waysider

Maybe so----but you and I are not Wayfers.

Sky4it I'm very sorry about your friend. The Way is an evil organization. Lots of lives have been damaged by their doctrines and practices. Some people even lost their lives due to The Way's idiotic "law of believing" and nonsense about being "born of the wrong seed". Some of us (myself included) lost dear friends and relatives forever because they died as a result of believing Way doctrine. I know that really isn't any consolation but I just wanted you to know you are not alone in your disdain for this vile organization that calls itself The Way. As for the longfellow reference, I want you to know that there were plenty of us who did not subscribe to that doctrine. Unfortunately, there were some who did. I was not among them. I know you said you will not be responding to this thread so I want to end by telling you I am truly sorry for the pain you are in. I hope there is some way we can help you here. waysider

"Boy the Way Productions played, songs that missed the hit parade, guys like us we had it made, those were the days, and you know where you were then, girls were girls and men were men, mister we could use a man like VP Wierdwille again, didn't need no welfare states everybody lost some weight, gee our WOWMOBILE ran great, those were the days!"

That's one of those things that sounds really clever when you're young. As you get older, though, and realize you're much closer to the end than the beginning, it takes on a whole new level of meaning.

Are you old enough to remember these? My Big Sister's Radio

Yeah---except that he couldn't tolerate franchises. All company stores or nothing.

Here is a link to some information about the subject. https://www.google.com/health/ref/Intersex My wife used to work with someone who has two children that are intersex. It's a very complex subject, both medically and psychologically not only for the children but for their caregivers, as well.

Geeze Louise! We used to have branch meetings bigger than that every week in the early 70's.

I'm sure there a lots of people who thought that's what they were doing when they signed up for The Corps. That's how Fellow Laborers was supposed to be. We were going to study ACTS for two years and then go back to our hometowns.

I'm no expert on these matters but that sounds an awful lot like fear motivation. Now, what was that retemory for fear? Blast! Where are those blinking cards when you need them?

Well-----We all have our "demons" in this lifetime, don't we? Figuratively speaking, of course.

Oops! I must be slipping. That whole retemory thing started in DWA. That's the class that teaches that devil spirits are everywhere and they're out ta gitcha iffen ya don't watch out..Bwaaaahaha! En Garde!

Or maybe it was because he had a "prophesy" while listening to Act Naturally.

Let me know if you need to borrow my retemory cards.

Am I missing something here? Even when I was a kid in Sunday School we learned what happened to the foolish man who built his house upon the sand.

Fellow Laborers was bait-and-switch---promised us one thing and gave us something else. I think maybe Wierwille envisioned it to be a way of developing Way Corps "franchises" around the country. Like the satellite locations that have become popular with colleges. Away from the main campus but under his authority. Thought he could control us remotely. Well, we were controlled alright, but it wasn't by him personally. When it didn't work the way he thought it should, he abandoned us like a ship wreck. Left us stranded on some deserted island. In all the time I was there, he never visited us once. In retrospect, I can see it had already started to crumble.

Very true. Quite embarrassing to admit you've been wrong for the last 20, 30. 40 years.

How else can I say this? Building a "ministry" on a set of principles that has proven to be flawed is just plain wrong, especially if it involves magical thinking mumbo-jumbo. The only one I can find myself agreeing with is number five. 5.Go forth as leaders and workers in areas of concern, interest and need. At least that's generic enough to apply to non-religious efforts.

Yeah, like getting divorced and continuing to live in the same house together.

How is that relevant? Ever consider how much Wierwille's fleet of motorcycles was worth? Didn't stop him from demanding more, more, more.

It should have never been "centralized" to begin with. It began to collapse the moment VPW denuded Way West and Way East.

Absolutely! "A hypocrite in all his might, so wrong in that he thinks he's right."

The question has been raised (paraphrasing)----"Was Wierwille mentally ill or simply a con-man?" I see no reason to discount the possibility he was both a con-man AND mentally ill. He lived long enough to see the horrific consequences of his con game and seemed to display no genuine remorse. In fact, the only remorse we see being attributed to him, whether real or contrived, is his remorse for his own self and his inability to maintain his facade unscathed for posterity. He knew it was a con yet he seemed to feel no sympathy for his victims. It's engraved in stone ----"I wish I were the man I knew to be." What was he regretting? That his con hadn't been more successful? That his scheme might have been exposed? What does that statement really even mean? Remorse for himself ----That's the only remorse he felt.

I realize your question is directed at Groucho but I'll throw in my 2cents. I think he was a natural. He may have learned to hone his craft by observing and studying other con-men, but I think he was naturally inclined to follow this course. Whether his natural inclination was a product of "nature or nurture" is a whole other ball of wax. Maybe it was a bit of both. I'm quite convinced, at this point, that his whole "revelation" charade was nothing more than a theatrical gimmick that he developed using the definitions he found in Bullinger's writings. (ie: WOK, WOW, DOS, etc.)