OperaBuff

Well put! I'd just point out that the term "mission creep" has been around for decades. From my years in the military and a career as a Defense Department civilian, mission creep not only describes the inevitable lurching forward that results from an insufficiently defined military mission. It's equally applicable to the expansion and functions of a bureaucracy. Having left the Way in the 70s, I missed the so-called fog years and all the un-Godly horrors that followed. But looking at all that from the outside, with eyes that gained considerable insight into the workings of bureaucracies during my career, it is obvious to me that the Way's bureaucracy was dysfunctional in the extreme, incestuous, and beyond the influence of whatever few rational thinkers that may have been around it. There was no proper functioning, there was only disfunction. To this day, I believe that most of the seemingly inexplicable decisions of its top leaders was due to sexual blackmail. There ain't nothing spiritual about good old-fashioned blackmail, but it is highly effective. Being blackmailed frequently explains why someone makes sudden, weird, contradictory decisions which, ultimately, are self-destructive.

That verse interprets itself right where it is written, kids. I'm thinking that in 1978, Hayes experienced his first (and last) face-melting experience.

An Irishman and his dog walk into a bar. Right after him, three nuns walk in. Then a rabbi and a priest walk in. Soon, two cowboys and an indian walk in. The bartender finally blurts out, "Hey, what is this? Some kind of joke?"

Tony, I was ditching my personal books before they ever started Burn the Hairy Uncle Chaff Day, or whatever it was called. A month after first taking PFAL in 1974, I went to my bookcase and grabbed my high school yearbooks and walked outside and threw them into a dumpster because -- wait for it -- they didn't contain The Word. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the public library death, I shall fear no book evil, for Thou art with me.

T-Bone, thanks for sharing that, I've had a rough few days and you made me laugh out loud with your story about the italics, I really needed that. My first Bible was the one I bought to use at my first twig and my first PFAL, I have it here in front of me, a World Publishing Company KJV, red letter edition for the hard of hearing. I used to carry it to twig in a brown paper bag, so nobody could see me walk down the public sidewalks carrying a Bible. It has a few notes scribbled here and there, but not many. My first way bible was the Cambridge cameo wide-margin, black leather, the prototype wow bible of the 1970s, complete today with the ghostly outline of an old round way sticker with the Aramaic writing. It contains various definitions (gospel, sin/sins, born again), the names used for the devil, the 14 benefits of SIT with many large exclamation points abounding, how to believe, the words used for baptism, the events of the month of Nisan, each occurrence of dechomai and lambano marked with a d or an l, and many many words crossed out in ink. The first page of each book has a note of the name for Jesus Christ that's used within it, the red thread. Gothrum (sp?) was it called? Each occurrence of 'holy ghost' is tabulated and identified by number (1 thru 9d) from a hand-written list od definitions copied from RTHST, a hand-written list of all the Greek words used for "to speak". Last year I went through this Bible-buying jag, I now have about a dozen but I haven't written in any of them yet. I will likely start writing in my new Note Taker's Bible, it's a bargain at only $55, I really like it. Here's a review of it and ordering info if you're interested: http://studiesinscripture.com/note-takers-bible/

I hate deliberate cruelty with a passion. I don't ponder or pause, I fight back when it happens to me. I never used to be like this, and I don't know if it's the Christian thing to do or not, but now that's just how I roll. I don't do it often because I'm a nice person (so they tell me!) and it doesn't happen to me often. If someone deliberately makes me feel bad, I simply refuse to be the only one involved who feels bad.

Thanks for that Kit. I've long had trouble figuring out how "taking good care of myself" (which I do) and "thinking of others first" (which I try to do) go together, in a practical sense. One answer for me is sharing, I truly do love giving to people. When I go to a church, my expectation is to receive. Maybe I need to change that. Thanks.

There's a picture of a woman at the bottom of this screen. I think she wants to kiss me. Her bewbs are very pointy and they scare me a little.

Bowtwi that is wonderful, thank you for sharing.

Good question, Geisha. What the heck is spiritual anger supposed to be? Anger is anger, and there ain't nothing spiritual about it. I wonder if VPW chose LCM in part because he got angry so easily and would help keep the lid on things by shouting down anyone who talked out of school? Didn't quite work out that way, did it.

I've been looking for the financial statement that I received from HQ back in the 70s during my wow year, but I can't find it. The statement was seriously wrong. Their end-of-year statement that they mailed to me which showed how much my wow family donated was far short of what we actually sent. I used to have copies of all the weekly forms that I mailed in (what were they called? i forget) along with that end-of-year form, and it was shocking how much they failed to report receiving from us. Hopefully I didn't toss them, but I may have... Burn the ballast, and all that. I'm having a really ugly week and could use some prayer. Thanks.

