WordWolf

"Tell me about your ship, Riker. It's the Enterprise, isn't it?" "No, the name of my ship is the 'Lollipop'." "I have no knowledge of that ship." "It's just been commissioned. It's a Good Ship." "What's the armament on the Lollipop?" "One of the final tests in advance navigation at the Academy presents the student with three options. When Rice took the test, he rejected all of them and offered one of his own." "I'd call that arrogant." "But it paid off -- he received the top mark. And now that test has four options. The original three... plus his."

[WordWolf in boldface.]

[WordWolf responds in boldface.]

(Next quote) I love this scene.... "What's the armament on the Lollipop?"

Well, see, as OM sees it, they're no longer the sweetness-and-light group that he remembers ANYMORE. That was the case until just before he left. Until then, it was nearly perfect- especially at the organizational level and locally where he was. (And anyplace else doesn't count.) Oldiesman left twi in the early 90s. He claims his PARTICULAR twig/branch was pristine and he never had ANY of the problems we saw. He claims the way things were in the 70s were always that way until the day they kicked him out. He claims having his family in and all together had no effect on any of that. He claims everything he ever got in writing represented 100% truth on matters, no matter what happened later. (Like the loy-alty letter.) In fact, all the draconian policies-except for Oldies leaving-never happened, no matter how many eyewitness accounts and audio clips say otherwise. Now, then, Bowling for Soup covered an SR-71 song which I feel is relevant. Here's the lyrics. "Debbie just hit the wall, She never had it all One prozac a day, Husband's a C.P.A. Here dreams went out the door, Once she turned 24 Only been with one man. What happened to her plans? She was gonna be an actress, She was gonna be a star She was gonna shake that foot On the hood of Whitesnake's car Now her SUV has become the enemy. Looks at her average life Nothing has been alright... since Bruce Springsteen, Madonna Way before Nirvana there was U2 And Blondie and music still on MTV Her 2 kids in high school They tell her that she's uncool Cause she's still preoccupied With 19, 19, 1985. She's seen all the classics at least a hundred times Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Fast Times At Ridgemont She rocks out to Wham! Not a big Limp Bizkit fan Never knew George was gay, Hoped they'd hook up one day Where's her fairy tale, where's her dream? Where's the quarterback From her high school football team? Where's her fairy tale, where's her dream? How many times will she ask herself What happened to me? (the rubber broke) ... When Bruce Springsteen, Madonna Way before Nirvana there was U2 And Blondie and music still on MTV Her 2 kids in high school They tell her that she's uncool Cause she's still preoccupied With 19, 19, 1985. She hates time / make it stop When did Motley Crue become classic rock She hates time / make it stop Bruce Springsteen, Madonna Way before Nirvana there was U2 And Blondie and music still on MTV Her 2 kids in high school They tell her that she's uncool Cause she's still preoccupied With 19, 19, 1985." The relevance, I trust, is not lost on you.

ckmkeon believes that-just as the GSC is deficient- the current twi is deficient, also. He's said that the magic was all about vpw, and when twi wandered away from vpw, that's when twi lost it. He was taught to be a vpw worshipper, not a twi worshipper, in short.

Page-235, TWLiL: ""We started the first Way Corps then, the fall of 1969, especially for that purpose, to prepare leaders. There were nine of them-some married, some single, younger and older. They stayed until the spring, and then I gave them the privilege of leaving. You see, they never got it together among themselves. They didn't have that commitment, that discipline."

No, I'll go with my other guess... "the Omega Glory." Yangs vs Kohms.

Is this when they went into that other planet's past? Kirk to one time, Spock and Bones to another?

YES. If any misfortune befalls you, it's your fault, because your believing is supposed to act like a forcefield and bounce all problems away from you. If one gets through, that's a lapse on your part. Please note they never apply this to vpw dying of cancer before reaching age 70, which at least would be internally-consistent. Leadership is never blamed like this. Instead, it's the result of people AROUND the leader failing. The leader is NEVER at fault. ========== This whole doctrine is a mainstay of the Word-Faith Movement, as embodied by EW Kenyon and championed by preachers like Kenneth Hagin (who plagiarizes Kenyon all the time.)

He's a teenager who was taught by his parents, who never saw vpw's bad side, nor twi's bad side, and concluded it had none. He was taught that, and no evidence will change his mind, so don't confuse him with facts. His entire impression of vpw has come second-hand from people who thought the sun shone out of his navel. His education-which has been short of a few things I'd have made sure he knew- has resulted in him making statements like "While Dr. Wierwille might have had a devil spirit I don't see why that really matters."

