I remember being at work one day and thinking about how we didn't have twig that night and I felt relief! Come to think of it, when I left TWI that'a ALL I felt.
Didn't you have a Refreshments Lady who took care of all that food stuff?? We had one of those - - and she watched the sales. When coffee was on sale, everyone was asked to kick in some cash OR bring a can of coffee. The same went for all of those consumable supplies on hand. She also got people to bring things to eat...simple things....we kept it really simple most of the time.
You guys have hit on the truth regarding the real successes of "TWI". It had nothing to do with the content of the classes. It had everything to do with the heart of service that so many people had, who believed the things Wierwille PREACHED about Jesus and the Bible instead of the things VP TAUGHT and DEMONSTRATED by his actions. It had nothing to do with the leadership's plans to move the word over the world. It had everything to do with seemingly anonymous people on the field exhibiting the hospitality of God's heart to strangers, with no prospect of remuneration. Those were the real heroes of "TWI," those were the wayfers who truly showed people the love of God, those were the people who are going to receive real rewards when the time comes. I too am thankful for those people.
...snip...
Their absence is why the group's withered
almost to irrelevance except to a handful of people.
And their absence came about because Martindale, in all his stupidity, drove them away...
So true, Steve Lortz. The Twig was the life of the ministry, and the Twig Coordinators were the real heart of the ministry. There would have been no ministry growth without them.
This is the truth. Any genuine movement of God happened with the young and the genuine lifestyles for God they lived and do live. The sellout crustaceans at HQ live for the worship of their own thoughts and supposed spiritual wisdom.
For years, night after night.....3X a week, many of us opened our doors for those who wanted to attend twig fellowship. Yep, we vacuumed the carpets, moved the furniture around, set out songbooks, spent money at the grocery store for refreshments, baked cookies, welcomed guests, taught fellowships........and when the last person left, we cleaned up the kitchen.
Then.....we did it a day or two later. Year after year.
Under the twi banner, we were a home-based outfit......meaning, my wife and I generously gave our love, time and effort to help build twi and support its mission statement "word over the world." Week after week, year after year.....we freely gave financially, physically, emotionally and "spiritually."
The average week
Sunday......10am fellowship
Monday......7pm Twig Fellowship Coordinators Mtg
Tuesday.....7pm Twig
Thursday....7pm Twig
All of those meetings took work.......heck, at hdqtrs those people get PAID A SALARY for doing meetings. :anim-smile:/>/>/>/>/>/>/>/>/>
But on the field, not so much. When your vacuum cleaner breaks, you go buy a new one at your expense.
When some weirdo pees on your couch [like what happened on WOW field]...its got to get cleaned.
Add all the paper plates, napkins, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. etc. and it starts adding up.
And, add extra air conditioning costs during classes in one's home.
Surely, the trustees/twi THANKED US over and over again for all our labor.......pppfffttt.
On the contrary, we were confronted for not doing MORE.....or witnessing MORE.
What if there was a MIGRATION MARCH of the tens of thousands who have helped twi thru the years
and wanted to move to a place that would surely help during tough times? I mean, with $57 MILLION in
assets and all.....twi would surely be willing to help thousands upon thousands who'd faithfully given
abs to them and ran fellowships. They would want to set the example of OPENING THEIR HOMES AND THEIR
REGRIGERATORS.......right?
How many would twi house and feed [for a couple of years anyways] to help people get on their feet?
.
A few thoughts...
This topic of grunt work in service to VP's agenda is vital to understanding his power of persuasion. Thanks for bringing up the topic...hospitality, a good quality, was made into a grind for many of us. Everything in the house had to be spic n' span before fellowships.
I remember arriving in L.A. after graduating from the 2nd Corps. My fulltime job was keeping our apartment (I had just married another 2nd Corps person) in showcase-style for meeting after meeting. I loved the believers, but the cleaning thing, geez....but I'd learned amazing cleaning skills in the Corps. Cleaning should have been one of the Corps principles for we surely attained the goal of being experts at it.
As for opening my home, more than the expenses of running a fellowship, I think there is no price tag I can put on the risks we took by having strangers in our house, especially when our baby came along...
I think of the sexism of "the refreshments lady," mentioned above. That seemed like such a minor task but it was not. I don't remember a "refreshments guy," but there probably was somewhere in some WOW family...
