As part of our oh-so-expert Biblical knowledge we had in the way, we were invested in "figures of speech". These figures, kind of plagiarized from a few different sources - first was Bullinger has a book published on it, then eastern input from Lamsa and KC Pillai I think.
Figures of speech to us, were God's little highlighter pen in the Bible, speaking to us more personally so as to catch our attention.
Sounds a little fishy to me. I mean the fishermen writing tomes probably had different local expressions than the tax collector. That's not God's highlighter, that's the fisherman's language, idiot. Learn to appreciate personality in language when reading, d1psh1t and stop being such a Stepford wife fundamentalist tool that has been fed a consistent diet of vanilla Way magazine articles to the point they can't appreciate a hamburger.
Sorry, sometimes my inner dialogue comes out when I tell these stories. :) I talk to myself about fundamentalism it seems.
Where was I? Oh yes, figures of speech and oxymoron.
What are figures? Colorful language. Or as it says in italics below Rhetoric. You know, what the vicster got a doctorate degree from a cereal boxtop university for.
I really really like the origin of oxymoron below. Comes from the Greek sharp dull. That certainly describes Vision and Direction. Sharp dullness.
Cutting in skyrider's input on this from the other thread as this is a new topic. Just for topical reading ease.
Quote - skyrider
Quote
Quote from Chockfull: This was the birthplace of "Vision and Direction - the Oxymoron". On my list of thread topics to start :) The Way has never trusted Corps leadership with funds. The fund limit approval levels for Petty Cash expenditures were $100 at the Limb level, $300 at the Region level, $500 at the Trunk level, then needs BOT approval. Can't even rent a hall for a meeting without the dummies involved. Unless it's the library or fire station - free. Another way to control expenses - increase the red tape necessary to approve them.
1997: In JanuaryFebruary......martindale attacked the whole issue of "gift giving" to field corps. He cited examples of BRIBERY from the scriptures and then launched into several incidents where corps received a gift from someone that, he claimed, had a bribe attached to it. No corps were to receive any gifts from their area followers.....not even some tomatoes from someone's garden. It became an insane mandate. Yet, martindale still received gifts.
"Vision and Direction" policies were implemented in September. Vision and Direction
Here is a sample of reporting and paperwork sent to region/trunk: .....all the corps were inundated with reporting back to twi leadership. I tend to believe that the trunk office issued this paper blizzard to appease martinfail's screaming episodes and micromanaged leadership style. Quite obvious to me.....martinfail didn't trust the corps to do their ministerial duties. The paperwork was multi-faceted. Branch guys reported to the limb, the limb to region, the region to trunk, the trunk to bot. The following are some of the reports that I recall:
--Time-Analysis Report....each week, this report was a projected schedule of the corps person's week detailing 6am - 11pm in 30-minute time slots. After about one year, lcm instructed region & limb guys to scrutinize these reports and strongly recommend changes (each week).
--Witnessing Report....each week, this report was a detailed analysis of how many in your area went witnessing, the number of contacts, the number of follow-ups, the number who attended fellowships as a result, the number who signed up for WAP, etc.
--Petty Cash Report....each branch, limb and region were allocated a level of petty cash. Branch corps, generally, consisted of two or three fellowships and didn't utilze petty cash reports except for times when lcm designated 8 consecutive public/formal branch meetings during the videotaping of WAP. All expenses over $100 had to be cleared by the region guy. The region guy could spend up to $300 before the trunk got involved.
--Yearly Budget Reports....this report had to be cleared through twi's personnel department. With some 600+ corps/families on payroll, this was a monumental task to sort thru the "needs" of every corps family, every situation. Some parents had a child in a musical instrument class, or a karate class, or a voice lessons class, etc. Martindale blasted the corps on a corps meeting for spending "excess money" on their children.
--[Note: Pet policies, gift-giving policies, pregnancy policies, traveling policies, cable tv policies, etc......these came into play as the mountain of corps expenses soared far beyond anything martindale had foreseen.]
--Monthly Progress Report....(whatever it was called??) detailed each branch's progress on class sign-ups (fnd, int, ac, etc). Month after month, it seemed like there were always goose eggs (zeros) in the blanks.
--Trunk Faxes.....reporting back on specific policies or corps meeting assignments was common. The corps were responsible to listen to lcm's sts tape on tuesday or early wednesday each week BEFORE the corps phone hookup. Trunk faxes were common and demanded a quick response. Sometimes, corps would be up until midnight to meet the fax deadline.
--Greetings Faxed to Trunk....as the paper-insantiy escalated, the corps seemed to be competing as to who could send in the most heartfelt greeting for twi's anniversary, for thanksgiving, for twi's holiday party, for the new year's, etc.
--Thank You Cards.....it became mandatory for each branch, each area to send a unique, handmade, personalized card to lcm after each WAP class. Every student was to sign the card and detail what blessed them specifically in the class.
Those who had bigger branches, bigger limbs, bigger regions had MORE paperwork to do. It wasn't any secret why MANY region couples had no kids. No time.
One more additional bit for context. B1ll Gr33n3. One of those early Corpse leaders - both he and wife were ordained. Now we've heard so much history on the sexual escapades of the earlier Corps, it does make you suspicious.
In my opinion, if B1ll was having sex with anything during that period of time, it was his fax machine.
