What About It

I think you'd need some good firepower to launch a bronze. Prob. not as much as you could get from hair spray or other aerosols.

um...just Googled it...nevermind.

My dad got it for me for my WC graduation. It cost $200 if I remember correctly.

OMG...I think I might still have my vp bronze head thingy! Lord, I've got to get in the attic one day and see what way crap I have up there that needs to get the H out of my house--you know, the spirits and all. lol. How much do you think I can get for it on eBay?

That's cool, JavaJane! Where did you take your pins? We have pins and rings we'd like to get rid of so that we can travel lighter. hahahahah

Huh? I don't get it.

I was watching Finding Nemo with my toddler son, the part where Marlin, Nemo's daddy, is frantically swimming through the ocean in a feeble and failed attempt to catch up to the boat that just whisked away with Nemo on board. For those of you who aren't caught up in Disney's latest movies, what happened is that Nemo swam too far away from "the edge," where all the fish knew it was safe to swim up to but not past. Marlin had warned Nemo to stop at the edge, but Nemo wanted to prove something, and so he swam on and got caught by a diver before Marlin could stop him. So I'm thinking, I could teach my son that Nemo got caught because he disobeyed his daddy. And then I think, WTF? That ain't why Nemo got caught. That's another old Way Ministry effin' lie that that nasty cult taught me. They would always teach that bad things happened because of disobedience: if an accident happened, they'd inevitably trace it back to disobedience; if someone got hurt or killed, disobedience. Now, I understand that disobedience and an accident might be related--but as far as disobedience being the cause, that's stretching the truth in a cultish sort of way. Now why would a "Christian ministry" founded by a perverted rapist-liar do something like that? To keep people trapped in fear of disobeying leadership in the way ministry? To keep people innies rather than outies, thus keeping the money innie and not outie? To keep getting sex from the same people that give you money? In Finding Nemo, Nemo got caught by a diver because he swam where divers are, not because he disobeyed Daddy. Marlin had warned Nemo not to swim there because he knew it wasn't safe. But disobedience is not the reason Nemo got caught. He was swimming where divers are. That's why. When I was in The Way, I was convinced that any serious childhood accident I was in was because I had disobeyed. Once I was jumping on the neighbor's trampoline, which my parents had told us not to do. I ended up twisting my ankle so bad that I was in a cast for 2 weeks. But I was injured because I didn't land right, not because I disobeyed. I also broke my arm when my sister pushed me off her skateboard that I had just stolen from her. I broke my arm because I went flying through the air and landed on my hand on a concrete driveway, not because I effin' disobeyed some unwritten parental rule that thou shalt not steal thy sister's skateboard. What are your stories of the "light" coming on after you got out?

Jr. Director: R!c0 M@gnelli. Brown-noser extraordinaire.

That would be too much like a working at a job and not enough like fellowshipping with a Bible ministry being in a cult. Plus it gives people too much freedom. Can't have that. Oh, and one more thing, you're f*cked up for even bringing it up. :wacko:

Excie, what's the mal pack crapola? and silk sea sponges?

Oh, I didn't know anything about those groups. You know, you get kinda sheltered to other ways of doing things when you're in a cult that refuses to even consider anything other than its own doctrines and practices. lmao!

I have seen this sort of thing in TWI. Here's a couple examples: I asked a clergyman about Down Syndrome. A former boss of mine had a child who was born with it, and this was very devastating to the couple. I liked the couple a lot. The child was born just days before I left to go in residence, so I think the wife and child were still in the hospital when I moved. It nagged at me. The Way always seemed to have some sort of spiritual explanation for everything in the world, so I asked a clergyman who replied to me that this sort of thing happens because of generations of unbelief. He said there must have been generations of unbelief, which remember is rampant in churches according to TWI--and these were church-going Greek Orthodox people, as well as their families. Another time I was discussing why the USA has such fertile land and why the Middle East can't grow any crops. The answer? Years and years of unbelief coupled with slothfulness in not tilling the ground has made the ground unable to bear crops. One time when I saw this generational thing tied in a bit more plausibly, or at least it seems a little more logical to me, was when a girl I knew (a former roommate of mine) committed suicide. After the leadership looked into it via her husband, they found that her father had committed suicide also. So LCM linked the two and noted that she had never overcome the spiritual influence of the devil spirits her father had been possessed with when he took his life. I can see a link there; however, there's more to this incident. LCM said that what made this even more devilish was that the couple had been mark and avoid and then she waited until they were welcomed back into "the household" and then committed suicide. I think that for someone who really loves God and thinks that TWI's brand of the Word is truth, then for them to be M&A by the organization that represents God to them would be very detrimental. I think this is another case where TWI doctrine contributed more to this girl's suicide than her father's suicide did. (Remember T0m Mitch3ll? Not that his had anything to do with his family, but with TWI doctrine--or perhaps just TWI practice. Either way, I think TWI is more responsible for these deaths than any other source.)

Bliss wrote: As far as WHY, TWI and occult are not written about enough is simple. IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH. Seriously. They haven't made that big of an impact in the world, as the JC's or Mormons, so basically they get ignored. OldSkool, I think Bliss meant that TWI is not big enough. Not that the problem of TWI/occult doctrine isn't big enough. Correct me if I'm wrong.

And his granddaughter, who knows he was an effin pig, stays there. I don't get it.

That was about the end of it. She knew that was true and didn't even argue her point anymore. I made it clear to her and to my dept. coord. (her sister--nepotism runs big at TWI) that anything outside of work related to me was not to say anything except "out" by my name after that. I ended up admitting that I shouldn't have marked on the calendar without permission (because you know you have to confess your broken fellowship to get back in their good graces). So we left it at that and they didn't ask me too many questions after that. Wow, hard to believe she used to be that way. I always got the feeling whenever she just wanted to sit down and talk that she was fishing for some dirt. I definitely wouldn't describe her as compassionate. In fact, when I was talking to my husband about her one time I think the term I used was "stressed out dominatrix."