So what do TWI representatives have to say about all the risks we took to build the empire of $64,791,485 (million) in assets listed on their 2013 tax return? Thank you?
There is a 147-acre farm on the outskirts of New Knoxville, Ohio, owned by a non-profit organization that pays no taxes. That tax money could help the community in which it exists.
If religion is supposed to help you be a better person, how is TWI doing that? I guess the anonymous testimonies on the TWI web site are meant to be convincing, but these days, I suspect that most readers on the internet doubt the value of such flattering quotes attributed to no one.
There is not one word about Wierwille on their website, either. Very interesting...why not give credit to their mighty man of god?
If your intuition or common sense told you it was foolish to allow certain people into your home, you were led to believe you were the one at fault for thinking negatively, entertaining devilish thoughts.That's contrary to the way it's supposed to work.
Why not credit dictor paul wierwille, "founding president" of their phony "ministry"? Because it would bury them forever! So badly that sticking with da forehead's incredibly sophomoric and bigoted WAP classes is even better than digging out the ole '67 POS that's made them all that $65 mil. They have morons like Charlene's 2nd corpse bruddah, the mighty "rev" gerry wrenn, and jallymog john Lynn to do that for them better than Rosie the Riveter and Donna could ever do it, and more faithfully too! Remember those guys from ECU Charlene?
The stuff Rosie had to agree to in their out-of-court settlement in the Paul and Fern Allen lawsuit in 2000 preclude her from ever fessin' up to the truth and facts of their prayshuss min-us-tray.
The perjury raps alone would pull down what's left of their walls of Zion and prevailing woid. They have lied on and off the public record for so long the only thing they can do is STFU and hope the money lasts long enough to dump it on their most loyal gestapo and whatever family they haven't mark and avoided yet. You WILL NEVER GET THE TRUTH from twi. Rosie, Donna, Coward and Wanda Wierwille Allen, and da forehead himself, all wanna make it to their Gunnison Emeritus retirement home. Coward and Wanda have been there how long now? Da Forehead's name is still on the deed. He still gets his tax-free $65K pension too. How many of those salt'o'the earth, volunteer twig coordinators gave 15% of their gross income for 20 years
plus spending every last penny they had not sending their kids to college, or even going to college themselves, on driving to meetings in all kinds of weather and non-functional vehicles, paying to get into those meetings, classes, advances, weekends in da Woid, Anniversary weekends, Outreach Weeks, Rock of Ages, Word In Business, corpse week, limb meetings, Brsnch meetings, area meetings, camps, coffe houses, door-to-door witnessing, inviting serial killers, homeless drunks, mentally unstable, emotionally distressed, and intellectually challenged into our homes, feeding them, driving them all over the universe, NOT because that's what Jesus might have done, but because those were the only types of people they could hustle'n'flo into their lowlife cult. VP was a human scavenger, and sexual predator. He was a paranoid, narcissistic, sociopath who loved Hitler, and his Drambuie. Jesus was only the name he used to bring in the checks and innocent. Rosie and her twits cannot afford to credit vic for anything! Not even his creepy version of B.G. And Bullinger, PFAL, or any of his plagiarized pre-school level Bible books. His abject fraud legally and spiritually, which he called "his min-us-tray" is too well exposed to ever want to take credit for even knowing vic let alone crediting him for their $65 million retirement fund. Lifelong lying, stealing, adultery, hypocrisy, and spiritual abuse of innocent christians and idealistic hippies, and covering it all up in Jesus' name is an expensive calling. At least we know they're spending it on the very best of everything they stole from their faithful batch of cultists and "volunteer". They took their Word over them alright. And they'll never let go of it because it means the word over the world to them................peace.
If your intuition or common sense told you it was foolish to allow certain people into your home, you were led to believe you were the one at fault for thinking negatively, entertaining devilish thoughts.That's contrary to the way it's supposed to work.
It was a catch-22 situation. We should love the untouchables like Christ did, yet deny any inner wisdom we had about protecting ourselves because the Bible said we were more than conquerors and should fear nothing.
DWBH, you make the above allegation - but how do you know this?
I'd like to know about this, too, if it is not a secret that DWBH can reveal that might jeopardize his identity to outsiders...or insiders...or whomever...