The ministry was run completely by thermal facsimile reports.
He was a finnegan asskisser, 8th corpse. He was married to one of donna's earliest gal pals, Marcia Faulk, 5th corpse, originally from Greenville, NC. Finnegan had planted Greene into the Trunk Staff that I inherited from him as he ascended to World Wide Emperor (the original WWE). Greene was the "public relations coordinator" for the outreach weeks scheduled for that 1980-81 minustray year. I had never known him before.
The "famous" anecdote from his pre-TWIt curriculum vitae, which we used with brutal sarcasm whenever we wanted to bust Bill's chops for being such a hustler, was to remind him of the "secret" he told us one time while we were playing cards at HQ. That secret was that Bill said he had appeared in a porn flick once. You can only imagine the merciless NY sarcasm that shot his way! LOL!
one more thing......the Greenville, NC connection brought together a "notorious" reunion of Greenville lovers. Donna and Rosie fell in love there, and it was Marcia's hometown. The three amigas had quite a little Team growing with Myracle and Crowther already trolling the caves of Crotchaven. What an incredible zoo of psychosocial dysfunction. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.........peace.
Now this V & D stuff it pretty much warrants a little deeper investigation, as this will become the framework the Way will run on pretty much for the next 20 years.
"
O: The Way Corps
FROM: Trunk Office/Bill Greene
SUBJECT: Vision and Direction
God bless you.
Rev. Martindale is very excited for each of you to receive a copy of this document, which we are calling "Vision and Direction." This vital document has been developed over the course of the past several months with input from the Board of Trustees and the U.S. Trunk Staff. In addition, it has been reviewed by and has gained the full support of all the ministry leadership present at our 1997-98 Corps and Staff Placement meetings.
Rev. Martindale has consistently taught us the Biblical basis for planning, scheduling, organizing, and implementing so that we can function as the most brilliant ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Vision and Direction provides us with a strong framework to more effectively move in the direction Rev. Martindale has clearly set for us. This will result in increased growth and productivity in the household at all levels.
You will want to study this document in detail and be especially knowledgeable of the job description that applies to your assigned responsibility. We would like for you to be ready to go into full operation with the guidelines of Vision and Direction on October 6, 1997, after the fifty-fifth anniversary. This means that the Limb coordinators will send their first Vision and Direction Report to their Region coordinators by September 30, and the Region coordinators will submit their first Vision and Direction Report to the Trunk Office by October 5.
We anticipate great days ahead as we cross the bridge together into the promised land of the prevailing Word.
"
So the background on how this has developed. Basically, as the story has been told, Martindale gets the heavy revy and puts all the Corps on salary for the Way. What exactly does this mean at every level? 1995 immediately
Region guys - well, they were full time anyway, so no change there. Except for now their life was made more miserable by more paperwork
Limb guys - very few were full time - only larger states.
Branch - basically none fulltime
So the problem here is the Branch guys have zero job description and zero idea of what to do during the day. I mean they had already been doing a double duty 40 hrs on a normal job and another 40 on a volunteer position. Now you're going to pay them to do only one of those jobs? Cool. But 80 hrs a week down to 40 and most of those 40 had been happening nights and weekends. And those nights/weekend hours are pretty static when other followers aren't working. So a whole lotta free time on the hands for those guys during the day.
Limb Coords - most scenarios same as Branch - but they did monthly publications -Heartbeats, and had a few other extra tasks like petty cash and bookstore if they didn't have a coordinator for that. When the hierarchy paperwork stepped up, these got busy real fast.
Region - with the above 2 things becoming apparent in 1995, 1996 - these guys are going to be deluged with paperwork. Much more than 99 luftballoons. They protected their memo book with their life, and elaborately tracked movement on every fax and memo.
So the first idea of this V & D document is benign and logical - get some good working job descriptions for branch and limb coords like any organization and provide the structure to get movement going.
Rev. Martindale has consistently taught us the Biblical basis for planning, scheduling, organizing, and implementing so that we can function as the most brilliant ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ
One note on this here. This is complete horse puckey. There is only one source that consistently taught planning, scheduling, and organizing. That is the little old schoolteacher from North Carolina. Martindale was more fly by seat of pants type.
"We anticipate great days ahead as we cross the bridge together into the promised land of the prevailing Word."
What a crock of religious, unconscious gobbleygook! OMG ... where the heck is this bridge into the promised land of the prevailing Word?
Knowing I will NEVER AGAIN have to listen to some jackass talking like that lightens my soul!! The place really got much more insane during the years of Herr Martindale, didn't it?!
(This guy is heading towards the bridge ... into the promised ... you know the rest!)
So what is it about V & D that is especially oxymoronic?
It is like a hamster wheel. Flurries of activity. Frameworks of how to dress, what to teach, when to teach, when to study - all very prescriptive. A handbook. A corporate way of rolling out job descriptions.
But one of the things this pesky Paul the apostle guy said that the Way who tries to idolize him just doesn't get - "no other foundation can be laid except Jesus Christ"
When a ministry's foundation is built upon plagiarism, conspiracy theories, purging, and an elite swingers club, no matter how much you whitewash the history, polish scriptures taught, change Power for Abundant Living to the Way of Abundance and Power, or proclaim the Word is over the World to change your theme to your own branded "Prevailing Word", the crabapple tree seeds that were sown are eventually going to show the crabapple fruit with a tree.
