I have not found the original letter on here (or anywhere else on the web) There are of course numerous references to it of course, and they sent out 500 copies, so SOMEone must have it.
There are copies of JAL's later letters, (1988, 2007, 2008) in this thread (page 3 or 4?).
I saved the file from the link above to my computer and then uploaded it into this comment as a backup in case that link dies. (I am not sure the file exists on the current GSC)
Good grief. The blind leading the blind. And both falling into the ditch.
I've flicked through the letter. I really can't stand to read it "in depth" - the triteness and "Wayness" of it appalls me. Can't imagine the trustees, when they got it, doing anything more than reading the first page, then making paper aeroplanes of the rest of the letter. It's address to Believers; I wonder what random believers thought of it?
How very thankful I am not to be caught up with all that menagerie any more!
That letter was Pat Lynn and Sue Pierce's idea. Sue was there for the entire time (3 days) it took to write it. The original intent was to let 'em have it, patterned after Zola's I Accuse. But, Jally was still full-time staff in D.C. He stated that if we were too "raw", no one would ever read it, pointing out that our eventual audience would be wayfers only. So, we toned down the rhetoric and went Wayspeak Bible on them. That was why, at the end, after we signed it, I stood up at the table and pulled jally up by his shirt collar, pulling his face directly up to mine, and said with great seriousness: "You better not fuck us on this John!", then let him go. Well, Jally DID fuck every one of us who signed that letter including his own wife.
As far as any long-term effect from the letter, after the initial mailing to the BOT, Region and Campus Coordinators and the limp coordinators in the states we were from, jally got hold of a mailing list and we sent out 7000 copies of the letter to everywhere including several other countries! This prompted the March, 1987 Geer tape to the world, and the first exodus of thousands began to roll around the US! Every corpse person on Earth was told if they read that stupid letter they'd get possessed. Anyone known to have read it, or had a copy was dropped from the corpse. Word went out from HQ that if anyone talked to any of those who wrote that letter they'd immediately get possessed. However, the 7000 made thousands more copies, and, as I said before, they were leaving by the thousands. Eventually, the word from HQ was that Sue Pierce and Dubofsky were "born again of the wrong seed", and the "others" were "packing multiple vicious daimons.....5 Star Generals", and no one but tippy-top leadership could handle us! So, I disagree strongly with Twinky's trivialization of the impact of that letter.
In response to that mass exodus, we decided to incorporate CES the following May, 1988. Immediately upon signing the 501(c3) charitable corporation incorporation papers, Robert Belt, Sue Pierce, and I resigned from the "founding" board of directors and never participated in anything jally ever said or did since. The rest of us, except for Tom, all went back to school......Robert--Business.....Sue--Baptist and then Methodist Seminaries, and Dubofsky-- Nursing School. Jally never changed what he was doing. Never went to any "ministerial" training other than TWIt'n'dic. Just kept on doing the same thing with just a few "new" teachings he took from the signatories to the letter. The three of us resigned because jally wanted to add Schoenheit and the Graesers to the BOD, and pay to move them to Indianapolis, as well as have Monentus "officially" endorsed by CES. The three of us said if you do that we quit, so we did.
The letter most certainly was wayspeak and waybrained. I was out of TWIt for 2 months, Lynns were still full-time, Robert was 1 month out of TWIt, Tom just 3 weeks, and Pat for 2 weeks? Jally was still full-time staff! Sue had been traveling and teaching, as well as presenting an incredibly insightful critique of AOTS, since early fall, 1987. How far away from wayspeak and waybrained were you at those stages of your exit, Twinky? Just sayin'.......
it is my opinion that, the 37 page letter struck terror into the hearts of the twustees, and pushed Geer's insanity beyond limits acceptable to thousands of wayfers around the world. The TWIt you were in Twinky, was quite different from the one we "letter writers" left. Maybe talking with some of those who were in and left at that time might engender a little more understanding of exactly what that letter meant to the downfall of TWIt at that time with NO Internet, social media, or any allies in our cause. Thanks for reading.
I was 2 months out twit when this letter hit the presses. It was imo a slap upside the head of the bots and anyone else on their team. I for one am glad it was accomplished and remain thankful to this day for the authors. It was words “fitly spoken” at that time.
That letter was Pat Lynn and Sue Pierce's idea. Sue was there for the entire time (3 days) it took to write it. The original intent was to let 'em have it, patterned after Zola's I Accuse. But, Jally was still full-time staff in D.C. He stated that if we were too "raw", no one would ever read it, pointing out that our eventual audience would be wayfers only. So, we toned down the rhetoric and went Wayspeak Bible on them. That was why, at the end, after we signed it, I stood up at the table and pulled jally up by his shirt collar, pulling his face directly up to mine, and said with great seriousness: "You better not .... us on this John!", then let him go. Well, Jally DID .... every one of us who signed that letter including his own wife.
As far as any long-term effect from the letter, after the initial mailing to the BOT, Region and Campus Coordinators and the limp coordinators in the states we were from, jally got hold of a mailing list and we sent out 7000 copies of the letter to everywhere including several other countries! This prompted the March, 1987 Geer tape to the world, and the first exodus of thousands began to roll around the US! Every corpse person on Earth was told if they read that stupid letter they'd get possessed. Anyone known to have read it, or had a copy was dropped from the corpse. Word went out from HQ that if anyone talked to any of those who wrote that letter they'd immediately get possessed. However, the 7000 made thousands more copies, and, as I said before, they were leaving by the thousands. Eventually, the word from HQ was that Sue Pierce and Dubofsky were "born again of the wrong seed", and the "others" were "packing multiple vicious daimons.....5 Star Generals", and no one but tippy-top leadership could handle us! So, I disagree strongly with Twinky's trivialization of the impact of that letter.
In response to that mass exodus, we decided to incorporate CES the following May, 1988. Immediately upon signing the 501(c3) charitable corporation incorporation papers, Robert Belt, Sue Pierce, and I resigned from the "founding" board of directors and never participated in anything jally ever said or did since. The rest of us, except for Tom, all went back to school......Robert--Business.....Sue--Baptist and then Methodist Seminaries, and Dubofsky-- Nursing School. Jally never changed what he was doing. Never went to any "ministerial" training other than TWIt'n'dic. Just kept on doing the same thing with just a few "new" teachings he took from the signatories to the letter. The three of us resigned because jally wanted to add Schoenheit and the Graesers to the BOD, and pay to move them to Indianapolis, as well as have Monentus "officially" endorsed by CES. The three of us said if you do that we quit, so we did.
