Kevlar2000

Psalmie I hope this day is so good for you that you'll be happier than a..... well, you know. :D The very happiest of birthdays to you!

Funny how that happened, eh? MILF may also simply refer to a woman who is older, has children, and is considered sexy and good-looking, rather than an expression of desiring to have sex with one's own mother or mother-surrogate, which is, clinically speaking, ewwwwww.

Geez, T-Bone, don't they ususally empty the cages before sending in maintenance or repair? Or was that the zoo's cheap method of feeding their animals? "Yeah, we're really keeping our costs down." Thank goodness that animal didn't get a hold of you. You would have gone from being T-Bone to Sushi!

Sounds like a Piranha Brothers scheme. "...they began to operate what they called 'The Operation'... They would select a victim and then threaten to beat him up if he paid the so-called protection money. Four months later they started another operation which the called 'The Other Operation'. In this racket they selected another victim and threatened not to beat him up if he didn't pay them. One month later they hit upon 'The Other Other Operation'. In this the victim was threatened that if he didn't pay them, they would beat him up. This, for the Piranha brothers, was the turning point." And you know, Glad, a perverse part of me would be interested in how many would seriously respond to such an offer. I would like to believe none would, but you know what P.T. Barnum said... Sign 'em up!

I wouldn't think "M & KAG" would have access to CES/STFI funds to institute a lawsuit which could be detrimental to the organization itself. Wouldn't they have to get the Board to release the funds for that purpose?

I don't know, lindy - with you having been bumped by a shark, and living in an area where there are mountain lions, I would say you have a healthy, respectful and realistic fear of these predators. I, on the other hand, have a completely irrational fear...of Komodo dragons. I've never been on the island of Komodo, or anywhere else where they would roam freely. Yet they completely freak me out. When the late Steve Irwin had an episode where he was on Komodo and he was wandering around and lying down in a dragon den, I watched, transfixed, almost unable to change the channel, I was horrified that much. I'm not in a position where I would come into any sort of contact with them. I think there's one down at the Washington Zoo, but I'm not stupid enough to even ask to get in the cage with one of them, unlike some people. And yet, I'm scared s--tless of them. Now, that's irrational. ------------------------------------------------------------ I guess there can be two schools of thought about Mr. Wierwille's presentation of doubt, worry and fear resulting in unbelief. One could be he was trying to teach people how to recognize a train of thought that keep someone from believing what God says in the bible and, ultimately, from receiving into manifestation the holy spirit (i.e., speaking in tongues). The other might be he was instilling a control device to keep class participants from questioning his presentation and his premises. Of course, the real problem may have been that we believed it enough not to question it. Ah well, lessons learned...the hard way.

Dearest Dottie, many happy returns of the day!

Frankly, if I had been part of not one, but two (or maybe more?) organizations whose "noble intentions" had turned so quickly to s--t, I would start to question if I was correctly interpreting how God wanted me to minister. Maybe biblical research, teaching and fellowship is not the genuine calling of these folks. When a building you design and build keeps collapsing, you not only examine it for structural integrity, you call in other experts to check your work - unless you really believe you have an insight to engineering that has not been known since the first century.

And money. Other people's money. Other people's hard-earned money. Which maybe could have been better spent. By the people who sent it in. I would imagine if people knew their "abundant sharing" (or whatever STFI calls it) was going toward payment of lawyers and lawsuits, there would have been second, third and even fourth thoughts about sending it in. Perhaps, in the future, STFI could amend their business bylaws to establish dedicated "earmarked" financial accounts for their followers. That way, if you want your ABS (for lack of a better term) to go only for outreach, and not salaries, perks or lawsuits, you could earmark your funds into that account. (I'm not even sure if that's possible; just throwing out some ideas so their followers can choose where in STFI their money is actually going).

[sarcasm]When the Integrity of The Word ™ is at stake, you know what that kind of joking around will turn you into? A five-star hotel for a five-star general daimon! It's the Word, the Word, and nothing but the Word...and jokes approved by The Ministry ™! You have no friends AND no jokes when it comes to The Word! That kind of unrenewed-mind thinking is straight from the Pit where millions are now smoking! You need to take Das Klasse again so your speech may be salted, swaddled and marinated with The Word![/sarcasm] Groucho, I'll bet you anything this "leader" would sometimes affect that "thousand-yard-into-infinity" spiritual stare, like every sense organ and nerve ending in his body was attuned to "all nine, all the time". So spiritual. So holy. So what. I wouldn't have lasted five minutes with "leadership" like that. I love bad jokes, and wouldn't hesitate to tell one in fellowship...well, maybe not during the teaching itself. Unless I was doing the teaching.

The he!! we can't! :)

JL, Not goodbye, but au revoir. And, if you ever think of me, remember those three little words that mean so much... sign the will. Do this in remembrance of me.

copenhagen, I've been ROTFLMAO since I read this. "Walk in love, you steenking sumbeeeeches!" HAHAHAHAHAHA! god, I'm still laughing! Thanks!