Hiding the nature of the seeds will only serve to make the crabapples taste even more bitter when discovered.
So with V & D you can run around on a wheel like a hamster all day long in a world of artificial reality, framing your own language, code, and terminology to become farther and farther removed from mainstream society and even the mainstream body of Christian brothers and sisters with your same proclaimed overall belief. What actually happens is that the only people that are attracted are those with deep-seated problems, who need others consistent oversight just to live life. Dependencies upon dependencies. Those who are willing to have their life framed in an artificial series of interdependencies to escape reality.
And this ladies and gentlemen, is "The Prevailing Word to the World".
There is a document that talks about "Vision and Direction" . There is no real Vision - just screaming. And purging. And new classes to run the same people through, included mandates for their kids. And pirate's booty to send in to HQ. Direction? well there's the hamster wheel - start running.
I will get to examining some more detail of this V & D document, but to interject the story into timelines, how does this story change after all the lawsuits and when Rosie ascends to the throne?
It gets infinitely worse. Why?
Rosie is a micromanagers micromanager. The other way to put it is that she is on this spectrum of behavior labeled OCD. Except with her, it should be labeled CDO because old schoolteachers need things alphabetized. If spectrum is the way to describe a range of behavior from 1 to 10, Rosie is about a 12.5. She is the ideal Gepetto, the master puppet maker, sitting in the background pulling all the strings, getting all the info fed back to her (including printouts of GS threads because she hates technology), like a huge old black widow spider sitting back in her web waiting to sting someone with another series of purges.
Anyway a little foreshadowing into some years we don't have buckets for yet.
When a ministry's foundation is built upon plagiarism, conspiracy theories, purging, and an elite swingers club, no matter how much you whitewash the history, polish scriptures taught, change Power for Abundant Living to the Way of Abundance and Power, or proclaim the Word is over the World to change your theme to your own branded "Prevailing Word", the crabapple tree seeds that were sown are eventually going to show the crabapple fruit with a tree.
Chockful -- great points there ... and useful analogy! (Perhaps V & D should be changed to VD: a much more fitting description for the oppressive demands Twinkle Toes (uh, uh ... sorry, "lead dancer" in that amazing hit musical, Athletes of the Spirit) asserted on the remaining leadership) ... demands that so heavily encroached into people's personal lives and family life. The only "vision" folks probably had at the end of each day was probably of falling exhausted into their beds if only to end the mind-numbingly boring routines mandated of them daily so the "Word" could "prevail"!
Excellent posts AGAIN, Chockful! Keep em coming, please!
Very interesting for me to note da forehead's complete ineptitude at "outreach". Thought some understanding into what caused that would got appropriately here Chockful.
The OKIE Dope was witnessed to by Joe Coulter at KU. Of course he immediately went waybrain in about a week and never turned back. He went to Wichita a lot to see Donnie Fugit and his revival. Waited until he graduated from KU with a undergraduate degree in Psychology, and then begged his way into the second corpse in the summer of 1971.
His only "on-the-field" assignment was for the 2 years immediately following his graduation from the corpse. He was the first guy in OK & the first LC there from 1973-1975. In 1975, he was made Corpse Director and led the slave labor reconstruction at Emporia with some interim 5th and 368 brand new slaves of the incoming 6th corpse. That was the last time OKIE Dope ever left a root locale until he was run out of Dodge in 2000 by Rosie and his wife!
Da forehead never had a clue how "the Way tree" worked! Never!
He was used to being mister moggie Coordinator and director of everyone around him. There was nothing in OK when he got sent there. Dictor threw him a few WOWS, and then Mr. Future dancing president rammed into virgin territory and applied every bill maize Carnegie technique and dpw PR stunt he had just been brainwashed to, and got the girls in the Price Family and some other impressionable young talented kids to bite the TWIt bullet in OK City, and that was his great outreach rite-of-passage. A bunch of those talented kids wound up going into the 6th corpse where OKIE dope was now King. 2 of the Price sisters were in that 6th corpse. The older one was briefly the royal fiancée. The younger went on to "seed-of-the-serpent" fame.
So, da forehead had no knowledge of how the outreach, money making machine of TWIt functioned. He simply assumed that since he was the assigned man-o-god (MOG) everyone and everything around would carry out his every word cuz he was the closest thing to dictor paul in the area and he was to be treated and obeyed the same way. Now that's easy to do when you've been surrounded by nothing but adoring sycophants who believe the same delusion you do. And, they are told by the big MOG that everything you say and do is the best example of what it means to "be corpse", you have an instantly captive audience.
We all know that is NOT reality! The "field work" was always left up to Howard and the "general management kids". Any of us who had gone witnessing, run fellowships, branches, areas, classes of every kind, especially piffle, encouraged and collected abundant sharing, cast out devils, ministered healing, drove hundreds of miles back and forth on a weekend to attend some youth advance or class at HQ, ran all over the state running public exes, while lugging around TVs and those huge SONY 3/4" video players, and a whole bookstore in the trunk of your car! LOL!
Da forehead was always envious of us "field guys", and frankly, intimidated by several of us. It !s easy to be King when you are given your own campus, castle, and concubines. But to "fight the spiritual battle" 24/7 out there among the seed-boys and the debbils....."well I could do that, but I'm here teaching the future!".
