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Calavicci

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Everything posted by Calavicci

  1. I noticed the VPW worship too but I stayed for years after that realization. Then there were the other way sheeple who loved to name-drop how they knew the "doctor". These were the ones that for some reason ended every reproof sermon with "..see?". Very strange days those were. I won't miss it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhj867TUpZY
  2. I heard something about people from headquarters or somewhere "important" were staying at various "beleeevahs" houses, and doing teachings that are probably designed to tie off the bleeding, i.e., the departure of whoever's left "standing", as it were. This might be what you're talking about here. I also understand that the people who tiptoed out during all melee are going to be contacted and sweet-talked into coming back to fellowship at some point, maybe by L1pps himself.
  3. A whole fellowship closed down, the one he was attending, they decided this was the "straw" so to speak. A now-former Colorado limb coordinator, m4rk w4ll4c3, left last year with little warning. So things have been brewing for some time. For some others, this was a perfect opportunity to sever the ties to twi, those who were apparently doing the "fade out" method of leaving anyway, if I had to guess. Of course, plenty others there are gonna stay in twi no matter what.....
  4. That must be why in the newer regurgitation (oops.. iteration?) of that class, "Living God's Word as a Family", is at pains to emphasize the monogamous marriage. Back when I took that in 2004, I had been around about 4 years, and NO idea about the sordid past of the way. I found that out MUCH later, when I got a computer. No wonder RR despises the interwebs so much...
  5. Wow. Excellent post, that about sums it up. Can't say I disagree with any of it. Thanks.
  6. I find it interesting that Jack LaLanne (b. 9/26/14) was over two years older than vpw (12/31/16). Vpw looked the more decrepit than Jack , in the photos of 'ol vic taken over 25 years ago. R.i.p. Jack! Edit: sorry, couldn't attach the comparison pic of Lalanne, like I intended.
  7. When I first got into the organization, I was awed by the teaching. You all know why, it was cleverly marketed and promoted with the aim of enticing/compelling you to take part. And part with your money. So it took me a bit to begin to see it. I never lived around a fellowship, I lived right in the middle of an East coast city. At the time, I didn't have a car, and didn't need one as I lived just a couple miles from where I worked. I noticed after two or three years and switching my "assigned" fellowship, that again, it was somewhere miles removed from me, in the suburbs where no public transit dare roam. Indeed, this was common to all the fellowship locations that I knew of. Not one of them in or near the city proper. This necessitated procuring rides from someone I lived near enough to take public transit to meet up and carpool with. This was an unpleasant development for "independent me", pleading with whoever would be "generous" enough to meet me at a bus stop (Not even my house, mind you!) but I submitted to it so I could get to fellowship. The thing that bothered me and seemed "unChristianlike" was the reaction if I was late, especially likely in light of my taking the bus. Public transportation is no excuse, I was admonished. Apparently, it was "believing" action to take the bus and wait an hour for them to get me, if required, no matter the weather conditions. At the time, it never occurred to me to question the words of someone who never rode public transportation in his life. This hardness of heart bothered me, even though the people in question helped me in other situations. There was a also a palpable disdain for people of the "wrong" economic status, judging by the lack of people under a certain income range, as they were reaping the results of "unbelief". I wondered, "aren't these the type of folks that need 'the Word' most of all?" I never asked this directly, but plenty there mentioned how "spiritually dark" the city was. They thought that they were too far gone is what I deduced the reason for this was. I also noticed the "whitebread" composition of fellowships. No matter which suburban location, it was usually 90-100% white. And this near a majority-black city. Which also gives the real explanation for why almost no witnessing attempts took place there. The leadership implicitly believes there's no money it for 'em, so why bother. Don't get me started on the teenaged children of various "long-standing" corpse members or leadership there. Their arrogance and conceit were astounding. Because Mommy and Daddy were leadership/ veteran corpse/ way disciples/blah/ blah ..., they could look down upon us who were late to the game. They were generally more unpleasant to be around, though marginally less stiff, than their high-horsed parents.
  8. They just came out with these new $4 song books, that have a few "new" songs in them. Naturally, fellowships started using the new songs (as per direct 'leadership' mandate of course) in fellowship to remind people that they basically need to drop four dollars and get them, right away. Another transparent attempt to squeeze out some revenue, no doubt. They are starting to get desperate, I think....
  9. Ugh. Lynn still finds it necessary to inject his "humor" into every other sentence. Corn isn't just found in Ohio, for sure...
