Junior Corps Surviver

48 minutes ago, penguin2 said:

They did a Young Adult Rock maybe two years ago?  And they are having a Word in Culture Conference soon too.  Also, they tried to spin Jesus Revolution movie by saying Doctor was a vital part of it.

They had a young adult rock? They're making it seem like this is the reboot. 

I worked at a WOW Burger tent with Stevie Kay and a recent conversation had me look her up and we had a really nice conversation. But she doesn't seem to want to talk about it and I don't blame her.

As for "is it different now?". Probably not enough to make it right. They cling to VPW in an L. Ron Hubbard retro history way. The entire thing is  the house the foolish man built upon the sand. It was rotten for so long that being 'different now' is moot. The reason people don't leave is mostly fear based and that's not a good thing. 

They should make sure there's a bucket of condoms at the Young Adult Rock. 

I did a bit of a deep dive into these young people and many of them are the sons and daughters of old Way people. 3rd generation lifers, not new people. Word Wolf makes sense with his comment. I just want a Wow Burger.  

We used to get beer and Jack Daniels from a guy who worked Bless Patrol.  What a blessing. 

and they used old photos in the ad as if any of those people are still standing with them.

Did they forget that The Rock was a sex a thon and that's why they cancelled it? Ad is on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2pwIHkLABY/?fbclid=IwAR1-Il2YocWkNCA9wpIJOOMO3A4bs-aXtjbNve1_vEffmrHxv6mTraao27Q

2 hours ago, T-Bone said:

I was in Family 11…given my Roman Catholic upbringing which can make for a very sensitive conscience and the fact that I was so freaked-out-numbed by wierwille’s pajama party / porn video extravaganza – I was pretty much oblivious to any hanky panky going on…but there were a few times Tonto would make mention to me of suspecting certain couples of having an extramarital affair – and I would quickly blow it off in sort of a wierwille-esque-the-love-of-god-thinketh-no-evil-mind-numbing attitude  - which probably complemented some Roman Catholic ghost in the machine psychological defense mechanism to safeguard my mind against feelings and thoughts that were too difficult to cope with…Speaking now from a perspective of having removed the wierwille-colored-glasses   I don’t doubt there was hanky panky going on but to what extent I don’t know, because that was something that flew under my erroneously calibrated radar at the time…I don’t mean to come across like I thought was a goody two shoes since I never have cheated on my wife – but I guess I appreciate the moral code I grew up with – but more importantly I’m glad I left TWI while I still had a conscience…I’m human and just think the promiscuous and unprincipled mentality toward sexual matters that wierwille promoted to the way corps can wear anyone down if they stick around long enough…you play with fire you’re going to get burnt sooner or later.

The amount of adulatory that was going on is mind numbing. I have spoken to many friend's who's parents were involved in it. But what I saw first hand in residence was our teen slumber parties. Games of truth or dare that went too far. Which teens will do if they're unsupervised but that's the problem. We WERE supervised.  

23 hours ago, DogLover said:

I am just curious.  Does anyone know whether TWI has come out in favor of or against the COVID vaccine?

I am told by folks who are “in” that they have "not taken an anti vaxx stance". They’ve always been..., uh, pro choice. Your abundant sharing paid for some of those choices. 

Former Jr. Corps member Steven Perez of Family Corps 9 shared a photo album of his recent visit to the Indiana Campus in Rome City. Good stuff both photos and captions. 

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=dtension&set=a.10161220720074418

8 hours ago, socks said:

In the Way of the late 60's, 70's witnessing was a mixed bag of helping people, making friends, sharing and teaching what the Bible says and specifically sharing "salvation through Christ". The primary tool of choice for teaching the Bible was PFAL and The Way 'Nash was the "church" that wasn't a church but a teaching ministry providing the structural pinnings for fellowship, worship, and social life - but hold that thought....

PFAL was not intended to be a tool to "just" do that - it was intended to be a tool to teach "the accuracy of God's Word", specifically the array of Dr. Weirwille's critical need-to-know topics  that were being "rightly divided" in PFAL. Many if not all of the fundamental creeds of Christian faith were redefined by this teaching - similar in face and look to some degree but fundamentally very different, to the degree that VPW didn't even want to call those who took PFAL "Christians", he socialized the term "Believers" into the Way's vernacular. His "students" BELIEVED, they lambano'd that stuff. (but it's smart to remember -  the first "believers" to be called Christians were a Gentile congregation in Antioch, evangelized and taught by Paul and his team and according to VPW were probably taught much the same things and ways as he himself was doing..... VPW liked to say it was because they were always talking about the "Christ in them" and did a kind of word-mash to get the term Christian buuuut...yeah. Anyway, he balked at the term to distance himself from the great unwashed masses of non grads of PFAL and did so at great harm to any effort to actually help others, IMO.)