Da forehead was always very jealous of binnie finnegan. Beence was the "working believers" MOG. Brash, bold, irreligious, and from the streets of NY. He put together the real practical application of DPW's vision for Way productions. He was a master showman. With the help of the original Joyful Noise, a group of really talented 4th and family corpses, he put together the take a shit caravans. and, later the basic framework for Takit and the outreach cities/weeks which followed. He inspired several productions which were very popular at the cultural center in New Bremen, and several which took the ROA by storm. He also was the Trunk guy, in charge of everything in the USA, not just some puny Little campuses in the sticks of rural America some where. Beence was always up there next to DPW at corpse week too. As a matter of fact, more people at corpse week and the ROA cared about what finnegan was saying or doing than what the corpse Director was doing. All of us on the placements teams at corpse and WOW placements were quite aware of this. It was an inconvenient fact.
so, it does not surprise me at all that da forehead relied completely on behavioral control as his management style. He had no knowledge of business. No natural aptitude for business. No training other than the bill maize classes. No biblical education or "training" outside of TWIt, no great intellectual prowess, No practical understanding of HOW the WAY worked any where outside of his own four root locale walls, and no one to confront him on his paranoid delusions and sexual perversions.
Donnie always intimidated and manipulated da OKIE king intellectually. Coward intimidated him in the practical, business, living life sense, but more importantly, made him feel like Dictor was never really his friend like he was Howard's. When Rosie came plowing in, with Donna breathing flames from her nostrils, the dancing Prez was totally exposed and the maggots began eating the carcass right away. What you've described above reminds me of King Lear. It is tragic for those who put themselves through this. It is also criminal and therefore MUST BE TOLD. Martin fake is a malignant paranoid narcissist. He is a serial sexual predator and batterer. He is sociopathically self-deluded. He is still living off of TWIt money. He is most miserable above all men.
When a ministry's foundation is built upon plagiarism, conspiracy theories, purging, and an elite swingers club, no matter how much you whitewash the history, polish scriptures taught, change Power for Abundant Living to the Way of Abundance and Power, or proclaim the Word is over the World to change your theme to your own branded "Prevailing Word", the crabapple tree seeds that were sown are eventually going to show the crabapple fruit with a tree.
To me "The Way Tree - TM" was one of the greatest cons the ministry had going for it.
Early Way Prod - "I am a leaf, ....... on a mighty tree......"
There is absolutely one purpose for this brilliantly engineered extended metaphor - to keep the $$$$$$$ flowing from the leaflets to the root just as surely as life's true pure water - the genuine Present Truth - TM taught from the platform of the Victor Paul Wierwille Word Over the World Auditorium flows so freely to the leaflet.
I don't even need to ask for verification from some of the 60's and 70's members if the timeline of when this emerged is during the purges of Doop and Heefner from their positions in Way West and Way East over the issue of sending in the $$$ to HQ.
DWBH,
Your observations on forehead boy are accurate. It is also interesting to me to note the interplay and little power plays going on in the Trustees themselves.
Briefly... as in before 6th corps or while in-res at Emporia?
First I've heard that...
3 hours ago, DontWorryBeHappy said:
When Rosie came plowing in, with Donna breathing flames from her nostrils, the dancing Prez was totally exposed and the maggots began eating the carcass right away.
Ya skipped the part where Donna hooked him in Emporia.
3 hours ago, DontWorryBeHappy said:
He is a serial sexual predator
Because he was so far removed from that identifty prior to his field assignment, it might be interesting to speculate where (or with whom) that rubicon was crossed.
The prevailing Word in the household and to the world is each Region, Limb, and Branch implementing a clear vision and action plan set by the Board of Trustees that will make the Word of God and a clean household available where we have established household fellowships.
The direction is to provide a framework of accountability for all the Corps so there can be a godly proportion, a just, spiritual equilibrium of work for them in each Limb. All will have solid standards and goals to work toward, resulting in more productivity in their work and growth in the household.
"
The first paragraph above. "implementing a clear vision and action plan set by the BOT that will make the Word of God and a clean household available where we have established household fellowships" WTF exactly does this mean? This is completely self-contained circular language in which if you start to think about practically how this is happening, the "vision and action plan" we heard from the Twustees was we were hunting wabbits. Gay wabbits. What clear vision and action plan is this? Oh, we are going to run fellowships a few times a week like we've always done since forever. And we aren't looking to run new fellowships, just running them where they already are. And these fellowships will be really, really, really clean. No gay wabbit stains.
This godly proportion, the just, spiritual equilibrium of work? This language was from the Region guys, who were drowning under their 4 inch 3 ring binders of fax memos who were looking at some possible way to make the sh1t flow downwards. Standards and goals to work towards - the mandates 20% sales target. Framework of accountability are code words meaning proposed and actual personal schedules, proposed and actual calendars, teaching topics, outreach events, etc. etc.
As time progresses along with more and more purges - it becomes more and more unlikely to run across people in the general populace who would fit the criteria of those who would be likely to be interested. The other main purge playing into this was the start of the debt purge. The debt purge happened as Max Forehead was carrying out the heavy revy to put the Corps fulltime on staff. Of course we couldn't have the tithe paying for Corps debt this was evil evil evil. After many were dropped, then it became a requirement for leadership positions. To go into the Corps, no debt. To go Way Disciple (WOW replacement) - no debt. On Staff - you get it - no debt. And the big one - take the Advanced Class? No debt.