The letter most certainly was wayspeak and waybrained. I was out of TWIt for 2 months, Lynns were still full-time, Robert was 1 month out of TWIt, Tom just 3 weeks, and Pat for 2 weeks? Jally was still full-time staff! Sue had been traveling and teaching, as well as presenting an incredibly insightful critique of AOTS, since early fall, 1987. How far away from wayspeak and waybrained were you at those stages of your exit, Twinky? Just sayin'.......
it is my opinion that, the 37 page letter struck terror into the hearts of the twustees, and pushed Geer's insanity beyond limits acceptable to thousands of wayfers around the world. The TWIt you were in Twinky, was quite different from the one we "letter writers" left. Maybe talking with some of those who were in and left at that time might engender a little more understanding of exactly what that letter meant to the downfall of TWIt at that time with NO Internet, social media, or any allies in our cause. Thanks for reading.
DWBH, so that was the "infamous" letter that got people kicked-out??!! Nuts, I thought the letter had something to do with Way Research! Thanks for clearing that up, at least for me.
Thanks for giving the context of that letter's impact, DWBH.
I happened to be at HQ when you guys sent it out. I did not see a copy then. I hadn't seen it until 10 minutes ago. When you wrote it, I had already resigned from the Research Department (all that drama is in Undertow) and I was sewing draperies in the OSC at the other end of the hall. I was also trying to gain some sanity by attending college classes at OSU in Lima and packing up my stuff to get the hell away from HQ that August. I wish you and I had had a chance to talk then ...
I know how hard it is for anyone who wasn't around at that time to grasp how chaotic the whole shebang was. Over the years I've tried to paint the picture for former Wayfers and for outsiders who never heard of TWI. The best analogy I have so far is to say it was like a tornado came through a small town and demolished a lot of it. A few survivors tried to rebuild using the same kind of original materials, but some of the people who closely examined the situation discovered that the original materials were rotten to begin with. They decided that the best use of their time and energy was to rebuild other kinds of houses elsewhere.
As far as any long-term effect from the letter, after the initial mailing to the BOT, Region and Campus Coordinators and the limp coordinators in the states we were from, jally got hold of a mailing list and we sent out 7000 copies of the letter to everywhere including several other countries! This prompted the March, 1987 Geer tape to the world, and the first exodus of thousands began to roll around the US! Every corpse person on Earth was told if they read that stupid letter they'd get possessed. Anyone known to have read it, or had a copy was dropped from the corpse. Word went out from HQ that if anyone talked to any of those who wrote that letter they'd immediately get possessed. However, the 7000 made thousands more copies, and, as I said before, they were leaving by the thousands. Eventually, the word from HQ was that Sue Pierce and Dubofsky were "born again of the wrong seed", and the "others" were "packing multiple vicious daimons.....5 Star Generals", and no one but tippy-top leadership could handle us! ...(SNIP)
Well…so much for wierwille’s and top leadership’s expertise in discerning of spirits – I mean, if one of those wrong seed ne’re-do-wells can make it all the way to being the trunk coordinator of USA! …man oh man, I’m gonna have to reevaluate all that stuff I learned in the Advanced Class. (actually – I’ve relegated all that stuff to the junk table at the back of my own Advanced Class – which explores the possibility of TWI’s top leadership being operated by all nine daimons all the time. )
But seriously, thanks to WordWolf for starting this thread, to HAPe4me for the link/PDF of the letter - I’ve downloaded it and look forward to reading it in light of the illuminating context provided by DWBH and Penworks.
DWBH, so that was the "infamous" letter that got people kicked-out??!! Nuts, I thought the letter had something to do with Way Research! Thanks for clearing that up, at least for me.
Some people got kicked out over the paper on how Adultery is bad, also. You may be confusing the two.
Sue Pi3rc3 and R@lph D born of the wrong seed, eh? I never met R but I mean Sue was from what I remember how you say long-winded? I mean you get her, jellyroll plus pat in the same room together for 3 days? Yeesh. No wonder 37 pages. Whose idea was it for the fable at the beginning with the boy and the map? Double yeesh.
I have read this before, and read through it again. It took me a minute to get down to what the point was of all of this. Then I looked at the letter date. I'm not 100% sure on the exactness of this, but I think that this was actually a response to a "call for commitment" letter that men in tights sent out around that same time period? Where he specifically asked people who they stood with? Geer or him?
There's one point in the letter talking about standing for or against people versus standing for the Word. I remember that terminology being popular around the timeframe as a response, and men in tights would become infuriated by this and rant and rave and kick people out. This happened as a result of this letter, I think. jellyroll got fired and as dwbh says they started CES, then jellyroll went all on his trip with Momentus and invited the G's and S in, and that led to all sorts of shenanigans with revelations about spiders and such. Dueling revelation. And men in tights went on doing men in tights things.
And to answer where my head was at the time, I was a young mushroom. Not fit for things of elder mushrooms like long papers on POOP, etc. Had to read that later. Suffer my own suffrages. Leave when I understood to. Deal with the next gen Pharisees more evil than the first.
But overall the problem men in tights had was projecting nothing but confusion while Geer attacked, then when coming out of it he never built a base with people but just became quickly demanding that people honor his mantle installation as Prez without showing them much of any reason to. You see a lot of a response to that in the letter too.
I don't want to trivialize the impact of the letter or what sending out 7000 copies did to the Way at the time, but this letter was not alone in this type of a response. This is the time period that 4/5 of everyone left the Way. Many of them had exactly the same reasoning and scriptural basis you see in this letter.
Thanks for giving the context of that letter's impact, DWBH.
I happened to be at HQ when you guys sent it out. I did not see a copy then. I hadn't seen it until 10 minutes ago. When you wrote it, I had already resigned from the Research Department (all that drama is in Undertow) and I was sewing draperies in the OSC at the other end of the hall. I was also trying to gain some sanity by attending college classes at OSU in Lima and packing up my stuff to get the hell away from HQ that August. I wish you and I had had a chance to talk then ...
I know how hard it is for anyone who wasn't around at that time to grasp how chaotic the whole shebang was. Over the years I've tried to paint the picture for former Wayfers and for outsiders who never heard of TWI. The best analogy I have so far is to say it was like a tornado came through a small town and demolished a lot of it. A few survivors tried to rebuild using the same kind of original materials, but some of the people who closely examined the situation discovered that the original materials were rotten to begin with. They decided that the best use of their time and energy was to rebuild other kinds of houses elsewhere.