Wanted to take a minute to say thank you for this site. I think. Or not. I'm not sure. Being in the Way and/or being an ex-Wayer way is a bit like riding a rocket. If you can hold on and sit on the rocket nose, it's a helluva ride. If you slip off, you are likely to get thumped by one of the rocket fins and wind up gasping for air in the exhaust plume. That is quite possibly the worst analogy ever drawn in the history of goodbyes. But you know what I mean. I said some things in these forums that I didn't mean. I sometimes lied. What's worse, I failed to say some things in these forums that I should have said. Things like how much I love all of you people. Things like how I would not trade my time and memories in the Way for anything. I wouldn't even trade the uglier memories for anything. Who can forget the thrill of riding on a hot rocket? OK, the more I use that analogy the worse it gets. Sorry. Much to my surprise, I've been looking for a church or fellowship to join lately, but with no success. Tried CFF, but no joy. I just can't stomach regular churches. What are they doing with those PowerPoint projections above the altar and some sucky rock band plunking away up on the stage? What is this, grade school? Blech. Anyway, thanks Paw It's been great. It's been awful. I love you all. We will meet again, and there will be no more pain. xxoo.

That is a very interesting teaching, one I had not heard before, thanks for the link. Interesting too, isn't it, how the Word keeps the Aramaic and translates it for us, right there as part of the text. Similar to John 19:13 and 19:17.

Oh sheeesh. For a minute there, I thought it was Franco Harris. LCM apparently had a thing for wearing girly clothes. That, or clothes from The Sopranos.

Bingo! Your turn

If you're driving into town with a dark cloud above you Dial in the number who's bound to love you.

My eyes!! My eyes!! *** OK, break it to me gently. Who was that in the Paul of Tarsus halloween costume?

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini. If you're driving into town with a dark cloud above you

That was my path too, sky. Then again I left in 1976, long before the splinters started flying. The first several years after leaving were my drug years, which I ended very abruptly one snowy Sunday morning in 1980 in Cleveland, OH. It took me 5 or 6 years to rebuild the self-confidence, composure, and drive needed to succeed in the real world after leaving the weird cocoon that was The Way. Sometimes I miss not being part of a ministry today, but there are lots of us out here who don't belong to any tax dodge corporation ministry, yet we continue to do the Lord's work in our daily lives. Lots of us. I don't need no stinkin' splinter group. I'll just keep relying on my Ph.D from the College of Hard Knocks to get me through.

There's lots of certifiably crazy people in the world. Most of them are not wearing name tags. Hurt some other way.

I don't know what that means, to be given a personal prophecy. I'm assuming it means this Greg guy came up to you and said something to you that he claimed was a message from God for you. Is that the deal? I'm reminded of a story I once heard from a guy who worked in the US embassy in Moscow, back in the days of the former Soviet Union. He would sometimes attend cocktail parties and receptions that they used to hold with the Soviet government types. This guy said that when he got stuck talking to some hard-core communist who wouldn't shut up, his favorite game was to quote Marx to the commie. Except he wasn't really quoting Marx, he would just make something up! The Soviet would say something and then this guy would rebut with, "Well, you know, it was Lenin himself who once said..." or "Of course, your own Karl Marx once wrote..." and then he would just reach down and pull something right out of his butt and credit Lenin or Marx for having said it! It always worked like a charm, the guy said, because even the most hard-core communist didn't actually know everything that Lenin or Marx had ever said. The commie would just agree with whatever it was this guy had made up, not wanting to appear ignorant.

Rozilla. Heh! I've seen that GSC picture of Rozilla floating and gloating in her bathing suit in that cheap above-ground swimming pool at her house. You'd think, with the millions of dollars that TWI has in the bank, they could afford a respectable in-ground pool for her to cool her thunder thighs in the summer heat. She works hard, after all. Oh. Right. This thread is about Loy. So I should keep the thread going. OK. Here it goes. Loy is an ijjit who spends too much time thinking with his little head. Loy must feel like .... for steering God's own household onto the rocks. One must admit, though, that Loy has better legs than Rozilla. At least he used to. From what I remember about them. Very firm thighs.

I should like to drink absinthe with the impressionists. For one month only. Not long enough to risk feeling the need to cut off an ear, mind you. For one month, I would like to sip and sup with Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, and all the other original masters of blur.

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. According to this article in the London Telegraph, priests in Devon have staged a fashion show, complete with runway, to show off their fancy, custom-made clerical dresses robes. OperaBuff must take issue with the last paragraph of the newspaper article, which quotes a female priest who says: "My stoles say something about my faith, the place in which I am serving and, most of all, point to the gospel of Christ... My green stole, for example, reflects the water and hills of my new home and parishes." You're cutting into my territory, sister. Back off, and nobody gets hurt. The bowl full of diamonds and emeralds on my head represents years of hard work. Just ask your Queen, if you don't believe me...