Recommended Posts
chockfull
So first off, about the oxymoron bit.
As part of our oh-so-expert Biblical knowledge we had in the way, we were invested in "figures of speech". These figures, kind of plagiarized from a few different sources - first was Bullinger has a book published on it, then eastern input from Lamsa and KC Pillai I think.
Figures of speech to us, were God's little highlighter pen in the Bible, speaking to us more personally so as to catch our attention.
Sounds a little fishy to me. I mean the fishermen writing tomes probably had different local expressions than the tax collector. That's not God's highlighter, that's the fisherman's language, idiot. Learn to appreciate personality in language when reading, d1psh1t and stop being such a Stepford wife fundamentalist tool that has been fed a consistent diet of vanilla Way magazine articles to the point they can't appreciate a hamburger.
Sorry, sometimes my inner dialogue comes out when I tell these stories. :) I talk to myself about fundamentalism it seems.
Where was I? Oh yes, figures of speech and oxymoron.
What are figures? Colorful language. Or as it says in italics below Rhetoric. You know, what the vicster got a doctorate degree from a cereal boxtop university for.
I really really like the origin of oxymoron below. Comes from the Greek sharp dull. That certainly describes Vision and Direction. Sharp dullness.
Definition below.
1650-60; < Late Latin oxymorum < presumed Greek *oxýmōron, neuter of*oxýmōros sharp-dull, equivalent to oxý (s) sharp (see oxy-1) + mōrós dull(see moron )
Link to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
Cutting in skyrider's input on this from the other thread as this is a new topic. Just for topical reading ease.
Quote - skyrider
1997: In JanuaryFebruary......martindale attacked the whole issue of "gift giving" to field corps. He cited examples of BRIBERY from the scriptures and then launched into several incidents where corps received a gift from someone that, he claimed, had a bribe attached to it. No corps were to receive any gifts from their area followers.....not even some tomatoes from someone's garden. It became an insane mandate. Yet, martindale still received gifts.
"Vision and Direction" policies were implemented in September. Vision and Direction
1995 Full-Time Corps "revelation"
Here is a sample of reporting and paperwork sent to region/trunk: .....all the corps were inundated with reporting back to twi leadership. I tend to believe that the trunk office issued this paper blizzard to appease martinfail's screaming episodes and micromanaged leadership style. Quite obvious to me.....martinfail didn't trust the corps to do their ministerial duties.
The paperwork was multi-faceted. Branch guys reported to the limb, the limb to region, the region to trunk, the trunk to bot. The following are some of the reports that I recall:
--Time-Analysis Report....each week, this report was a projected schedule of the corps person's week detailing 6am - 11pm in 30-minute time slots. After about one year, lcm instructed region & limb guys to scrutinize these reports and strongly recommend changes (each week).
--Witnessing Report....each week, this report was a detailed analysis of how many in your area went witnessing, the number of contacts, the number of follow-ups, the number who attended fellowships as a result, the number who signed up for WAP, etc.
--Petty Cash Report....each branch, limb and region were allocated a level of petty cash. Branch corps, generally, consisted of two or three fellowships and didn't utilze petty cash reports except for times when lcm designated 8 consecutive public/formal branch meetings during the videotaping of WAP. All expenses over $100 had to be cleared by the region guy. The region guy could spend up to $300 before the trunk got involved.
--Yearly Budget Reports....this report had to be cleared through twi's personnel department. With some 600+ corps/families on payroll, this was a monumental task to sort thru the "needs" of every corps family, every situation. Some parents had a child in a musical instrument class, or a karate class, or a voice lessons class, etc. Martindale blasted the corps on a corps meeting for spending "excess money" on their children.
--[Note: Pet policies, gift-giving policies, pregnancy policies, traveling policies, cable tv policies, etc......these came into play as the mountain of corps expenses soared far beyond anything martindale had foreseen.]
--Monthly Progress Report....(whatever it was called??) detailed each branch's progress on class sign-ups (fnd, int, ac, etc). Month after month, it seemed like there were always goose eggs (zeros) in the blanks.
--Trunk Faxes.....reporting back on specific policies or corps meeting assignments was common. The corps were responsible to listen to lcm's sts tape on tuesday or early wednesday each week BEFORE the corps phone hookup. Trunk faxes were common and demanded a quick response. Sometimes, corps would be up until midnight to meet the fax deadline.
--Greetings Faxed to Trunk....as the paper-insantiy escalated, the corps seemed to be competing as to who could send in the most heartfelt greeting for twi's anniversary, for thanksgiving, for twi's holiday party, for the new year's, etc.
--Thank You Cards.....it became mandatory for each branch, each area to send a unique, handmade, personalized card to lcm after each WAP class. Every student was to sign the card and detail what blessed them specifically in the class.
Those who had bigger branches, bigger limbs, bigger regions had MORE paperwork to do. It wasn't any secret why MANY region couples had no kids. No time.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
One more additional bit for context. B1ll Gr33n3. One of those early Corpse leaders - both he and wife were ordained. Now we've heard so much history on the sexual escapades of the earlier Corps, it does make you suspicious.
