Rocky

Wow!

Was he being blackmailed? I doubt it. Who knows what's in the heart of any human?

Spiritual warfare? Or economic warfare? Gotta protect their "intellectual property" don't ya know?

If you think you're being brave (courageous) and it doesn't involve vulnerability (risk or uncertainty), you're not being brave. According to Dr Brown, the opposite of belonging is FITTING IN. The reason many of us fell under Victor Wierwille's influence was a combination of 1) how we were raised or what we believed as a result of what we were exposed to as children; and 2) that Victor exploited THAT very cultural inheritance we had when we first heard of him, TWI, and PFLAP. TWI embraced us enough (love bombing) at first to draw us in. Then we heard a loud drumbeat of what it would take to please God. Brené Brown | The Most Eye-Opening 14 Minutes Of Your Life And it will NOT cost you $200, or even $40. She's not even trying to sell you a class. Victor Wierwille, from this perspective, was nothing more and nothing less than an entrepreneur. IF he was a con artist. WE were the marks. I was. In October this year, it will have been 50 years since I first hear the pitch. What I have today that I did NOT have 50 years ago is EXPERIENCE. Experience gained through struggle. See Romans 5:3

Highlight is the youngest child rocking with two older girls. 20230428 Crazy Train Song by Ozzy Osbourne (Performed by Petty Rock) at Siam Indy Stage

groovy!

Of course. BUT, can it happen? After viewing this TED talk vid, is it possible?

Tap the imagination of individuals and society?

Perhaps now, at the start of the new year (2024), it might be worth revisiting the notion of whether and/or to what degree humans do have free will and what factors might hijack innate abilities for said free will. I've programmed this YT to start at a particular point. However, IF YOU ARE INTERESTED you are free to watch/listen to the entire clip. Years ago, I began to recognize how job and marriage stress made certain things difficult for me. It seems the influence of stress on a person may even predate one's birth.

The answer is multifold. Sure, believing and holding forth the story for God's protection was only one part of it. The reality was more complicated. Any religion seeking to stir up the dust and challenge entrenched church empires was bound to be a magnet attracting disturbed individuals. Further complications entered when the hired heavies (official bless patrol, would get LEO certification and carry firearms). With that came another level of arrogance both on the part of the MOGs and those who carried the hardware.

It was before Loy was in charge, yes. Westboro, at the time, must have been still trying to settle on its identity, who do they hate most. It wasn't about gays for either group, as intensely as it became only a few years later.

TWI

I clearly remember one ROA night time bless patrol shift keeping an eye on the protesters from Westboro Baptist Church. This was well before the Westboro folks had become well-known throughout the country. Same flavor they retained for the decades to come. Hateful signs in abundance. It was a very cold (maybe down into the 50s F.) August mid 1970s night in rural Ohio, before The Way began holding ROAs at HQ. I remember the yellow Bless Patrol hats and standing (shivering) with a guy (who later served in the 7th corpse) for a couple of hours. It may have been boring, but I recall a sense of camaraderie on an otherwise calm night.

Raf/Modcat said (to chockfull)...

FFS... when YOU blame YOUR words/actions on what (anyone other than yourself) someone else says or does or doesn't say or doesn't do...

You can have the last word. I disagree with you, but you get/got to have your say on my thread. Congrats.

Okay, you don't like me. I accept that. Why, again, would you EXPECT (even if not demanding) me to do anything other than decline to respond to your questions? How does your insulting commenting pose anything that a reasonable person would expect me to respond to? Put another way, why do you think it is acceptable for you to hijack my thread?

Gosh, who would guess that wishing someone well could warrant such a response?

Gosh, I hope you're mood lifts soon.

Did YOU initiate this thread?

Again, who died and made you god? Put another way, what makes you think I am required to comply with your demands?

Your private interpretation of what I wrote about the cult facts website. When you write "where you like to label..." what Chockfull claims are, without making clear how/why s/he characterizes said claims as facts...," action(s) are most probably projection. I acknowledge that by directly pointing out what you said is dubious, I am inviting you, unfortunately not to a discussion of disagreement but to most likely inviting you to defend your claims. That's, to me, unfortunate. What I'm NOT doing, is characterizing YOU. And I'm NOT prescribing what I believe you SHOULD do... about anything. You are who and what you are and what you want to be. IF I were to invite you to discuss particular disagreement about it, I would ask you to define the parameters of this phenomenon you claim is FACT. Is it solely that some entity (could be human intelligence or artificial intelligence) has a source outside of itself to point to as a source? Or is it important for the source to be determined as authoritative?

Wow. "Sounds like you have some issues to sort through." How is that NOT a demonstration of projection? "I’m not arguing with you about your delusions." Oh, really? MY delusions? "Cult facts is a site about cults that contains footnotes, bibliographical info, and links to sources" Have you ever taken any courses or done any reading on the subject of logic, logical fallacies, or critical thinking/analysis? This might be a good time to start doing so. So, any presentation of claims, as long as neatly formatted and accompanied by "any ol' someone's written statement (footnotes, bibliography, etc.) attesting to the veracity of those claims" automatically qualifies that presentation as factual? Methinks thou doth protest too much.

And speaking of "Compared to What?" News today that Les McCann, jazz musician whose sole hit was thus titled, passed today at age 88.

As compared to what? The landscape on both sides of the road seems lush with mature trees.