OperaBuff

Egads.

Can they not find better prose than this flat pancake of a paean to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible?

"The King James Bible deserves to be recognized for its contribution to American society. It really has been the vehicle that formulated our language and programmed our thinking for centuries. There is no equivalent piece of English literature."

Really? Seriously, that's it? A hideously passive clause, followed by valley girl conjecture, followed by a full body slam? Really? Seriously?

Egad.

There must be at least 400 GSC'ers who can produce better prose than that for this august occasion.

My celebration of the 400th anniversary began in January this year, when I purchased a replica of a first edition from greatsite.com, which advertises itself as the world's largest dealer of rare and antique bibles. Originals, as you can imagine, sell for megabucks; this replica was a few hundred dollars. You should see this replica! Oh my. It weighs about 30 pounds and stands about 18" tall. Each page was photographed from an original and printed on linen paper, then bound in birch boards and finally covered in red leather. Oh my!

I mean, golly! You paid for that manuscript in my library! I wish you could see it.

Jackson Browne

The Barricades of Heaven

"Pages turning,

Pages we were years from learning.

Straight into the night our hearts were flung.

Better bring your own redemption when you come

To the barricades of heaven where I'm from."

http://youtu.be/rHQX19KnZpY

And that's another thing, thanks for bringing this up, isn't that a run-on, and redundant sentence? I'm talking about the definitions from the A-Class. That always bothered me.

Ah, I wish you could see that run-on sentence it in the original! It is magnificent. I have seen it in the original; I have the old manuscript in my library. I wish you could see it.

Also, what is with the mesmerizing hand gestures and that odd cadence in his voice? I couldn't look away...it was all I could concentrate on.

Yes. And why does he keep flashing his big long teeth at the camera? I don't recall him doing that before.

Well, it's time for me to Be Leaving now to get ready for work. I have an actual, real job. *hint hint, JL, hint hint*

Thanks Twinky, that's all very informative. I've been considering staying on Samos and making day trips to both Patmos and Turkey. The fact that there's 'not much doing' appeals to me, I'm one to avoid crowds and the other tourists as much as possible. I've had the best luck vacationing on the islands, staying in small family-run places away from the beaten path. It's fun to be adopted by a local family, I've just had the best times there.

In memory of Phoebe Snow, 1950-2011.

Singer and songwriter Phoebe Snow died on April 26, 2011. She was best known for her 1974 hit Poetry Man.

Phoebe had been in a coma since suffering a stroke in January 2010. She dropped out of the public spotlight soon after her first album to care for her daughter who was born with a severe brain injury. Her daughter died in 2007 at age 31.

Great post, sky. And great thread. I've long been interested in knowing what a professional, who has been trained in recognizing and labeling such things, would identify as the psychological hooks used in pfal that elicited such unquestioned loyalty from so many students. What was it that happened to us, exactly? In my life I've attended many classes, seminars and courses where I learned a great deal and was excited about my new-found knowledge and understanding, but yet I didn't come away from the class feeling bound up by or unduly devoted to the teacher.

A trauma, yes, but also something of a psychological hijacking. Critical thinking skills were first suppressed, then effectively discouraged from reappearing. (Similar things happen in other walks of life; people are sometimes unduly devoted to a politician or an ideology, as two examples, and will simply brook no argument against them despite any and all good evidence to the contrary.)

If I could afford the trip.. I would prefer a meeting at Stonehenge..

Maybe next year, Ham. I'm using a free ticket for my flight, and am looking for a very inexpensive B&B to stay. There are many.

I'd like to see Stonehenge, though people I know who've seen it say don't bother. Apparently it's very near busy highways.

If you can't spend a day in Athens, Greece there's always the Parthenon replica in Nashville!

http://www.nashville.gov/parthenon/

It's threads like this on GSC that make me want to vomit all over my keyboard.

Ham and Waysider, I love you both, but... you need to get a room.

Online polling is notoriously unreliable.

God in Christ, and Christ in me. That's not a duo, that's a trio. Hmmmm... Maybe Martindale never went for three-ways? Too ungodly? I hope that didn't sound bitter.

I'm booking a vacation in September to the island of Patmos in Greece, and am wondering if any of you would be interested in meeting there. You would need to make your own travel and lodging arrangements. I'm going solo* and am planing a quiet and restful trip seeing the sights and learning the history of Patmos. I've spent almost no time studying the book of Revelation but I plan to start while I'm there.

