Twinky

Ridiculous, isn't it! Not even an accurate word. Phobias are unreasonable fears. "Phobia" doesn't mean "dislike." Like "homophobic." Or "transphobic." Does one have an unreasonable fear of homosexuals? Of transsexuals? Or rather, a dislike or distrust of same? Or even no concern of any kind at all I sometimes wonder if the people really pushing those agendas are "normal-phobic" and can't abide anyone who's not like them or as noisy about their "thing" as they themselves are. We're all so busy being pushed to be PC that at times it seems the world has become "rational-phobic" or "common sense-phobic."

Allan, this is how "Auntie" reported it. Speakers' Corner: Woman attacked with knife - BBC News This attack hasn't had a lot of coverage, but there has been some; it's not been ignored. That's likely because there is more concern over covid figures, which are rapidly increasing with the delta variant; and a pay award to the NHS is subject to some fierce argument ("It's derisory!" "It's too much!" "They're heroes!" "No other public staff are getting pay rises!" etc etc). The UK as a whole is pretty tolerant of other people's religious practices, as long as they don't interfere with others; but then, I suppose as a white female I can say that; if I were of a different racial background I may well have a very different experience of life. We have our own nutters that like to attack on the basis of a different skin colour/religion/way of tying their shoelaces. It goes both ways. Islam from what I gather is not a "forgiving" religion, especially towards those who become apostates to that religion, like the woman you refer to. The Islamic background is more of a "shame" basis than the Christian view, which is a "sin" basis; "shame" is alien to Christians. But Muslims that I have met have on the whole been decent folk with the same desires for their families that Christians and non-religious people might have. Some are radical, violent, fools;: just as some Christians are radical, violent fools. We don't have the shooting problems that the USA has. Gun owners need a licence in the UK and they are subject to fairly strict tests regarding mental health. Few ordinary people have guns, and not in cities (farmers of course have some weaponry, so do sportsmen), so the choice of weapon of attack is more often a knife (freely available in all household kitchens) which of course doesn't do the mass damage that an AK47 will do. It's not to say that criminals don't acquire guns (legally and illegally), but generally they use these to shoot at each other in drug turf wars. You'll be aware, no doubt, of the Ozzie white supremacist Brendan Tarrant, who shot up two NZ mosques. Pleased to say the whole community in Christchurch, and in all NZ, rallied to the aid of those injured and bereaved, and condemned the actions of this - this - this nutter. Christchurch mosque shootings - Wikipedia

I have to ask, but I think I know the answer: did you see Martindale among that "group of guys"? Oh, and a second question: did he open that very spacious log cabin that he lived in, so that some of those flooded out could be dry overnight? Even if only for just the mums with kids under 10? (Think I may know the answer to that, too.) Go on. Surprise me!

I think this is one of the best takeaways from TWI. Reading the Bible, attempting to understand customs of the time, looking at verses (and recorded actions and events) in context, etc, and engaging brain, are all good research tools. Not sure that "used before" is necessarily a good way to do research; might help or might send the reader off in completely the wrong direction. Whatever Greek (or Hebrew) we were supposed to learn was probably enough to be dangerous, rather than truly helpful, for most people. Just because something looks similar doesn't mean it's the same. And I'm sure distinguished scholars have put interlinears together; but "root words" may still be somewhat subjective. And, as we know, Wierwille put a lot of pressure on the research team that put together that supposedly Aramaic NT version with its concordance.

Interlinear was probably fine, but weren't the others bordering on heresy??

Tbone, your extract above brings to mind a certain other current political cult.

Some weird stuff out there.

Hey, new episode of The Handmaid's Tale this evening. Haven't watched it yet. Now we really are way LOL!

Somewhere between The Matrix and Brave New World, then?

Ah, yeah. Revelation. Direct from God himself. But seriously... we all know how sneaky abuse was, in TWI. And some women know better than others. And we've all heard of the abuses that took place in major denominations, that were covered up for decades.

My friend is the safeguarding officer at a big church. There have been over the years various issues. What exactly do you do with the paedophile in your congregation? The rapist? The man who beats his wife? Especially if the victim is also a member of the same congregation! The church recognises that ALL are sinners. ALL of us have sins; some are more obvious and some are still hidden away. And so the church continues to welcome these people into the congregation. Forgiveness, yes, but wisdom too. There is a price to pay. Perhaps an abuser may not attend certain services (which the victims attend). Perhaps an abuser may only attend if someone else (a nominated person) is also there. I don't know all the rules for ordinary congregants, I only know that each case is determined on its own circumstances. And every care is taken to ensure the safety of vulnerable people, of victims. The diocese would deal with abusive clergy; there are other rules for such. Safeguarding is taken very seriously these days. Pretty much all churches have safeguarding policies which are openly available on their websites. Nominated persons are named, with contact details. Anyone who has any contact in a leadership-type capacity with children or vulnerable adults has to get a police-type clearance certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service. (This doesn't apply just to churches.) Where is TWI's safeguarding policy? I don't see a link on their website. Anyway, it'd probably still be the foxes in charge of the henhouse. Nor does CFFM appear to have a safeguarding policy.

