Nero

hmm. Kinda like wearing a cross to a vampire convention, eh?

I dunno, at least the vampires are pretty honest about wanting to destroy your soul and turning into one of their mindless undead minions. XP

You might be walking by the "five senses" if...

You don't see why it's a problem to have a cool Neko-chan statue or Buddha statue in your house. Did anyone ever hear the phrase: "these things are dogwhistles for devil spirts!" They liked to use that on everything they didn't promote. Because if we were out buying cool stuff we weren't putting it into our tithes or buying it from their stores it must be evil. How dare we?!

(sort of likes your Mr. Ham)

You might be walking by the "five senses" if...

You don't think that your car broke down because you were "out of fellowship" with your brother while driving down the road. Can we say old piece of junk we were forced to buy because we could have gone in debt?

The only thing that makes me feel halfway sane is that I didn't buy that junk even though I had JUST finished the Advanced Class at the time.

You might be walking by the "five senses" if...

You got to shake hands with the wog (yes wog) at one of the classes and thought it was no big deal.

Am I changing the subject of the thread if I ask if anyone has seen this all repeated in the secular world since they left TWI?

I've worked for at least two companies where men in charge were charming and fatherly to the outside world, screamers and yellers to those close to them, and thought it their privilege to sleep with any number of women they chose to outside of their marriage. And their conduct fostered an environment where other men then thought that was acceptable behavior. That led to an entire environment where women were sexually harassed, forced to sleep with executives to keep their jobs, and on and on it went.

These founders, presidents have been men who were also worshipped for their success and skill in their respective business fields.

It's been downright dejavu'ish and very creepy. We, of course, would be expecting more from VP as leader of a Christian organization but to God, its all the same sinful behavior.

absolute power corrupts absolutely??

That is just horrible. :o But I have heard of this - the scum always manages to get to the top. I find that a lot of things happened in the secular world that happened in twi. People are people and you get good and bad ones. But what I disliked most about twi was their bad attributes were always backed up by twisting the Bible to fit their needs and excuse their behaivors.

Hey it's all his fault. He shouldn't have been born.

That's the best idea I've heard yet!

The way is like walking into Silent Hill only without the frightening monsters on the outside, but definitely on the inside. Oh what rotten souls.

I remembered watching the movie and I swear to gaaawd the head cult nut reminded me of an old fellowship coordinator of mine. I remember joking about it and my husband agreed with me. I think that's when I was first starting to get an inkling that the church thing my parents were bringing me to for years was actually a cult.

(I hope I do this right)

...I could get a loan for a college education

...I could buy a new car and not feel guilty for going into debt

...I don't have to worry about physically or mentally abused anymore by fellowship coordinators

...I will be able to buy a house next month without feeling guilty about going into debt

...I can have gay friends without worrying about twi finding out and burning me at the steak

...I can talk to people so much more easily

...My relationshops with my family have gotten much better

...I don't have to feel guilty when something bad happens to me

...I can get angry and not feel guilty

...I can be sad and not think I'm being possessed by a "heavy and gloomy" devil spirt. P.S. WTF?!

...I could get married to the man I loved even though he believes different things

...I don't get harassing phone calls anymore from cult people

...I don't have to tithe an insane amount and never see it go back to the community

...I can be happy

You might be walking by the "five senses" if...

You don't understand why wearing a cross to headquarters might offend a bunch of your peers. (Hey! I thought it looked cool!)

I really love his writings - mostly because I can relate to them. (I grew up in the way too)! I can't wait until I can say that I've spent half of my life outside of the cult (one of my favorite lines from his bio). He has inspired me to collect my own experiences and put them in poetry format.

I'm sure it's possible... but unlikely.

The rape: I'll probably just end up reiterating what others have said - but it's hard to imagine that so many women would come forward and say something like that unless it really happened to them. I can't imagine admiting to anyone that some gross wrinkly old man did such horrible things to me unless it was true! Ugh! (we need a vomit emoticon) XP

The utter meaness: There is no way this is impossible. My father talks of Mr. Weirwell very highly and even he said that he was chewed out (what I believe to be) for no reason whatsoever. My father actually bares him no ill will for even that - he acts like he deserved his ill treatment. I'm sure the man had his moments of kindness (no one is perfectly evil) ;) but some of the things my parents say really back up the claims I've seen here as far as that goes.

I said never ever - but gunpoint works just as well. After being in there my whole life and only now realizing what the did to me (if you've never known anything else it's hard to realize that you are being abused) it is very difficult to even think of going back.

That's a pretty good point, too.

I second that.