So "witnessing" was essentially signing people up for PFAL classes. And I would argue it's not the worse time I ever spent in a metal chair, speaking for myself. PFAL establishes several things upfront - that the Bible needs to be viewed as a revelation from God, a product of inspired writing and expression. For the person who wants to know God and His intentions for mankind it is not just a book of myths and stories with a few parables thrown in. That with some rudimentary tools and guidelines (historical context, cultural context, language interpretation, chronology amongst others) the meaning of most of it can be understood, and much of that from reading it on face value. PFAL taught me that Jesus Christ once said He came to give life, "abundant" life, that life is beset by thieves who steal, kill and destroy - Christ came to give us Life, real life, and real Love.  I learned about the spiritual gifts and "manifestations" and most importantly that God works and wills in us today no differently than He did when Christ was alive and His followers lived. I learned about prayer and the value of a strong Christian social life with real relationships. I learned about Grace, and Mercy, through what Christ did. I learned how loving and kind Jesus Christ was to nearly everyone He dealt with and that even those who wanted to kill him answered to a greater God, just as He did. 

Now - PFAL taught a lot of stuff and after a few times and some study, I pretty much "got it". It's not a hard set of materials to master. The subjects, the contents, could and will take a lifetime to learn and apply and grow in - and I'd contend that the purpose of what we're taught in the Bible New Testament isn't to make us lifelong students who must be incessantly reminded of what we've learned lest we forget - and sure we all need to be refreshed and reminded of things - but the intention is for us to live the LIFE that God gives us through Christ and insodoing - live. Learn, grow and enjoy. The best way to stay on track in our new life is to mmmm......live in it. I don't look at it and want to be more like it - I'm "it". I just need to remember to be the Me God has made me. 

Now then to the question of witnessing - for me it was

1. share the knowledge of who Christ is and what He means

2. share specifics of how God wants us to live and what that life means and looks like

3. Guide people to the Bible which is where they'll learn more about all this

4. Sign 'em up! for PFAL!

As time went on I do think the goal of ONLY signing people up became part of the problem - yet even then all the years I was involved in the Way including the early years, the Corps and working there on Staff after, I was always compelled to HELP PEOPLE through my direct contact. 

Still and all, when I travelled with the Way the number one measure of success was the 'signed green card' - and unlike many of the more loud mouthed swaggering "leaders" in the Way who never left the comfort of a well organized meeting lectern or living room where they could pontificate and bloviate all night - I did sign up people for PFAL. LOTS of people and by traveling throughout the entire country, every major city and every place the Way had people large and small, over several years, I put my money where my mouth was and didn't just tell people what THEY should be doing and blaming them when they failed for not "BELIEVING BIG ENOUGH". 

My prayer is that in that effort they got enough of the love and learned what to do with it. It's been a long haul.  

 

I always felt like it was high pressure sales with quotas. Even in the 70's. Our hearts might have been in the right place but we would be in "trouble", especially as a WOW (twice) if we weren't constantly running classes. Hence the homeless, addicts and others who were there for the food and kisses. But that was my experience. 

Ah. by 88 I was gone. The revelation must have changed.

480 adults? That is unbelievable. Imagine thinking that this is the only real/best? I mean, come on. It's so good and accurate that it's a secret? lol 

I am also surprised, but shouldn't be,  that they peaked at 48,000. I was once told that the rock of A had 100,000 people. 

It's a trip to continue to find out that your childhood was even more of a lie than I thought. 

Thanks for the reply.  

I mean like really witness. We went door to door all the time. We stopped people in parking lots, supermarket and malls. We went to churches and tried to convert people. We left flyers on cars and bulletin boards. This was a touch way to grow up like when you knock on the door of a school mate or a teacher. Awkward. Between that and taking furniture from the trash, growling up way was a real damper on school/social life. Nothing like branding the new kid as the town weirdo. I have been wondering if they still recruit this hard anymore. We were aggressive, argumentative and could be quite rude. We also invited the town's addicts and drunks into our homes and would be surprised when the horn of plenty grew legs or when my wow sisters would get assaulted. Lots to process here. Sorry if I am rambling.      

Did it even exist on VHS? I have a beta copy but am not parting with it. God told me Beta is the way to go ;) 

59 minutes ago, Rocky said:

Advances the illusion that Wierwille/Martindale/Rosie had a valid and legitimate model for advancing godliness but just somehow made a mistake along the way and didn't know how to right the ship.

I don't believe that's what happened either in the beginning or at any time in the course of the cult's history. The social accountability was bass-ackward from the start.