In my opinion, if B1ll was having sex with anything during that period of time, it was his fax machine.
The ministry was run completely by thermal facsimile reports.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DontWorryBeHappy
Just an interesting FYI, regard Bill Greene.
He was a finnegan asskisser, 8th corpse. He was married to one of donna's earliest gal pals, Marcia Faulk, 5th corpse, originally from Greenville, NC. Finnegan had planted Greene into the Trunk Staff that I inherited from him as he ascended to World Wide Emperor (the original WWE). Greene was the "public relations coordinator" for the outreach weeks scheduled for that 1980-81 minustray year. I had never known him before.
The "famous" anecdote from his pre-TWIt curriculum vitae, which we used with brutal sarcasm whenever we wanted to bust Bill's chops for being such a hustler, was to remind him of the "secret" he told us one time while we were playing cards at HQ. That secret was that Bill said he had appeared in a porn flick once. You can only imagine the merciless NY sarcasm that shot his way! LOL!
one more thing......the Greenville, NC connection brought together a "notorious" reunion of Greenville lovers. Donna and Rosie fell in love there, and it was Marcia's hometown. The three amigas had quite a little Team growing with Myracle and Crowther already trolling the caves of Crotchaven. What an incredible zoo of psychosocial dysfunction. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.........peace.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
Now this V & D stuff it pretty much warrants a little deeper investigation, as this will become the framework the Way will run on pretty much for the next 20 years.
"
O: The Way Corps
FROM: Trunk Office/Bill Greene
SUBJECT: Vision and Direction
God bless you.
Rev. Martindale is very excited for each of you to receive a copy of this document, which we are calling "Vision and Direction." This vital document has been developed over the course of the past several months with input from the Board of Trustees and the U.S. Trunk Staff. In addition, it has been reviewed by and has gained the full support of all the ministry leadership present at our 1997-98 Corps and Staff Placement meetings.
Rev. Martindale has consistently taught us the Biblical basis for planning, scheduling, organizing, and implementing so that we can function as the most brilliant ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Vision and Direction provides us with a strong framework to more effectively move in the direction Rev. Martindale has clearly set for us. This will result in increased growth and productivity in the household at all levels.
You will want to study this document in detail and be especially knowledgeable of the job description that applies to your assigned responsibility. We would like for you to be ready to go into full operation with the guidelines of Vision and Direction on October 6, 1997, after the fifty-fifth anniversary. This means that the Limb coordinators will send their first Vision and Direction Report to their Region coordinators by September 30, and the Region coordinators will submit their first Vision and Direction Report to the Trunk Office by October 5.
We anticipate great days ahead as we cross the bridge together into the promised land of the prevailing Word.
"
So the background on how this has developed. Basically, as the story has been told, Martindale gets the heavy revy and puts all the Corps on salary for the Way. What exactly does this mean at every level? 1995 immediately
So the problem here is the Branch guys have zero job description and zero idea of what to do during the day. I mean they had already been doing a double duty 40 hrs on a normal job and another 40 on a volunteer position. Now you're going to pay them to do only one of those jobs? Cool. But 80 hrs a week down to 40 and most of those 40 had been happening nights and weekends. And those nights/weekend hours are pretty static when other followers aren't working. So a whole lotta free time on the hands for those guys during the day.
Limb Coords - most scenarios same as Branch - but they did monthly publications -Heartbeats, and had a few other extra tasks like petty cash and bookstore if they didn't have a coordinator for that. When the hierarchy paperwork stepped up, these got busy real fast.
Region - with the above 2 things becoming apparent in 1995, 1996 - these guys are going to be deluged with paperwork. Much more than 99 luftballoons. They protected their memo book with their life, and elaborately tracked movement on every fax and memo.
So the first idea of this V & D document is benign and logical - get some good working job descriptions for branch and limb coords like any organization and provide the structure to get movement going.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
One note on this here. This is complete horse puckey. There is only one source that consistently taught planning, scheduling, and organizing. That is the little old schoolteacher from North Carolina. Martindale was more fly by seat of pants type.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lanikaigal
What a crock of religious, unconscious gobbleygook! OMG ... where the heck is this bridge into the promised land of the prevailing Word?
Knowing I will NEVER AGAIN have to listen to some jackass talking like that lightens my soul!! The place really got much more insane during the years of Herr Martindale, didn't it?!
(This guy is heading towards the bridge ... into the promised ... you know the rest!)
Edited by LanikaigalLink to comment
Share on other sites
outandabout
Well you know what the Rainbow Bridge is. Do they mean that?
Edited by outandaboutLink to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
So what is it about V & D that is especially oxymoronic?
It is like a hamster wheel. Flurries of activity. Frameworks of how to dress, what to teach, when to teach, when to study - all very prescriptive. A handbook. A corporate way of rolling out job descriptions.
But one of the things this pesky Paul the apostle guy said that the Way who tries to idolize him just doesn't get - "no other foundation can be laid except Jesus Christ"
When a ministry's foundation is built upon plagiarism, conspiracy theories, purging, and an elite swingers club, no matter how much you whitewash the history, polish scriptures taught, change Power for Abundant Living to the Way of Abundance and Power, or proclaim the Word is over the World to change your theme to your own branded "Prevailing Word", the crabapple tree seeds that were sown are eventually going to show the crabapple fruit with a tree.
