WordWolf

That would explain a lot. Someone puts that forth in the corps or something, then the entire corps (as a body, with exceptions of course) starts promulgating it as if this is what it actually means, then I hear it when someone puts forth that INSTEAD of people researching, they made a COUNTERoffer that they should be reading the collaterals instead. As Raf put it at the time, it's the difference between "re-SEARCHING" and "re-READING." It also fits neatly into the package of "we don't really need to do anything like thinking-vpw did all our thinking for us. Now we just need to regurgitate and promulgate what HE taught."

Well, Oakspear AND Templelady gave 2 different answers, either of which should be sufficient. Second of all, your answer to date was as follows: First, you ignored the question for several days, even when it was posed several times. Second, you answered a question by saying "How you you know it's not right?" Which is not an ANSWER, it's an EVASION. Third, as soon as they answered your evasion, you CHANGED THE SUBJECT and insulted another group. Is this going to be the sum total of your answer? Espouse an unproven theology, pretend it holds up to scrutiny, when challenged, pretend the challenger has to answer rather than you, then change the subject when proven wrong? I mean, you could always post now and TRY to defend your theology, or actually think it over and-gasp!-conclude it was WRONG and CHANGE your theology when proven wrong! Imagine that! You can IMPROVE and CHANGE YOUR MIND!

That's not a "Re-SEARCH" Dept, that's a "Re-READ" and "Re-GURGITATE" Dept. Then again, as early as 1990, even some of the escapees were recommending "Re-READ" over "Re-SEARCH", so this should come as no surprise. The student is encouraged to NEVER touch REAL research tools unless looking to legitimize the position already arrived at by the group. In other words, what twi accused denominations of doing. No, it's reREADING.In research, you get to take diverse sources, and come up with new insights that DIVERGE from them. In its crudest form, one might say that the discussions we had analyzing the Blue Book and TW:LiL were research, since we took sources and examined them and were free to diverge when necessary. "They call us 'brainwashers'? We got a nation of sheep! Brainwashees! Most people wouldn't know an original thought if it fell on them!" lcm was rather repetitive. Comes from having limited INflow of information and ideas. This limited his OUTflow. Since he kept talking, that meant he was repetitive. Since he was above improvement/refinement/correction, that meant he was repetitively sloppy and unimproved, as well. Translation:the tapes we already taught, the books we already wrote, the magazines we already wrote. The student learns to use what we already taught/wrote. It's called repetition. Translation: He then has to take what we already taught/wrote and apply it to hypothetical situations, showing he's sufficiently memorized OUR approach to things so as to prevent a truly novel solution we haven't vetted. "I'll be a better minister once I've memorized all their print materials!I feel so blessed!"

Bully for you. Those good times you had were at the expense of bad times inflicted on others. I don't begrudge you good times, but they don't negate the suffering. Since that's not "all without exception", that must mean "all with a distinction". The distinction being, apparently, all the people as he imagines them...

Well, I didn't see the need to embarass anyone on the OLD thread about this comment, but-seeing as someone felt the need to bring it up again, I'll address some of the inadequate claims now. (The rest can wait til later.) Regarding the Tulsa lie, the following was said: "Dr could have made a mistake on the time and date and that would settle it very easily. I don't see that this situation is critical for him to have been accurate. Then again, the weather report could have an error. That happens, to, you know. Then there are many other possibilities. Why bother? Unless you're hell-bent on finding excuses to not taking him seriously. I see this story as relatively insignificant." Where shall I start? It's obvious to me that this statement is hiding a deliberate attempt to avoid the reported facts of the event, even to the point of never having read about it in the FIRST PLACE. "Dr could have made a mistake on the time and date and that would settle it very easily." No, it wouldn't-mainly because he never REPORTED a time and date. He was DELIBERATELY VAGUE on the specific event he attended- notice its NAME was never given, the HOTEL NAME was missing, and so on? We have the city and the month. After someone did some research, they found the specific event, hotel and dates. THAT is where the exact dates come from- the official records of the event. So, the time/date thing does NOT allow vpw to squirm off the hook-despite his attempts to keep both vague and thus avoiding being questioned in the first place. "I don't see that this situation is critical for him to have been accurate." vpw himself said this was one of the 2 most important days in his LIFE. Yet he fabricated important details about it-fabrications which were uncovered. He demonstrated that he had no problem inventing snowstorms to make special events sound more holy. The SECOND most important day in his life had a manufactured snowstorm. And you expect me to believe his account of a snowstorm in his account of the MOST important day in his life? Few people have difficulty seeing the connection. "Then again, the weather report could have an error. That happens too, you know." We know. That's why TWO independent weather reports were consulted. No snowstorms for the entire MONTH. Not even a single flake for the timeframe in question. "Then there are many other possibilities." Like what? Alien invasion? There are no other possibilities. He lied. He was caught lying. He CHANGED his lie. "Why bother?" We want to know the truth. And a consistent, clear pattern appears- for those who wish to look.

