OperaBuff

Speaking of denial, this news article today claims Paterno got everyone to dummy up about sandusky's sick behavior way back in 2001.

I'm sure TWI would be blessed to return all of your abundant sharing money if you would ask them. They would likely thank you for the opportunity to give. It is, after all, more blessed to give than to receive. /sarcasm off /

Sandusky's wife had to have known something awful was going on. All those boys visiting at all hours, spending the night, her husband disappearing from their own bed at night for long stretches of time. How could she not have known? What is she, headless? Ex, once in a while I attend church with a Catholic friend and each time I sit there wondering if the priest is one of the many child abusers they have not prosecuted. It's the first thing that enters my mind, before prayer or God or anything else. I can't help believing everyone else in the congregation is wondering the same thing. How can they not? It's like there's a dead stinking rotting elephant sprawled in front of the altar but nobody wants to acknowledge it. Willfully corrupt people who are given powerful positions have found a corrupt system that will protect them. One hand washes the other.

I'm not a fan of Hollywood so I've not seen either movie, but it's sorta interesting that a movie called The Way and another called Rock of Ages were released at about the same time. Might set the TWI BOD into a legal tizzy, when they get back from the Bahamas and sober up. Rumor has it there's a movie in the works called Deathless Fury in Pink: The W.O.W.mobile of Loch Ness.

Hey, let's not forget one valuable skill we learned from our TWI experiences. Once we were finally on to its selfish and shameless exploitation game, we learned how to smash a cult into itty bitty pieces. That's no small accomplishment. Of course, the fact that TWI chooses inbred ijjits as its leaders helps that process.

I think it should read "What God has put together, no man can put asunder" instead of "... let no man put asunder". Makes more sense that way. Not quite as... er... wimpy, or something. Oh how I wish you could see it in the original, keeedz!

Interesting link, thanks shortfuse. I know several former priests and nuns, though most of them left without losing what is called faith; they left because the lifestyle was just too weird. Karen Armstrong (a former Catholic nun and a wonderful writer and speaker) has written several interesting books, my favorite being her autobiography titled "The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness". I found it a comforting and illuminating read.

They didn't want us to worry our pretty little heads over things like thinking freely, or coming to our own conclusions. They handled all that thinking and deciding stuff for us. Actually, I seem to recall twi did invite occasional speakers in, for corps meetings and such. But usually it was for the purpose of mocking them afterwards, or telling the corps to watch how devil spirits work in the speaker, or other fanciful notions. You're the best! Can I slip my hand into your panties later?

Evil spirits are not always dark or strange-looking objects. In the book of Genesis, Eve spoke to a shining one. Lucifer was the angel of light; evil spirits can be shining and pretty. And clever. I once knew this preacher guy, he was in Ohio if I remember correctly. Or was it Kansas? Maybe it was Colorado. Well, anyway, he could start the day teaching from the Bible, and end the day with his hand in your panties. That right there is what you call clever. Lots more good spirits than evil ones, yeah. Plus God is good, so it's the good ones we need to seek and trust.

Git on outta here! Really? Seriously?? Git on outta here!! Just when I think I've heard it all, along comes some new idiotic thing like that. Is it really true? Git on outta here!!! Were the kids required to carry anything?

This is exactly right about proper boundaries in TWI. But how were our boundaries moved with such relative ease? Well, most of us were young and our leader was older and had learned how to have his way with people; most of us thought it was all about God's love, at least at first; all of us were human beings, and human beings like feeling special, bless your heart I love you you're the best how about a back rub? God is faithful. Why would a faithful God leave us trapped in a shameless outfit such as TWI? Well, the good news is, He didn't. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13 Escape! Escape! Escape!!

I wasn't at AC 79 but I heard that VP ripped into the camera operator for doing something slightly wrong. The operator didn't move the camera quick enough, or some such thing, so VP laid into him for about 10 minutes, right in front of the entire audience. Sounds about as edifying as a propeller blade. Bless your heart.

One of the verses Bullinger cites as containing this idiom -- of how the Hebrews sometimes used active verbs to express "not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do" -- provides a simple and clear example: Acts 13:29. —“"When they [i.e., the rulers, verse 27] had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher." Well, the rulers did no such thing. The rulers did not take Jesus Christ down from the tree, nor did the rulers lay Jesus Christ in a sepulcher. What they did was permit Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to do these things. That is indeed clear, but I'm not sure it's a valid example of the idiom. The pronoun 'they' of verse 29 does indeed refer back to verse 27, but the subject there is not 'the rulers' as Bullinger states but is instead 'they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers'. With the definition of 'they' properly understood to include both the rulers and they that dwell at Jerusalem, verse 29 contains no idiomatic speech but a mere statement of fact. Part of my difficulty in understanding this idiom has been that Bullinger, as its primary advocate, did not explain it with solid examples of its occurrences in scripture, nor did he provide sufficient cultural examples of its usage. Unfortunately, his shortcomings in this particular effort proved quite useful to TWI leadership, who took advantage of Bullinger's vagaries and made more of their own.