No big secret here. It all used to be a matter of public record in OH. Da Forehead registered as a Republican Party member in Toledo, OH when he got M&A'd there,in 2000.
These voter registrations were a matter of public record back then plus dumbo was also foolish enough to provide the Ohio Republican Party with all the demographics they ask for when he proudly registered as the disgraced mog. He was living in the home of his primary care physician, which home was bought by twi and then the mortgage was signed over to the doc so da forehead wouldn't have to pay rent. Don't know if that's still the case.Hope that answers your questions.
As for opening my home, more than the expenses of running a fellowship, I think there is no price tag I can put on the risks we took by having strangers in our house, especially when our baby came along...
penworks.....the RISK FACTOR in opening our homes to complete strangers is a brilliant point!
Yet, twi schooled us on "negative believing" and just get out there knocking on doors and running twigs,
WHEREAS wierwille and geer were layered in security with glock-totting bodyguards, attack dogs, security
patrol units and a whole network of nametag staffers who were told to be vigilant when they'd "see something,
say something." SO.....could I ask the question, "Where in the he-ll was wierwille's BELIEVING???"
We were out there year after year in less-than-average neighborhoods inviting complete strangers into our
homes......and wierwille is multi-layered in scores of security measures. Indeed, wierwille was this
sociopathic narcissist who dwelled on his own safety and couldn't summon any fiber of empathy or compassion
to see how we were AT RISK. Same deal with hitchhiking to LEAD.
Hey, twi.....you know what you can do with that $64 MILLION? Stick it up your.......
penworks.....the RISK FACTOR in opening our homes to complete strangers is a brilliant point!
Yet, twi schooled us on "negative believing" and just get out there knocking on doors and running twigs,
WHEREAS wierwille and geer were layered in security with glock-totting bodyguards, attack dogs, security
patrol units and a whole network of nametag staffers who were told to be vigilant when they'd "see something,
say something." SO.....could I ask the question, "Where in the he-ll was wierwille's BELIEVING???"
We were out there year after year in less-than-average neighborhoods inviting complete strangers into our
homes......and wierwille is multi-layered in scores of security measures. Indeed, wierwille was this
sociopathic narcissist who dwelled on his own safety and couldn't summon any fiber of empathy or compassion
to see how we were AT RISK. Same deal with hitchhiking to LEAD.
Hey, twi.....you know what you can do with that $64 MILLION? Stick it up your.......
Skyrider.......
dictor and da boyz in da hoods were hiding out from anything requiring compassion or attention beyond their own crotches. they avoided every risk they could, most especially the risk of exposure, being found out.. Personal safety was not their concern, rather continued fulfillment of their pathological "needs" was the main driver of their psychotic behaviors. There was no risk in their minds. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Risk requires the sense and acceptance of possible loss or defeat on the part of the rational risk taker. Psychotic sociopaths are not rational by very definition. There is no risk to them. They have no sense of possible loss or defeat. They MUST only win, fulfill their perverted lusts. There is no other thought in sociopathy, and certainly no rational thought of any kind. Everything revolves around them. They are the center of their own bizarre universe. No one ever "understands them" except each other and themselves. No one else exists except to satisfy their greeds and needs.That why it's called illness. It's sick.
There is nothing better than teaching the word to folks in your home - yeh, lotsa work and other crap to deal with.
The main burn I always had was that there was that 15% ABS to HQ and then you also had to suck up the expenses of running the twig.
After leaving twi in 77 and no longer providing a 15% ABS to HQ, the pain of running a twig - oops, a Bible study/believer's meeting became alot more tollerable. Needless to say, when twi came back into the area and folks in our group felt the guilt to having left twi, the little Bible study thing my wife and I were conducting went to the side. That's O.K., it all worked out for us and we did not leave our beleiving in the Bible.
But Yes, on the WOW field, no wonder there was ever little left to pay the rent and buy food. Lord knows, you needed to trust him cause there was no money left for decent vehicle or health insurance. Yeh, INSURANCE, if you had that stuff you were definetly not believing in GOD - does anyone recall that vpw said that if you had health/cancer insurance it was a guarantee that you would get cancer.
Bottom Line: you take care of the needs of the local believers first (includes yourselves) and what's left of that "15%", then go ahead and tithe that to the priesthood.
