waysider

For the sake of accuracy, I believe the full quote is, "Hi Ho Lo Shanta, away!"

Easy access to anonymity. The flip side is it also brought easy access to exposure. The balance isn't always equitable.

Yum! I think the flies that constantly swarmed them added a delightfully crunchy texture, don't you agree?

That's the dilemma I face. Sometime I succeed and sometimes I fail horribly. All I can do is be honest and try.

Point 1.) He undeniably misrepresented himself as a man of God when he willingly plagiarized other authors and hid it. And further when he fabricated the "snow on the gas pumps" story. This is not slander, it's a statement of fact. Point 2.) In Ohio, where Way Hq is located, if a clergyman uses his status to engage in sexual activity with a parishioner it's considered rape. This also is not slander, just a simple statement of fact. It doesn't require being proven in a court of law before it becomes true.

I still have a blood relative who is entrenched in Way theology, though not involved with the organization in a physical sense. It's a thin sheet of ice I have to travel sometimes, so I somewhat understand. The Way promoted, and continues to promote, a twisted and harmful way of looking at scriptures and life in general. That can't and shouldn't be denied. We don't have to stand on the roof tops and shout it, but we have to at least acknowledge it. Sometimes when you get old you look in the mirror and wonder, "What the hell happened to me?" GSC helps people answer that question, provided they really want an answer.

Summary: VP good. Way Corps bad.

In your opinion, what parts, as taught by VP, would you say "ain't broke"?

Which road did he take?

It's a learned behavior. Kittens do instinctively meow when they are little but they grow out of it unless it's reinforced. There's some sort of parallel there to this thread. I'm just not real clear on it, though.

I started reading the Bible and thought to myself, "There sure was a lot of begatting going on".

E. Vladimir Putin New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin during his speech said the West is heading towards a “spiritual catastrophe”. SOURCE

By now, you may have heard Joseph Campbell speak on religious commonalities. If you haven't, here is a link. HERE

I've heard he spent quite a bit of time in Mexico.

29? (I'm not good at math.)

I suppose the answer is somewhat like a recipe, a little of this, a little of that, a whole bunch of something else...and everybody has their own recipe they tend to prefer. I was never in the category of these guys or even anywhere close. I was just your basic Joe Believer kind of guy. Still, I can think of reasons I hesitated to speak out when I could have or should have. I had extended family in the ministry. I was the first in my family to become involved and brought these other people in with me. How could I tell them I might have done a horrible thing by bringing them in? Or, even, should I be the one to tell them? If I got thrown out of the little program I was in, how would it reflect on them? How would other believers treat them if they became vocal, too? And, what if they rejected what I told them? They're family. That part doesn't change. So, little by little, I drifted quietly out of sight. Was it right? Was it wrong? I don't know, but that's what I did. Now, if these decisions weighed so heavily on me, how much more difficult must it have been for these guys who were in visible positions of leadership? We can guess about their reasons, I suppose, but, we'll never really know unless they choose to tell us. The cafe is open 24/7. They're always welcome to come in and grab a seat. First cup is on the house.

OK, I see what you mean now. No, it's not Wierwille's excrement holding capacity that is in question. That part is indisputable. The idea is that, if something is shown to be prone to conflicting, erroneous content, be it PFAL, The Little Train That Could or the Bible, it disqualifies itself from a God Breathed designation.

This phrasing is a bit unclear to me. Was it caused by a typo or something? edit: Not the $h!t part. I get that.

Exactly. If someone claims to not be a follower of The Way, but still clings to PFAL, they're still a follower of The Way. "If it walks like a duck........"

I agree. That seems to be an interpretation derived from fundamentalist thinking.

Yeah, that's the general idea behind the Way version. In the PFAL class, VPW says "God had a purpose for everything he said...where He said it, when He said it, how he said it, yada, yada, yada." So then why are there errors and contradictions? Yeah, I know, "they only APPEAR to be errors and contradictions." Well, if he had the power and ability to breath something pure, why did He allow mankind's fallibility to contaminate the finished product? Likewise with PFAL. If it was God Breathed, why did He allow such simple things as geography errors to enter the final text?

Let's get Mikey to try it. He hates everything.

I wasn't involved at that time. Can you elaborate?

What does it mean to be God-Breathed, beyond the standard explanation of being God inspired or given by revelation? If something originated with God, it would seem to me that it should be free of flaws. That obviously doesn't describe the Bible we have come to know or the PFAL class. Is the ambiguity intentional? It's hard to know.