waysider

I should add that I got this information from the twig leader, whom I trusted implicitly. The official spin I got from HQ was that the twig did not represent enough diversity. Yeah, as if a twig of all 19 and 20 year old believers represents diversity.

I personally know of a twig that was comprised of retired, limited income individuals. They were told, by HQ, to either start sending more money to HQ, disband or stop promoting themselves as part of The Way. This was in the mid 1970's. It didn't just somehow start after VP left the planet.

Inside the walls of Zion, there was the dismissal of The Zero Corps and labeling of dissidents as "tripped out". Outside the walls, the mantra was "You're always welcome at The Way.". Not only did it exist under VP's regime, he set the purge policy in motion.

"None of us would've ever even taken pfal if this had been done by VP in the 70s" There were versions of it done on Veepsters watch, as well. (Zero Corps and others) VP, though, was too clever to let any of the sordid details be known by the rank and file.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Ga0v_GAck

Chapter 1 "It was the best of times cults, it was the worst of times cults, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."

Beat The Reaper...definitely near the top, as game shows go.

That's pretty near an exact quote from Harry (He's not MY uncle) Wierwille.

A lifetime of learning is what I had in mind.

Needs-basis doctrine was nothing more than a device The Way used to rationalize their exploitation practices.

"College education, just like "Jesus", has a PLAN for YOUR LIFE!!! To many people, getting a college education is this 'holy grail', without which, life has no meaning, home has no harmony, and there's no way to separate truth from error. Sound familiar? Not everybody lives in that vacuum. Might be an esthetically pleasing vacuum, but IMO there are just as many 'locusts' there." College is, indeed, where many learn skills that will benefit them in their chosen vocation. If one stops at that, though, one will ultimately experience disappointment because many of the skills being learned today will be obsolete in the near future. That is why it's important to understand that college is a time and place where one learns the skills that are necessary for an ongoing learning experience. In essence, college is where you "learn how to learn". Everyone is different, of course, but, for most, that lesson is better learned at an early age rather than a later age. Too often, for whatever reason, people reject the concept of "learning to learn" and plod ahead with whatever feels comfortable. They continue to play in the sandbox, completely ignoring the sliding board and swing set and depriving themselves of heightened experiences. It's their choice.

Make sure it's the proper fork....Wouldn't want to violate Christian Etiquette or something.

There could be other options but I think the answer lies somewhere in those three.

Who said he was doing anything criminal?

How many couch reupholstery jobs would it have taken, in 1950, to realize a $1M profit? Now give it all away and do it again..... I'm just sayin'.

Devoting one's attention to PFAL materials, exclusively, is the essence of Wierwille's challenge. The actual length of time is largely immaterial .

Something the average, local believer may not have known is that Wierwille had "enforcers" (for lack of a better word) on staff who would pay personal visits to dissidents who became too vocal. Their mission was to remind said persons that bad things sometimes happen to those who oppose the one true household. Am I being euphemistic enough?

One moment, you're a freewheelin' hippie, playing guitar in the park and singing songs about Jesus, jabbering away in the tongues of some ancient civilization from a spiritual world beyond. Next thing you know, you're a briefcase toting, deadline conscious, party line quoting corporate crusader for God, obsessing over sales quotas and taking scant time to look after your own well-being. You look in the mirror one day with a sense of bewilderment and think to yourself, 'What the hell happened here and how and when did it happen?" Well, maybe some version of the same thing happens to plumbers and doctors and taxi drivers and cowboy trick riders in the rodeo. I don't know. I just know it happened to me.

Hey there, SS. Nice to "see" you.

I must have missed the part about going to boot camp when I was signing "the green card". Your analogy is weak.

I was threatened with expulsion from a program once, for non-compliance to a demand that was ludicrous. My wife, at the time, was zealous for the program. I thought about pulling us both out of the program. Instead, I decided to conform to leaderships' demands and never told her about the incident. It only made matters worse because, then, she was puzzled by my change in attitude. I can't say much more than that without betraying confidentiality. Even with the best of plans, you just never know where life is going to lead you. edit: The point I'm making here is that sometimes you do things you don't want to do (like stay in The Way) for someone else's happiness.

"Exclusion" is the key word here. He wanted us to intellectually "exclude" anything other than what he recommended. .