Let's START with him at the podium visibly displaying a firearm. That was an obvious way to prevent opposing viewpoints from being presented. BTW, the legal term for it is "brandishing", and it IS a crime. As for judgemental, that goes to the content of what he said...

He made virtually the same statement on the Tape of the Month "the Mark of Quality" in the mid-80s. "The Jews of today are no more 'God's chosen people' than the Apaches." Odd how he kept singling out the Apaches in his statement. Never a European ethnic group, never another nation, always Apaches. That whole tape pretty much was "lcm on politics". It's worth listening to if you ever need to disabuse yourself of the notion that lcm knew what he was talking about. The man's entire education consisted of regular school thru college- where he was NOT a Political Science major, then being completely cut off from the outside world and being conditioned in twi, where the only consistent news sources were the Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society. And he considered himself some sort of political analyst/commentator/expert.

Actually, the RC Church puts a lot more of that money back OUT locally than twi. Depending on the community you live in, the closest thing you may have to an emergency shelter might BE the local church. (That's been the case historically in developing or tiny communities.) I don't know what that's supposed to mean.There IS a difference, however, between not prosecuting a molester (which the RCC DID, which is wrong and vile), and EDUCATING a molester, telling them it's "ok if you can take it", or that "you'll need to loosen up sexually if you want to lead God's people", which was done in twi- BY VPW HIMSELF as well as others (those were DIRECT QUOTES FROM VPW). Both are evil acts, one is MORE evil. That's called "ritual". Some people like it. Some people hate it. Don't like it? Don't attend. BTW, if you'd attended an ROA under VPW, you would have seen keynote teachings where vpw said something and everyone was supposed to answer him. And there were a LOT of times you were expected to stand up, sit down, stand again, sit again... That's interesting.I grew up with a Roman Catholic Church. I served as an altar boy, and so I got to know all the rooms and corners and so on. I can see the entire layout of the church in my mind's eye, decades later. Where are these "5 crosses"? I've seen a maximum of TWO- one by the altar, one hanging from the ceiling. Most churches I've seen since then have ONE. (One by the altar.) Where are the other 4 crosses you've seen? Furthermore, is your theology THAT sensitive that you get physically ill when someone even SUGGESTS that there were 2 people that were crucified with Jesus in the account? (If so, you need to dial it down a notch or high blood pressure will get you before you're 30.) What are they supposedly lying about to keep donations? From what you're saying, if they agreed with you about 4 crucified vs 2 crucified, their donations would dry up. This does not make sense. Furthermore, Chewbacca was a wookiee, but he hung out on Endor with the Ewoks.

If you want plain English that attempts to be word-for-word accurate AND retains the italics for translator additions, you can't do better than the New American Standard Bible. If you want the feel of a KJV, I'd recommend New King James Version. If you want a paraphrase of the ideas, there's Bibles like "the Message", "the Amplified Bible" and "the Living Bible." (I don't trust them generally, but the language is often beautiful.) Some people like the NIV. Me, I think the NASB outclasses it for what I want in a Bible. If you want to sample them before buying, that's easy. Go to Bible Gateway and look up a few passages in different Bibles, then pick your favourite.