This will be my fifth visit to Greece but my first to Patmos. The Greek islands are just awesome. Swimming in the warm Aegean Sea is spectacular; the food is simple and delicious; the people are surly and warm and funny; the nightlife lasts into the dawn.

I'm also planning a day trip to Turkey, to stroll the ruins of Ephesus.

Let me know if you're interested!

*God will be with me, but then He is everywhere present at all times, pace Martindale.

Γειά σας! Geia sas! It's pronounced 'yassas' and it means hello. and goodbye. like a greek aloha.

"Χριστός ἀνέστη!"

Khristós Anésti!

Christ is Risen!

"Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!"

Alithós Anésti!

Truly He is Risen!

Sorry Apologies for the delay, I had to work today. It's how orthodox Greeks (and many other orthodox types) greet each other on Easter. One person will say "Christ is risen!" and the other person will respond "Truly He is risen!" I think it's great. Perfect strangers will say it to each other. Awesome! I've got Greece on the brain, I'm planning to vacation there in September, my fifth trip. Want to come?

Edited it for clarity..

"Χριστός ἀνέστη!"

"Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!"

Thanks for the info and image, OldSkool. All I remember at HQ during my time back in the mid-70s was the BRC, the Wierwille home, the barn (that's where I slept during summer school), some trailers, an office building that had showers for us, and the Way Woods down the road. They sure added a lot since then, I appreciate all the labels you provided in the image.

I'm almost afraid to ask what "duo time" is. The woods behind Founder's Hall, is that the Way Woods? I don't know what Founder's Hall is, unless you mean the WOW Auditorium that I heard was built in the Way Woods. I left in '76 before all those new 'houses made with hands' went up.

Does TWI still own the LEAD business in Tinnie? If not, I'm assuming it is open to the public and anyone can pay to participate. I don't recall if Tinnie was one of the properties they sold years ago to pay down their legal bills and out-of-court settlements. Anybody remember?

As a boy my friends and I used to hitch all over town and into the adjacent towns, it was no big deal back then. My folks just said to not get in anybody's car if it made me feel weird. I'm thinking they taught me the revelation manifestations around age 10. It was a more socially acceptable thing back then, more than it is now.

Speaking of academics, which one of them decided we need to stop using BC and AD as year designators? Why the sudden move to start using BCE (before current era) and CE (current era) to replace BC and AD? I see it more and more in academic writings, and it bugs me. Seems to me before an effort is made to overthrow centuries of western tradition and practice, there should first be discussions and debates. But this BCE and CE stuff just started happening, all of a sudden, out of the blue.

The song is awesome, thanks for researching it. I assumed it was one of the SOWERS singing.

I use grits to kill ants outdoors. They eat it up, then explode. Sprinkle generous amount of grits right out of the box onto the ant hill. Indoors, I use a commercial product called Grants Kills Ants, works great and is not messy and lasts months.

While I empathize and feel sorry for your pain, I believe TWI was rotten from its inception and it only could have been what it turned out to be. What it turned out to be was what is was all along...if that makes sense.

"In Ohio there was a root, the rottenest root that you ever did see.

And the crabgrass grows all around and around...."

(Do they still sing that?)

I agree with you, Broken Arrow. Corruption does not grow from an honest heart. My heart was honest; theirs was not. All the things I learned, all the Bible truths, was 100% new to me. I was dazzled by it. Still am, actually. They, however, had an agenda behind their teachings that exploited my eagerness to learn, my ignorance of their agenda, and my innocence in the ways of this world.

It wasn't until about a year after my Corps year, when I asked for help from a limb leader who was Corps and didn't get it, then responded to a letter from Wierwille and was told I was "bitter," that I knew it was corrupt from the top down. Having already promised myself that if the organization was bad I would leave it, I had no trouble walking away, only sadness for what it could have been. It took Waydale and Greasespot to expose the rest of the story for me years later.

Shaz

Sadness for what it could have been. That's it! Why I couldn't put those few simple words together before, I don't know. That's my overriding sense of loss re The Way. Sadness for what it could have been. My eyes and heart saw something awesome with unlimited potential to help me and other people when I became involved; the top Way leadership also saw something with awesome potential. But we saw two entirely different things; polar opposite things. My eyes and heart saw liberation and knowledge and understanding; they saw control, power, authority, and money. Thank you for providing a moment of clarity for me this morning, Shaz.

After more than a year of listening to it regularly, there's a line in this great song that still resonates with me.

"Yes, I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all."

I Need You Now, by Lady Antebellum