Happy Birthday from me also. Hope all is well and your day is wonderful!

Happy Belated, Shellon!

Why, surrrrre, bless your heart! When you take the class (take my class...please [thanks and RIP, Rodney D]) you become a Way "believer". But when you become an un-believer, then you've untaken the class. You're a cop-out (what would be a cop-in? Is that like copping a ... never mind), an empty floating next to the greatest cargoes of life, an unsalted walking meat stick. (If someone's salt loses its savor, does someone's pepper lose its papor?) Since you're no longer a Way "believer", you've untaken every class (hell, some of the classes you took have become "disappeared"), you're unrecognized in the Way Corps program, you're service has become unrecorded. It's like you never existed. For the Way. You've become a Way "unbelieving unperson". But for those of us whose lives you all touched (whose heart was to do a little good in the world), you will live forever. Frack the Way. ----------------------------- Ah, back to topic. I found Donna Randall's 'Keys to Research' rather dry, but then again, I kind of expected a class that would cover actual research principles to be so. Christian Family and Sex? It didn't faze me much, even with nakee people and slang terms. Well ok, the "head gasket for a hot rod" joke was getting tired the 4th or 5th time he told it. I was somewhat taken aback with the "original sin = masterbation" thing, not because I had never heard it before (and it was outside the Way framework), but by his statement of "Now, I can't prove this from the Bible...". I figured that statement gave me license not to believe his theory. So I didn't. I think the class I was most disappointed in was the Advanced Class at Emporia in 1978. I and another person had hitched from Baltimore to Emporia, getting almost non-stop rides (we left late Thursday night and got there either early Saturday or Sunday morning [can't remember which day anymore, but I know we were there by Sunday]). It was an amazing trip, and we were both blessed, "high on God" and ready to receive. I was expecting to receive the fullness of instruction about the "revelation and impartation manifestations". I was actually expecting to have "excellor's sessions" as "Doctor" had described in the Foundational Class. What I got was a lot of blather about the Illuminati. What I got was Mr. Wierwille's bad 'tude and crap about how we weren't committed to the Word and he was going to send us all home. What I got was Craig Martindale acting like King S--t of Turd Mountain. And the closest I got to doing the revelation and impartation manifestations was memorizing their definitions of those things. Well, at least I had a great trip out there. <_<

But wasn't that the theme of the PFAL series - Leave it to Be-liever?

"Oh, the pain, the pain!" ------------------------------------------ I guess I'm just extremely fortunate in that my kid, Bodhi Armour, never needed a whole lot of disciplining. She's just one of those kids whose disposition tends toward affable, good natured and go-along-to-get-along. She's her own person, and somehow learned not to let people pressure her to violate her own sense of right and wrong. I think it also helped that her mom and I have a sense of life and humor that dwells firmly in the Land of Odd near the Border of Bizarre. We laughed more than we screamed, and I think that rubbed off on her. I've only ever spanked her once (her mom has never spanked her) - I don't even remember what it was for. Just a light, quick smack on the butt. And I felt like such a completely inhuman s--t for hurting this sweet, good-natured kid. I've never done it since. Never needed to. I'm not sure if this contributes to the arguments for or against spanking. I certainly got my share when I was a kid, but that was different times and a completely different living situation. I just feel like it's an option of last resort. IMHO.

Nah, it really stands for Completely Completely Complete Charismatic Cookie-Cutter Christianity Incorporated. What? Oh, the other "C"s are silent. Because you know, the greatest cargoes of life come in over quiet "C"s. -------------------------------------------------- Uptown, you ask if there's hope? While there's life, there's hope. So they'd better get busy figuring out what went wrong, and decide not to do that again. As Jack Handey, author of the "Deep Thoughts" series said, "With every new sunrise, there is a new chance. But with every sunset, you blew it."

d, next time you enter the popularity contest, remember: Vaseline on the teeth, Preparation H under the eyes.

Sprawled, maybe we are! Both of our avatars are wearing glasses. Musta been one heckuva labor. No wonder Mom's still pi$$ed!

Tom Strange, Thot's riiiiiiiiight, bless your heart. It just sits there in all its ineffable greatness like a duck zombie. (And, of course the opposite of "ineffable" is "effable", which means, "able to eff" ) dmiller, You are now in charge of our Research Department. And our Beverage Department. Please have an article ready for our next issue of "C'mere." :)

What a lovely, lovely picture dmiller. Thanks. I thought it was spiritually significant that the four Greasespotters having their birthday today were all 52. Who can tell us, class, the spiritual significance of the number "52"?

Hey Betty, Herb Wexler, copythisnow and rhema, Happy Birthday, and welcome to Club 52!

I also feel bad for CES/STFI supporters who are finding out, once again, how full of "clay" the feet of men can be. I especially feel bad for those who had to come to Greasespot to find out what was happening with their "leadership" instead of hearing it first from the principals in that organization. Nothing wrong with Greasespot Cafe, but you should have heard it first from them. I echo Linda's sentiments. Life can be wonderful without someone else telling you what you must believe.