Oakspear

When LCM took over it was a big deal (within the TWI conext). A revered founder was cermoniously passing on the mantle to the next generation. Images of Elijah & Elisha, Paul & Timothy were invoked. It was a happy time in TWI-land. In contrast RFR took over amidst a scandal and lawsuit. Drawing attention to the transition with a big ceremony annointing her with oil and placing a mantle on her shoulders would have been ludicrous. They were smart to keep it low-key

From what I can tell, a region is equivalent to what a limb used to be. Back in the days when there was actually growth, a limb usually had multiple branches in the larger cities, sometimes grouped into "areas" that included the suburbs and neighboring smaller cities. There were "twig areas" (3-6 twigs) in medium sized cities and single twigs scattered all over the state. A limb coordinator in many states oversaw thousnads of people. In the late seventies, early eighties, I saw TWI go from seven to eight and later twelve regions. It made sense, because the limbs were growing, and the region coordinators were more or less there to make communication easier. In the late nineties and early 00's, a region might consist of Minnesota, North & South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, with no limb coordinators in the Dakotas and "branches" with only 2 or three twigs in the major cities in each of the other states. Few enough people to have made up a large branch or an area in the eighties. So they now has an average of 3 1/3 states per region. As I recall from tapes that came out in 2001, there were TEN states with no limb coordinators or Way Corps presence, and about half of the ten with no organized fellowship at all. The people that they are calling limb coordinators sometimes are barely overseeing more than one twig. Back in the 90's we split our anemic little fellowship just so the incoming branch coordinator would have a branch to coordinate. After he left we merged again. It's title inflation. Give people exalted titles, like calling the busboy the servicewear recycling field coordinator. And what are they calling Harve? Any recognition of his time as a Director? Other than Loy, who was ousted, all others either died, or retired (emeritus status according to wayspeak) when leave the Board. WayferNot!: Grace M was from Nigeria. She attended the University of Nebraska before moving on to Country Coordinator by marriage.

While I'm on a roll... Why, oh why, did we even bother with leading songs by waving our hands around? Most of us didn't even look at the song leader, and most song leaders couldn't find the downbeat if their lives depended on it.

Right on, Lindy. I always tried to make the same old, same old "Sing Along The Way" songs a little bit more exciting: call & response, hallelujahs, "Oh Glory" (and even "Oh Baby") in "I Saw The Light"; singing 4/4 songs in 3/4 time, or in different tempos. Nope. Gotta sing 'em the way the chorus choir sings 'em --> We had a Way Corps bc who wanted to sing a Children's Fellowship song, but he didn't know the tune. I can't remember the title, but it had"...clap your hands *clap*clap*clap*clap*...'cause we're a fam-i-ly, the Word is the will of G-O-D..." in it. Well, Mr. Dumass announces that we will sing this song, that he isn't sure how it goes, and despite the fact that EVERYONE ELSE in the fellowship knows the song, declares that if anyone else knows a different version than the one he will "teach" us, too bad, anything else will just confuse him! So here we go, with the guy leading the song the ONLY ONE in the room who doesn't know it, and everyone else just busting to sing it the way we've been taught. Same guy would rip us new excretory orifices if we deviated from TWI approved song leading.

I believe that the BSA rule is that no leaders be homosexuals. As far as I know the exclusion does not apply to the scouts themselves. BSA also has a rule that there must always be at least two leaders present. No adult may be alone with scouts for any reason. On camping trips adults are prohibited from sharing the same tents with scouts.

Pedophiles are not exclusively homosexual. What group should lobby to come down hard on the heterosexual pedophiles?

Problem? -->

I have no problem with the Boy Scouts. In fact, I was a Cub Scout leader for six years, and a Boy Scout volunteer for some of that time. Three of my five sons were in scouting. On my computer desk is a picture of me with my son on the Oregon Trail on one of our trips. That being said, scouting is only as strong or weak as the individuals that make it up. I've encountered many fine men and women who were leaders, and many fine young men in the program. I've also come across some first-class jerks...in short, just like everywhere else. The point has been made that the Boy Scouts are a private organization, and that they have the right to exclude anyone that they want from their private organization. I agree. What they don't have the right to do is to expect a public organization like a school to be required to support them through the use of the facilities and access to their students for recruiting. When I was a Cub Scout, our church sponsored our Pack and the Boy Scout Troop. In many places this is still the rule. Every Pack and Troop must have a sponsoring organization, sometimes a church, sometimes a community organization. When the sponsoring organization does not own a meeting place, the public schools are often used. Not a thing. Which of those excludes homosexuality? Objectively, none of them. If you hold certain religious beliefs, you might believe differently, but are all Boy Scouts and their families adherants to those beliefs? I guess not.