  10. "What amazes me is how Wierwille elevated the worship of the Word above the worship of God or a relationship with Jesus Christ." I've been seeing that too, and I can't unsee it. Kinda like when I see "The tithe doth still provide" (which, of course, is still appended to the foundational class). I realized one day, "Hey, isn't God the provider here?" I guess it's troublesome concept to the "ministry", this thinking for myself thing.
  11. I've tried to look up some info on that, but haven't found much. I did find this interesting link: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=fa/rmakon Some of the uses of that Greek word in literature do not carry a negative connotation, i.e., "Remedy,cure". So there must be a positive aspect. Interesting. Some have mentioned the number 42 earlier. Couldn't the answer also be "420", esp. in this context, yanowutimeen? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_%28cannabis_culture%29
  12. Good analysis of the letter, I was thinking the same thing. Sounds like the same guy who wrote "Living in the Eye of the Storm" alright. Seems to me it's the same product with a different brand and wrapper, but the same list of "ingredients".
  13. It has occurred to me (yes, my own thinking) some time ago that if many of the "wayisms" were things that God really wanted us to know, wouldn't they be spelled out pretty explicitly? The Great Principle is nowhere demonstrated with any clarity, or at all, that I can see. For that matter, so are host of others, as you all well know. Speaking of discretion on the forum, I sometimes wonder if I will be accosted or somebody will call me about it, you know "confrontation" and all that. But I could not care any less....
  14. Wow this is so true. New people might show up from time to time, but as soon as they get a whiff of the boredom of the STS, it's over. Also true how there's more emphasis on VPW again. If I hear references to "our founding president" or any variation of it just one more time, I'll choke on my own vomit.... A recent teaching I heard went into some length about how our "leaders" are chosen by God, and we should basically listen to them as Him. There again, I was retching inwardly... ps. sorry to bump this, didn't look at the year...
  15. Why indeed. There is no explanation of forgiveness that is viable to the atheist, as far as I can see. Debating questions of faith-based morality with an atheist is much like trying to debate the merits of Mozart with a shark. No point. If one does not believe in God, or any externally-based faith system, then one must fall back to belief systems that are arbitrary in origin and materialistic in nature. Try "situational ethics". For the devout atheist, I recommend evolutionary psychology, and human biodiversity. Lots of fodder for those whose religion is atheism, and who bow before the altar of Darwinism...
  16. Does God have a job? Good question. I don't honestly know. I do know he is order, just to name one thing. I've had trouble with the problem of the existence negative things in general, though, not just the "daay-vill". I have often thought of the whole good-bad thing, and how it permeates all of creation, apparently. God, in my estimation is in charge, but He himself constrains himself to act within the bounds of freewill choice. I don't really know that he is incapable of going outside "the rules", but more that he chooses to stay in-bounds, if you will. In quantum theory, the one thing that always intrigued me is the concept of duality or complementarity. Now, if you invoke a concept, such a "large", you automatically invoke its opposite, "small". So, in the same sense, if you invoke the concept of "good", you are also simultaneously defining "bad", as its opposite. Very similar to the wave-particle duality thing. Does this have anything to do with the devil? Did he contaminate all of reality, or just the terrestrial earth? If I was on a planet in Apha Centauri, could the devil get to me there? Another thing that I turned around in my brain many times is, does this apply to all time, or just to the period after the fall and before the 3rd heaven/earth? Will duality be "deleted" from the final paradise? Will roses no longer bear thorns? Perhaps not. It could be a sort of universal change that affects everything down to the atomic level. That's just my guess, here. So I don't know that God has a "job" in the human sense of the word. Aside from seeing that God ordered the universe and arranged the physics that humans attempt to describe, and what we can glean from the bible, the rest is just beyond me for now. I trust that at some point in the future, it will become clear to us.
  17. I know this has been repeated ad nauseum, but I can't stand the "formula" for praying. Does the Bible not make reference to asking God for things? It does not say to always make a statement thanking God for the thing needed. I thought requests and petitions can be in question form? Regular(normal) way of asking: "god, please help me, would you provide me with (car/house/healing/answers/etc..)?"- question mark TWI formula: "I thank you for (car/house/healing/answers/etc..) in the name of Jesus Christ/your risen Lord and savior/your beloved Son/the only living Son of God,etc.". -period This has bugged me for some time. Am I wrong here?
  18. One that got me was the phrase "if someone decides to become born again, all hell can't stop it". That's all fine and dandy, but I thought "hell" meant "gravedom" or simply "death" in the Greek and Hebrew. So wth does that really even mean??
