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Any stories about serving on Bless Patrol at any of the Rock of Ages? I was on Bless Patrol at the back door of the House of Wierwille in 1981. It was surreal watching Dubofsky, Lynn and Martindale shooting hoops and performing for anyone nearby. The motorcoach was tucked into a portion of the driveway and seemed to be a social meeting spot for the upper muckety-mucks. I was a nervous wreck, so petrified of being singled out for an inquisition or something of that sort. Silly, I know. But it's my memory.

For years I'd told myself, "Someday I will talk about what happened while I was a member of The Way International. I will tell how Limb Coordinator Christoph Stoop threatened my life when the US Army JAG and CID offices were investigating an incident that occurred involving us and others at my secure Army microwave transmitter station during my assignment in Europe. Those events eventually ended with me being (oddly) medically discharged a full 18 months early, after being hospitalized three separate times for suicidal ideation. Furthermore, as the guilt and fear consumed me post-discharge, and after several suicide attempts, I found myself in a VA psych ward, which was the beginning of my recovery with the help of the VA. It was a cathartic experience. I became stronger during that lengthy and intensive treatment process. It was excruciatingly slow and painful – but in the end, I am more whole today than ever before thanks to the caring professionals at the VA. During that time, I was evaluated for multiple service-connected disabilities, including PTSD related to the experiences centered on TWI. I was rated permanently disabled and awarded 100% compensation. I’ve never felt money fixes anything but it has opened doors for educational opportunities and housing possibilities I would not have realized beforehand." Thanks for listening.

LCM was a total puppet; evidence in VP & Me... Others things... I myself benefitted a lot from the way, but also suffered much personal destruction. I DO fantasize about joining the CA Jesus movement which I purposefully decided not to just b/c it seemed too charismatic; would have been MUCH MORE HEALTHY, DOCTRINALLY CORRECT I now believe, AND SAFE. Love John Wimber, Chuck Smith, the Vineyard movement. Oh well...

So this year the JW Governing Body has made the policy change for all its cult followers that they no longer have to report up through the organization the number of “pioneering hours” they spend per week. They just check a box instead. This is causing some internal challenges. https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/s/DdBwS5j1Ps I wonder if The Way International has modified any of their volunteer witnessing policies over the years. When I was a leader in TWI they had policies for every single leader position in the organization. The instructions to every single leader included “Carry out the heart of the Board of Directors to all members on the field”. This was called the “Rise and Expansion” policies and was part of the “Way tree” structure throughout our country. It included that every local group would “strive to run a class” according to calendar goals. So to fulfill this, leaders designed similar outreach tactics to the JWs with door to door, public stands and planning and recording outreach activities conversations and results. When I look back on this now it is all control and zero Bible at the basis of this. Jesus Christ when he returns is not going to ask everyone at the bema how diligently they “carried out the heart of the BOD to the members on the field”. No the BOD will get their very own dunce cap dedicated to those who promoted their own interests in the name of Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a hierarchy of power like you see in the world with organizations. It is a grassroots movement at the individual not the organization level. And nobody anywhere cares one iota about what the “heart” of a group of controlling dolts on a small farm in Ohio is.

Your experience sounds pretty intense Rusty. I'm thankful you received such care and you are able now to share your story.

I feel that, thanks Waysider. I have more to share but it took 25 years to tell my story. I'm still basking in the relief of letting the first chapter out. It's been a marathon of a life. Thanks for seeing me.

We've got your back, Rusty Duck. Looking forward to hearing more.

When you answer "Why should I sit through 3 hours of this?" with "You'll know what I mean once you sit through all 3 hours", you should not be surprised you don't get any nibbles. (That goes for everyone here, but you're famous for that non-answer.)

Right, I get it. I've read the accounts. I was pointing to the hypocrisy, the doctrinal and spiritual dishonesty, the bullshonta. I know. The hypocrisy wasn't the worst part. It was the raping.

Paul Allen was ....ED OFF. He got in LCM face and told him off and did not give two hoots about his goon Linder displaying his firearm in a holster. If you are having affairs with peoples wives his own fear and conscience kept him with a personal goon whenever he traveled in public. I mean how many husbands would justifiably want to beat his @$$? Or more?

