Twinky

To address the topic that rrobs presented: Perhaps we could "stop the shootings" by everyone being watchful of their neighbours. Watchful, as in snooping, keeping a permanent eye on everyone else's business. and instantly reporting any shortcomings. Ah, I remember! We did stuff like that in rez. Snooped on each other and reported each other. We could go a step further and have a sort of spycam in everyone's houses and in public buildings. Y'know: "Big Brother is Watching You." As in 1984." A "thought-cam" even - does the technology exist yet? That way, everyone's behaviour and thought patterns can be constantly monitored. Hmm... I don't like that idea, either.

Just picked up the book from the local library. I'd reserved it some months ago. Read the foreword by the author and she points to where she found her inspirations and precedents to the behaviour described in the book. The author, Margaret Atwood, herself not only advised on the film, she had a bit part - she found that very unsettling. Looking forward to getting into it. Read it in the 80s when it was written; so much of it has stayed in my memory, unlocked by the film. Film is now being repeated on TV (internet) so it'll be interesting to re-watch that after reading the book.

Donated???!!! By TWI?????!!!!! My in rez Corps got to work for several weeks on preparing Emporia for auction. First and only time I've seen the place. G@il, the librarian from HQ, came to see what books she wanted to take. She made a very accurate estimate of the number of all of the books there. Chose the ones she wanted to take to HQ, then we packed those. Then as I recall we packed up the rest of the books into auction lots. Or maybe we counted the remainder, on the shelves. We counted the books as prepared for auction; that's how I know her estimate of the number was a very good estimate. Of course, I don't know the outcome of the auction. We weren't there and would only have been told afterwards that the auction as a whole had raised $xxx - if we were told at all. It'll be in journals that I kept at the time - I still can't bring myself to look at those.

Grief! 46 years of the same old boring lockstep routines. Nothing new or innovative, nothing exciting. Scarcely any people, either. Well escaped, DWBH.

I don't know about anyone here, but splinters or any other organisation - I don't care. Can't cope with these "festivals" and group meets such as that on the page that Raf has included. My church puts on weekends with special speakers, and I always want to run a mile. Part of my legacy of too many boring meetings run by TWI. Sad really. I'm probably missing out.

If you Private Message the poster Don't Worry Be Happy, he may be able to give you a lot of background. Then, you can share what you feel is appropriate on these pages.

There's a lot to be gained from reading different versions of the Bible. Some come with a different theology attached (translating "it" for "he" to make Jesus = God, for example). There's an abundance of new versions available, some of dubious scholarship. As with any document, never forget to root it in the language of the time it was put together. Language is not once-for-ever; words do change meanings, sometimes very significantly. TWI only used AV [KJV] because they could poach Bullinger's work. You could almost say that Bullinger was the Research Dept for TWI.

Hi, Tessie, and welcome. You will find a few children of TWI parents here. It hasn't been easy for you with your formative years spent in a demanding condemning cult. I don't know if you will find people of the time period and location you mention. Congratulations on getting out. Sorry about your Mum. Do you still see her? It must be difficult for both, all, of you. How's your sister - an innie or also out? Have a cup of coffee and enjoy reminiscences and revelations.

By the way, this isn't HCW's image of a dog soldier. It's just something I found on the net. There's quite a lot about "dog soldiers" on the net. Of course, there was another side to it which wasn't referenced at all by VPW. As usual, he told half the story. Isn't it great that Jesus Christ came to set the captives free. And that would be whether they were captured by enemies without or enemies within. Captured by false ideas, false causes, false leaders. Staked, or tethered, to something less than solid. If we did but know it, we had tethered ourselves to shifting sand and not the "solid rock" that we were so happy to sing songs about.

Do you remember the tethered "dog soldier" image? I think there was even a painting, perhaps by HCW, a former poster here.

Vanity... just before I got thrown out, I got a facemelting from my Country Coord. "You could have been great!" he yelled. Was appealing to my vanity to have become more than a mere Corps grad leading a twig or branch, or some such. Wanted me to become more meek, submissive, to do what I was told, and definitely not speak up if I saw something not right. Knowing what I know now...when he came to visit us on the Wow field, when he wanted special care from me and wanted me to stay the night with him in his motel... and I've later learned that he "ministered" to single women believers back in his town of residence... I'm inclined to think he omitted a word or two. Like, "In bed!" FYI that was never going to happen.

It'll be a great weekend event ... to miss.

Yikes, T-Bone!

Promotes harmony in the home. Special ministering for women.