The model in the book of Acts seems to have been having leaders be servants of and to the followers. TWI, from the start seemed to make the followers believe that they should treat the "leaders" like gods. That's why everywhere veepee and Loy went, branch and limb leaders collected extra cash from twigs/leaves to buy exorbitant gifts and collected the prettiest young women to present for the pleasure of the MOG.

That, to me (NOW) is so obviously at the core of the corruption of the organization's culture. 

All bow down. To Wierwille be the glory. That's not what they said, but it IS what they did.

We had to drop whatever we were doing and stand and clap when they walked in the room. That alone is insane. Stop eating, quit doing your home work, stop sitting...Craig is here YAY!

21 hours ago, Allan said:

And to think some of the Ar$ewipes are now starting 'same $hit diffen't day ministry' at Restoration and revival (including my bro-in-law)...hmmnnn...what are they 'reviving' I wonder ?!

Another re boot? Seems there's one every few years. Meet the new cult, same as the old cult. 

19 hours ago, Twinky said:

Oh, tell more!  When/what year was this?  (Do you mean, adulterous?  Nearly everyone, unfortunately, was adulatory)

LOL yes I did mean adulterous. Autocorrect strikes again.

I was out WOW when I walked into a certain Reverend fooling round with a 19 year old woman. I told my friend and he had seen them too. The Rev's wife was upstairs and Rev was in his office with his secretary, a new PFAL grad, "working on a teaching". I then found out from the child of this leader that this had been going on for a while. I sat on that information for a while. A few weeks later, that leader took the teen fellowship out for ice cream "his treat". He had me go to his office and grab some of the ABS to pay for the ice cream. I was taken aback when he told me to "grab a few hundred dollars". There were like 5 of us. We didn't need that much money for ice cream. When I went to get the money, the horn of plenty was not where he said it would be so I looked around and opened his desk and found marijuana and polaroid's of the secretary, nude.  After taking us out, he made a stop at Radio Shack and used the money to buy a car stereo. I couldn't deal with it anymore. Shortly after LCM came to the region for a meeting and my friend and I asked if we could speak to him. He said "yes". We told him what I just told you and he said "who the F do you think you are? You think God doesn't tell me what's going on? You think I don't know my calling? I don't see a 'reverend' in front of your name you fat little f***ot."

He was an inch from my face screaming at the top of his lungs. I was terrified. Then he told my mother, who gave me a beating and told her we are lucky he is letting us stay in the corps. I was 16. 

That was the beginning of the end for me. That summer was the Passing of a Patriarch. That was my last Rock. My mother was mad at me for months because I quit going to twig. Then was the truth started to trickle out she came around and we volunteered to DFAC. She herself was a victim of sexual assault by VPW, yet she thought I was making it up. How's that for brainwashed? 

1 hour ago, WordWolf said:

vpw was determined to make a profit on everything twi- related.  If it cost something, he'd try to get it free, or try to get it on the cheap if that was impossible.    When he filmed the pfal class, he "bought" the desk for the set, then returned it for a refund, lying and claiming something was wrong to get a refund.   Run a class?  It's always at someone's home, so we pay no rent, and twi peons supply all refreshments out-of-pocket.   All books were charged full retail despite having been printed and bound in-house, all audio tapes were made of a truly inferior quality, a level you couldn't buy in retail stores.    Its mission program- wow-  was run at a profit-  the wow had to pay a fee to go out, and no funds were released to house them or otherwise run the program.  Its leadership program- the corps-  was run at a profit-  with each student charged lots of money to participate, with other people chipping in the rest.  In all other organizations,  the group carries part or all of the expenses for such programs.

On top of that, the corps WORKED.  They were charged money, were housed in tiny "residences" and paid for the privilege of working for free.  If there IS a God, vpw will have to account for all of that.

Exactly what I started to figure out when I decided to leave. "wait a minute...we are paying to work AND getting reproved by very angry leaders who cheat on their wives. WHAT THE..."

You should have been there when a friend and I went to Craig to let him know we had "discovered" an adulatory and theft problem among some leaders. I thought he was going to punch me. 

Allan you are right about how much pressure she was under. We almost didn't go and that was being framed as a spiritual failure on her part and I was even spoken to about not having believing "big enough" to carry the weight my mother carries to take care of me. I really believed that if we didn't make it, I would have been to blame. I was proud of her but I was also relieved. I was afraid that I was screwing things up for her, which of course is ridiculous. I was 11. The only thing that bothers me at this point is the run around I got about it. If God wanted her to steal my money, why was she hiding it? I know exactly why. One lie causes another and she was lying about having spiritual partners and "earning" the money on her own and "coming up with it". It's funny (not haha) that she knew she was lying about getting into a Christian college. 