There's been a lot of examination, inspection given here at GSC over the past few years to the practice of tithing. Conclusion? It's a modern day "shtick", a sort of membership dues required by various organizations. Sure, it's recorded in the Old Testament that such a thing took place. There is no indication it's a Biblical requirement, continued into modern times. It's really more of a business requirement, a tax, if you prefer. Now, to be clear, tithing and freely giving are not synonymous. Tithing is giving 10%. That's what the word "tithe" means. In The Way, it was used as a method of extortion. "God can't bless you if you don't give what you already owe." One of their henchmen even went as far as to say that "God would't even spit in your direction for less than 15%". (sic) That doesn't sound too much like something that's freely given. It sounds like coercion. Hey! Wait a minute! It IS coercion!. Well, I'll be darned. (I'm not too keen on being spit on anyhow.)
When I left The Way, it was quite a big deal for me. Where will I give? Surely I have to find a place to "abundantly share". If I don't, bad things could happen to me. I learned that in PFAL. Yep, two believers even got struck deader than a doorknob back in the records of ACTS because they didn't follow the rules.....What a load of nonsense. Give a nickel or give a million bucks. Or, don't give anything at all. It's up to you. Just bear in mind that you're not doing it to get blessed or whatever, you're doing it because you want to fund someone's business venture. That's what most of these spin-off ministries that require a tithe ABS are...business ventures.
Here's principle #4 from the SOWERS website:
4. Practice believing to bring material abundance to you and the Ministry.
(Some of you may recognize that as a Way Corps principle. It was a FellowLaborers principle, too.)
We now know that the "law of believing" is just a load of hogwash, so factor that "practice believing" part out.
With that in mind, allow me to rephrase the principle in a way the will reflect it's literal meaning according to usage. Heh.
4.) GIVE to bring material abundance to the ministry.
And there you have it. It's as simple as that. Churches (not just The Way or its various spin-offs) have to make you think God requires it. That's how they fund their organizations. (Well, that and Saturday night bingo.) That's why The Way was dead set against bakes sales, car washes and so on. It diluted the concept, weakened the mystique of their method.
dictor and da boyz in da hoods were hiding out from anything requiring compassion or attention beyond their own crotches. they avoided every risk they could, most especially the risk of exposure, being found out.. Personal safety was not their concern, rather continued fulfillment of their pathological "needs" was the main driver of their psychotic behaviors. There was no risk in their minds. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Risk requires the sense and acceptance of possible loss or defeat on the part of the rational risk taker. Psychotic sociopaths are not rational by very definition. There is no risk to them. They have no sense of possible loss or defeat. They MUST only win, fulfill their perverted lusts. There is no other thought in sociopathy, and certainly no rational thought of any kind. Everything revolves around them. They are the center of their own bizarre universe. No one ever "understands them" except each other and themselves. No one else exists except to satisfy their greeds and needs.That why it's called illness. It's sick.
As the layers of this "onion" are peeled away.....the stench becomes stronger.
Seems like wierwille and geer were playing "3-dimensional, pathological chess" whereas
martindale, lynn, cumm!ns, rivenbark, etc. thought, they too, were in the game.
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waysider
Meh. They'd probably serve you stretched coffee in a reused styrofoam cup. I'll pass.
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skyrider
So....I take that as a "no, you don't think rosalie would open her home and set the example?"
But I suppose you're right.....heck, wierwille PROMISED to open the corps chalet for any traveling
corps who needed to spend a night or two. And, we all know how quickly THAT was shut down.
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outandabout
I remember being at work one day and thinking about how we didn't have twig that night and I felt relief! Come to think of it, when I left TWI that'a ALL I felt.
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krys
Didn't you have a Refreshments Lady who took care of all that food stuff?? We had one of those - - and she watched the sales. When coffee was on sale, everyone was asked to kick in some cash OR bring a can of coffee. The same went for all of those consumable supplies on hand. She also got people to bring things to eat...simple things....we kept it really simple most of the time.
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skyrider
Looking back, I often marvel at ALL twig coordinators and corps did to welcome complete strangers
into our homes and lives. Sure, we were out there recruiting...er, "moving the word" but to do it
year after year with fire and compassion. Those who opened their homes, opened their refrigerators
are/were the salt of the earth......NOT the bloviating-bible reader at hq.
Heck.....when did wierwille EVER do charitable work or knock on doors year after year?