Hard to look at some of these pictures and not cringe. Greed is an awful and ugly thing to behold. From the news article: "Two former employees of the world's largest Christian television channel Trinity Broadcasting Network are accusing the non-profit of spending $50 million of its funding on extravagant personal expenses. Among purchases, the network founded by Televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch, is accused of misappropriating its 'charitable assets' toward a $50 million jet, 13 mansions and a $100,000-mobile home for Mrs Crouch's dogs. Their granddaughter, Brittany Koper, 26, recently filed her allegations in court after a brief appointment as the network's chief finance director in July."

I love it when you remind me of long-forgotten things, I'd totally forgotten about picking up cigarette butts! Used to do that so much it became second nature, I'd pick up butts everywhere I went, even if there was no ministry function going on. Talk about well trained! As I recall, it was all about removing distractions from peoples' line of sight, so there would be nothing to detract from the Word being taught. I think that was the logic behind the stringed chairs too, if I recall. Like they used to say: You do your best, and God will do the rest. Except that that flies in the face of what is true, that God can save unto the uttermost, and his Word is sharper than any two-edged sword and will get through to anyone anywhere with ears to hear. I wonder if Jeremiah, when buried up to his chin in the dung pit, scanned the ground and asked passers-by to pick up cigarette butts and other litter so as not to inhibit the word of the Lord coming to him? It was all about control. They got us to sweat the small stuff, while they were getting us to swallow the big stuff. We wuz chumped.

We were all out door-to-door witnessing, telling people about our more abundant lives. Where the frig were you? Can't stay and chat here very long, I still have styrofoam cups to re-wash for tomorrow's branch meeting. Please excuse me while I go blow my nose in some corn husks. Who wants to get blessed? My car needs gas. (Edited to provide additional edification and comfort.)

And... you can even Dial-A-Sunday-Night Morning service and hear the charming Mrs. B. G. Leonard teach what I'm sure will be oddly familiar lessons to you: http://ctcoftexas.com/Conference.html

Good work, nice job, atta girl Twinky!!!

Welcome, bro. I enjoyed reading your posts, and I hope you write more. Yeah this place is oddly addictive, particularly at first. I so often wonder what the people in here are really like in person, not just their cyber-selves. I get the feeling many of them already know each other, but to my knowledge I've crossed paths with only two other occasional posters. Still, we all have something in common: Drinking! haha, just kidding. (i quit last year, thank you very much) I'm glad you're here. Have an aria! http://youtu.be/rJtr0xq1uI0

Kit, we must remember it is all about the new heaven and the new earth that are surely coming, and not about this present world of sorrow and pain and death. Looking at my own lot, my own sorrows and the pain I've endured and the death that has surrounded me, I just kinda figure that our brother Jesus Christ has no desire to spend eternity with a bunch of wimps. it's a goofy thought, but it has pulled me through many a rough patch. You and yours are in my prayers.

Sexual and other romantic experiences create mighty bonds between people, and I think TWI attempted to play that truth to their advantage. Such bonds, in tandem with the bond of knowing the Word like nobody else on earth knew it, make indelible marks upon young and impressionable hearts. Our hearts were all knit together, as you may recall hearing. More than just awkward sexual stumble and fumble moments, I look at such episodes as part of a plan to keep the keedz together, and to keep those abundant sharing checks coming into HQ. I somehow missed the actively sexual aspects of TWI involvement, never got laid even once. But I did get dinged by sexual temptation. Lots of it. Looooots of it.

Stories like this make me want to punch something. Unless your parents were axe murderers on crack, or some such, who in this world would ever force you to separate from them? It's interesting to me that the word 'leader' appears only once in the New Testament. In Acts 24, the orator Tertullus accused Paul of being a leader, in an attempt to condemn him before the high priest Ananias. I just thing that's interesting food for thought.

I like this exchange, found in a recent vampire novel: “You are a manipulator." "I like to think of myself more as an outcome engineer.” ― J.R. Ward, Lover Eternal

Some kind soul has posted the great Mozart opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) on YouTube. The whole thing, in one video! So cool. If you have a few free hours, do give it a try. It's charming. English subtitles provided. http://youtu.be/tlhbFk2GbcY

It occurs to me that VP and his family never wanted for anything during TWI years, and never did anything on the cheap for themselves. As for the rest of us, it was beater cars, living in cheap rentals, blowing our nose with toilet paper to save money on kleenex, recycled coffee grounds, provide TWI with free labor, and always abundantly share what little money we had. VP saw to it that he had all the power he could ever need to have a full and abundant life. Hey, there was a class about that, wasn't there?! The purpose of PFAL was to funnel all the ministry power to VP, in order to give VP a very abundant life. Rather ballsy of him to name that class after his own personal goals in life.