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  1. Welcome to the new splinter group. We are excited to be "living the mystery." We read the words of the Apostle Paul and are more than conquerors. We delve into this "Philippians Project" that was started back in March of this year. We are excited today to look in the scriptures about the birds in God's creation. Out of curiosity...... I have listened to several 5-10 minute snippets of these R&R teachings and a few from Rico's Oikeos group. The corps that stayed ensconced in Rosalie's Micromanagement Administration FINALLY had their fill.......and are now given free rein to teach other things. So...........what are those things that the spirit of the Lord is leading them to teach to others? After years of the “absolute” power of the current self-appointed board" (their words in the confrontation letter before the splintering) OVER THEIR LIVES...... what do they do? They augment their teachings with wierwille one-liners. They highlight clichés like "living the mystery".....and other pfal fly-catchers. The oikeos group heads to Montana....and searches the scripture on trees, birds, etc. The R&R group does a monthly deep-dive into the book of Philippians -- keeping Paul front and center. And, the deep chasm of dispensationalism keeps them from the deeper truths of the Lord Jesus Christ. To me, I see...............SPLINTER ISLANDS. And, then....................GROUPTHINK. These corps have landed on Splinter Island.......and power-struggles will ensue as it all devolves into Lord of the Flies. Like many thought-provoking books,.... themes from this book include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality. IMO......the tension between groupthink and individuality was front and center the minute I went into the corps program. Having come from a rural, farming background and two years of college.......the corps indoctrination program was like a slap in the face to my upbringing and authentic self. I bristled for weeks to its conformity, but rationalized that it was simply a small part of the "training" (boot camp?) We did nearly EVERYTHING in groups......corps twig groups, prayer vigils, eating, sleeping (18 men to a room in Owens Hall), work projects, dorm room procedures, night owls, afterglow meetings, etc. At least, we had a small privacy partition in the shower stalls (ppffftt). When we changed dorm assignments the first week of February......we did it in a Kansas blizzard. And, we did it as a "twig-group assignment." Some of those corps in my corps-twig hadn't even packed.....and we were not done until everyone in our twig was moved to their new dorm. Freakin' crazy.......ugh. In groups, there always seems to be someone whose ego is bigger than his hat. Mostly, guys with big mouths have this problem.......whereas the moderate ones are far better equipped to assess situations and lead others. But hey, that's just my experience in all these years of "groups." I came to twi as an individual........why should I leave with a group? Some here at GSC.....were involved in a splinter group (12-15 years?).....LONGER that they were involved in twi (8-10 years?)......before finally leaving the splinter group too. And, some have been known to move from splinter to splinter.....still trying to fit in. Egads! But it seems, hands-down, the worst splinter to come down the pike.......was the one spearheaded by the sexual predator, Victor Barnard, 14th corps. Fled to Brazil.....and finally, thrown in prison. "Lord of the Flies".........the idolatrous end of splintered power struggles wherein a pig's head on a spike is covered with flies. Ye shall know them by their fruit.....flies. .
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  2. I agree with you – in actual practice it does stink if one is at the receiving end of biblical condemnation. I don’t mean to dash your hopes of clearing things up – but - you seem to have an ax to grind about those who criticize con artists and false teachers. Your false assumptions about Grease Spotters and what is the priority of God’s will tend to obfuscate this discussion. I’m of the opinion that attempts to guilt-trip critics after one’s efforts to sweep moral depravity under the carpet have failed, usually indicates the criticism has touched a nerve.
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  3. And he says all that with a great big smile on his face, and something of a chuckle in his voice. Love the way he says, TWI wants to help people become debt-free. I bet they have no idea of preparing a proper budget (a genuine budget to help a needy family that can hardly feed and clothe the kids), making arrangements with creditors for full or partial repayment on terms, what state or other benefits the people might be entitled to; and getting effective help from charities, power companies and other like organisations. I have helped hundreds of people become debt-free and I love doing it. I just don't need to shout about it. I've seen folks come into my office, crying and weighed down with worry, and clutching bags of unopened letters from creditors and maybe courts, fearful of the knock on the door and of answering the phone; quite literally sick with worry. No food in the cupboard, and with what little money there is left, making the choice between "heat" and "eat" (and exactly who eats) - a difficult choice, in midwinter. And I've seen those same people walk out a couple of hours later, still crying, but this time from joy - because someone listened, cared enough, and helped them make a real plan to get out of their debts, calmed their creditors, and gave them a fresh start. Oh, and also some food vouchers or a Foodbank pass, and perhaps also a little money on their utility bill so that there could be a little warmth in the home. I don't see where TWI has suddenly got the expertise to do that. TWI's idea is: give us your money because if you don't pay your dues to God, ie, TWI, God won't even spit in your direction (as if God ever spat on anyone!). Pay us and somehow your debts will magically go away. Yeah, right.