Yes yes - very chaotic times. Men in tights being introspective, down, depressed. Not displaying any leadership. Coming out of it quickly and flipping on people - becoming angry about Geer, starting to build justification, starting to put together what he later taught as Galatians tapes where he basically screams and curses and calls Geer possessed.
Everybody else is also introspective, down, depressed. I was young and observing not experiencing at that time, but the impact of Geer practically seems to be that just about everybody is down, depressed over his critical summary supposedly from VP beyond the grave. That's the context of the letter.
One more thing that I wanted to point out as far as context. This is talking about "The Fog Years" time period - there are many more threads of info on this in the forums if interested care to read.
The financial impact of 4/5 of the people leaving is that all the cash remained, the buildings and property remained and consists of the vast majority of the $65M windfall the Way enjoys today and why HQ kind of can exist on its own as Pharisee Central. They are not really beholden to followers contributions like most normal churches you see are.
Just to update you on the chronology you misstated.......
The 37 page thing was NOT in response to the "loyalty pledge" letter sent out by the bots. That letter is here in the archives, and I believe it went out in March of 1990. The 37 pager was written to demand an Acts 15 kinda "Council of Nicea" meeting at HQ to determine the course forward after the debacles of 1986. It was written to expose the fraud of Geer's coups and the Twustees' complete "spiritual" incompetence. It was written to confront them all with the abject immorality, hubris, greed, and sexual perversions that had been known "behind the scenes", both by participants and their loyal opposition. Personally, I wanted to "let 'er rip", tell it like it really was, and get everybody into the damn auditorium until we fought it out once and for all. Typical NYC negotiation style. LOL!
As you can see by the final product, that style was NOT adopted. We agreed that we had to keep it all "respectful and word-centered"(sic!) in order not to immediately cause WWIII. Again, the goal was Acts 15, confrontation, repentance, forgiveness. Obviously, that sure as hell didn't work!
The basic initial attitude the bots and Geer spun, was "Who in the hell do these possessos think they are?!! How DARE they attack the MOGS like that!" Within in a month, (I believe it was 3/26/1987) the Geer tape went out to all corpse worldwide that the authors of that evil letter were all "marked and avoided", excommunicated in disgrace as Baal worshippers. LOL!
We gave the original recipients of the letter ( as listed in my post above) 10 days to respond. If they did not, we told them we would bring it before the "entire Church" as Matt 18 dictates, and mail it out to everyone we had an address for. We did not get a response in 10 days and that's when the 7000 copies were mailed. Tom Reahard personally paid for the rooms and conference room we rented at the local Holiday Inn to write it, and paid for ALL the copies and mailing charges of the 7000. No TWIt money was used.
Again, there was no Internet, no social media, no e-mail, no texts, no cellphones, and few wayfers had a PC. The TWIts controlled communications, command, and control. The propaganda machine went into overdrive from HQ. I had threats against me and my family requiring me to go to the local police to report them and seek protection. Sue was also grossly threatened. The letter went for the belly of the beast with hand axes. LOL. We cut it open, but the wounded beast went berserk! The letter, as weak as it may seem now, was the first step in the turning away. Small step, but a step nonetheless. One thing for sure......it dramatically and drastically changed the lives of everyone who wrote it forever, except for jally, who continued repeating the same things over and over again, expecting gawd to make jally's biblical fantasies and delusions come to pass. Looking back now, I'm glad we wrote it. I'm glad we sent out as many as we did......thanks Tom!.......and I'm glad we had any impact at all. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose......."--Kris Kristofferson...........peace.
Thanks to DWBH and the rest for their bravery. We had already exited, but we were small fish...others we knew and cared for made the decision to leave because of that letter. Those were scary times. Guess you had to be there...
Some people got kicked out over the paper on how Adultery is bad, also. You may be confusing the two.
WW, yes, I think you are right. I knew there was some paper on Adultery, which was supposed to be a big deal. So the 37 page letter, was something seperate; thanks WW! They were two different things; finally I understand this.
Thanks for giving the context of that letter's impact, DWBH.
I happened to be at HQ when you guys sent it out. I did not see a copy then. I hadn't seen it until 10 minutes ago. When you wrote it, I had already resigned from the Research Department (all that drama is in Undertow) and I was sewing draperies in the OSC at the other end of the hall. I was also trying to gain some sanity by attending college classes at OSU in Lima and packing up my stuff to get the hell away from HQ that August. I wish you and I had had a chance to talk then ...
I know how hard it is for anyone who wasn't around at that time to grasp how chaotic the whole shebang was. Over the years I've tried to paint the picture for former Wayfers and for outsiders who never heard of TWI. The best analogy I have so far is to say it was like a tornado came through a small town and demolished a lot of it. A few survivors tried to rebuild using the same kind of original materials, but some of the people who closely examined the situation discovered that the original materials were rotten to begin with. They decided that the best use of their time and energy was to rebuild other kinds of houses elsewhere.
Penworks, you are so right; it was a horrible time in TWI!! Many of us decided after VPW died in 1985, that TWI was a huge waste of our personal resources, and left.
@DWBH: sorry if I offended you when I said what I did about that letter. I didn't mean to be offensive to you. Yes, of course you were all Waybrained at the time so of course all that Wayspeak made it onto the page (and yes, I was like that too, for a long time after I was banished).
Reading the letter now, decades after all that strange manner of speech has been eroded, is like looking at a foreign language document. Or maybe some work by Chaucer ("Wow, did people really speak like that?")
I had had the impression that it was just a letter sent to the "trustees" [not that they were trustworthy at all] and only to them. I honestly can't imagine them reading it with seriousness, except to find out who'd written it, so that they could be banned. I am very glad a wider circulation provoked a mass exodus. Think how many lives were rescued - both immediately, and also those who never got sucked in because the potential suckers-in had unsucked themselves.
Just a bit of an off-topic: I have no difficulty believing and understanding that at times it was very difficult in TWI under VPW.
I frequently think that some of the older pre-LCM-prez posters here haven't a clue about the horrendous goings-on under LCM's "posidency." Lunchtime meetings, for example, could be a screamfest from LCM for over an hour. Corps Nights were sometimes a 3 hour screamfest. The atmosphere of suppressed violence, suspicion and spying on others was everywhere.
I don't want to derail this thread, but a little understanding goes both ways.
