OperaBuff

His website says it is a full-time 24/7 thing, running from September to June. Room and board provided. What kind of scheming fool would give that away for free? (I answer my own question, I know..) And, volunteers must have a high school diploma and be at least 18 years old. Well, that's a relief. At least everyone will be mature and well-educated before moving in to renovate the farm.

VPW Redux does have a nice set of teeth, doesn't he. Handsome kid. And look, he lives on a farm! And he is the president of something! And there are Bibles and guns and tables and, oh!, some handsome young men and pretty young women there with him, too. And those handsome young men and pretty young women pay money (!) for the privilege of making improvements on that farm. I feel sick. So, is it a race or is it a battle?

It's such cheap drama, that ridiculous 'mark and avoid' policy. Mark and avoid fellow Christians, fellow Way grads, brothers and sisters? Why? Because someone, somewhere had some paranoid idea that a brother or sister had made a mistake that would somehow cause irreparable damage to the ministry? What happened in the minds of these twi leaders that would uproot their belief in the power of the love of God, and living in God's great grace? Why retrench and come up with some cheap, cheesy, Hollywood B-movie, mark and avoid policy? What on earth were they so obviously afraid of? The mark and avoid policy was an inadvertent admission to a failure of leadership, a revealing window into the rot and corruption hiding at the top. That policy started in earnest after I left The Way. Looking at it now, from afar, is like seeing a leader wear a hat that says "Hi, I'm Full of Fear. Follow Me."

About 10 years ago, I decided to see a psychologist. I began what turned out to be six months of weekly sessions. I'm glad I decided to do it. In a word, my experience there acted as an accelerant. My therapist pushed, pulled, probed and prodded me through a thinking process that I might never have fully accomplished on my own. He accelerated my thinking processes, which in turn accelerated my healing.

Where to begin?! All those Sunday Night Teaching tapes I bought were the cheapest cassette tapes available on the market. They would eventually start squeeking and screeching. The recordings on one side would start bleeding over when playing the other side of the cassette, or the magnetic tape would break or get all twisted and unusable. I used to enjoy listening to them over and over, but before long they were unusable unless you wanted to ignore all the annoying, extraneous noise. My WOW nametag lasted about two months. It got rained on one day, and my name in magic marker ran and got all blurry. Couldn't get a replacement though. Good heavens, I was told, aren't you a faithful steward of the things of God? We can't give you another one, just deal with it. (I still have it, sometimes wear it to Halloween parties.) To this day, I can't drive by a Goodwill store without thinking of The Way and all the clothes and furniture that we had to buy there. Each time I see ketchup packets in a restaurant, I still remember how my WOW family would take home all we could fit in our pockets so we could make ketchup soup. And, did you have permission to steal toilet paper from restaurants and other public bathrooms when it was "available", since they had more than enough to "meet their needs" and, anyway, God would somehow bless them for sharing it with you?

Socks, that was a great post teaching.

Exactly right, waysider. Many things with TWI seemed back-asswards to me. It seemed to me that HQ should have been sending money to its WOWs, to help us get settled in "the field" and take care of at least part of our needs. HQ invested nothing in us to help us succeed. Nothing. I'm all for self-reliance, but if you want me to wear your stupid nametag and sell your wares, YOU should be paying ME. And I never liked all that "field" talk, sending WOWs out into "the field" like we were going onto a battlefield. It wasn't a battlefield. It was the US! It was Alabama, for cryin out loud! Field, schmield. The only field I knew about that needed a battle waged upon it was the field where HQ sat. But I suppose that was part of the mystique, wasn't it. We were spiritual warriors out there, making minimum wage and driving cars that belonged in a junk yard.

That's interesting, Rocky. Obviously, most WOWs were in no financial position to itemize tax deductions. We didn't make enough money to do so, at least not those that I knew. I certainly didn't make enough money driving that delivery truck, or working in that burger joint, or that steak & eggs joint, or that.... oh, never mind. When I got that summary, it didn't mean much to me except for the fact it was wrong. What about today? Are "real" churches required to send donors statements for tax purposes? I don't belong to any church so have no idea. Seems like they ought to. Also, my memory on this is vague, but I seem to recall HQ required money orders to be sent and didn't want any personal checks. Anyone else remember that?

I paid $30 for PFAL in 1974. Or was it $35. Can't recall for sure. But $200? Wow, that's a lot of money for one of us "downers and outers" to cough up. I wonder how many people had to borrow or get cash advances from a credit card to pay the $200? That would mean they owed money to someone which, as I gather, was a situation LCM used to rail against when he had the stick. <_<

Ooooh, I just love The Trinity Singers! Have you heard their latest? A song called "Bless God, For Christ's Sake". Goes like this: "We are one and you are one, We and you are one, Selah, One and we and you and He Makes three. Can't you see? (Refrain:) We are three and one and two Makes four as then and now, We can heal with clarity and time, With arithmetic's plow. We are two and you are one, We are three together, you and me, For five then six makes three and two Without whom there is none. (refrain) Three are we and you are four, Let's always remember two is three When He shall come, we shall be here Still counting in a tree. (refrain)

Back in 1975-76 when I was a WOW, one of my duties was to mail our family's abundant sharing to HQ. Each Friday I would go to the bank for a money order, and mail it in along with some form they gave us. At the end of the WOW year, I received a summary statement from HQ that supposedly showed all of our contributions for the year. That summary they sent was not correct. It was off. Way off. They shorted our recorded contributions. Most of the money we sent was apparently never recorded as part of our "official" contributions. I've often wondered how common an occurrence that was at HQ, to simply lie about the amount of money being received. I kept my copies of those weekly forms and that annual summary, somewhere, I should dig them out again.

Someone once defined "cult" as a religion that has not gained significant political power. I quite like that definition.

I left quietly, no ado, after the Rock of Ages 1976. Took my new W.O.W. pin and booked. Never heard from anyone about my being absent. All this 'mark and avoid' stuff from the 1980s is so frightening to me. Talk about corrupted power. The wheels came off TWI after I left. I blame Disco Craig -- what the .... was he thinking???

Wish I could say I remember u, but it's been too many years ago. Colin had a great twig and family, Gloria was so awesome. Colin and I used to compare socks each time we were together! haha. I was with Jan, Beth, and Sheila, yes. We lived out in Five Points West. Send me a private note thingy, and I'll give you my email address if you want to. How cool is this?! I'm sure we met, wish my memory were better! Maybe you will say something that will jog my memory.

Hey BackForty. I was one of the WOWs in Birmingham during 75-76. I'm xx xxxxxx, who are u? Whose twig were you in? We did have a great branch, lots of cool people. It's been so long I've forgotten some names though. Sue Washington was our branch leader.