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  4. The "1942 promise" didn't fail. No, not at all. Because there was no 1942 promise to fail.
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  5. In retrospect – I’ve often peered through the fog of love-bombing, bait-and-switch tactics, being managed by fear and guilt, and all the other methods TWI used - and still uses - to ensnare and retain followers. For me the one lie that stands out above all others is the lie that facilitated more deceptions; it was the lie that God audibly spoke to wierwille and promised to teach him “The Word”. That was perhaps at the core of my belief system – and like the tough central part of some fruit, it contained the seeds for a variety of strains (other lies) that hide or distort the truth – one of which is self-deception. At first, being young and naïve I fell for wierwille’s lie hook, line, and sinker. I was totally fooled by wierwille. But as time went on and the reality of life experiences continued to threaten the validity of my belief system – self-deception probably took over at some point. That’s when I got in the habit of fooling myself. wierwille’s charisma and mishmash of plagiarism, fundamentalism, and magical thinking might get you started down the rabbit hole but in the long run all that can almost take on a life of its own in our minds – if we do not have enough courage to acknowledge reality, expose the lies and deal with the consequences…so I’d rationalize that something didn’t work out for me because of my lack of believing…If I found myself questioning something wierwille taught or doubting his persona I’d squelch that thought as me just going by my five senses… Fooling yourself can only go so far…I tend to think that if something is not based on reality it will eventually run out of steam…For 12 years I invested so much time, money and energy into TWI and yet I had so little to show for all my hard work and efforts…and even more frustrating than that was having no real sense of fulfillment. All that altruistic and heavenly rewards bull$hit I bought into – of helping others by getting them to take the PFAL class (getting them started on the great hamster wheel journey), of giving my all for the ministry – it all started to sound so hollow. Even the issue of the way corps program’s use of sleep deprivation as part of the indoctrination process was side-stepped by Craig or corps coordinators by saying “you can sleep all you want when you’re in heaven.” WordWolf mentioned Gnosticism. One of the most disturbing aspects of TWI’s brand of Gnosticism was wierwille’s extreme distortions of the teachings of Paul on the conflict between flesh and spirit. From what I’ve read, in the ancient world Gnosticism had somewhat of a dualistic philosophy – that basically the mind and the body were two radically different things. Some adherents of Gnosticism branched off into asceticism while others got into libertinism. (see Wikipedia - Gnosticism Carpocrates and libertinism in the Bible -- also refer to my previous post about antinomianism ) Basically all the branches taught that matter (or “the flesh”) was evil and impossible to salvage…so it’s not that far-fetched to see that the next logical step might be to think that if the flesh is totally incorrigible then why even bother trying to correct or reform it. I think wierwille latched onto the libertine flavor of Gnosticism – which tends to water-down boundaries, reject authority and ignore the ethics of social mores. It began with wierwille’s teaching of all sin is the same before God, that there are no degrees of sin. However Scripture does indicate that all sin is not equal if you look at the consequences to self and others as well as the appropriate punishment meted out – see Matthew 11: 20-24 Luke 12: 47, 48 John 19:11 . “Sin” became somewhat of an antiquated word in TWI – and in its place “broken fellowship” was used. This tends to blunt the seriousness of sin. “broken fellowship” softens the idea of a serious offense against God Almighty and having such a lackadaisical attitude may never lead one to godly sorrow and repent from some sinful behavior…so to summarize wierwille theology on sin: sins of the flesh – no big deal…besides the flesh is something you can’t save anyway – so party on… ...now putting this altogether about the New Knoxville Gnostic consider the following. I remember when wierwille showed his favorite doggie-porn video to our family corps – afterwards his words to those who were shocked, stunned, embarrassed and offended were “I’ve so renewed my mind that stuff like this doesn’t bother me.” One of wierwille’s go-to verses that reflected his self-deceptive rationalization of bad behavior was Romans 14:22 “Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” However, if you look at the context of Romans 14 , you will see it’s in reference to religious ceremonies, holidays and rituals – and that a mature strong Christian should not carelessly flaunt their liberty in those areas since it might cause a weak believer to stumble…it does NOT grant cult leaders license to use the Bible to cloak their hypocrisy and do things like drug and then sexually molest women – there’s lots of threads on Grease Spot about that. So what’s the greatest secret in way-world today? That wierwille pulled off a big snow job on followers. But that’s no secret on Grease Spot.