Hiding the nature of the seeds will only serve to make the crabapples taste even more bitter when discovered.
So with V & D you can run around on a wheel like a hamster all day long in a world of artificial reality, framing your own language, code, and terminology to become farther and farther removed from mainstream society and even the mainstream body of Christian brothers and sisters with your same proclaimed overall belief. What actually happens is that the only people that are attracted are those with deep-seated problems, who need others consistent oversight just to live life. Dependencies upon dependencies. Those who are willing to have their life framed in an artificial series of interdependencies to escape reality.
And this ladies and gentlemen, is "The Prevailing Word to the World".
There is a document that talks about "Vision and Direction" . There is no real Vision - just screaming. And purging. And new classes to run the same people through, included mandates for their kids. And pirate's booty to send in to HQ. Direction? well there's the hamster wheel - start running.
Edited by chockfullLink to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
I will get to examining some more detail of this V & D document, but to interject the story into timelines, how does this story change after all the lawsuits and when Rosie ascends to the throne?
It gets infinitely worse. Why?
Rosie is a micromanagers micromanager. The other way to put it is that she is on this spectrum of behavior labeled OCD. Except with her, it should be labeled CDO because old schoolteachers need things alphabetized. If spectrum is the way to describe a range of behavior from 1 to 10, Rosie is about a 12.5. She is the ideal Gepetto, the master puppet maker, sitting in the background pulling all the strings, getting all the info fed back to her (including printouts of GS threads because she hates technology), like a huge old black widow spider sitting back in her web waiting to sting someone with another series of purges.
Anyway a little foreshadowing into some years we don't have buckets for yet.
Edited by chockfullLink to comment
Share on other sites
Lanikaigal
Chockful -- great points there ... and useful analogy! (Perhaps V & D should be changed to VD: a much more fitting description for the oppressive demands Twinkle Toes (uh, uh ... sorry, "lead dancer" in that amazing hit musical, Athletes of the Spirit) asserted on the remaining leadership) ... demands that so heavily encroached into people's personal lives and family life. The only "vision" folks probably had at the end of each day was probably of falling exhausted into their beds if only to end the mind-numbingly boring routines mandated of them daily so the "Word" could "prevail"!
Edited by LanikaigalLink to comment
Share on other sites
waysider
Well, Rainbow Bridge is for animals, soooo.....Yep. Rainbow Bridge it is.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DontWorryBeHappy
Excellent posts AGAIN, Chockful! Keep em coming, please!
Very interesting for me to note da forehead's complete ineptitude at "outreach". Thought some understanding into what caused that would got appropriately here Chockful.
The OKIE Dope was witnessed to by Joe Coulter at KU. Of course he immediately went waybrain in about a week and never turned back. He went to Wichita a lot to see Donnie Fugit and his revival. Waited until he graduated from KU with a undergraduate degree in Psychology, and then begged his way into the second corpse in the summer of 1971.
His only "on-the-field" assignment was for the 2 years immediately following his graduation from the corpse. He was the first guy in OK & the first LC there from 1973-1975. In 1975, he was made Corpse Director and led the slave labor reconstruction at Emporia with some interim 5th and 368 brand new slaves of the incoming 6th corpse. That was the last time OKIE Dope ever left a root locale until he was run out of Dodge in 2000 by Rosie and his wife!
Da forehead never had a clue how "the Way tree" worked! Never!
He was used to being mister moggie Coordinator and director of everyone around him. There was nothing in OK when he got sent there. Dictor threw him a few WOWS, and then Mr. Future dancing president rammed into virgin territory and applied every bill maize Carnegie technique and dpw PR stunt he had just been brainwashed to, and got the girls in the Price Family and some other impressionable young talented kids to bite the TWIt bullet in OK City, and that was his great outreach rite-of-passage. A bunch of those talented kids wound up going into the 6th corpse where OKIE dope was now King. 2 of the Price sisters were in that 6th corpse. The older one was briefly the royal fiancée. The younger went on to "seed-of-the-serpent" fame.
So, da forehead had no knowledge of how the outreach, money making machine of TWIt functioned. He simply assumed that since he was the assigned man-o-god (MOG) everyone and everything around would carry out his every word cuz he was the closest thing to dictor paul in the area and he was to be treated and obeyed the same way. Now that's easy to do when you've been surrounded by nothing but adoring sycophants who believe the same delusion you do. And, they are told by the big MOG that everything you say and do is the best example of what it means to "be corpse", you have an instantly captive audience.
We all know that is NOT reality! The "field work" was always left up to Howard and the "general management kids". Any of us who had gone witnessing, run fellowships, branches, areas, classes of every kind, especially piffle, encouraged and collected abundant sharing, cast out devils, ministered healing, drove hundreds of miles back and forth on a weekend to attend some youth advance or class at HQ, ran all over the state running public exes, while lugging around TVs and those huge SONY 3/4" video players, and a whole bookstore in the trunk of your car! LOL!
Da forehead was always envious of us "field guys", and frankly, intimidated by several of us. It !s easy to be King when you are given your own campus, castle, and concubines. But to "fight the spiritual battle" 24/7 out there among the seed-boys and the debbils....."well I could do that, but I'm here teaching the future!".
