Rocky

Actually, it was Human without the bean who said it. In addition to Shaz' reply, (and I've been able to reflect on this for more than three decades) yes, we grew up. When we were children, we had no knowledge or experience to draw on to evaluate what we saw, heard and experienced in TWI. And for some (i.e. those who decided to never look to anything outside of the cult for insight) they may have never figured it out. Further, when we were children, we may have been religiously indoctrinated or emotionally prepared such that we were more prone to the particular line of b u l l s h i t Wierwille was peddling. EVERYone gets conned in life, in some ways or others. We got conned by Wierwille. What's important is that we eventually saw through the con.

FWIW, IMO, believing that the 10 commandments were given by God to the Israelites one at least kinda has to side-step cultural history and anthropology too.

Good luck getting a straight answer from him on that.

I get your point, and I don't disagree. But I'm not entirely comfortable with harshly confronting anyone's personal story/experience either.

It may just be a technicality, but doctrines are written down. Practices, which I believe more fairly characterizes the situation with "loosening up" aren't necessarily documented as official beliefs. It probably would have been eradicated at some point well before the actual litigation if it had been a doctrine. That said, I don't discount your experience in any way, brother.

And I remember Wierwille haranging me for making a mistake of some kind regarding hook up of A/V telecom equipment later that year. And another time when Loy told us about the Jim Jones situation in Guyana.

I also remember encountering a person at the KC airport while waiting (with a bunch of others) for our ride to Emporia for the first day in-res for the 9th corpse. He tried to tell us that Wierwille was a false prophet... of course, none of us was, on that day, ready to listen to that.

Practical experience with direct supervision? If that doesn't shout CULT, nothing does. Also, it's very creepy. Aka the blind leading the blind.

Here's a theory: WHY did they need a Sabbath way back then? Because God said so? Or "did God say so" because otherwise they wouldn't get any days/time off from work? IDK, but if it was that important to me, I'd want to explore historical records for the sociological practices of the time.

This city boy had to wait until age 20 to learn it. But 45 years hence, I still remember.

Why is this important to you? (Please respond succinctly) Oh really?

Congrats to you for the life you've emerged into. There's obviously a lot more to our experience on this planet than what any of us has been able to learn only from the Bible.

Well, it wasn't that bad.

I learned, at ROA 75, how to kill flies with my bare hands.

I thought "Dotty" was VP's wife Dorothy, not Dorothy Owens. As in "thank you Dorothy, thank you Rhoda..."

Preferably, someone you'd want to learn something from.

TL;DR

Why do you keep responding?

Did any of the videos of classes ever have credits showing who did what to make the video happen? It's been a LOOOOOOOOOng time for me, but I don't recall ever seeing any.

It's up to you to make your case.

Totally! Gives the audience (viewer) a greater sense that they are REAL people, in many ways just like us. I've been very much enjoying Colbert and Seth Meyers especially. Even better when they include their young children. Like Jimmy Fallon did in one vid I watched last night... and Meyers two sons were there at the end of his vid this evening.

"I dont understand why you are saying I am being selective..." There you go... I highlighted it for you. Do you still not understand?

Dude, do you think you get points from God for being "right" about anything? Are you, by any chance, trying to make a case for joining a particular religious denomination (7th Day Adventists)? How much have you considered, in your study of scriptures, what God wants YOU to do (other than "holding forth" your interpretation of what's the right way to understand the Bible)? Btw, I don't need your answers, all three questions are rhetorical.