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  6. In his book “On Bull$hit” American philosopher Harry Frankfurt talks about things that are fake, phony or counterfeit. They may even appear genuine in many respects – but what is fundamentally wrong in every case is not what they are like or appear to be, but how they are made. The counterfeit has no real value except to those who pass it off to defraud another of something that is of real value – e.g. buying a genuine Rolex watch with counterfeit money or selling a fake art piece to the highest bidder. It’s telling folks don’t donate or lend support to any charity or good cause - instead they should give their money and support to the best cause - a ministry researching and teaching the great accuracy and integrity of The Word, blah, blah blah…The fake love of TWI is an imitation currency that betrays folks’ trust and cheats them out of their money, any resources, time, and even relationships. Real love as defined in I Corinthians 13 - is organic – great sustenance for living beings because it is so easily metabolized. Real relationships need real love – a free commerce between hearts of stuff like kindness, patience, humility, understanding, unselfishness, trust, empathy, honesty, forgiveness. TWI’s fake love is mechanical – machine like – unthinking – unemotional – - manipulative and controlling - artificial and totally self-serving. It tends to gum up the works of how relationships should function naturally. Doesn’t matter if it’s a friend, family or spouse – when it comes to The Word you should have no friends. …wierwille would often belittle emotions “feelings come and go”. TWI’s fake love is made of the opposite ingredients of real love as Twinky pointed out. And if you ask me – out of all those negative tendencies, the most dominant one is that TWI is always self-promoting to advance its own "glory", growth, interests and prosperity…In case you don’t know (or don’t care ) on Bizarro world ( see Wikipedia - Bizarro world ) - part of their code of conduct states "Us do opposite of all Earthly things!” (that’s right - when people from Bizarro talk, their speech-pattern is kin to that of Cro-Magnons )…wait - - do you think I’m going for some goofy comparison with TWI? Don’t be ridiculous! I’m telling you straight up that secret agents from the planet Bizarro have already infiltrated TWI and are intent on TWI-world domination – tricking folks into doing the opposite of what the Bible says to do – oh the inhumanity of it all! Run for the hills! E.T. phone home! It's a close encounter of the turd kind. If you could see a graph of the percentage of fake love as opposed to real love that characterized my life during TWI-involvement I think it might indicate the fake stuff was prevalent for most of my stint. Managing relationships was cut and dry. The other person is either doing The Word or they’re off The Word - and their status would determine how much time I would invest in that relationship . And if they question my involvement with TWI or challenge my beliefs they might be under devilish influence, possessed or wrong seed. During the early 70s when I was in art school (and before TWI) I had a pretty much live-and-let-live outlook toward others. But oh how things change when you join a cult. Things become polarized. The line drawn in the sand becomes more and more pronounced as far as what type of people are acceptable according to TWI's standards - why it's devoted followers of TWI of course! I can still remember the first few months after I took PFAL – how excited I was – how generous I felt toward anyone I met – I wanted to give them “The Word”. I felt "The Word" was the best way to help them no matter what the problem was. My Twig coordinator got wind of me always sharing things I learned in the class with friends from school. He had to talk to me several times to try and convince me that I shouldn’t just give away all the info from the class – no one will want to pay for the class if you give it all to them for free...oh pardon me if I didn't realize the commercial aspect of "moving The Word". ...Later on, in the way corps I had the 80/20 rule drummed into my head – spend 80 percent of my time with the 20 percent of the people who really want to do The Word…which translated from original way-speak means spend most of your time with people who are willing to do whatever TWI wants them to do...Ultimately I think this mindset even prioritized the agenda of TWI over and far above friends, family and spouse...how many friendships, families, relationships, and marriages were destroyed because the person was pressured to choose "The Word" over all else? The day I left TWI was the start of something life-affirming…heart-expanding…and truly humbling…realizing I was no better than anyone else…seeing people as wonderful individual human beings.