Just to update you on the chronology you misstated.......
The 37 page thing was NOT in response to the "loyalty pledge" letter sent out by the bots. That letter is here in the archives, and I believe it went out in March of 1990. The 37 pager was written to demand an Acts 15 kinda "Council of Nicea" meeting at HQ to determine the course forward after the debacles of 1986. It was written to expose the fraud of Geer's coups and the Twustees' complete "spiritual" incompetence. It was written to confront them all with the abject immorality, hubris, greed, and sexual perversions that had been known "behind the scenes", both by participants and their loyal opposition. Personally, I wanted to "let 'er rip", tell it like it really was, and get everybody into the damn auditorium until we fought it out once and for all. Typical NYC negotiation style. LOL!
As you can see by the final product, that style was NOT adopted. We agreed that we had to keep it all "respectful and word-centered"(sic!) in order not to immediately cause WWIII. Again, the goal was Acts 15, confrontation, repentance, forgiveness. Obviously, that sure as hell didn't work!
The basic initial attitude the bots and Geer spun, was "Who in the hell do these possessos think they are?!! How DARE they attack the MOGS like that!" Within in a month, (I believe it was 3/26/1987) the Geer tape went out to all corpse worldwide that the authors of that evil letter were all "marked and avoided", excommunicated in disgrace as Baal worshippers. LOL!
We gave the original recipients of the letter ( as listed in my post above) 10 days to respond. If they did not, we told them we would bring it before the "entire Church" as Matt 18 dictates, and mail it out to everyone we had an address for. We did not get a response in 10 days and that's when the 7000 copies were mailed. Tom Reahard personally paid for the rooms and conference room we rented at the local Holiday Inn to write it, and paid for ALL the copies and mailing charges of the 7000. No TWIt money was used.
Again, there was no Internet, no social media, no e-mail, no texts, no cellphones, and few wayfers had a PC. The TWIts controlled communications, command, and control. The propaganda machine went into overdrive from HQ. I had threats against me and my family requiring me to go to the local police to report them and seek protection. Sue was also grossly threatened. The letter went for the belly of the beast with hand axes. LOL. We cut it open, but the wounded beast went berserk! The letter, as weak as it may seem now, was the first step in the turning away. Small step, but a step nonetheless. One thing for sure......it dramatically and drastically changed the lives of everyone who wrote it forever, except for jally, who continued repeating the same things over and over again, expecting gawd to make jally's biblical fantasies and delusions come to pass. Looking back now, I'm glad we wrote it. I'm glad we sent out as many as we did......thanks Tom!.......and I'm glad we had any impact at all. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose......."--Kris Kristofferson...........peace.
DWBH, wow!! I didn't know this; I had no idea that you, and your family had to seek police protection. How horrible! But, I thank you for describing to us, what when on in the inner circle of TWI; wow!! It was far worse, than I thought!
@DWBH: sorry if I offended you when I said what I did about that letter. I didn't mean to be offensive to you. Yes, of course you were all Waybrained at the time so of course all that Wayspeak made it onto the page (and yes, I was like that too, for a long time after I was banished).
Reading the letter now, decades after all that strange manner of speech has been eroded, is like looking at a foreign language document. Or maybe some work by Chaucer ("Wow, did people really speak like that?")
I had had the impression that it was just a letter sent to the "trustees" [not that they were trustworthy at all] and only to them. I honestly can't imagine them reading it with seriousness, except to find out who'd written it, so that they could be banned. I am very glad a wider circulation provoked a mass exodus. Think how many lives were rescued - both immediately, and also those who never got sucked in because the potential suckers-in had unsucked themselves.
Just a bit of an off-topic: I have no difficulty believing and understanding that at times it was very difficult in TWI under VPW.
I frequently think that some of the older pre-LCM-prez posters here haven't a clue about the horrendous goings-on under LCM's "posidency." Lunchtime meetings, for example, could be a screamfest from LCM for over an hour. Corps Nights were sometimes a 3 hour screamfest. The atmosphere of suppressed violence, suspicion and spying on others was everywhere.
I don't want to derail this thread, but a little understanding goes both ways.
Twinky, wow!! I didn't know all of that; I hate being screamed at. I think if LCM, or someone else had screamed at me, I would have told them to go F-themselves and left. Twinky, I have never been to Russia, but what you described in your post sounds like something that might have happened in Russia, during Stalin's reign. Sickening!!
Thanks for the apology. I wasn't offended because I know you. I was just a little miffed upon realizing that many people probably don't have any idea what the honest facts behind that letter were. We were all flying by the seat of our pants! LOL. Don't forget, before we got together to do the letter, I had to confront some folks on the error of their own ways in their positions of senior "leadership", whom I knew were just as dirty as dic and the boyz in the hoods. The most difficult to confront was jally, because he never thought there was "anything wrong with it"! I have described in previous posts on different threads, how the Campus and Corpse coordinators at EVERY Root Locale or training facility (LEAD) were totally complicit with dic's sexual and financial exploits, as well as his alcoholism, and later opioid addiction. They pimped for him.
That's why the BOTs and Geer feared me. Because I was clean! They all knew that I had NEVER committed any adultery or sexual battery, and that I had "busted" (with great personal sadness) even my closest friends for such misbehavior in leadership positions. They knew I had ZERO TOLERANCE for it anywhere in the US and no matter who it was, I fired them! The nickname for me among the BOT was "Sheriff Legal". Disparaging because I was not "big enough in grace" to avoid legalism. But, since the trunk was growing and putting out more than ever before, they just left me alone, and put out the word that I was not cool in this area and several others. Dic himself, at a placements meeting one time, said he was concerned about some of the "legalism" he felt was "creeping into" the US trunk. Then, looking straight at me and pointing at me he said: "I'd rather lose the ministry by blowing it on the grace side than killing it with legalism". That was all that was ever said directly to my face by dictor about what we BOTH knew was his "devilish" or "spirit influenced" behavior and serial sexual predation. That was in May, 1982. It was the beginning of the end for me. Sadly, it took 4 more years of bullshit before I finally left.
Thanks Twinky, for sharing the horror of life under the reign of King Okie the Doofus. All the stories I hear about life in the 90s in wayville are terrifying. The abuse was out of control. And yet, it was not very different under dictor. He was everybody's "faddah in da woid"! Da Forehead was nobody. Just a stand-in until dictor's prophecy over Luke Somerville came to pass, that Luke would be the third president of TWIt, thereby re-instituting the pure Wierwille bloodline to it's rightful place as the RULERS of the household of TWIt. Dictor had the added influence of age and perfected fraud. He also had undisputed and unquestioning adulation which Da Forehead never had nor would he ever.
