Ham

It's very likely that most of those among them consider us possessed. I mean.. who but the debil is gonna try to stand against their *obviously* godly calling.. or speak against it.. I believe they really think that we've sold out to the "enemy".. or at least that's what they keep telling themselves. A naive kid, just barely twenty-something, I can account for a little ignorance and lack of experience.. but an over the hill adult? Maybe it's a product of dementia.. who knows..

or imagine the promise of free labor to a farm owner who is finding it more difficult and increasingly expensive to do business..

I would agree. Not to say the money wasn't demanded.. it was almost like they felt "entitled".. but it just greased the pan..

I dunno. Personally, I wouldn't make that phone call.. the itty bitty mogster wanabe very likely already has delusions of messiahship.. any kind of inquiry or shakedown from the locals, and they'd spin it to look like he was gawd almighty..

jp. He grew up in cff, started by w. cl*pp and john shr*yer. It seems he has broken away from cff.. they do advertise his little "extreme" adventure on their web site. shr*yer was still warm in the ground when v2p2 and group made their big announcement for sowers.. makes me go "hmmm"..

He's already developed the arrogance of gramps.. and he's only in his early twenties. Leave? I think he's so addicted to praise and adoration he wouldn't live a week without it.. The pathetic thing.. he did manage to crawl out of his shell long enough to get a bachellors. Now he's retreated back to the security of fawning, aging followers in the Mississippi swamp..

Is that a Guinness that squirrel is guzzling? maybe that's it.. guzzle down about two or three dozen of those, and the "program" will start to look a little better..

unbelievable.. even back in "the day".. I thought it was "odd" they'd name the kid after gramps.. now he has to fulfill "prophecy".. shame on the parent.. #$&*!... the kid oughta be in grad school.. wtf is he doing in a bayou swamp..

Could be.. There are two takes here that I know of.. 1. He doesn't know about gramps proclivities.. 2. He knows, but just doesn't care. The first choice.. shame on the parent.. honestly.. and "advisors". and they KNOW the real history of der vey.. the second choice, shame on him.. it's a blood stained mantle I wouldn't want to pick up..

I think I've worn them all out.. don't worry. I'll come up with a few more in a day or so.. gotta have some kinda official "welcome" when the doors open..

The only thing I can say.. shame on the parents. Really.. yeah.. the times are "urgent".. hard making a living driving a truck.. even harder making a decent living with just a bachellor's in history.. or even business. If it were my kid who graduated maga cum laude, I'd be kicking his a** into grad school.. or at the very least STRONGLY encouraging it..

Yeah. Signs and wonders don't necessarily follow religious pretenders and zealots either.. a lot of what I saw in the old ministry was just plain old pretending.. pretending to minister "healing".. pretending to have gawd's inside scoop on everybody's lives.. I think I posed a fairly reasonable question. "What are you doing that's any DIFFERENT?" If the guy can actually miraculously clean out hospital wards, multiply bread, raise the dead- I don't think I'd really have an argument here. "well, we just need enough 'community believing'.. let's build an organization.." Sounds like just another insane excuse to start another cult..

what I find interesting.. is how some capitalize on that which we do not know, whether due to gross ignorance (and I don't think that's exactly it..) or merely ignorance just being part of the agreement for this stinking existence.. it's unconscionable.. what can be known seems to be shrouded in a religious haze, superstition, and "hooey".. maybe we can't handle the truth..

"Unusual".. it would be as unusual to find a bunch of physicists that insisted on the "God breathed" accuracy of Newtonian mechanics.. or the "accuracy" of Neils Bohr's atomic theory- which only mathmatically explained hydrogen. Once one looks at helium, or any other element, it falls apart.. People in the "real world" have a grip on this.. they don't think or claim Newton, or Bohr, or anyone before them were "wrong" as such.. more like, they were on the right track. In physics, we still study Bohr's development. Why? Because it's "god breathed".. "errorless".. ? No.. but because what he developed was a stepping stone along the way to what we know about modern physics..

I'm suprised they didn't show us where to drill holes in the head to let the spirits out..

It's almost like hotel California.. we keep stabbing the beast.. and it won't quite die..

You'd think so, wouldn't you.. then you walk through life.. and something like this knocks on your door.. look kinda familiar? :)

Then there was music.. while not on an "official" "forbidden" list.. what would happen if your immediate "overseer" came.. and heard you listening to John Lennon.. or the Beatles.. or ELP.. or.. on and on.. and art. Why would one want a nice painting by Monet.. when one can have a copy of loy and family's picture on the refrigerator..

well.. there was forbidden vocabulary. "luck", "fortune", "christmas", "demons", and the short list here is not anywhere near exhaustive. loy even had reservations about calling the days of the week monday, tuesday, wednesday.. because the names were dervived (supposedly) from the names of pagan gods..

I think anybody who's would be willing to apologize has already done so..

The amazing thing is they actually think anyone would want to come back..

I remember back in the 90's.. one branch guy had I don't know how many sheets of names and info of people in the area who took the "miracle" class.. I think it was the same strategy then, go beating the bushes for unfortunate candidates to come to twig..

No, that wasn't it.. I can't find it with a google search either. I thought it was Hoffman.. maybe it was a mini-series.. he was defending some bigwig or judge who told him he was guilty.. and in court he lost it.. accused the client of doing the crime.. screaming and cursing.. and was dragged out of court screaming.. anybody remember this?

I dunno.. maybe it's an immature spirituality that demands to be RIGHT.. to have a mathmatically exact and scientifically precise wordagawd.. I think some never grow out of spiritual adolescence. maybe that's why not much "spiritual" happened in the old ministry.. when it did, we'd just analyze it to death..

Hmmm. Well.. that doesn't leave me with a lot of options.. :biglaugh: well.. I'm in good company here.. :biglaugh: I once told a group of ex-culties that "I am not inferior to you.. you're every bit as dysfunctional and screwed up as I am.." well.. it's true.. heheh.