potato

I don't understand. how can you be dropped from something of which you were never a member?

they wanted to give me a 20 year certificate in 2006. I'd already kinda left by the time they offered, and they offered many months after my 20th anniversary of taking piffle.

now, who knows? seems like lifers must be dwindling by now.

Isn't doing so liberating?

for me it really was. instead of hiding from the cult experience, I was then able to start dissecting it and disentangling myself from it. once I got past that, I was then able to start recovering from the damage done by my marriage and my upbringing. still a work in progress :)

Thanks, that is very thoughtful for you to point that out. She has sought professional help, but it hasn't been very helpful yet because from what she tells me, she doesn't tell them what her issues are. There is a great side to her personality, but the bitterness she carries can be overwhelming at times for those around her. She's lost a lot of friends because of it. It's sad,really.

it took me several years of intensive therapy before I could admit I'd been in a cult. I was simply too ashamed, and afraid no one could relate. it's entirely possible that your friend has the same fear, which is preventing her from healing, and the hurt is just festering and leaking out everywhere. how can you get to the point of acceptance (and I don't even believe in the forgiveness bullsh!t that the touchy-feely spiritual therapies embrace - sorry if that offends anyone, but I think forgiveness is over-rated) and if you don't get there, the bitterness won't go away.

hey eagle 709:

if you really knew what was going on as you claim, then you probably owe apologies to some people. this is the ideal place to make that happen.

how about an option for "I found out about the corruption and left when it became clear the BOT did not intend to take responsibility."

But, but, but, hate can keep us so warm at night!!!!

oh it can indeed. the key is remembering to hate the right people when it gets chilly in the night. my ex for instance. or lcm. I get real warm fuzzies thinking about his fall from power and it puts me right to sleep, all cozy. vpw I somehow can't derive the same warmth from, unless I remember he died possessed by a devil, but somehow that doesn't seem like enough.

You desperately need to read Tom Robbins, "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates"...especially if you like irritating stupid people I can also highly recommend "Still Life with Woodpecker."

hehe, I forgot I had that listed in my interests :)

What? They said boiled, scalloped or French fried?

WORSE. they said mashed.

I agree with whoever said Martindale exceeded Wierwille in general wordiness.

<snip>

that's why I couldn't read that awful thing he supposedly wrote. that book. R&E or whatever it was. I feel really sorry for anyone who had to ghost-write to his standards.

Jeff, you summed up my reaction pretty well. thank you.

I have a question. what accommodations are made for disabled participants, or are they declined permission to participate until they get healed?

that was brilliant, excie.

OMG....LOL...faling over now...whoo hooooo

Watch it Tater!

Doubtlessly Mr. Wallace has a whole slew of nasty tricks up his sleave to bully you into silence...

LOL...falling over...whoo hooooo

(((takes a bow)))

I wish I could post the ones I know about in detail, I truly do, because they're amazing. I just don't want the attention and I don't want it on my friends. I'm more concerned about the impact on them.

someday I'll write my memoirs, though :)

The W@ll@ces make it a practice of lying or witholding the truth whenever it serves their purposes. J0:)sephine remained silent in a meeting when M@rk made an accusation against me she knew to be false. However, for her to contradict him in this meeting would have exposed a serious communication flaw between them, so despite me staring at her and waiting for her to speak up, she refused to look at me and remained silent while her husband's false accusations flew.

So typical of their behavior. So typical of TWI. Yeah, real quality folks doing a quality job for their god.

that seemed to be typical of the behavior expected of wives. we were supposed to hold it in until AFTER the meeting. our submission was more important than the truth. the public image of our man was more important than protecting the innocent from false accusations.

Jo$ephine, you should be ashamed of yourself. you could leave, you know that, and do something worthwhile with your life. M@rk, someday you'll pay dearly for the lies you tell. lying is bad. didn't you get that memo, the one from God? or were you out to lunch when it was passed around?

I'm probably dragging this thread down a side rail, but TWI management lying reminds me of LCM teaching the Book of Exodus at a ROA. When he got to the part about the midwives' lying to the Egyptians about the Hebrew male children, LCM said that God told them to lie. I think that was the only time I can remember the whole Big Top going dead silent. Of course, it's patently absurd. God, Who cannot lie, cannot command others to do so. But it wan't long before the "faithful" had "renewed their minds" to "the present truth."

I suppose that leadership assuage their consciences (those that haven't been totally seared, that is) by believing that lying is godly if it is "for the greater good."

George

not really a side rail, since I did rant on about a few things and M. W@l@ce's tendency to lie was right up there.

I also remember that "teaching", and it became very much part of everyday life. "it's ok to lie to unbelievers to protect yourself or the ministry" was doctrine. I guess M@rk and a lot of others have put it into practice as "it's ok to lie to everyone to make yourself and the ministry look good".