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  7. Well, I connected w/ John Schoenheit et al for a bit about 3-4 years ago, and was talking with a very respected leader in S&TF who teaches/counsels on recovery from various spiritual and sexual abuses. She clearly intimated that for a good while up til rather recently(??) JAL had enough of that "helping himself" mind set that S&TF would not have anything to do with him or his ministry. Of course JAL has had serious health issues, and I pray for him, BUT just sayin... She (am protecting her anonymity), also shared the statistic that 1/4 - 1/3 of all pastors/priests have been sexually abusive of atleast one congregant (had an affair, etc, etc). Not sure of the time frame for that; maybe it has changed?? Just like Drs being in a pressured vocation and being addicted to drugs, church pastors are susceptible to the trusting put-you-on-a-pedestal young women or children, and to porn which can be a gateway to sexual abuse. Am NOT excusing the abuse, believe you me. Just saying that the way is not alone in this... Duh. Also, I encountered an older "believer" my age about 5 years ago who often taught at an ex-way-type fellowship, who would have gladly carried on with me if he could have, and who was simultaneously "witnessing" to someone with whom, yep, he began a sexual relationship. (They finally did get married... He's a good guy in many ways, and maybe he IS changing or has been convicted in a healthy way.) I am just saying that the influence of that deceptive mind set is still alive. And as DWBH has already said, re: the many men who participated in the culture's Help Yourself abuses, If you have NOT APOLOGIZED AND MADE AMENDS, THEN YOU ARE STILL GUILTY OF THE ABUSES.
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  8. Bayside Fellowship Phil Bonadies has been accused of rape and grooming...his wife Karen is now a licensed “class presenter” and president of the area... You can watch the story unfold on Instagram with the hashtag #baysidefeowship or #churchtoo. I grew up with my parents involved in TWI until 85 or 86...the woman making the claims is a close, personal friend whose family was also involved in TWI until about the same time. We reconnected recently and lamented over the fact that we Willingly followed in our parents footsteps and subjected ourselves to the same spiritual abuse. Poor Way babies i know she has filed police reports and has met with many other survivors of rape and rampant sexual abuse in that area. I was involved in an offshoot in Boise, ID (Christian family matters). No reports of sexual abuse there...but the areas of Boise and San Jose are so intermingled that many young women FROM Boise have moved to there. One of them was the first to come forward re-Phil
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  9. As top-tier corps/clergy (cough, cough) splinter from twi.......soon thereafter, some of wierwille's hard-core men desire to subjugate others with new, ongoing teachings, classes and weekends that you just can't miss [and the wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round]. In the immortal words of The Church Lady from Saturday Night Live................"How Conveeenient." Subjugate --- 1. to bring under control or subjection; conquer 2. to cause to become subservient; subdue Looking back at wierwille's ministry and corps program........I believe that subjugating was the core of the corps program. Wierwille did NOT design a "leadership program." THAT was all a deceptive tactic. Wierwille designed a FOLLOWship program wherein the youth were subjugated to his control.......and corps women were subjugated to his sexual predation!! He sat back and picked his prey. He targeted the innocent and vulnerable into his classes and programs. Isolation. Immersion. Intimidation. Indoctrination. Idolization. Classes can have profit........or........classes can be steppingstones to indoctrination. Already, we see that Rico has a foundational, intermediate and advanced class/course to offer. THEN.......how about a special weekend in Montana? Enjoy some hiking, fishing, kick-back relaxing and all. Is this good? Or, is this to get you to drop your guard.........and start the CULT PROGRAMMING all over again? HOW does this happen AGAIN? HOW does someone throw off the shackles of twi's hypocrisy and absolute power over the individual.......THEN, fall again into a splinter group that runs classes, demands tithing and claim that they are, indeed, the ones to follow? It nearly baffles the mind to see how some are so easily persuaded against their own will and better judgment to repeat the same cycle. Especially those who follow those corps "leaders" who are ADAMANT that wierwille was "the man of God" who walked by revelation. And, most notably.......those who pattern the SAME pyramid organization from afar, the SAME class structure, the SAME clichés and the SAME approach that "humble yourselves and our classes will answer your questions." Screw that !!! I believe that Taxidev had it right when he stated in Splinter Cults are WORSE: Are you someone who prefers to be led? Are you someone who prefers the life of those institutionalized?