There was only one person in those early letter daze, who resisted the reproof, and sought to "take it easy" on dic and the BOTs. That was jalvis. The results of that obstinance are now online for all the world to see and shake their heads. Every one of the rest of us who wrote that letter became bonded for life in that struggle. Jalvis had his own ideas, and has always been too self-obsessed to see beyond himself and his own "wants and needs". He's still looking for those red curtains! Thanks for reading, and......peace.
Thanks for the apology. I wasn't offended because I know you. I was just a little miffed upon realizing that many people probably don't have any idea what the honest facts behind that letter were. We were all flying by the seat of our pants! LOL. Don't forget, before we got together to do the letter, I had to confront some folks on the error of their own ways in their positions of senior "leadership", whom I knew were just as dirty as dic and the boyz in the hoods. The most difficult to confront was jally, because he never thought there was "anything wrong with it"! I have described in previous posts on different threads, how the Campus and Corpse coordinators at EVERY Root Locale or training facility (LEAD) were totally complicit with dic's sexual and financial exploits, as well as his alcoholism, and later opioid addiction. They pimped for him.
That's why the BOTs and Geer feared me. Because I was clean! They all knew that I had NEVER committed any adultery or sexual battery, and that I had "busted" (with great personal sadness) even my closest friends for such misbehavior in leadership positions. They knew I had ZERO TOLERANCE for it anywhere in the US and no matter who it was, I fired them! The nickname for me among the BOT was "Sheriff Legal". Disparaging because I was not "big enough in grace" to avoid legalism. But, since the trunk was growing and putting out more than ever before, they just left me alone, and put out the word that I was not cool in this area and several others. Dic himself, at a placements meeting one time, said he was concerned about some of the "legalism" he felt was "creeping into" the US trunk. Then, looking straight at me and pointing at me he said: "I'd rather lose the ministry by blowing it on the grace side than killing it with legalism". That was all that was ever said directly to my face by dictor about what we BOTH knew was his "devilish" or "spirit influenced" behavior and serial sexual predation. That was in May, 1982. It was the beginning of the end for me. Sadly, it took 4 more years of .... before I finally left.
Thanks Twinky, for sharing the horror of life under the reign of King Okie the Doofus. All the stories I hear about life in the 90s in wayville are terrifying. The abuse was out of control. And yet, it was not very different under dictor. He was everybody's "faddah in da woid"! Da Forehead was nobody. Just a stand-in until dictor's prophecy over Luke Somerville came to pass, that Luke would be the third president of TWIt, thereby re-instituting the pure Wierwille bloodline to it's rightful place as the RULERS of the household of TWIt. Dictor had the added influence of age and perfected fraud. He also had undisputed and unquestioning adulation which Da Forehead never had nor would he ever.
There was only one person in those early letter daze, who resisted the reproof, and sought to "take it easy" on dic and the BOTs. That was jalvis. The results of that obstinance are now online for all the world to see and shake their heads. Every one of the rest of us who wrote that letter became bonded for life in that struggle. Jalvis had his own ideas, and has always been too self-obsessed to see beyond himself and his own "wants and needs". He's still looking for those red curtains! Thanks for reading, and......peace.
DWBH, speaking of curtains, I am gaining a greater understanding of the evilness of TWI, by various writers, especially you. I feel, I am finally being allowed to peek, behind the TWI curtains, and what I see is a huge wasteland of stink, pus, and corruption!! When much of TWI was sinking in this rot, many of us ordinary believers, were being fed a diet of liquid BS. I feel like Judy in "The Wizard of Oz." When the curtain was pulled back, we discovered that VPW was a huckster, and worse. Reality hit, and it hit hard; much of we had been taught in TWI was garbage, and poor quality garbage at that. But like Judy, I found my way home to my family; bless them for taking me back. Shalem to everyone here at the GSC.
On 12/5/2017 at 5:25 PM, DontWorryBeHappy said:
That letter was Pat Lynn and Sue Pierce's idea. Sue was there for the entire time (3 days) it took to write it. The original intent was to let 'em have it, patterned after Zola's I Accuse. But, Jally was still full-time staff in D.C. He stated that if we were too "raw", no one would ever read it, pointing out that our eventual audience would be wayfers only. So, we toned down the rhetoric and went Wayspeak Bible on them. That was why, at the end, after we signed it, I stood up at the table and pulled jally up by his shirt collar, pulling his face directly up to mine, and said with great seriousness: "You better not .... us on this John!", then let him go. Well, Jally DID .... every one of us who signed that letter including his own wife...(SNIP)
...it is my opinion that, the 37 page letter struck terror into the hearts of the twustees, and pushed Geer's insanity beyond limits acceptable to thousands of wayfers around the world. The TWIt you were in Twinky, was quite different from the one we "letter writers" left. Maybe talking with some of those who were in and left at that time might engender a little more understanding of exactly what that letter meant to the downfall of TWIt at that time with NO Internet, social media, or any allies in our cause. Thanks for reading.
On 12/6/2017 at 1:20 PM, DontWorryBeHappy said:
(SNIP)...
The 37 page thing was NOT in response to the "loyalty pledge" letter sent out by the bots. That letter is here in the archives, and I believe it went out in March of 1990. The 37 pager was written to demand an Acts 15 kinda "Council of Nicea" meeting at HQ to determine the course forward after the debacles of 1986. It was written to expose the fraud of Geer's coups and the Twustees' complete "spiritual" incompetence. It was written to confront them all with the abject immorality, hubris, greed, and sexual perversions that had been known "behind the scenes", both by participants and their loyal opposition. Personally, I wanted to "let 'er rip", tell it like it really was, and get everybody into the damn auditorium until we fought it out once and for all. Typical NYC negotiation style. LOL!
As you can see by the final product, that style was NOT adopted. We agreed that we had to keep it all "respectful and word-centered"(sic!) in order not to immediately cause WWIII. Again, the goal was Acts 15, confrontation, repentance, forgiveness. Obviously, that sure as hell didn't work!...(SNIP)
20 hours ago, DontWorryBeHappy said:
(SNIP)...I was just a little miffed upon realizing that many people probably don't have any idea what the honest facts behind that letter were. We were all flying by the seat of our pants! LOL. Don't forget, before we got together to do the letter, I had to confront some folks on the error of their own ways in their positions of senior "leadership", whom I knew were just as dirty as dic and the boyz in the hoods. The most difficult to confront was jally, because he never thought there was "anything wrong with it"! I have described in previous posts on different threads, how the Campus and Corpse coordinators at EVERY Root Locale or training facility (LEAD) were totally complicit with dic's sexual and financial exploits, as well as his alcoholism, and later opioid addiction. They pimped for him.
