarchy, was Dr. Wierwille. There are many ways to do the same things, but in the Way we got stuck doing things one way - his way. His preferences and ideas drove the direction most of the major programs went in. That approach continued with Craig and proceeded to fail in lesser hands as it became possible for us to look over several years and see how it all worked out. It could change, even today with De Lisle or whoever's in charge - but inertia's preeeeeeetty well got them going in a set direction and way of doing things so I wouldn't hold my breath. Then again, anything can happen. It's up to them. I'm sure if they made some cosmetic changes, moved the furniture around a little and said some nice things, show PFAL a few times again, there'd be some people flocking back.
    1 point
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