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  10. Yeah about *wierwille’s body of work – I mean piracy – it never had a legitimate leg to stand on in the academic, theological or even literary world - only his biggest fans give him a free pass on plagiarism. Even from a Christian point of view – his lying and stealing (plagiarism), his licentiousness - especially being a sexual predator, and his lack of self-control when it comes to alcohol and cigarettes speaks volumes on hypocrisy – one of the more unsavory topics in the Bible . A hypocrite professes to have a certain moral standard but then in practice ignores that moral norm. I’d say he was as phony as a three dollar bill – except *wierwille’s counterfeit Christianity was not so obvious to the naïve or those unfamiliar with some of the biblical criteria to spot a false teacher, a religious hypocrite or a bad tree - (and perhaps there's some folks who simply choose to blissfully ignore those tips on discernment) ( see Matthew 7: 15 to 29 Matthew 23 Luke 6: 39 to 49 Titus 1:5 to 16 II Peter 2 ). WordWolf, I appreciate you bringing this up – it gives me another opportunity to get the message out to TWI and splinter groups…to those who’ve joined…to those who are firmly-joined like Krazy Glue…to compulsive joiners…to wanna-joins…to on-the-fence-joiners…now hear this: RUN FOR THE HILLS – GET AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE FROM EXPLOITATIVE CULTS AND THE *wierwille FANBASE !!! *Editor’s note on my spelling of wierwille: For all you grammar-geeks out there , I know I’m supposed to capitalize the first letter of a proper noun but there is nothing proper about wierwille.
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  11. For those arriving late, this was a quote from MRS WIERWILLE, at vpw's FUNERAL.
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  12. Thanks for your question, St. Christopher.......... Spirit and Truth Fellowship International (formerly Christian Educational Services) ...... in 1987, John Lynn and others wrote a 37-page report to state their official stance against twi. Without going into all its depth, suffice it to say that these clergymen and others strongly felt that The Way International was headed in the wrong direction. Fast-forward some 25 years (1987-2002).....and this splinter group was splintering. Factions developed. Other perversions. Rev. John Lynn became a big promoter of Momentus....a perverse, self-help "therapy." A staged confrontation. Getting someone to reveal very private information in a public format and then verbally assault that person to produce guilt, shame, etc. Some have said that Rev. Bo Reah-rd (1st corps) was an advocate of Momentus. Victor Barnard (14th Corps) ......Accused Sex Predator. Read this link. This corps guy left twi and, with others, established a secluded camp of followers and young maidens that parents gave consent to. Parents ALLOWED victor barnard to have sex with their daughters (ages 14-19 ??).....SICK! Christopher Geer (Gartmore) ...... Some refer to him as psycho-Geer. European corps program......run with gestapo tactics. Belligerent, over-bearing dominance over every aspect at Gartmore. Micro-managed to death. Later, fled back to the States.....and franchised his classes. Opportunist. Manipulator Extraordinaire. Ex-Corps Coordinators ......... who have started splinter groups. There have been many corps coordinators in twi thru the years.....who've exited and THEN, started their own splinter groups. Wrenn, Geer, Lynn, Moynihan, Fort, Horney, Magnelli.....ties to splinter groups. Deeply entrenched in training the corps, these guys are tethered to the Wierwille Brand and CANNOT forsake it. Thus, they regurgitate the material, but never examine ALL THE FAILINGS AND FAILURES. Some Splinter Groups ......... I have heard that some groups stay small and local. Through the years, they have their living room fellowships and teach inspiring teachings to one another. How much they deviate from twi.....I don't know. Obviously, they do NOT want to be tied to The Way International nor send their hard-earned abundant sharing to a distant overlord. WHY? If twi's doctrine (and practice) is SO godly......then why decouple? THAT is the deep, intriguing question of the splinter groups? Money and Power .......... in my opinion, thousands upon thousands of followers thru the years find it disturbing that The Way International never gives back to their local community, nor to faithful followers. Whether there is tragedy, financial hardship, health issues, etc......twi does NOT give financially to support in times of need. Twi is a HOARDING MACHINE. Twi's stated position is that "We teach the Word" ...... and that is their SOLE responsibility. Pppffffttt. At present, twi hoards $68 Million. This is sin. Twi has been a pseudo-Christian organization (at best) ever since its inception. At worse.....wierwille was a false teacher and wolf in sheep's clothing. The scriptures show us in the Book of Acts of a man called Simon who was giving out himself as some great one (Acts 8:9). The people gave heed to him. The followers heralded him by saying "This man is the great power of God." Well, what about wierwille? He received unbridled adulation from twi's followers. Yet......in all my years in twi, I never saw wierwille operate any of the (big) six manifestations, 1) word of knowledge, 2) word of wisdom, 3) spiritual discernment, 4) faith, 5) miracles or 6) healing. Not one!! Splinter group leaders talk a big game......yet, what do THEY do? We, as Christians, are commanded to know them by their fruit. Well, what has been the fruit of wierwille's twi? Lying, stealing, plagiarism, drunkenness, sexual predation, strikers, deceivers, seducers, false teachings, mark/avoid character assassinations, corps indoctrinations, exploiting the good will and gifts of others, etc. etc. etc. You, St. Christopher may be of strong and moral character........but wierwille, and many of his corps coordinators and region leaders were NOT. Some of the plagiarized material had/has spiritual substance.....and many cleave to these truths. But those who've encountered the ugly side of wierwille/twi saw the RED FLAGS and exited for greener pastures. To this day, many are thankful for these truths from biblical men of the ages. GreaseSpot Café helps people to discern the good, the bad and the ugly.