Yep, that's about the size of it. I knew a region leader who was driving on a mountain pass in Colorado in the wintertime on his way to Gunnison. He was convinced the snowstorm was the adversary trying to off him because he was the man of God for our region. I know he was--he told me so! And the rainstorms during the Rock of Ages were always of the devil. I guess God was supposed to bless all the farmers with rain but at the same time cause a perfect spot of sunshine above us tent-dwellers.

Yep. A few things changed in the department after that.

Yes, yes,yes,yes,yes! I sometimes would--and even still do--feel "machine-like." In the sense that you control your emotions--they don't control you. I guess I understood that line of teaching to mean that I had to deprive myself of feeling the way that most people actually naturally feel. Like a "be strong" thing. When everything and everyone around you is getting emotional and all stirred up, be strong and don't let your emotions cause you to do what everyone else does. And in some situations I also thought that I had the responsibility to teach because I was Way Corpse. Talk about pressure! And now, after 25 years, having to work through all the bull just to try to "feel" like a normal person feels. And I think I'm naturally a little more detached emotionally than others might be--not letting stuff really get to me unless it's really big. But just because I might be that way naturally doesn't make it right either. Lots of thoughts, JavaJane.

Have I posted my shouting match with Donna Martindale? It went something like this: I was pregnant and having doctor visits. The secretary posted on her calendar, sitting on the main office desk for God and everyone to see, all of our appointments. One thing led to another and I needed more frequent doctor visits--visits that I didn't want to tell everyone about when returning from my appointments. But everyone was excited that I was pregnant and wanted to hear all the great news (which is never good when you need to start going more and more frequently). So I took the calendar and whited out all of my appointments and just wrote "out" instead. It's really nunyadambiz where I'm going, right? So somehow Donna decided that I was defacing ministry property and called me into her office to talk about it. Yep, that's right. She took on a pregnant (read "emotional") woman who was having some complications (read "sensitive"), and she was so convinced that mydambiz really did belong on the calendar that we got into a shouting match that escalated and ended like this: Donna: You had no right to take ministry property (emphasis is hers not mine) and mark it up like you did. Me: Well my personal business has no business on a ministry calendar.

Exactly, OldSkool! Plus, don't you think it's just a wee bit odd that this very foundational and fundamental "truth" that is taught as early as the FNC gets completely thrown out because it can't stand up to one little question? Thus, the title of the thread, "the great research ministry." Can someone tell me how this MultiQuote button works so that I don't keep spamming up threads like I've done here?

Oh, yeah, forgot to "stay in my lane." I guess my mind wasn't renewed or I wasn't thinking spiritually or something. But the question was at least spiritual enough to stump the great research department. Oh, you all know who's in that department, right? It's not really called the research department, it's Presidunce's Publications. And it's basically run by two hormonal, menopausal women (one of whom is the dept. coordinator) and one man, whom I used to have respect for before he lost his nards after being at HQ for a couple years, who is on the Dunce Cabinet and was given the title of Research Department coordinator (did I mention there's no research department? Oh, I guess I did at least once, right?) just so he'd have a department to coordinate (even though there's no department? OMG, I'm so confused right now).

Yep, I hear ya, hwy29. I'm 2 years removed and don't really give a rat's arse either. Edit: the curse checker changed it to "foot" but I like "arse" better.

A series of articles in the Way magazine was written by the Presidunce's crabbinet on Keys to the Werd's Interpretation (yes, the same keys that were stolen from Bullinger in How to Enjoy the Bible: http://philologos.org/__eb-htetb/ but that's ). So one cabinet member writes an article on To Whom the Word is Addressed. It was a longer article, and covered the sections of the Werd addressed to all the administrations as the way taught them, as well as the second aspect of this topic as taught by the MOG on Jew, Gentile, Church of God. The author of this Way Magazine article gets to examples of scriptures addressed to us in our administration. He shows an OT verse, Isaiah 53:5: "with his stripes we are healed" to teach that they in the OT looked forward to Jesus Christ's coming and "claimed" their healing based on his future realities. The companion verse in the NT, of course, is I Peter 2:24: "by whose stripes ye were healed," and the author of the article used this verse the same way every other MOG in the way did, to show that this is addressed to us today and we look back at his accomplishments to claim our healing. So I'm editing this article, and I ask myself, "Is I Peter is addressed to us? I thought the Church Epistles are addressed to us. And the author of the article just taught that also." (Of course along with the "leadership" epistles of Timothy and Titus.) So I ask the obvious question "Is I Peter addressed to us? It's not one of the Church Epistles, yet we say it's addressed to us and that we can directly apply this verse." It turns out that no one in my department had an answer to this question, so it moves on to the great Research department. What was their final answer? Yank the whole section out of the article because they don't have an answer either and neither can they get an answer....Why? After 50+ years of the "best Biblical research on the planet," no MOG has taught an answer to this. And of course because Victor Paul Wierwille didn't say who Peter was addressed to, then we don't really know what's true and what's not. This is what they call "proven ministry research" and if something new comes along that can't be compared to it then it will not see the light of day.

I'm with ya, kizka, in the same boat. It's shocking and sickening to know where VPW got his brand of "truth." You'd think there would be a huge difference between a medium and a "man of God" and then you find out one's an understudy of the other. On the other side of the coin, it's nice to know I don't need to control everything in my little corner of the world--because I can't!