Raf's done some work on this subject. The upshot of it: The tithe is never mentioned in the New Testament. The tithe is never mentioned as being required in the Old Testament. As Raf himself summarized: "According to the Bible, Abraham tithed once, and not of his income, and was called the friend of God. Well, shucks, I tithed once too. Guess I'm covered." You can get a PDF of Raf's work on this on the main page at http://www.livingepistlessociety.org/ It's the first link on the left: "An Overview of the Tithe."

There's a couple of possibilities here. I'll start with the ST:TNG episode where Data's on a settled planet (pre-First Contact with the Federation), has amnesia, and was sent to retrieve hazardous materials-nuclear irradiated metal, in some sort of suitcase.

"What could I do? I... left." "He broke jail." "I acquired transportation–" "He stole a spaceship." "The patrol acted in a hostile manner–" "They fired on him." "They've got no respect for private property – they damaged the bloody spaceship!"

The position is by no means universally held, but a number of fundamentalists hold it. I might see something wrong with it-if such a game was being presented here.This is not a first-person shooter, nor a 2-D fighter game, nor a scrolling game, nor even an MMORPG like World of Warcraft. It's...a....strategy...game. Having noted that, even the strategy/tactics portion is small, and generally, kids won't be interested in it anyway because it LACKS the visceral connection that people keep claiming it HAS. The doctrines would be a separate issue. I only addressed the claim of violent content. I'd be interested in hearing a list of the games currently in ownership there, which the kids areallowed to play. The incredible likelihood (although this is no guarantee-someone CAN select the games carefully enough to avoid this) is that there is at least one game there which has violent content, where the player's character beats down, shoots, slashes, explodes, or otherwise destroys his enemies, either one on one or in groups and vehicles- and that this is the MAIN PORTION of the game-what the player plays during the entire game. I'd then compare that to this game, where a SMALL PORTION of the game has violence- which is removed from the visceral appeal, since it's played out like a chess-match and not the result of the player "pulling the trigger". Most video games are thus a LOT more violent than this one. Unless, of course, one is determined to ignore that and claim "the game is mostly about shooting down unbelievers"-which was the position of at least one review, and one I think was a complete error. Feel free to use your dollars to vote for the games/movies/books you want to see. I do the same. And no, I don't have any plans to buy this one, at present. (I reserve the right to change my mind later.)

Actually, the meetings and members are so the IRS doesn't shut them down- it's so they can appear to be a non-profit organization/religion.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, OLDIESMAN. SOME OF US made a point of hearing from BOTH SIDES when each had the microphone before making any decisions, and heard the bosses speak for themselves. When I left, it was NOT because I was following men. To be specific, I considered the basics of what one side said- that the other was placing their own opinions above God- to have been proven by what the other side said when they had ample time to give their side. In short, I REFUSED to follow men, and travelled alongside the NY believers because they seemed correct to me at the time. And when that seemed no longer the case, I slipped away. Perhaps YOUR EXPERIENCE WAS DIFFERENT FROM MINE. However, your description purported to speak for everyone who left, and it certainly didnt speak for me, and it didn't speak for Raf, since it completely failed to describe the approach EITHER of us used. A local pinhead, or group of pinheads, no more vilifies one group than one GREAT local group means the whole organization is of God.

