Knuckles

Raf, Where I live, brown people are not welcome in the churches. These so-called Christian people will admit that all people are equal in God's eyes, but go on to say that races should stick to their "own kind". You can walk in any major church in this city and every face you see will be white. Any person of color that ventures in for a Sunday service will be made to feel quite uncomfortable. It's the way they prefer it and the way they keep it. A guy I know from work is an elder at his church and told me that if any brown people are seen in his neighborhood, they better have a leaf blower on their back. I have been in other parts of the country where this is not true, but in this part of the country (midwest), you can almost choke on the racism, it's everywhere. It's one of the major reasons that I do not attend any churches in this area.

I think dmiller has a point. Any church that accepts gays will instantly become a target for the right wing religious conservatives. They will be ostracized and shunned, just like Jesus was. ;)--> The self righteousness of these religious bigots only serves to conceal their own dysfunction.

This whole "believing thing" became a sickness in twi. Whatever happened or didn't happen was because somebody failed to believe rightly. It was held over your head like a hammer. I always thought that "believing" was a personal thing that took place in an individual's heart and was between the person and God. In twi, it seemed that every jerk with a green nametag felt qualified to determine where somebody else's "believing was at". It was used as a weapon against people. When things went bad (as they sometimes do), it was YOUR fault because of your believing, but when things went right, it was because you listened to the wise council of the leadership. Having your "believing" constantly evaluated by a higher up became a way of life. This promoted the concept of putting on a happy face and pretending. Why draw criticism for being honest?

A good marketing ploy. Time to repackage and update their indoctrination film. Throw a little 21st century razzle dazzle to the old format, and presto, we have a modern version of what used to work. The only problem is that they don't have Mr Wierwille to teach it anymore. Perhaps that's another reason why they will have multiple teachers, there's no one left with enough personal charisma to hold anyone's attention. They have to alter the teachers to avoid killing the student with boredom. Although, it may be a wise move on their part to ease away from martinfail's wildass doctrines and revert back to Vic's "original" stolen material. Be that as it may, they are doomed for failure. Why? Because a cult without a cult leader cannot exist for long. It's only running on fumes now.

Christmas time for twi was a mutated and deformed celebration. They took a perfectly good holiday and turned it into another way function. The mog that stole Christmas? Wierwille deserved a lump of coal in his stocking, Martinfail deserves a lump of coal somewhere else.

I would like to sneak in. I would sit down for the teaching with two alka selzter tablets in my mouth. Well into the teaching, when I could no longer contain the foam in my mouth, I would stand up and start screaming. With the foam spewing from my mouth, I would run down the aisle tearing my clothes. When I got outside, I would hop in my car and laugh all the way home.

I seem to recall Mr. Martinfail teaching something about demons from hell darting about on the internet? Anyone who dared to venture into the realm of unholy cyberspace, would surely become infested with the unclean bogeyman from the devils underpants, or something like that? New revelation?

Thanks to you, I am now familiar with his article entitled, "Christian reflections in a time of war". I thought it was honest and thought provoking. His arguments are a refeshing departure from the politics of the "Christian right".

I had a really noisy mouse until I put some decon under the sink.

John Linder has balls?

I always thought Wierwille's ideas about scripture build up were a little far fetched. The idea that each of the gospel writers might have simply remembered events a little bit differently wasn't allowed. Afterall, "God has a reason for everything He says, where He says it, how He says, etc., etc." Not to mention that every word written came by direct revelation. It didn't matter if it didn't make any sense, the problem was your accursed "understanding". That was Wierwille's diplomatic way of saying that if you disagreed with him, you were wrong. He was a master of spin. He would have people eating out of his hand. He called us his kids and cried on stage. We ate it up and allowed him to slip his shody version of biblical research past us. My apologies to Bob Dylan: "We were so much dumber then, we're smarter than that now"

Thank you all for the welcome. Nothing like a good cup of coffee. I have been reading the Grease Spot for some time now. Thought I would come in and sit down for awhile, it's nice to find a place that feels like home.

I believe that the "research keys" were part of a marketing package. Wierwille took advantage of those who were disillusioned with the pomp and ceremony of religion, by offering an alternative approach to "Christianity". He chose to embrace the "fits like a hand in a glove" philosophy in order to promote his product. A mathematic exactness and a scientific precision sounded a lot better than counting beads and being confused. He appealed to the "logic" of the prospective convert rather than to the "duty of religious faith", that most God groups were peddeling. He picked up a lot of the disenfranchised, non religious people by using this sales technique. Of course, the great "logic" that went into the research, ended up being a compilation of works by other writers that Wierwille admired. Unfortunately, he didn't admire them enough to give them credit for what he "borrowed" and called his own. Most serious scholars consider Wierwille's work to be sophmoric at best. His "research keys" only provided the basis for a "system" of control for TWI leaders. Self realization and spiritual perception were replaced with group think and spiritual codependance. Academic smugness is hardly a substitute for spiritual enlightenment.