The answer is multifold. Sure, believing and holding forth the story for God's protection was only one part of it. The reality was more complicated. Any religion seeking to stir up the dust and challenge entrenched church empires was bound to be a magnet attracting disturbed individuals. Further complications entered when the hired heavies (official bless patrol, would get LEO certification and carry firearms). With that came another level of arrogance both on the part of the MOGs and those who carried the hardware.

Why would a THE man of god need a security detail? Why couldn’t he just beleeeve big enough for his own security? After all, he beleeeved big enough to provide for national security - if it weren’t for his beleeeviing, the Soviets would have attacked the U.S.

There were some good times. There were some good people. There were more good times at the beginning of my stay there. What should have been good times later were frequently tinged with fear of having done some unknown and previously undescribed wrong, and what face-melting that might bring. Sometimes the good times were tinged with secrecy - as if, on a "Christian" campus, one shouldn't be enjoying fellowship and an impromptu birthday party with other believers. I spent time working with Multi-Services and mostly enjoyed that, and what MS did was quite varied. Also, it was good fun at times preparing for RoA because there was more freedom to do things and to hang out, rather than rushing off to a class or obligatory other event. And it was good times preparing for a big meeting, like the Easter gatherings. But both of these were punishingly hard work with very long hours, while we had to present ourselves with smiles and big welcomes. (Even slaves can smile and find a moment of fun!) I miss some of the people. Some were the best, most honest and deepest, funn-est, people I knew. Most of them got run off fairly quickly. And some were the most priggish, spying, talebearing brown-nosers that I ever met. Many of those graduated and as at a few years ago, were still with TWI. Nostalgia or not - despite the norm of daily ups and downs - my life is happier and more content now than it has been in decades - ever since I got entangled with TWI. Some aspects. especially my work situation, weren't so great before I got involved, but they got a jolly sight worse when seeking help and support from a bunch of kids that didn't know anything of life, or of practical Christianity. I go for regular eye tests. I don't need to look through PFAL-tinted glasses any more .

Are you saying you don’t think that 50 of the Ways past leaders coerced people under their authority to have sex outside of marriage? I would disagree. I probably could get to close to that account from stories I have heard where they are in a private enough setting where they are authentic. Not saying I have firsthand knowledge of that many. But internal rumors heard I would place at above that number. It was a real problem in TWI history and leadership. VP and Howard would identify women who experienced sexual assault in their youth and childhood and victimize them and pass them around like a harem. So did many other high level leaders. A very clear reference on this site are accounts of the John Schoenheit adultery paper that was a simple word study that caused a firing and excommunication apparently because VP vehemently disagreed with doing a word study on adultery. I would actually say 50 would be a low number in my estimation.

Sarah was a victim, too, of her parents' nurture of her. As were all the Wierwille kids. An abusive father, domineering and fickle; and a weak mother, who knew what was right and didn't stand up for it. Some have said we're all victims of our parents. Maybe so. But as adults, we can also recognise that our parents were themselves flawed individuals. Be kind, be compassionate, be long-suffering: but do take off the rose-tinted glasses. There's quite a lot in the OT about the "sins of the fathers" being passed down through generations. That seems to me to refer to nurture, habits of raising children, poor lessons learned from parents by children. It doesn't mean that children "bear" the sins of their fathers and have to pay for them, it's more in the meaning of the children having learned from their parents' bad habits and not having learned better. It might not even about sinful, criminal or quasi-criminal acts. It might include patterns of speech, curtness or courtesy; habits of action - miserliness or generosity; ways of treating other people; habits of life - slovenliness or orderliness. Yet there are also promises of forgiveness if children shall turn away from the less socially desirable ways of their parents: a child of violent parents turns away from violence as his way of life; a child of a thief turns away from criminality as his way of life; a rude person realises it's not all about themselves and learns pleasantness towards others. And a child of an abuser turns away from abuse, in whatever form, towards his/her own children and others around him. Exodus 34:7 - Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. Deuteronomy 24:16 - The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. Ezekiel 18:19-20 - Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. Numbers 14:18 - The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Deuteronomy 5:9 - Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me