Twinky, you're right about the fees. Not only did we grow our own food, not only was the property paid for, but we were required to work for free. She paid money for the privilege of working her rear end off on a farm. 

13 minutes ago, Stayed Too Long said:

TWI was able to influence your mother to use funds to pay for her corpse training that was not hers. She stole your rightful money. It amazes me how low TWI could get parents to stoop to. Somehow they loose all sense of right and wrong in order to follow The Man of God. 

It's hard to accept that reality. But you're right. Those of us who grew up in TWI, we didn't join. We were dragged along and then left when we got older, so it's really hard to see how this could even happen. It's hard to let go, it's hard to know how to handle this, who to be mad at, if anyone. But I saw plenty of terrible abuses, thefts and lies in TWI so why am I surprised? I know this, TWI didn't care where that money came from as long as the pyramid scheme kept the money rolling in and the vulnerable people were there for them to take advantage of.  

Hi. It's been a long while. Sometimes talking about The Way can be helpful and sometimes it just makes me remember bad things. 

I am dropping by to get this off of my chest. I just found out that my mother paid for her Corps experience with money that was supposed to be in an account for me for when I turn 21. I was 21 years ago but never got a real answer as to where that money was. Imagine waiting for 10 years for the day you get this pay out for that time you were almost killed in a car accident and then it just isn't there and no one can tell you anything about it. 

As I remember, the corps bill was paid for by "spiritual partners" who pledged to send money every month. Or at least those spiritual partners were able to help with day to day expenses like toothpaste and clothes. I clearly remember my mother having a hard time  getting her money together and that we almost never went into residence in Rome City. She was told to pray about it and to believe. Well, glory be, she got the money together. I was so proud of her, now almost 40 years later I find that she paid for everything with the settlement money, which according to the settlement, was not allowed.  My relationship with my mouther is not good and this isn't going to help. She dodged this issue for year and would actually get mad when I brought it up. Now my God Mother has told me the truth and I am angry at The Way and my mom all over again. 

We left TWI in the late 80's and I still have to process it. 

Thanks guys. I am having a heck of a time doing this on my mac. I have a PC at work, might try it there. 

Greasespot used to have audio of a thing that Donna M-Dale said about my friend Naomi’s death. She died in a famous plane crash that killed Democratic Party Chairman Ron Brown. Does anyone have this audio? It’s not on the site anymore. 

My Jr. Corps brother DTension posted these on Facebook. Thought I’d share. They’re pretty funny. 

6 hours ago, T-Bone said:

funny...and so true

 

great points Junior CS & Waysider...i guess to add specificity to this thread it could inform folks how to start an abusive cult properly...and that's the difference - between something that is bad for you and  something that enhances your life....is it parasitic or is it beneficial? does it exploit your life / resources or does it add / improve the quality of your life / resources?

that's another thing about trolling for candidates for your next class - you are told not to waste your time with people who don't want to or can't cough up money for the class...imagine if TWI would have said if you're not completely satisfied with the results from taking our class - we'll give you your money back....or a new student using the strategy of Wimpy on Popeye - I'll gladly pay you for the class after I become prosperous from all the benefits I'll receive from the class.

I guess I wouldn’t use the word “cult” if it were a positive thing. But I hear you. 

6 hours ago, waysider said:

"It wouldn’t be hard to find the local lonesome people who need a purpose in life and who have jobs so they can give me 15% of their income."

 

I think this hits on an aspect of The Way that at lot of people miss. It wasn't about the bible. it wasn't about helping others. It wasn't even about the money they made from the class. It was about bringing people to a level of commitment that would have them freely giving 15% (or more) of every paycheck...week after week, month after month, year after year. That was the big plan. (as I see it.)

I distinctly remember our WOW Home being reproved for not having enough students. We basically had to fill a quota or risk being “off the word”. My house was regularly full of people you would never want in your home. At the root of Christianity that should be OK as a pure heart should want to help anyone who needs help. But we had people coming over that you would never want near your kids. I was especially upset by the class we ran that featured people from the local (and I am quoting as a matter of fact) the “reatarded adult home”. I mean, where do you draw the line? These people couldn’t read, they could not stop talking and could not stop disrupting the class. Of course they couldn’t. They all had Down Syndrome. It was great to want to help them but we took their money for the class and to me that was wrong. 

I went WOW three times. In those three years we had maybe 3 people who stuck with TWI, took all the classes and became full time believers (out of hundreds of people who took PFAL) 

 Of course we had a 100% session SIT rate. ;) The worst part is we believed it.