I just caught up with some friends from Colorado and it seems like some long-time people have unplugged, which makes me happy as can be.

also, M@rk W@ll@ce seems to be as fervently lying to people as he ever has. one of the lies I can't even repeat here, but apparently a corps couple was given one of those punishment kind of "vacations" because they couldn't get a fellowship of non-tithing rebels to toe the line and M@rk put out the word that they were having "family problems" so needed to get their "walk" "right" with God so were "taking some time off". such crap! hey M@rk, remember that couple who left a few years back because they didn't like you lying about people, so you told everyone that they left because they love money more than God? why do you love to lie about people so much?

sadly, a couple sold their home sometime in the last couple of years so they could run one of twi's worthless "fellowships". also, N@ncy H3msl3y is as clueless as ever and the R7d3rs are vile yes-men who spread the same lies that M@rk spews from his filthy mouth.

knowing that people I love have left is a relief. knowing the people who hurt them and me are still up to their old games seems like status quo. keep it up, guys. soon twi will dwindle into nothing.

I'm glad vpw is dead.

I got involved for one reason, and that was to learn the bible. I endured the social part of the organization because it was supposed to be pleasing to God. I stuck around for years because I thought I had to; I didn't want the devil to destroy my family. the only good times I experienced had nothing to do with twi. there were a few good people in twi, but they were enduring twi for the same reason I was: for the hope of future benefits and their current friendships with innies. I had some good times with them because they accepted me for who I am. however, twi was not responsible, nor does it deserve credit, for those good times. that would be like crediting the mall or the corner tavern for a chance meeting that grew into a good friendship.

I stayed a long time. I stayed because I was afraid of the harm that would come to my children if I left.

now I realize the harm that came to them was because I stayed too long. I could even say that the harm that came to them was a direct result of getting involved, because the purpose of my involvement was to save a marriage that I thought should end, but my ex was convinced that going to a christian group would save our marriage. unfortunately it did preserve it, to my detriment.

the only things of value I walked out of twi with are my kids, and they sure would have been better off without the systematized abuse they were exposed to. I've had so much to unlearn that it took a long time to get to start knowing myself.

I don't think the good times were what held me to twi.

There was something more - "the stand."

I was one of those imbeciles that believed that I was taking a stand for gawdawlmighty against the wiles of the devil. I wasn't going to let ole splitfoot win.

yeah.

sadly, by taking the stand we actually declared ourselves open season for the wiles of the devil. twi doctrine would say it was because the devil hates God's committed, but when the evil was coming at you from twi leadership itself, the logic doesn't really hold up.

I wanted to be a winner. it made me a loser.

:lol: ok

I think we need to look at this like the whole kingdom of heaven in pfal.... you know, the fascist dictatorship/twictatorship was OVER ALL but each administration has its own special features that make it its own brand... like the victatorship was pretty consistent, but the next dictator morphed from a licktatorship to the loytatorship (god the horror) and then there's RR, who I really don't know what to say about at all because we mostly seemed to be sheep milling about under her direction as she stripped away most of the concentration camp features and left us only with the underlying theology that developed under previous dictators.

when she croaks, do you think there will be anything democratic about twi? I think it's likely it will continue on as it is, just becoming less and less charismatically run until it fades into non-existence.

who said anything about democracy? I never saw democracy.

twi parents love their children more than "worldly" parents . . .

cause they don't lie to them about Santa Clause

right, because all "worldly" parents are out to make sure their kids believe in santa. that one is so dumb!

I never intended letting my kids buy into the santa myth anyway, because as a kid I had problems with it myself. for instance, obviously rich kids are a lot more "good" than poor kids, because santa brings them more and better presents, so poor kids are, if not bad, then at least not as good. then of course I had a real problem trusting my mother once I found out santa wasn't real, because I suspected that she could be lying about pretty much anything, since she'd successfully deceived me for the first 7 years of my life.

I worked all this out before I ever heard of twi. I know a lot of people who don't even celebrate christmas, they just have a tree and give gifts. so how santa is an unbeliever conspiracy, I'll never figure out, but twi managed to spin it that way.

LOL @ excie

I guess it was first a victatorship, then a licktatorship (as in the brown-nosing type), then it turned into a fascist twictatorship, now what is it with Rosie in charge?

and notice how I spelled it TATOR, rummy and p-bear. different word, different root. has nothing to do with me.

no respect. no respect at all. not only are you reviling my holy name, you are reviling the names of my progeny. I can't rain fire and brimstone on you - my potato powers don't extend to that - so I'll have to settle for shaking the crumbs from the bottom of the bag over your head.

NOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo!!!!!!

actually I was thinking we should coin some new terminology here and just call it a twictatorship. it will save time typing. plus it has sort of an Elmer Fudd ring to it.