Ham

Yep. But the tactic is based upon an unproven premise, that when they reach the end of the rainbow, the money will still be there, or have value. My bible says something about trusting in uncertain riches..

Yeah, Oldies.. you can drive! Of course "better" is a relative term. Better than what? Oh yeah.. the new classes. Must be "better" than the old wineskins.. somebodies gotta pay for that little investment. "Unlike our old horse poop, we now make sure it is well cooked."

Sounds typical. No apologies or explanations for what happened. Just "come back, the water is a little warmer now.."

It was not a bribe either. "If you do so and so, I will pay for the car." The lady saw what she perceived a change for the positive in her son's life and wanted to contribute something, out of love. I think the leadership wanted to kick him off the field- somebody higher up still had some common sense.

Plus he had all the payments, cash in hand. For the whole year. The leadership was aware of all of these details. Insurance paid for the year. If the mom did indeed fall into hard times, it would not have made a bit of difference. Still, they ranted.. you know, yell first, then try to figure out what's really going on later.

I suppose I should have included that with the post. All car expenses were paid. He was only expected to take over expenses after the WOW year.

Oldies, the guys mom paid for the thing for the whole year. This included the actual car payments, insurance, and a modest supply of gas money. Stupid? I am not quite so sure.

Oh yes, House.. the new classes. They must be so proud of themselves. That's another phrase in itself, "You will be so blessed to take the new class.."

"We are kindler and gentler now. You are still expected to sit at rapt attention, for two hours at a time, but we afford you the blessing of sitting, not in the hard as a rock metal chairs of old. They may be slightly padded for your comfort."

"And you should be thankful. We are only charging you fifty dollars for 60 years of "research" that any second-rate hack could study and regurgitate from our old worn out library of materials."

"blessed to cart the kids off God knows where again, quit your job so you can be able to meet our schedule for the new class, etc.."

If they call subjecting the four to five hundred "qualified" folks to this "publication", I think they are seriously in trouble. At least the chief regurgitator may be a little nicer guy.

House, no problemo. Actually, this turned out to be "my kind of thread". I have been thinking about a lot of those little phrases for a while. "Everybody serves something; why not serve the best?" A lot of those stupid phrases were framed in the form of a question- only one answer possible. "Why of course I would want to serve the best." Too bad it turned out to really mean, "everybody serves something: why not serve the BOT?"

I don't know about you Trefor, but they did ask me. And about anybody else I knew that went also. Maybe you were just extra special!

One of the WOWs in my "family" acquired a car on credit for the year. His mother had actually made payment for him for the year. I think she forked over the whole amount to him, he just had to mail it in to the bank. They raked him over the coals because he acquired debt in the middle of the WOW year. This was in 1977. Maybe this was an exception back then, I don't know.

I imagine that the present leadership may think that "well, that is just old news, how is that relevant?" My answer is: 1. I actually witnessed it. 2. Things are proven to be far worse now.

Reminds me of what one of my old leadership said.. I remember him ranting on and on about how devilish it was for his parents to go to, God forbid, "Marriage encounter". What really made him mad was that it actually worked, they worked out issues and saved the marriage. These were his own parents! My impression was that he was actually angry that it worked out, because he ranted that they really needed "Da Verd" as revealed in PFAL, that the marriage should come second. He even stated that whatever help they received must have been some kind of counterfiet. Wowser. This was back in 1979. My alarms went off, too bad I ignored them..

I remember ole Craigers harping on how devilish the holocaust museum was. Now it kinda makes me wonder if he was weighing how history was going to treat him...

The kind of inheritance they will leave behind.. makes me think of some of the really bad Nazi's that escaped judgement after WWII. Their victims chased them with about the same amount of mercy that the Nazi's showed to them. Makes it kind of hard to live from day to day with peace of mind I would imagine, even if you are sitting in the lap of luxury.

But what do the kids, or those that follow next in the organization inherit? Same bad name. Same reputation. Maybe they don't deserve it, maybe they do. But they don't have a choice. And this stuff does not go away.