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  13. Hi St. Christopher, and welcome to Grease Spot! I think you have a good attitude about things – I can relate to that – I am thankful for all the good people I met and the good stuff I learned while in TWI. I can’t speak to the topic of splinter groups since I’ve never gotten involved with one after I left TWI. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of TWI and what went wrong – so here’s my two cents. I tend to think that wierwille was probably a poser from the get-go. I am not one to portray him as the devil incarnate. Nor do I get into judging whether or not he was a born again Christian – I’ll leave that up to the Lord Jesus Christ. However, actions do speak louder than words – and Jesus Christ did warn us of false prophets as ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing, saying you will recognize them by their fruits ( Matthew 7: 15 -20 ) – so obviously he expects us to be discerning to some degree (and I use the word “discerning” in the normal dictionary definition which means simply having good judgment )…What does a poser do? The person pretends they are something they are not in order to gain something from others. There is a vast body of evidence - facts, information and witnesses available to indicate that wierwille was a liar, a thief and a cheat as far back as the beginning of his ministry. Why I think it’s difficult for some TWI-believers to see its cultic attributes is because they don't really look past the Christian veneer on the surface. After all, the supposed centerpiece of TWI is something familiar to a lot of folks – the Bible. Folks might be interested in the book Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible by James Sire - which covers many of the logical fallacies and manipulative techniques used by cults. Another thing which makes this Christian veneer almost impenetrable to TWI-believers is the subliminal way in which “God’s ministry” had become almost synonymous with “God’s Word” – with such an air of arrogant superiority and disdain for those outside the fold, TWI leaders often proclaimed “we have more of the rightly-divided Word of God than any other group”. Instilling meekness (which is a nice way of saying submissiveness) is best done on a slow-boil. It starts out first as a fundamentalist viewpoint of the Bible – which is a strict literal interpretation of the Bible such as in the PFAL class. (By the way, Fundamentalism is not limited to a belief in God – it can also refer to any creed that mandates a strict obedience to a particular set of beliefs such as Fascism, Nazism, Communism, etc.) I tend to think that over time, the authoritative nature of Fundamentalism becomes suffused with how folks perceive and interact with the ministry. To question the ministry is akin to questioning the Word. A true believer just doesn’t do that. Once you become a follower of TWI you are expected to go and tell others just like they did in the book of Acts – hey, no pressure, the “sales” strategy is simple - tap into the warm market of friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc. the same strategy as oddly enough, multi-level marketing schemes…Folks might be interested in the Huff Post article on the similarities of MLM and Cults - briefly mentions such cult tactics as love-bombing, deception, financial exploitation, guilt, shame and fear. In the big picture - there's some kind of creepy dynamics in how TWI works - a weird type of symbiotic relationship - which science says “…is a close relationship between two species in which at least one species benefits. For the other species, the relationship may be positive, negative, or neutral” –but if I may borrow the idea – TWI may be like a strange symbiotic relationship between two kinds of people – those who are truly kind & helpful and those who are Pharisee-grade cruel, harmful and exploitative. . Just to be clear, TWI as the whole enchilada is based on the lies, deceit and delusions of a con artist, wierwille and still continues to this day grooming leadership to exploit followers. II Peter 2 is similar to Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7 – it speaks of false prophets and false teachers and says “In their greed these teachers will exploit you…”Overall, the dominant characteristic of TWI has always been parasitic – habitually…selfishly using people. ...as a side note - maybe there's another perhaps spiritual dimension - or just from my perspective anyway – I think there were times when it was God working behind the scenes along with some good and kind TWI-believer helping me get through some tough times...And there were also times when it must have been God alone who helped me hang in there despite how much some TWI-a$$hole tried to crush my