Same goes for rivenbark.....geez, a twice-divorced school teacher escaping her past. Ppfftt.
Faithful twig coordinators SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN extra praise, perks, and privileges at every roa.
They were the "face" of the ministry and the "heart" to the burdened and downtrodden.
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WordWolf
Without them, there would have BEEN no twi.
The Christian hippies from the House of Acts lured in outsiders with their love and
compassion, and the coordinators and other locals gave them a reason to stay
with their love and compassion (to various degrees.) A dry class wouldn't have had
much appeal to many people WITHOUT those others vouching for how good it was.
(That's why twi is doomed-it can't recreate that without everything it's missing,
and people are too savvy now.)
I know that the twi IDENTITY brought group cohesion-something for the people to
rally around- and "the class" was something tangible to offer people-
a "rite of passage" and another marker of who's "in" and who's not-
but the local people made it all work. REAL Christians made a difference locally
and that's why the group grew once. Their absence is why the group's withered
almost to irrelevance except to a handful of people.
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Steve Lortz
You guys have hit on the truth regarding the real successes of "TWI". It had nothing to do with the content of the classes. It had everything to do with the heart of service that so many people had, who believed the things Wierwille PREACHED about Jesus and the Bible instead of the things VP TAUGHT and DEMONSTRATED by his actions. It had nothing to do with the leadership's plans to move the word over the world. It had everything to do with seemingly anonymous people on the field exhibiting the hospitality of God's heart to strangers, with no prospect of remuneration. Those were the real heroes of "TWI," those were the wayfers who truly showed people the love of God, those were the people who are going to receive real rewards when the time comes. I too am thankful for those people.
And their absence came about because Martindale, in all his stupidity, drove them away...
Love,
Steve
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DogLover
So true, Steve Lortz. The Twig was the life of the ministry, and the Twig Coordinators were the real heart of the ministry. There would have been no ministry growth without them.
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chockfull
This is the truth. Any genuine movement of God happened with the young and the genuine lifestyles for God they lived and do live. The sellout crustaceans at HQ live for the worship of their own thoughts and supposed spiritual wisdom.
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penworks
A few thoughts...
This topic of grunt work in service to VP's agenda is vital to understanding his power of persuasion. Thanks for bringing up the topic...hospitality, a good quality, was made into a grind for many of us. Everything in the house had to be spic n' span before fellowships.
I remember arriving in L.A. after graduating from the 2nd Corps. My fulltime job was keeping our apartment (I had just married another 2nd Corps person) in showcase-style for meeting after meeting. I loved the believers, but the cleaning thing, geez....but I'd learned amazing cleaning skills in the Corps. Cleaning should have been one of the Corps principles for we surely attained the goal of being experts at it.
As for opening my home, more than the expenses of running a fellowship, I think there is no price tag I can put on the risks we took by having strangers in our house, especially when our baby came along...
I think of the sexism of "the refreshments lady," mentioned above. That seemed like such a minor task but it was not. I don't remember a "refreshments guy," but there probably was somewhere in some WOW family...
So what do TWI representatives have to say about all the risks we took to build the empire of $64,791,485 (million) in assets listed on their 2013 tax return? Thank you?
There is a 147-acre farm on the outskirts of New Knoxville, Ohio, owned by a non-profit organization that pays no taxes. That tax money could help the community in which it exists.
If religion is supposed to help you be a better person, how is TWI doing that? I guess the anonymous testimonies on the TWI web site are meant to be convincing, but these days, I suspect that most readers on the internet doubt the value of such flattering quotes attributed to no one.
There is not one word about Wierwille on their website, either. Very interesting...why not give credit to their mighty man of god?
Peace,
Penworks
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waysider
If your intuition or common sense told you it was foolish to allow certain people into your home, you were led to believe you were the one at fault for thinking negatively, entertaining devilish thoughts.That's contrary to the way it's supposed to work.
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DontWorryBeHappy
Why not credit dictor paul wierwille, "founding president" of their phony "ministry"? Because it would bury them forever! So badly that sticking with da forehead's incredibly sophomoric and bigoted WAP classes is even better than digging out the ole '67 POS that's made them all that $65 mil. They have morons like Charlene's 2nd corpse bruddah, the mighty "rev" gerry wrenn, and jallymog john Lynn to do that for them better than Rosie the Riveter and Donna could ever do it, and more faithfully too! Remember those guys from ECU Charlene?