That's why the BOTs and Geer feared me. Because I was clean! They all knew that I had NEVER committed any adultery or sexual battery, and that I had "busted" (with great personal sadness) even my closest friends for such misbehavior in leadership positions. They knew I had ZERO TOLERANCE for it anywhere in the US and no matter who it was, I fired them! The nickname for me among the BOT was "Sheriff Legal". Disparaging because I was not "big enough in grace" to avoid legalism. But, since the trunk was growing and putting out more than ever before, they just left me alone, and put out the word that I was not cool in this area and several others. Dic himself, at a placements meeting one time, said he was concerned about some of the "legalism" he felt was "creeping into" the US trunk. Then, looking straight at me and pointing at me he said: "I'd rather lose the ministry by blowing it on the grace side than killing it with legalism". That was all that was ever said directly to my face by dictor about what we BOTH knew was his "devilish" or "spirit influenced" behavior and serial sexual predation. That was in May, 1982. It was the beginning of the end for me. Sadly, it took 4 more years of .... before I finally left....(SNIP)
some of this stuff reminds me of Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter…NIV
Kudos to DWBH and to all the other courageous souls who dared to confront those consummate hypocrites! I picked the above 3 quotes because they resonated with me at some deep level – it got me to think back on when we started on the long journey that led us further and further away from TWI – my closest companions on this journey were my wife and a nervous feeling of not knowing where we would end up…and maybe it’s something some other folks can relate to also.
In the aftermath of the reading of passing of a patriarch – I was as frustrated as everyone else…looking to top leadership with the hope that they would get their heads out of their a$$ and tell us what to do…what we all should do to straighten everything out…to get us back to the simple task of “moving the word”…But that type of thinking was still addressing the problem in the very limited language of way-speak. And to be honest – in the midst of all that, and being fresh out of corps training and trying to maintain some semblance of enthusiasm for TWI and “The Word” during our field assignment was probably one of the toughest challenges at the time. But whatever hopes I had of the ministry somehow fixing itself – were dwindling…not just from the stonewalling of top leadership but as we became more and more aware of their abject hypocrisy. I think that’s when it hit me – I’ve been had by a bunch of phonies!
In my opinion it’s the hypocrisy - more than anything else – that just totally knocks the wind out of your sails. I remember as a kid cruising down the road, perched on the handlebars of my friend's bike, with pigeon toed footing on the front axle – when my right foot pointed inward too much - got caught in the spokes – we flipped and I landed flat on my back – I could not breath and it freaked me out…as Rosanne Rosanna Dana would say “I thought I was gonna die!”
Hey any corps out there still standing with TWI, wanna read something interesting? Check out Matthew 23 and compare that with how things are done in TWI…could Jesus Christ’s words be applicable today? What if he was speaking directly to TWI’s leadership today:
Woe to you, teachers of the Bible, you hypocrites! You make an outward show of righteous living. But you have neglected the more important matters of the Bible - like justice, mercy, faithfulness, and honesty. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting to set an example of living a morally sound and upright life. You blind guides! You may be very scrupulous in studying every word of the Bible yet you show very little concern for the real intent of the Bible.
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HAPe4me
I have not found the original letter on here (or anywhere else on the web) There are of course numerous references to it of course, and they sent out 500 copies, so SOMEone must have it.
There are copies of JAL's later letters, (1988, 2007, 2008) in this thread (page 3 or 4?).
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HAPe4me
Whoops, here it is, but I do not know where that actual URL location is on GSC anymore. This link will download the pdf of the letter.
www.greasespotcafe.com/audio/1987lettertotrustees.PDF
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HAPe4me
I saved the file from the link above to my computer and then uploaded it into this comment as a backup in case that link dies. (I am not sure the file exists on the current GSC)
1987lettertotrustees.pdf
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Twinky
Good grief. The blind leading the blind. And both falling into the ditch.
I've flicked through the letter. I really can't stand to read it "in depth" - the triteness and "Wayness" of it appalls me. Can't imagine the trustees, when they got it, doing anything more than reading the first page, then making paper aeroplanes of the rest of the letter. It's address to Believers; I wonder what random believers thought of it?
How very thankful I am not to be caught up with all that menagerie any more!
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DontWorryBeHappy
That letter was Pat Lynn and Sue Pierce's idea. Sue was there for the entire time (3 days) it took to write it. The original intent was to let 'em have it, patterned after Zola's I Accuse. But, Jally was still full-time staff in D.C. He stated that if we were too "raw", no one would ever read it, pointing out that our eventual audience would be wayfers only. So, we toned down the rhetoric and went Wayspeak Bible on them. That was why, at the end, after we signed it, I stood up at the table and pulled jally up by his shirt collar, pulling his face directly up to mine, and said with great seriousness: "You better not fuck us on this John!", then let him go. Well, Jally DID fuck every one of us who signed that letter including his own wife.
As far as any long-term effect from the letter, after the initial mailing to the BOT, Region and Campus Coordinators and the limp coordinators in the states we were from, jally got hold of a mailing list and we sent out 7000 copies of the letter to everywhere including several other countries! This prompted the March, 1987 Geer tape to the world, and the first exodus of thousands began to roll around the US! Every corpse person on Earth was told if they read that stupid letter they'd get possessed. Anyone known to have read it, or had a copy was dropped from the corpse. Word went out from HQ that if anyone talked to any of those who wrote that letter they'd immediately get possessed. However, the 7000 made thousands more copies, and, as I said before, they were leaving by the thousands. Eventually, the word from HQ was that Sue Pierce and Dubofsky were "born again of the wrong seed", and the "others" were "packing multiple vicious daimons.....5 Star Generals", and no one but tippy-top leadership could handle us! So, I disagree strongly with Twinky's trivialization of the impact of that letter.