Well, if you need help, I'm willing to point you to all the information. I'm sure it's all either on a message thread or in the documents on the main website already. Of course, the FIRST thing to know is, roughly when were they in? Back in the early 70s, things were fairly low-structured. By the late 70s, the first structures were put in place by vpw. By the early 80s, structures pretty much locked in everything. In 1985, vpw died, and things started to get REALLY weird. 1985-1988 was the "fog years", where lcm-vpw's successor- wandered around after "the Passing of the Patriarch" was read. 1989 was when lcm drew his "line in the sand", and demanded an oath of loyalty. 80% of the membership all left at once. The early 90s were a period of rebuilding, as lcm slowly replaced all vpw's classes and programs with his own. From 1994 onward lcm tied the noose tight, and membership became tantamount to slavery. That's just a rough sketch. Now, there's lots of threads that will give you some background. For a general overview, check out "Greasespot 101". That's got a thread to help familiarize yourself with many basic concept and terms. Now, I started a number of threads that might be of help, depending on what you're looking for. (I'm big on trying to assemble the history.) If you put in my name and search for threads with the title "Eyewitnesses", you'll see a variety of threads with some general information by people in the group during different timeframes. If you search for titles containing "wonderland" and my name, you'll get 2 other threads. "the way:living in wonderland" is a thread that explores the in-house book/advertisement, "the way:living in love." It also serves as a biography of vpw himself. (The last few pages include some drafts of a biography, compiled from the thread and a few sources.) "vp and me in wonderland" is a thread that explores the in-house book, "vp and me", written by lcm. It provides a look at lcm's life and training, a look at what vpw was like when he thought no one was looking, and life for the way corps. So, depending on what you're looking for, some of those will be of assistance. I'd at least read over the "Wayspeak and Greasespot-speak" so that you can get familiar with the lingo here. Feel free to pass along questions.

"First the Nazis came. First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out- because I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out- because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out- because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me- and there was no one left to speak out for me." -Martin Niemoller.

Was this the subject you wanted, Belle? I know someone at some point asked about suicide at hq... http://www.greasespotcafe.com/editorial/dr...-to-suicide.htm It might have been concerning the Passing of the Patriarch. I found a reference TO such a thread, but not the thread itself. But I CAN link to that document itself. http://www.greasespotcafe.com/waydale/misc/pop1.htm

This event supposedly occurs in 1953. In 1971, vpw is speaking of it, and says "THERE WAS A BLIZZARD IN TULSA." He said he called the airport, the train station, the bus depot, and the airport AGAIN, and all 4 times, he was told all traffic was halted. "THE CITY WAS SNOWBOUND. I JUST COULDN'T GET OUT!" The reality of the situation was that the temperature during this supposed "BLIZZARD IN TULSA" hit 60 degrees Fahrenheit. However, vpw was always sure no one would check up on him, so he never bothered shoring up his story. The senselessness of the weather feeling like mild spring during his supposed "blizzard" never caught his attention-which it SHOULD if he was not mentally defective. The absence of snow or cool weather likewise never caught his attention. If he actually believed this story about the "blizzard", they would have. If he was just lying, then, obviously, contradictions to his story wouldn't draw his attention- he'd know there was no "blizzard." Later, a woman checks his story, and finds the facts completely contradict his story. So, she goes to him to discuss it. He looks her in the eye, and, without skipping a beat, NOW begins to tell a story about angels lying to him and making illusions of a snowstorm and manning phones all over the city of Tulsa. vpw then begins to mention at meetings-at least once in johniam's presence- that it "must've been an angel" on the phone talking to him. That means he now ADMITTED there was no actual snow (since he was now CAUGHT and could no longer claim that as he had IN PRINT). If he talked to normal people at any of those locations, it is obvious they would not have lied to him, nor been so incompetent to say there was a blizzard coming when the entire MONTH was forecast for MILD WEATHER. (It's statistically possible for one of them to go insane JUST as he got on the phone, but all 4 people he spoke to?) So, he claimed the voice he spoke to was an angel who then LIED to him-apparently at God's instruction. Among other things, this means that GOD ALMIGHTY CANNOT LIE, (Titus 1:2) but He has no problems sending his angels to do exactly that. So, one either can believe that vpw lied, or that 3-4 angels lied. Apparently, he also trimmed down his claim- since he told johniam about the airport ONLY, while IN PRINT he'd said he had also called the TRAIN STATION and BUS DEPOT. Now, vpw had no need to abandon his entire story-just add a few details for listeners to latch onto. That's because most people who heard this story WANTED to believe it, and vpw thought-correctly-that some people-even in the face of obvious reality-would STILL take his word over anything else. But, hey! Don't let ME interfere with your beliefs- as if I could.