The stuff Rosie had to agree to in their out-of-court settlement in the Paul and Fern Allen lawsuit in 2000 preclude her from ever fessin' up to the truth and facts of their prayshuss min-us-tray.
The perjury raps alone would pull down what's left of their walls of Zion and prevailing woid. They have lied on and off the public record for so long the only thing they can do is STFU and hope the money lasts long enough to dump it on their most loyal gestapo and whatever family they haven't mark and avoided yet. You WILL NEVER GET THE TRUTH from twi. Rosie, Donna, Coward and Wanda Wierwille Allen, and da forehead himself, all wanna make it to their Gunnison Emeritus retirement home. Coward and Wanda have been there how long now? Da Forehead's name is still on the deed. He still gets his tax-free $65K pension too. How many of those salt'o'the earth, volunteer twig coordinators gave 15% of their gross income for 20 years
plus spending every last penny they had not sending their kids to college, or even going to college themselves, on driving to meetings in all kinds of weather and non-functional vehicles, paying to get into those meetings, classes, advances, weekends in da Woid, Anniversary weekends, Outreach Weeks, Rock of Ages, Word In Business, corpse week, limb meetings, Brsnch meetings, area meetings, camps, coffe houses, door-to-door witnessing, inviting serial killers, homeless drunks, mentally unstable, emotionally distressed, and intellectually challenged into our homes, feeding them, driving them all over the universe, NOT because that's what Jesus might have done, but because those were the only types of people they could hustle'n'flo into their lowlife cult. VP was a human scavenger, and sexual predator. He was a paranoid, narcissistic, sociopath who loved Hitler, and his Drambuie. Jesus was only the name he used to bring in the checks and innocent. Rosie and her twits cannot afford to credit vic for anything! Not even his creepy version of B.G. And Bullinger, PFAL, or any of his plagiarized pre-school level Bible books. His abject fraud legally and spiritually, which he called "his min-us-tray" is too well exposed to ever want to take credit for even knowing vic let alone crediting him for their $65 million retirement fund. Lifelong lying, stealing, adultery, hypocrisy, and spiritual abuse of innocent christians and idealistic hippies, and covering it all up in Jesus' name is an expensive calling. At least we know they're spending it on the very best of everything they stole from their faithful batch of cultists and "volunteer". They took their Word over them alright. And they'll never let go of it because it means the word over the world to them................peace.
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Twinky
DWBH, you make the above allegation - but how do you know this?
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penworks
It was a catch-22 situation. We should love the untouchables like Christ did, yet deny any inner wisdom we had about protecting ourselves because the Bible said we were more than conquerors and should fear nothing.
I'd like to know about this, too, if it is not a secret that DWBH can reveal that might jeopardize his identity to outsiders...or insiders...or whomever...
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DontWorryBeHappy
Hi Twinky and Charlene!
No big secret here. It all used to be a matter of public record in OH. Da Forehead registered as a Republican Party member in Toledo, OH when he got M&A'd there,in 2000.
These voter registrations were a matter of public record back then plus dumbo was also foolish enough to provide the Ohio Republican Party with all the demographics they ask for when he proudly registered as the disgraced mog. He was living in the home of his primary care physician, which home was bought by twi and then the mortgage was signed over to the doc so da forehead wouldn't have to pay rent. Don't know if that's still the case.Hope that answers your questions.
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skyrider
penworks.....the RISK FACTOR in opening our homes to complete strangers is a brilliant point!
Yet, twi schooled us on "negative believing" and just get out there knocking on doors and running twigs,
WHEREAS wierwille and geer were layered in security with glock-totting bodyguards, attack dogs, security
patrol units and a whole network of nametag staffers who were told to be vigilant when they'd "see something,
say something." SO.....could I ask the question, "Where in the he-ll was wierwille's BELIEVING???"
We were out there year after year in less-than-average neighborhoods inviting complete strangers into our
homes......and wierwille is multi-layered in scores of security measures. Indeed, wierwille was this
sociopathic narcissist who dwelled on his own safety and couldn't summon any fiber of empathy or compassion
to see how we were AT RISK. Same deal with hitchhiking to LEAD.
Hey, twi.....you know what you can do with that $64 MILLION? Stick it up your.......