In response to that mass exodus, we decided to incorporate CES the following May, 1988. Immediately upon signing the 501(c3) charitable corporation incorporation papers, Robert Belt, Sue Pierce, and I resigned from the "founding" board of directors and never participated in anything jally ever said or did since. The rest of us, except for Tom, all went back to school......Robert--Business.....Sue--Baptist and then Methodist Seminaries, and Dubofsky-- Nursing School. Jally never changed what he was doing. Never went to any "ministerial" training other than TWIt'n'dic. Just kept on doing the same thing with just a few "new" teachings he took from the signatories to the letter. The three of us resigned because jally wanted to add Schoenheit and the Graesers to the BOD, and pay to move them to Indianapolis, as well as have Monentus "officially" endorsed by CES. The three of us said if you do that we quit, so we did.
The letter most certainly was wayspeak and waybrained. I was out of TWIt for 2 months, Lynns were still full-time, Robert was 1 month out of TWIt, Tom just 3 weeks, and Pat for 2 weeks? Jally was still full-time staff! Sue had been traveling and teaching, as well as presenting an incredibly insightful critique of AOTS, since early fall, 1987. How far away from wayspeak and waybrained were you at those stages of your exit, Twinky? Just sayin'.......
it is my opinion that, the 37 page letter struck terror into the hearts of the twustees, and pushed Geer's insanity beyond limits acceptable to thousands of wayfers around the world. The TWIt you were in Twinky, was quite different from the one we "letter writers" left. Maybe talking with some of those who were in and left at that time might engender a little more understanding of exactly what that letter meant to the downfall of TWIt at that time with NO Internet, social media, or any allies in our cause. Thanks for reading.
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JayDee
I was 2 months out twit when this letter hit the presses. It was imo a slap upside the head of the bots and anyone else on their team. I for one am glad it was accomplished and remain thankful to this day for the authors. It was words “fitly spoken” at that time.
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Grace Valerie Claire
DWBH, so that was the "infamous" letter that got people kicked-out??!! Nuts, I thought the letter had something to do with Way Research! Thanks for clearing that up, at least for me.
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penworks
Thanks for giving the context of that letter's impact, DWBH.
I happened to be at HQ when you guys sent it out. I did not see a copy then. I hadn't seen it until 10 minutes ago. When you wrote it, I had already resigned from the Research Department (all that drama is in Undertow) and I was sewing draperies in the OSC at the other end of the hall. I was also trying to gain some sanity by attending college classes at OSU in Lima and packing up my stuff to get the hell away from HQ that August. I wish you and I had had a chance to talk then ...
I know how hard it is for anyone who wasn't around at that time to grasp how chaotic the whole shebang was. Over the years I've tried to paint the picture for former Wayfers and for outsiders who never heard of TWI. The best analogy I have so far is to say it was like a tornado came through a small town and demolished a lot of it. A few survivors tried to rebuild using the same kind of original materials, but some of the people who closely examined the situation discovered that the original materials were rotten to begin with. They decided that the best use of their time and energy was to rebuild other kinds of houses elsewhere.
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T-Bone
Well…so much for wierwille’s and top leadership’s expertise in discerning of spirits – I mean, if one of those wrong seed ne’re-do-wells can make it all the way to being the trunk coordinator of USA! …man oh man, I’m gonna have to reevaluate all that stuff I learned in the Advanced Class. (actually – I’ve relegated all that stuff to the junk table at the back of my own Advanced Class – which explores the possibility of TWI’s top leadership being operated by all nine daimons all the time. )
But seriously, thanks to WordWolf for starting this thread, to HAPe4me for the link/PDF of the letter - I’ve downloaded it and look forward to reading it in light of the illuminating context provided by DWBH and Penworks.
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WordWolf
Some people got kicked out over the paper on how Adultery is bad, also. You may be confusing the two.
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WordWolf
http://web.archive.org/web/20030219041757/http://greasespotcafe.com:80/waydale/misc/adultery.htm
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chockfull
Sue Pi3rc3 and R@lph D born of the wrong seed, eh? I never met R but I mean Sue was from what I remember how you say long-winded? I mean you get her, jellyroll plus pat in the same room together for 3 days? Yeesh. No wonder 37 pages. Whose idea was it for the fable at the beginning with the boy and the map? Double yeesh.
I have read this before, and read through it again. It took me a minute to get down to what the point was of all of this. Then I looked at the letter date. I'm not 100% sure on the exactness of this, but I think that this was actually a response to a "call for commitment" letter that men in tights sent out around that same time period? Where he specifically asked people who they stood with? Geer or him?
There's one point in the letter talking about standing for or against people versus standing for the Word. I remember that terminology being popular around the timeframe as a response, and men in tights would become infuriated by this and rant and rave and kick people out. This happened as a result of this letter, I think. jellyroll got fired and as dwbh says they started CES, then jellyroll went all on his trip with Momentus and invited the G's and S in, and that led to all sorts of shenanigans with revelations about spiders and such. Dueling revelation. And men in tights went on doing men in tights things.
And to answer where my head was at the time, I was a young mushroom. Not fit for things of elder mushrooms like long papers on POOP, etc. Had to read that later. Suffer my own suffrages. Leave when I understood to. Deal with the next gen Pharisees more evil than the first.
But overall the problem men in tights had was projecting nothing but confusion while Geer attacked, then when coming out of it he never built a base with people but just became quickly demanding that people honor his mantle installation as Prez without showing them much of any reason to. You see a lot of a response to that in the letter too.
I don't want to trivialize the impact of the letter or what sending out 7000 copies did to the Way at the time, but this letter was not alone in this type of a response. This is the time period that 4/5 of everyone left the Way. Many of them had exactly the same reasoning and scriptural basis you see in this letter.
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chockfull
Yes yes - very chaotic times. Men in tights being introspective, down, depressed. Not displaying any leadership. Coming out of it quickly and flipping on people - becoming angry about Geer, starting to build justification, starting to put together what he later taught as Galatians tapes where he basically screams and curses and calls Geer possessed.
Everybody else is also introspective, down, depressed. I was young and observing not experiencing at that time, but the impact of Geer practically seems to be that just about everybody is down, depressed over his critical summary supposedly from VP beyond the grave. That's the context of the letter.
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chockfull
One more thing that I wanted to point out as far as context. This is talking about "The Fog Years" time period - there are many more threads of info on this in the forums if interested care to read.
The financial impact of 4/5 of the people leaving is that all the cash remained, the buildings and property remained and consists of the vast majority of the $65M windfall the Way enjoys today and why HQ kind of can exist on its own as Pharisee Central. They are not really beholden to followers contributions like most normal churches you see are.