With a little checking, I found this: http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/controversy.htm LEFT BEHIND: ETERNAL FORCES A statement from Left Behind Games Inc. Troy A. Lyndon, Chief Executive Officer Recently, much controversy has ensued due to published articles in the media which discuss the violence in our upcoming game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces. However, references to “praise the lord and pass the ammunition” or “kill in the name of God” or others were made by journalists spreading misinformation, which is absolutely not true. And for this reason, I have published this statement. There is no blood or gore in Left Behind: Eternal Forces. The game is designed to be a classic battle between good and evil, but it does not gratuitously depict violence or death. Others are concerned about the pre-trib religious doctrine believed by the Left Behind authors. Left Behind is not the Bible, it is a fictional story and accordingly, situations resulting from the stories' post-apocalyptic time-frame are used to encourage gamers to think about matters of eternal significance, a topic largely ignored by modern games. Because our game is a ‘strategy' game, never does a player click a key or press a button to actuate a first-person violent act. Instead, control is managed by the player in much the same way as an animated chess game would be when pieces fight for position, except that in ‘real-time' strategy games, many pieces fight for position at the same time. In Left Behind: Eternal Forces, the players' objective is to find ‘tribulation clues', which include Bible mysteries, codes and fascinating and eternally relevant information. In the initial missions, there is little emphasis on physical warfare and gamers are introduced to powers of influence which result in a battle for the hearts and minds of people. As missions progress, there are no ‘objectives' to cause war physically. However, physical warfare results when the player is required to defend against the physical forces of evil; led by the Global Community Peacekeepers. Several months ago, there was a news story with erroneous information about the game. Unfortunately, some readers accepted the misinformation as being factual, and then the rumor mill and the blogs were off and running. If you hear someone making negative statements about this game, we encourage you to ask if they have personally reviewed the game. If they are merely passing on hearsay, it is false and misleading information. ============== "Strategy" games are not standard playing games. The player maneuvers characters as if on a chessboard. Anyone who played Final Fantasy 7 may remember Fort Condor or the Condor Fort Gold Saucer game (same game). This works the same way, and often the word "TACTICS" is added to a game title to indicate it's about maneuvering forces that then act INDEPENDENTLY. (Final Fantasy 7 players who moved on to Final Fantasy Tactics were often VERY surprised, since that game played NOTHING like a Final Fantasy series game.) I, personally, remember a review in a newspaper on the SuperNintento game "Bible Adventures" and how violent it was. I was offended- by the REVIEW. I'd already PLAYED the game. I was unable to find the violent scenes. There was Miriam chasing Baby Moses, there was David the shepherd gathering his flock, and the more interesting Noah's Ark segment, where you gathered the animals 2 by 2. Supposedly, there was some violence late in the David segment. However, the reviews made it sound as if the characters onscreen ran around slashing infidels. I'm seeing a similar situation with these "reviews." At least concerning violence. Now, objecting in general on religious grounds is a separate discussion, and I expect each person to know their own conscience.

That suggests this is *looks up the title* "11001001." The string of numbers is too long to be worth memorizing, unless you're diehard. The episode with the Bynars.

And you believed him when he said a blizzard pinned him into the city in Tulsa. And that he saw a snowstorm and heard from God that he'd be the recipient of special revelation hidden for nearly 2000 years. And that twi's programs were always about serving the individuals. And when he said he never threw anybody out. And when he said he always fought to keep people in. Etc, etc. However, quite a few of those were shown to be lies.

And as a Christian leader, he would be a success if he teaches his children plenty of good Sunday School and Bible every Sunday without fail. His beating-them-to-a-bloody-pulp Mon-Fri at times, of course, are simply expressions of his "flesh". Since, years later, his children are able to recite whole passages of Scripture and their meanings, in English AND Greek, he obviously was a success as a Christian leader with them, because they DID learn some Good Bible. The flashbacks and facial twitches they still have, well, bringing them up only speaks to the negatives in his life. Are we supposed to speak of his negatives? After all, he taught them some Good Bible! After all, none of us are perfect. And his imperfections causing lifelong damage to some people, well, what does that matter? After all, he taught them some Good Bible!

.....so it's Raf's turn.

To Raf: That's correct. I STILL think of that episode as "Res-Q", and probably will until I die. Your turn. To George: PBPHBTHTBPBHT!!!!

I know very little, but it's probably more than the average GSC'er knows about it. First of all, there's no "it"- North America had hundreds of nations, and lost possibly 95% of its "native" population as a result of wars with, broken treaties from, and diseases carried by "colonizing Europeans." That can make people a bit resentful. Want an example? Look up "the Trail of Tears", aka "the Trail Where We Cried" for a well-documented incident in the history of the United States. And that's really only one story, mostly of ONE nation-the Cherokee. He sounds angry-and I suspect he's picked up some of that. If you want to empathize with him, understand some of that anger. Don't give him any fake pathos bs where you pretend to understand and want him to suck it up-that won't get his respect at all. Another thing you'll want to understand... You'll need to try to see things from a position of a deep respect for the land, for nature, for all living things. Not every nation was as enlightened as every other on that subject, but what's taught around nowadays on the subject- especially the insta-converts like he might be- is that this is THE cornerstone of "Native American spirituality." ALL things in nature are to be respected- for all things in nature are SACRED. When you kill the deer for food, you thank the deer's spirit for giving you meat, and you don't waste any of it. When that's an attitude you can RESPECT and not simply bite your cheek over, then you may be ready to communicate with him, and listen. Before he is ready to hear you speak, you will need to hear HIM speak, and listen to him. Of course, that's just my advice. You're free to dismiss it all you want.

Silence of the Lambs Anthony Hopkins "Bram Stoker's" Dracula