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DontWorryBeHappy
Skyrider.......
dictor and da boyz in da hoods were hiding out from anything requiring compassion or attention beyond their own crotches. they avoided every risk they could, most especially the risk of exposure, being found out.. Personal safety was not their concern, rather continued fulfillment of their pathological "needs" was the main driver of their psychotic behaviors. There was no risk in their minds. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Risk requires the sense and acceptance of possible loss or defeat on the part of the rational risk taker. Psychotic sociopaths are not rational by very definition. There is no risk to them. They have no sense of possible loss or defeat. They MUST only win, fulfill their perverted lusts. There is no other thought in sociopathy, and certainly no rational thought of any kind. Everything revolves around them. They are the center of their own bizarre universe. No one ever "understands them" except each other and themselves. No one else exists except to satisfy their greeds and needs.That why it's called illness. It's sick.
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MRAP
There is nothing better than teaching the word to folks in your home - yeh, lotsa work and other crap to deal with.
The main burn I always had was that there was that 15% ABS to HQ and then you also had to suck up the expenses of running the twig.
After leaving twi in 77 and no longer providing a 15% ABS to HQ, the pain of running a twig - oops, a Bible study/believer's meeting became alot more tollerable. Needless to say, when twi came back into the area and folks in our group felt the guilt to having left twi, the little Bible study thing my wife and I were conducting went to the side. That's O.K., it all worked out for us and we did not leave our beleiving in the Bible.
But Yes, on the WOW field, no wonder there was ever little left to pay the rent and buy food. Lord knows, you needed to trust him cause there was no money left for decent vehicle or health insurance. Yeh, INSURANCE, if you had that stuff you were definetly not believing in GOD - does anyone recall that vpw said that if you had health/cancer insurance it was a guarantee that you would get cancer.
Bottom Line: you take care of the needs of the local believers first (includes yourselves) and what's left of that "15%", then go ahead and tithe that to the priesthood.
{Anger withheld}
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waysider
There's been a lot of examination, inspection given here at GSC over the past few years to the practice of tithing. Conclusion? It's a modern day "shtick", a sort of membership dues required by various organizations. Sure, it's recorded in the Old Testament that such a thing took place. There is no indication it's a Biblical requirement, continued into modern times. It's really more of a business requirement, a tax, if you prefer. Now, to be clear, tithing and freely giving are not synonymous. Tithing is giving 10%. That's what the word "tithe" means. In The Way, it was used as a method of extortion. "God can't bless you if you don't give what you already owe." One of their henchmen even went as far as to say that "God would't even spit in your direction for less than 15%". (sic) That doesn't sound too much like something that's freely given. It sounds like coercion. Hey! Wait a minute! It IS coercion!. Well, I'll be darned. (I'm not too keen on being spit on anyhow.)
When I left The Way, it was quite a big deal for me. Where will I give? Surely I have to find a place to "abundantly share". If I don't, bad things could happen to me. I learned that in PFAL. Yep, two believers even got struck deader than a doorknob back in the records of ACTS because they didn't follow the rules.....What a load of nonsense. Give a nickel or give a million bucks. Or, don't give anything at all. It's up to you. Just bear in mind that you're not doing it to get blessed or whatever, you're doing it because you want to fund someone's business venture. That's what most of these spin-off ministries that require a tithe ABS are...business ventures.
Here's principle #4 from the SOWERS website:
4. Practice believing to bring material abundance to you and the Ministry.
(Some of you may recognize that as a Way Corps principle. It was a FellowLaborers principle, too.)
We now know that the "law of believing" is just a load of hogwash, so factor that "practice believing" part out.
With that in mind, allow me to rephrase the principle in a way the will reflect it's literal meaning according to usage. Heh.
4.) GIVE to bring material abundance to the ministry.
And there you have it. It's as simple as that. Churches (not just The Way or its various spin-offs) have to make you think God requires it. That's how they fund their organizations. (Well, that and Saturday night bingo.) That's why The Way was dead set against bakes sales, car washes and so on. It diluted the concept, weakened the mystique of their method.
Just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
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skyrider
As the layers of this "onion" are peeled away.....the stench becomes stronger.
Seems like wierwille and geer were playing "3-dimensional, pathological chess" whereas
martindale, lynn, cumm!ns, rivenbark, etc. thought, they too, were in the game.
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