David: Your words and the implied attitude behind them cause me to liken you to a male external reproductive organ.

When Martindale declared that the "Word" was "Over the world" in the mid nineties, he said it was because God told him that it was, and then had John Reynolds give supposed statistics and evidence to "prove" it. Many of us just couldn't see it, considering that Martindale's own yardsticks of expansion, outlined in his book, were numerical and geographic growth, and sphere of influence. Numbers were down considerably, and were shrinking further, there were nine or ten states without an official TWI presence, and about half the number of foreign outposts compared to the eighties. Any influence that TWI ever had was squandered. Martindale also said that "Word Over the World" wasn't some vague unattainable vision, but was a goal that could, and had been achieved. World Over the World was, in my opinion, just that: vague and unattainable, because it was never clearly and consistantly defined. It was a slogan, nothing more, nothing less. I do have a vague recollection of hearing it defined as "a twig within walking distance of every person in the world", but never saw it it writing. With Martindale's proclamation, whole regions of the world had no TWI presence; one lonely fellowship made "the Word available" to millions of people. This was a clear indication that he had lost touch: heck, one fellowship in a medium-sized city like Lincoln couldn't even begin to "make available" TWI doctrine to the whole city, let alone the state or a country. So, what was "Word Over the World"? What did you think it meant? Did you ever hear it defined? How off was Martindale's sorry excuse for it?

It wasn't so much that Wierwille shouldn't have been proud of his heritage, but that in general we were all encouraged to not dwell on our own heritage. Reject your parents and grandparents, but have to see that stupid Wierwille family tree all over at Gunnison.

Man...that just...sits there...like a duck

Jess was the first Way Corps Director, Ermal Owens may be who you're thinking of

Gastrotheism = whose god is their belly

Pantheism = the worship of pans (pots too)

I don't think that the human factor in healing can be overlooked, unless one wants to ignore the fact that not everybody gets healed...Christian or not. If one holds the position that healing occurs as an answer to a prayer (which pretty much means " a request") to God, then the question of why God doesn't always heal must be answered. Personally I find the answer to be unsatisfying. To paraphrase our favorite deceased cult leader, that mindset seems to say: "I've God a jack, but I won't help you until you've got a new car". Thomas used the word whimsical, I used the word capricious. Maybe arbitrary fits in as well. God has the power to heal, and he does it sometimes, and other times he just heals us a little bit, and other times you're just a freakin' rose petal in heaven. It's like Calvin-ball! You never really know what the rules are! I'm going to make use of whatever mecahnism there is out there for healing, and not wait around for a god to grant my petition...or not.

My memory may be fuzzy about not accepting personal checks for the advanced class, but I'm sure that they were never asking for CASH!

We are directing people to The Villager Hotel http://www.villagerhotels.com/ If you are coming, or even think there's a possibility of attending, we suggest that you reserve a room NOW! It's a football Saturday, and the hotel rooms will fill up quickly. You can always cancel later. Unless, like Kathy, you want the park bench, or the back of "Big Woody", the WOWmobile :D--> We are not registered anywhere yet, but we'll let you know.

I'll be checking on the hotel tomorrow or Thursday. Will let you know. We're trying to go for economically priced combined with centrally located.

Reiklilady & I will be getting married on September 17th, which is a Saturday. It is also a football Saturday, so we need to get hotel rooms reserved ASAP! If you are planning on attending, please let us know yesterday so that we can make sure that you are not sleeping on a park bench when you get here :D--> If you fly into Omaha, my son has volunteered to help shuttle people back & forth.

That's Wicca, one of the groups within the umbrella term "neo-pagan". "Neo-paganism", or simply "paganism" encompasses a variety of groups, from attempted reconstructions of Druidism; Asatru, a continuation of pre-Christian Norse religion; shamanism; and goddess worship of various kinds. It's practicioners come up with their rituals from a variety of sources, some documented historically, some claiming to be chanelling dead people or spirits of some kind (revelation anyone?), and some just made up on the spot to be cool.

Didn't know Phil Chen was still around. Top-rate bassist

Answering the door in the nude to door-to-door missionaries seems like one of those urban legends where everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who has heard about it, but nobody actually owns up to it. Until now. Funny, I've never had a door-to-door JW not go away when asked, or be rude, or come back when told not to. Unlike some of us old wayfers! :D-->

The whole Mad Max series. Or the first Billy Jack movie, "Born Losers" perhaps? Or maybe put 'em together: post-apocalyptic Australian karate-kicks rednecks on motorcycles. :D-->

Repo Man! (feelin' 7-Up, I'm feelin' 7-Up!)