soul. Having been through the WOW program and especially the Way Corps training program I really got a bead on TWI’s cult tactics after I left and began to deeply reflect on my experience. I don’t think your average TWI-believer (who is NOT way corps) has a clue of the actual nuts and bolts of an abusive organization like TWI. At the local level – twig or branch – you might have a good person running things – even a way corps person - maybe even clergy (good people come in all shapes and sizes) and everything is just peachy keen. Another thing I might add - a lot of good and kind way corps leadership were almost like a buffer to cushion the impact of the harmful $hit that came out of headquarters. God forbid you should have some TWI-a$$hole (TWI-a$$holes come in all shapes and sizes too – and tend to get bent all out of shape and want to cut you down below their exaggerated size if you don’t toe the corporate line). So maybe “can’t see the forest for the trees” might explain why some folks at the local level – for whatever reason - scratch their heads and ask “what went wrong?” – and then leave and join a splinter group. They were only involved at the local level and did not see the big picture. Like I said, I can’t speak from experience about splinter groups. I just think if it involves regurgitating wierwille-dogma, whitewashing wierwille and preserving his fan base I’m not interested.
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  14. The ministry wasn't "ruined by a few corrupt individuals". The ministry was corrupt from its very inception, clear back to when Wierwille decided to steal the works of other people and claim they were the results of his own research or that God had given them to him by revelation. That being said, there were a lot of wonderful people that passed through The Way. Many good experiences were mixed with the bad. In no way does that excuse the reality of The Way's truly corrupt nature.
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  15. In twi's organization chart.......corps coordinators were near the top of the pyramid. With the abysmal fallout of that program, this position no longer warrants such prestige or access to the spotlight as it did in the late 70's and 80's. But at that time, corps coordinators were the "drill sergeants" who led the instruction and indoctrination of yearly waves of corps apprentices on several campuses to instill discipline, protocol and strict adherence to wierwille's "Way." There also was an inner circle of wierwillites as well........body guards, bus drivers, valets, pimps, dog trainers......many, of which, switched several hats of responsibility throughout their day of twi-servitude. Some of these men rose to the highest levels of service, because of their zealous loyalty to wierwille's commands. But now......these past corps coordinators are disposable. They do not garner the adulation or honor that they once held in twi's cult chart. Three things have changed that have altered the landscape significantly: Percolating beneath the surface for years, the steam of suppression, disappointment and anger came forth shortly after wierwille's death in 1985. No longer were corps going to submit to mandates and policies that were detrimental to their lives, families and advancement. The curtain was pulled back to see the levers of power and who was pulling them. Although splinter groups began forming in earnest by 1987 and a mass exodus........it took another 12 years (1999) before Waydale exploded on the internet with aggressive, factual information for open-forum dialogue and chat rooms to herald, far and wide, the true nature and extent of twi's deception and fraud since its inception. With this extensive exposure on Waydale, 6 region coordinators resigned between 2001-2004 when these two sexual predation lawsuits hit martindale squarely between the eyes. The last vestiges of twi's "greatness" crumbled to the ground..........and Rosalie's tact was to secure the millions and further isolate the cult. So, these newly-exited corps coordinators.........Magnelli, Moynihan, Fort, and Horney.......are trying to rise from twi's ash heap of mark-and-avoid label-quackery to RE-INSTATING their positions of prominence (cough, cough) by taking their shingle across the street and setting up shop. And, thereby.........re-establishing the spiritual deception and fraud that wierwille and his pyramid scheme perpetrated upon all of us long ago. These corps guys were complicit in decades of suppression, exploitation and fraud. In all their avenues of access, they could NOT SEE this seduction? And, now......they are fast-tracking to set up the SAME pyramid again? That is why........these corps-led splinter cults are WORSE.
    1 point
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