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

There's a bigger picture here. There's the predator, with all that makes him a predator. What happened to him (usually a him) in his childhood, to make him behave like that? What love and care did he miss out on? Where did the nurture go wrong? And then, there's the predator's nature. Regardless of nurture, there's something innate in children, which is why some are talented artists, performers, mathematicians, writers, orators - and manipulators, awkward kids (even as babies), that no amount of nurture can quite extinguish. Some kids seem naturally cruel. And then there's victims, with all the nurture and nature that happened to them. Some kids seem naturally kind, or pliant, biddable. For some, abuse that happened to pliant kids would pre-condition them to accepting more abuse later. Sometimes circumstances or events occur that mean a child has to learn coping strategies that become more or less helpful as the child ages. Perhaps among other good qualities (such as kindness, gentleness, compassion, thoughtfulness, etc) that should be taught to children is SELF-RESPECT and the ability to say NO! and be respected for that. NOTE: I'm not excusing any predator for responsibility for his actions. Or any other criminal either. We all have the choice of what we do with our mind, our bodies, and our actions.

As regards the AC, I remember nothing of what was taught. I thought it a bit of a disappointment, overrated. What I do remember is some great fellowship. I was in Indiana for a sort of residential class (perhaps all ACs were residential?) and my twig had a lot of young women my age. We got on well, and had a great time laughing with each other. I remember sitting out in the sunshine and enjoying each other, having fun, and feeling "at home." A number of other people I met there became my SPs. I apologise to them for the waste of their money on the WC program, especially when some of them could probably have used it themselves; but I promise you that I learned things there (and afterwards) that I put into practice today (a lot about how not to treat people). I went straight on to go in rez, so off to HQ and to do some grunt work helping set up RoA. It was with pleasure that the following year, I welcomed some of those young women from my AC twig as my younger Corps; two I became very good friends with and we stayed friends during Corps training. I wonder what has become of them.

Never mind Forum Rules, I want to post a photo but I can't, I've used all my allotted space and I can't remove any old photos to free up any more space.

Good grief! What a wacky thread! Never seen this before, read the first and last two pages. Weird as!

I use Edge, T-Bone. No problems posting.

I can see why they had this "no debt" thing - at least, for staff. People were paid on a "need" basis. And they might "need" to pay back student loans. So if someone said they had a need to be paid $xx for their needed food, clothing, household essentials, car, etc AND also the "needed" $xx to service their student debt, then TWI would be paying off someone's debt in a very overt way. Rather than giving a proper salary for someone to deal with in a responsible manner, it was part of another way to pry into personal finances. And then, of course, the trickle-down effect to minions... No idea why it should be applied to Adv Class students. Few of them would go on staff at any point, especially not immediately after taking the AC.

Oh! And this morning I am Dedicated, with a little green arrow. Arrow might show the exit route out of a certain place...!

Oh hey! I see I am now an Apprentice and have a leaf symbol. No doubt that means I shouldn't "leaf" this place just yet.

Oh, crikey, I knew a girl years ago, due to sit her end of school exams at age 18 or thereabouts. Hadn't done much study or preparing for the exam, too busy attending fellowships and helping her father "move the word." She said she was believing to pass and God would give her the answers, because what she was doing was Godly and more important than studying. Talk about taking the lord's name in vain...! I don't know what her results were, have never been in touch with her since.

Yeah, we have the Chief cook & Bottle washer expression here too. It's come to mean, sort of: a general dogsbody. Dogsbody itself being a weird expression. Though I suppose a CCBW (does a bit of everything) would be of a little higher status that a dogsbody (does menial [or even mean-ial] tasks). And a Man/Girl Friday would be a step up from a CCBW. Here's lookin' at ya, T-Bone

Thank you. I asked in this way, because I'm sure it'll be affecting other people too, sooner or later.

And I don 't want to delete all the attachments, either. Only some of them.

Okay guys, you've just modified the board. I don't seem to have capacity to attach a new photo. Nor do I have ability to remove old photos to free up space, despite there being a link to Manage Your Attachments. Did something get overlooked, or am I missing some instruction somewhere?