BTW, vpw's OTHER snow story-the famous "snow on the pumps"- has a few details you may find interesting. A) It supposedly happened in 1942. The earliest he could POSSIBLY have told anyone was 1970, since Mrs W said that he FIRST told the story to the corps, and there WERE none before 1970. She said he kept it to himself and that he told no one. That means-the day it happened- he did NOT immediately tell his wife the moment he saw her. That ALONE stretches credibility, to me. If I was married and God spoke to me, I would tell the Mrs the next time I saw her-pretty quick unless it was physically impossible to tell her within a few seconds of seeing her. B) The details seem to change-both of what he says and what happens. For example, the account he DOES tell Mrs W includes the miraculous snow making the view look "pitch-black, almost pitch-black". Other accounts have it look like NORMAL snow. Mind you, nobody I've polled has EVER seen a BLACK snowstorm. Even blizzards and snow at nighttime in the countryside ALL look WHITE. Perhaps he tried telling the story with BLACK snow, and switched to more conventional snow later. Perhaps later he switched to black snow to make it more unusual.

Amazing you're going to try to defend this, but I'm game. Here's what vpw HIMSELF said on the subject, as recorded in "The Way:Living in Love", which was an in-house book written to serve as a long ad as to how great twi was. As we pick up the action, vpw's at that big meeting in Tulsa, and getting ready to leave. pg-198. "So I left the meeting, slipped out, went to my hotel and called the airport. I was all set to check out. But a funny thing had happened-there was a blizzard in Tulsa. All the planes were grounded, so I couldn't get a plane. I tried the trains-they were all snowed in. The buses-same thing. The city was snowbound. I just couldn't get out! Well, I called back the airport, and they said they could put me on standby for the night. I asked the girl on the phone, 'Does this happen all the time?' She said 'No, this is the first time.' " That was everything he said about that event in that book, except for "But then I reconsidered, since I was stuck in town anyway." (pg-199.) So, was it supposed to be an ACTUAL snowstorm? YES. A "blizzard". He called the airport. He called the train depot. He called the bus depot. He called the airport AGAIN. "THE CITY WAS SNOWBOUND. I JUST COULDN'T GET OUT!" (That's 4 different people, in 3 different locations.) According to vpw, the entire city was snowed in. Period. Now, then, what was the reality of the event? "Way Corps graduate Barries HIll later confirmed that the rally was the Divine Healing Convention, December 11-13, 1951, sponsored by 'the Voice of Healing' magazine, and that Wierwille stayed at the Hotel Tulsa (which was razed in 1973.)" "The Tulsa Tribune notes that the temperature that day was 60 degrees [Fahrenheit], and the overnight low never even got down to freezing. December 1951 records in 'Climatological Data for Oklahoma' show only 5/10 an inch of snow on December 8th and 6/10 an inch of snow on December 20. NEITHER date concurs with Wierwille's visit, and neither records anything near a blizzard which could stop ALL BUSES AND TRAINS." So, Barries Hill found that the reality of the event did not match vpw's account of the event. "Hill notes that the weather bureau, newspapers and airport do NOT record a snowstorm at that time." Naturally, this woman-who previously had believed him COMPLETELY- brought this to his attention. It is at THIS time that the new levels of this story develop. "When she mentioned this to Wierwille, he dismissed these facts by suggesting that the blizzard was 'a phenomenon' or that he 'spoke with angels' when he called the airport, train station and bus station. Wierwille conveniently blames holy angels for LYING to him about the weather rather than admit his fabrication." Those of you who are new to this story can pick up a few details here: http://www.empirenet.com/~messiah7/quz_itulsasnow.htm Those of you who are curious might also want to know that MRS W's account of this story (in Born Again to Serve mentions NOTHING about a blizzard, planes, trains or buses being snowbound or REPORTED to be snowbound. She mentions snow in Chicago (which has no effect on the weather in Tulsa or New Knoxville, which are hundreds of miles away from both) and that there was "sleet forcast in Tulsa by Thursday." Now, they don't even delay buses, trains or planes for SLEET. You've driven through SLEET. So, Mrs W does not support a claim of a blizzard or of a REPORT of a blizzard, whether by human or angel. So, in plain English, what was the deal about snow and Tulsa? vpw later claimed that there was a blizzard that completely boxed him in and forced him to stay at the convention (which was when he met Stiles), which forced him to be on site for things. Weather reports completely contradict his story. When vpw is caught saying the opposite of the evidence, he suddenly CHANGES his story, and claims that angels lied to him when he contacted each location. Please note that-although this was YEARS after the event- his accounts-which came in 1970-1971- NEVER even SUGGEST this, despite the fact that any fool can look out a window and NOT see a blizzard in the middle of a major city when there ISN'T one, and see people entering and exiting a hotel in 60 degree weather when he SHOULD be seeing them stamping snow off boots rather than wearing light jackets, and, apparently, he never exited the hotel to go get lunch, even. (Or he did and failed to notice that he was dressed for weather 40 degrees colder than he was expecting.)