  19. If they did that, then that map mural thingy in the WOW auditorium wouldn't be any good anymore! They'd have to make one where the "word waves" would radiate (weakly) from Colorado instead. Uh-oh!
  20. I just can't stand to here these words: "I'm believing for...". Wouldn't be correct English to rather say "I believe that God will bless me with ..(whatever)"? TWI teaches "pistis" is an action word. I thought it was a noun. Am I wrong? Nowhere else have I heard this distinct variation of that word utilized as I hear among the "household". My wife does it, and I try not to show how I cringe when she says it. I am gradually chipping away at that. It will take time, considering her experience with "da ministry" goes back, off-and-on, to the mid-eighties, whereas I have been in only about a decade, soon after the LCM departure. If I am wrong about the word "pistis" please let me know. It has really begun to grate on my nerves, although it has bothered me like an itch you can't scratch, for years now. I call these annoying catchphrases, that are the exclusive domain of TWI, "way-isms". Sure I'm not the only one who thought of that.
  21. I have come to intensely dislike the whole "you're believing wrong/not big enough" or you have too much "negative believing" crap. I figured it out one day: "Negative believing" makes about as much sense as the idea of "negative light" as a definition of darkness. You either believe the Word or whatever, in a given situation or you don't. The absence of something is NOT something in itself, I would think. It is as absurd as the idea that Job was responsible for the deaths of his kids and all the others. If anything, it wasn't this thing called "believing in reverse". It may be he had missed some opportunity to do something to avert the calamity by increased diligence, but the people were responsible for their own choices in the end. Not Job. I bristle when someone says "You're not belieeeeeving enough" or some such crap. It is more than just nonsense, it is harmful to those that buy into it.
  22. Me and my wife figured it out at the same time, as well as realizing we didn't need to stay in "da ministry" to be God's children, and well favored. Funny, how it works out. We both had feelings things weren't right for a while. Reading the Word for myself, I saw that tithing belonged to the Law, and how the "literal translation according to usage" didn't sit right with my own research, and the word "pistis" is a verb. Among many other things. Anyone remember the long, convoluted definition for agape? Here goes: "The love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation in the household". I love the "in the househould (Da Way)" part. Funny how nothing even remotely like that appears in any Greek lexicon I have ever seen. It is like waking from a long dream, and seeing reality once again. It is very liberating indeed...
  23. Thanks, glad to be here. I can't stand to even see one of those horns again. One of the way's religious symbols. It's a shame, I probably won't be around to see the new "yearly theme" and accompanying boring, predictable posters. A real shame.
  24. I'm sure the excuse was, "it's to edify you, g*****it", but I hear a kid who was one of the few taking the last round of the foundational class didn't speak in tongues during the appointed session, and refused to in that setting. Apparently the f.c. who was running the class really laid into him about it, even went to his house one morning about it, with out so much as a phone call. It turns out he's not coming to a fellowship ever again. Way to go, no pun intended. I just got an email from my f.c. about a discussion he had with the region coordinator. Evidently, he mentioned my wife and I have not been Abs'ing to the region guy. Ooooooh. The Email tried to sound all nice and concerned, but there was clearly veiled disapproval about the way me and my wife are doing things. Surely our hard times must be our fault. Not believing, and more importantly, not tithing. I shudder to think about my private business being discussed like that. This guy is old school corps, from back in the mid/late eighties, so nothing has changed. If there are any spies here, they may have enough now to "out" me, but I don't care. I know I am out for sure now anyway...
  25. I'd say to them: "Give up the old songbooks, give up the stale, passionless videos, let people take the teachings on the Internet like modern organizations do, door-to-door witnessing is not only outdated in our modern culture, but unsafe (I think about someone greeting me with a shotgun one day), the guy with the guitar is lame (M1k3 M4rt1n?), the dancing guy (what's his name?), even lamer" and on and on. Somehow, I doubt they'd listen. I remember a few years ago I was considering ripping an STS dvd to my hard drive. I mentioned it to a fellow believer I thought was relatively "normal", but he got mad and told me we can't ever duplicate anything da ministry produces, except with permission. Even for personal private use. Fair enough, but I've heard that point pressed on other occasions, including someone who wanted to copy the "Household Heartbeat". Looking back, though, I'd ask them why they're so adamant about copyright infringement, when so much of their material is copied word-for-word from other sources. Maybe that's why they're so sensitive about it.
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