I think Igotout may have already given the best advice, fold the organization, and give the assets to another organization that can really do something good with it.

Fear would explain it.. but most of what has happened is public knowledge. It just seems to me, the logical thing to do (and I know this is asking for the next to impossible) would be to at least try to fix it. The price tag is only going to go up; the longer they wait, the worse it's gonna get.

Their "fine reputation as a biblical research organization" has already been tarnished, and beyond repair. All they have left is a boat load of arrogance that their belief is "The Way", and that no one else should have the audacity to have any similarity to their name.

"The way" things look, they will end up dying with that belief. I feel sorry for the people they will leave behind. They should inherit something better.

I don't know.. I know at least a few of them read this stuff. Maybe it's one more appeal to really do something right.

I had the same experience when I went WOW in 77. "are you in debt?" "no." "OK." That was it. My, things sure changed..

They may not ask for your tax records, but from the close scrutiny some of the people here have endured, they just as well might have.

I agree.. nowadays though, they have their noses so far up your financial rear end that they know what you had for breakfast.

Cripe, they sure like to change those definitions. And you would almost have to forget the old one before remembering the new. Quote an old definition, and you might be in the same amount of trouble as if you forgot your name tag!

One of the more "remarkable" statements that I remember from PFAL regarding fear was that "I have never seen anything that destroys mens ministries more than fear." (Approximate quote). Having been out of da ministry for a few years, and reading posts at this place makes me think that that may be "slightly" in error.

Lately, I have more of the opinion that sexual sin: adultery, rape, etc., of ministers (especially when it involves those in his care) in an organization does more to bury an organization than all of the fear in the world.

Witness the decline of the organization that we left, and most here are of the opinion that it has not been buried enough. Though there are too many exceptions, some organizations that have partly survived a lot of this stuff are ones that have come clean, attempted to recompense the victims, fired the culprits and worse.

So, what does this little known outfit in Podunk Ohio do? Try to keep the perpetrator, fire the victims, and expect the problem just to go away if they retemorize enough scriptures, and regard legal consequences as "attacks of the adversary".

It seems to me that the most logical approach would be to right the wrongs, but no.. Usually, the victims do not just go away, and every time the perpetrators stick their head up to see if anybody is still watching, they get another thumping. Obviously, they do not care for their reputation, only the little wealth and copyrights that they are sitting on.

In light of this, I just wonder, what is really keeping them from making the situation right, or at least as right as is in their power to do? The souls they hurt are worth more than the piddling amount they have in their bank accounts. They oughta know the problems are just not going to go away, even if they retemorize the whole bible backwards and forwards. Why don't they just do the right thing?

Thanks Pat, I almost feel famous, heh heh heh.

Holy cow.. a country club up in the artic circle would have more to offer.

"As a potential follower, you will need to fill out a simple financial statement, and provide verification of your statements. A simple copy of your last three years of Federal tax returns will be sufficient, as long as you include a sworn affidavit claiming that you had no other income.

We will also need to know your dental and physical condition. Your physician will have the proper forms allowing us to view your records.

While our qualifications are rigid, many will find "membership" in the organization worthwhile. Besides, we just can't have any poverty or sickness- this is the true household ya know."

It would not suprise me if it came to this. Almost like an application for an exclusive country club somewhere.. many were told to check people's teeth before witnessing to them!

No "bums" allowed in da vey!

In my opinion, this is the real definition of "freely availing." It is "available" only to "the best, the very few".

Those who have no money or real problems need not apply.

Freely avail- "I, the party of the first part, hereby forfeit my freedom to avail myself of anything in this organization. I understand that I am to 'freely avail' myself of time, evil material weatlth, and common sense to and for the organization. Results are not guaranteed, only da verd. Therefore, I understand that by freely availing, I cannot reasonably expect any return on my 'investment'."

I would like to see how unemotional the current "research team" would be if a current wayfer disagreed with what they were "researching".

Might be more appropriate if they said "we do not commit our work to publication.. anymore." The limited edition of the few pages of Vey rag can hardly qualify as "publication".