Johnny: I wasn't reacting to the "gun safety course", I was reacting to an idiot with a loaded shotgun in an apartment, passing it around and getting a hole blown in the ceiling.

Well, if you want a paraphrase of the Bible verses, yes, there are plenty of Bibles that will serve at least as well. As for vpw's own "literals according to usage", what they are IS paraphrases, and no more guaranteed than, say, "The Message" or "the Amplified Bible." Let's compare ONE VERSE and see the results. I liked vpw's paraphrase of Philippians 4:13, but I never replaced the verse with it or anything. (Most of his other paraphrases I didn't care for.) Philippians 4:13 King James Version: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." New American Standard Bible (another word-for-word): "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." New International Version: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Contemporary English Version: "Christ gives me the strength to face anything." The Message: "Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." Hm. This is VERY interesting. The Amplified Bible: "I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [i am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me; I am self sufficient in Christ's sufficiency.]" ALL of that was in that verse in the Amplified Bible, initial copyright 1954. Here's vpw's "literal according to usage": "I am ready for anything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me." Is there ANYBODY here who thinks that vpw's "literal" of this verse wasn't taken DIRECTLY from the Amplified Bible? Gee, an uncredited source in vpw's background, imagine... I wonder how many OTHER of "his" "literals" might match the Amplified Bible so exactly...

How much training does it take to remember the basics on "how not to accidentally shoot people"? A) Always treat all guns as loaded unless you have emptied it yourself. B) Never point a gun at anything unless you intend to destroy it. C) Keep your finger off the trigger until your sight is on the target. D) Watch your backstop and anything the bullet/s may come in contact with.

That's why I kicked up a fuss on the "vp and me in wonderland" thread. vpw himself was facing corps grads, who had travelled to hq on their own dime, taking time off work (either unpaid or as possibly their ONLY vacation time), who spent "Corps Week" working for free, assembling the structures for the next week's ROA, and then had to go home and get back to their lives the following week. vpw tore them a new one for not staying a second week and working a SECOND week for free. Now, they weren't leaving because they WANTED to. If you were twi (and corps were twi), you WANTED to be at the ROA. They were already RIGHT THERE. The only reason to leave was that they had obligations that required them to leave-familial or job-oriented, or they were broke and could not AFFORD to take off another week and not draw a salary. vpw, on the other hand, went straight from school into the clergy, where he lived off his denomination, until he was able to cut-and-paste pfal from other people's classes, and live off THEIR 10%. He had NO EXPERIENCE with regular 40-hour work-weeks, salaries, and so on. lcm went straight from college to the way corps, and spent all his time after THAT on twi's payroll. It's pretty nervy to attack people who are giving all they CAN, just because they can't give MORE. Not every way corps person was able to act as a complete slave to twi at all times.

Sir, why do you think I never installed it? The caching feature on their servers allows you to load stuff faster- and allowed others to access your cache. People were browsing online stores, and their browser was announcing they were logged into the site as [name of someone else.] Private forums and stuff could be accessed by the same method. I love Google's normal search function. But ANY data ANYBODY saves makes me give them "the hairy eyeball", so the "helpful improvements" I pass on.

Actually, when I get bored, I sometimes toss this question around for an instant. Depending on my mood, I've figured either Benjamin Bratt, Lou Diamond Phillips or Esai Morales. As I just discovered, however, all of them are about 6 ft tall. So, they could play a TALL me. Or an older, tall me, to be specific. I don't know of any current actors for a younger me... Here's Benjamin Bratt: http://images.hollywood.com/images/4_1099844.jpg Here's Lou Diamond Phillips: http://entimg.msn.com/i/gal/HollywoodHomic...ips_350x435.jpg Here's Esai Morales: http://www.enzogiobbe.com/celebs/Esai_Morales3a.jpg

Actually, a Jew once told me outright that was his major beef with Christianity, that the Trinity was pretty much his dividing line.

Looks like you and I made the same points, Oak. Think anybody will read them?