Here's a hilarious story. Years after I got (very nastily) kicked out of TWI I started attending a twig-type thing, a splinter, in the town where I now live. (I was very damaged; I needed the "comfort" of a twig - yeah, yeah, I know, don't go on at me about it.) The splinter couple had been helpful to me in my recovery. The wife was lovely and compassionate; the so-called Rev husband wanted things done his way, and liked to be "looked up to." He liked me because I was (ex) WC. I was suspicious of him and his egotism. However it was a nice group of people, a dozen inc kids on a good day, albeit most were the (wife's) relatives. He decided to "ordain" his sister in law (nice person, had very little idea about anything non-PFAL and hadn't even read most of the Bible. Mr Egotistical called a huge meeting to ordain Ms SiL and even got a person coming from the US. I went to the meeting but wouldn't go along further with this charade, and refused to sign the card that wished Ms SiL well as a "Rev." At the break half way through, he asked me to leave (or maybe I chose to go) - anyway I left. When I called at his home next day to collect my dishes from the communal meal, he was livid, changing colour as he spat abuse at me, and told me never to darken his door again. I left, laughing my head off. Mr Egotistical got his revenge by sending a foul email abusing me to everyone in his email address book. I mean, every single address. Along with the Sales office for some business he'd once had contact with - the shop down the road, the gas board, the water board, the city council, the irrelevant this, the irrelevant that - his mailing list included a lot of the leaders at CFFM, all his twig and an adjacent one in another city, and so on. And me. And then he blocked me so that I couldn't respond. No specifics in his email, of course, just abuse and allegations about my insubordination. Got his come-uppance when many of those leaders jumped on him, berated him for his attitude, and his own twig turned on him. (I know, because I was copied in on some replies to him.) As for unrelated people or businesses that he'd emailed, they must have thought they were dealing with a right nutter and quite likely refused to deal with him any more, or were very cautious in their dealings. As for his twig members, they just carried on being social with me whenever we bumped into each other. I found the whole thing hilarious and it really sealed for me how ridiculous TWI and its splinters really was. I had also, by this time, been regularly attending a normal church for many months, where the people were kind, loving, and genuinely supportive. And I attended Mr Egotistical's funeral a couple of years later.

I could never understand this Wierwille worship when I first started going to twigs. Nor when I went to another country and one of the people I flatted with was even more of a Wierwille worshipper (and he a non-Way minister's son, too). Thought it was bizarre then, still think it is. Even in rez (90s) I couldn't understand it. But then, the man was dead about the time I "got in the Word" - perhaps that makes a difference? I remember challenging someone in the early days and got short shrift for an answer. I have to say that in the churches I attend, although some people like to be respected as good teachers/preachers, it's not to eclipse JC in any way. And most churchmen/women that I know really don't push themselves at all but manage rather skillfully to refocus conversations onto the needs of the other person, prayer, and turning to Jesus for answers. They seem to see themselves, very humbly, as the compassionate voice of Christ and try to minimise personal info and "look-at-me-ness." [For avoidance of doubt over the "printed word" of the Internet, I mean that last sentence in a very good way.]

What a hilarious thread! I never knew there was a right or wrong way to wear a dove. Only that there was a right and wrong way to wear a (compulsory) nametag. That didn't stop people mocking the nametag wearing method, if they thought they could get away with it. It was practically banishable to wear it in the wrong way. Oh people. Get a life, do something useful. String chairs, or something.

Or to crab claws.

T-Bone, you really crack me up! Oops, that's not "crack" as in what one does with crab claws...!

I never heard that said, only reported at GSC. I can't play the item either. Has a .rm extension which my Win Mediaplayer can't handle.

In the summer months, I'm so busy that I hardly have time (my work is seasonal) - I'm so tired when I get home that I often fall asleep on the couch. I love to read books, but haven't had time to do that in ... too long to remember. Since early spring, I suppose. I listen to the radio all the time, same program on my main radios at home and in my car. Some very interesting stuff and I can do other things as well, whilst listening. If there's something I'd really like to see, I can watch it over the internet on my laptop (how I watched Handmaid's Tale), or invite myself to a friend, or get a friend to record it for me. That rarely happens, though. When I visit my Mum for the weekend, she goes to bed quite early and leaves me with the TV to watch. I browse the vast selection of programs available to watch and frequently can't find anything that interests me. Sometimes, I check through the daily or weekly newspapers, to see what might be on TV, primarily so that I can congratulate myself on not wasting my TV licence fee [which funds the BBC] of about £150 pa on such rubbish. I've never been into "soaps," what passes for "comedy," game shows, reality TV, sports, cop shows, and the like. I hate the constant switching of angles for TV shots, which I can only assume is done to keep up interest because the content is so boring. Since (at least on the BBC) the news items are often the same on radio and TV, I'm not distracted in the content by the flicking between different camera angles. Nature programs, documentaries, and good films are more in my line. On nature programs, too, there are often longer shots of whatever is being shown. I haven't had a TV in ...at least 20 years. More, maybe. Even when I lived in a country where there was no TV licence fee. I could ask you the same question: what's it like, having a TV and having that box in the corner distracting your every moment?

What a surprise. Not. So now they are a new splinter, trying to leach out TWI followers, as well as anybody else who will listen to them. " We have no desire to exclude anyone, including those who still fellowship with The Way International or for that matter, any Christian who feels benefitted by the teachings we are providing. " Subtext: we will carry on teaching same-old same-old - you can join our group, but we won't join yours. Why don't they go join churches? Or move off en bloc to CFFM? They might find they have a "new freedom" but if they continue to (believe and) teach the same stuff, they'll just change the colour of the handcuffs.

Movie adultery...

Spotlight - great movie. Not for the squeamish, though it's not so much about the molestation as the resistance to it being uncovered. Lord of the Rings series - YEAH YEAH YEAH! I was in NZ when parts were being filmed. Went up Mt Ruapehu one blizzardy night and there was the film crew, setting up for the next day's filming. Don't recognize what they shot though. Bits are chopped and changed and interspersed. Love the NZ scenery as the background to so much. Plus, of course, they're great movies, even if they don't exactly follow the books. But you can keep Star Trek.

Here's another woman Actor to consider: Dame Judi Dench. Has been around forever (professional career started 1957) and has played so many roles. She's a pretty awesome female; formidable, one might say.