Da forehead was always very jealous of binnie finnegan. Beence was the "working believers" MOG. Brash, bold, irreligious, and from the streets of NY. He put together the real practical application of DPW's vision for Way productions. He was a master showman. With the help of the original Joyful Noise, a group of really talented 4th and family corpses, he put together the take a shit caravans. and, later the basic framework for Takit and the outreach cities/weeks which followed. He inspired several productions which were very popular at the cultural center in New Bremen, and several which took the ROA by storm. He also was the Trunk guy, in charge of everything in the USA, not just some puny Little campuses in the sticks of rural America some where. Beence was always up there next to DPW at corpse week too. As a matter of fact, more people at corpse week and the ROA cared about what finnegan was saying or doing than what the corpse Director was doing. All of us on the placements teams at corpse and WOW placements were quite aware of this. It was an inconvenient fact.
so, it does not surprise me at all that da forehead relied completely on behavioral control as his management style. He had no knowledge of business. No natural aptitude for business. No training other than the bill maize classes. No biblical education or "training" outside of TWIt, no great intellectual prowess, No practical understanding of HOW the WAY worked any where outside of his own four root locale walls, and no one to confront him on his paranoid delusions and sexual perversions.
Donnie always intimidated and manipulated da OKIE king intellectually. Coward intimidated him in the practical, business, living life sense, but more importantly, made him feel like Dictor was never really his friend like he was Howard's. When Rosie came plowing in, with Donna breathing flames from her nostrils, the dancing Prez was totally exposed and the maggots began eating the carcass right away. What you've described above reminds me of King Lear. It is tragic for those who put themselves through this. It is also criminal and therefore MUST BE TOLD. Martin fake is a malignant paranoid narcissist. He is a serial sexual predator and batterer. He is sociopathically self-deluded. He is still living off of TWIt money. He is most miserable above all men.
Edited by DontWorryBeHappyLink to comment
Share on other sites
JayDee
Brilliant...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
To me "The Way Tree - TM" was one of the greatest cons the ministry had going for it.
Early Way Prod - "I am a leaf, ....... on a mighty tree......"
There is absolutely one purpose for this brilliantly engineered extended metaphor - to keep the $$$$$$$ flowing from the leaflets to the root just as surely as life's true pure water - the genuine Present Truth - TM taught from the platform of the Victor Paul Wierwille Word Over the World Auditorium flows so freely to the leaflet.
I don't even need to ask for verification from some of the 60's and 70's members if the timeline of when this emerged is during the purges of Doop and Heefner from their positions in Way West and Way East over the issue of sending in the $$$ to HQ.
DWBH,
Your observations on forehead boy are accurate. It is also interesting to me to note the interplay and little power plays going on in the Trustees themselves.
How does that bode for the future?
De Loser - HQ inbred, little to zero field time
R@pp - same - little field experience
Edited by chockfullLink to comment
Share on other sites
TLC
Briefly... as in before 6th corps or while in-res at Emporia?
First I've heard that...
Ya skipped the part where Donna hooked him in Emporia.
Because he was so far removed from that identifty prior to his field assignment, it might be interesting to speculate where (or with whom) that rubicon was crossed.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
V & D Quote
"
The prevailing Word in the household and to the world is each Region, Limb, and Branch implementing a clear vision and action plan set by the Board of Trustees that will make the Word of God and a clean household available where we have established household fellowships.
The direction is to provide a framework of accountability for all the Corps so there can be a godly proportion, a just, spiritual equilibrium of work for them in each Limb. All will have solid standards and goals to work toward, resulting in more productivity in their work and growth in the household.
"
The first paragraph above. "implementing a clear vision and action plan set by the BOT that will make the Word of God and a clean household available where we have established household fellowships" WTF exactly does this mean? This is completely self-contained circular language in which if you start to think about practically how this is happening, the "vision and action plan" we heard from the Twustees was we were hunting wabbits. Gay wabbits. What clear vision and action plan is this? Oh, we are going to run fellowships a few times a week like we've always done since forever. And we aren't looking to run new fellowships, just running them where they already are. And these fellowships will be really, really, really clean. No gay wabbit stains.
This godly proportion, the just, spiritual equilibrium of work? This language was from the Region guys, who were drowning under their 4 inch 3 ring binders of fax memos who were looking at some possible way to make the sh1t flow downwards. Standards and goals to work towards - the mandates 20% sales target. Framework of accountability are code words meaning proposed and actual personal schedules, proposed and actual calendars, teaching topics, outreach events, etc. etc.
As time progresses along with more and more purges - it becomes more and more unlikely to run across people in the general populace who would fit the criteria of those who would be likely to be interested. The other main purge playing into this was the start of the debt purge. The debt purge happened as Max Forehead was carrying out the heavy revy to put the Corps fulltime on staff. Of course we couldn't have the tithe paying for Corps debt this was evil evil evil. After many were dropped, then it became a requirement for leadership positions. To go into the Corps, no debt. To go Way Disciple (WOW replacement) - no debt. On Staff - you get it - no debt. And the big one - take the Advanced Class? No debt.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Twinky
"Rise and Expansion"?
Don't you mean "Rise and EXPULSION"?
Link to comment
Share on other sites
krys
I like the way you think, Twinky!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.