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DontWorryBeHappy
Hi chockfull!
Just to update you on the chronology you misstated.......
The 37 page thing was NOT in response to the "loyalty pledge" letter sent out by the bots. That letter is here in the archives, and I believe it went out in March of 1990. The 37 pager was written to demand an Acts 15 kinda "Council of Nicea" meeting at HQ to determine the course forward after the debacles of 1986. It was written to expose the fraud of Geer's coups and the Twustees' complete "spiritual" incompetence. It was written to confront them all with the abject immorality, hubris, greed, and sexual perversions that had been known "behind the scenes", both by participants and their loyal opposition. Personally, I wanted to "let 'er rip", tell it like it really was, and get everybody into the damn auditorium until we fought it out once and for all. Typical NYC negotiation style. LOL!
As you can see by the final product, that style was NOT adopted. We agreed that we had to keep it all "respectful and word-centered"(sic!) in order not to immediately cause WWIII. Again, the goal was Acts 15, confrontation, repentance, forgiveness. Obviously, that sure as hell didn't work!
The basic initial attitude the bots and Geer spun, was "Who in the hell do these possessos think they are?!! How DARE they attack the MOGS like that!" Within in a month, (I believe it was 3/26/1987) the Geer tape went out to all corpse worldwide that the authors of that evil letter were all "marked and avoided", excommunicated in disgrace as Baal worshippers. LOL!
We gave the original recipients of the letter ( as listed in my post above) 10 days to respond. If they did not, we told them we would bring it before the "entire Church" as Matt 18 dictates, and mail it out to everyone we had an address for. We did not get a response in 10 days and that's when the 7000 copies were mailed. Tom Reahard personally paid for the rooms and conference room we rented at the local Holiday Inn to write it, and paid for ALL the copies and mailing charges of the 7000. No TWIt money was used.
Again, there was no Internet, no social media, no e-mail, no texts, no cellphones, and few wayfers had a PC. The TWIts controlled communications, command, and control. The propaganda machine went into overdrive from HQ. I had threats against me and my family requiring me to go to the local police to report them and seek protection. Sue was also grossly threatened. The letter went for the belly of the beast with hand axes. LOL. We cut it open, but the wounded beast went berserk! The letter, as weak as it may seem now, was the first step in the turning away. Small step, but a step nonetheless. One thing for sure......it dramatically and drastically changed the lives of everyone who wrote it forever, except for jally, who continued repeating the same things over and over again, expecting gawd to make jally's biblical fantasies and delusions come to pass. Looking back now, I'm glad we wrote it. I'm glad we sent out as many as we did......thanks Tom!.......and I'm glad we had any impact at all. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose......."--Kris Kristofferson...........peace.
Edited by DontWorryBeHappySpelling
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tonto
Thanks to DWBH and the rest for their bravery. We had already exited, but we were small fish...others we knew and cared for made the decision to leave because of that letter. Those were scary times. Guess you had to be there...
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Grace Valerie Claire
WW, yes, I think you are right. I knew there was some paper on Adultery, which was supposed to be a big deal. So the 37 page letter, was something seperate; thanks WW! They were two different things; finally I understand this.
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Grace Valerie Claire
Penworks, you are so right; it was a horrible time in TWI!! Many of us decided after VPW died in 1985, that TWI was a huge waste of our personal resources, and left.
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Twinky
@DWBH: sorry if I offended you when I said what I did about that letter. I didn't mean to be offensive to you. Yes, of course you were all Waybrained at the time so of course all that Wayspeak made it onto the page (and yes, I was like that too, for a long time after I was banished).
Reading the letter now, decades after all that strange manner of speech has been eroded, is like looking at a foreign language document. Or maybe some work by Chaucer ("Wow, did people really speak like that?")
I had had the impression that it was just a letter sent to the "trustees" [not that they were trustworthy at all] and only to them. I honestly can't imagine them reading it with seriousness, except to find out who'd written it, so that they could be banned. I am very glad a wider circulation provoked a mass exodus. Think how many lives were rescued - both immediately, and also those who never got sucked in because the potential suckers-in had unsucked themselves.
Just a bit of an off-topic: I have no difficulty believing and understanding that at times it was very difficult in TWI under VPW.
I frequently think that some of the older pre-LCM-prez posters here haven't a clue about the horrendous goings-on under LCM's "posidency." Lunchtime meetings, for example, could be a screamfest from LCM for over an hour. Corps Nights were sometimes a 3 hour screamfest. The atmosphere of suppressed violence, suspicion and spying on others was everywhere.
I don't want to derail this thread, but a little understanding goes both ways.
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Grace Valerie Claire
DWBH, wow!! I didn't know this; I had no idea that you, and your family had to seek police protection. How horrible! But, I thank you for describing to us, what when on in the inner circle of TWI; wow!! It was far worse, than I thought!
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Grace Valerie Claire
Twinky, wow!! I didn't know all of that; I hate being screamed at. I think if LCM, or someone else had screamed at me, I would have told them to go F-themselves and left. Twinky, I have never been to Russia, but what you described in your post sounds like something that might have happened in Russia, during Stalin's reign. Sickening!!
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DontWorryBeHappy
Hi Twinx!
Thanks for the apology. I wasn't offended because I know you. I was just a little miffed upon realizing that many people probably don't have any idea what the honest facts behind that letter were. We were all flying by the seat of our pants! LOL. Don't forget, before we got together to do the letter, I had to confront some folks on the error of their own ways in their positions of senior "leadership", whom I knew were just as dirty as dic and the boyz in the hoods. The most difficult to confront was jally, because he never thought there was "anything wrong with it"! I have described in previous posts on different threads, how the Campus and Corpse coordinators at EVERY Root Locale or training facility (LEAD) were totally complicit with dic's sexual and financial exploits, as well as his alcoholism, and later opioid addiction. They pimped for him.
That's why the BOTs and Geer feared me. Because I was clean! They all knew that I had NEVER committed any adultery or sexual battery, and that I had "busted" (with great personal sadness) even my closest friends for such misbehavior in leadership positions. They knew I had ZERO TOLERANCE for it anywhere in the US and no matter who it was, I fired them! The nickname for me among the BOT was "Sheriff Legal". Disparaging because I was not "big enough in grace" to avoid legalism. But, since the trunk was growing and putting out more than ever before, they just left me alone, and put out the word that I was not cool in this area and several others. Dic himself, at a placements meeting one time, said he was concerned about some of the "legalism" he felt was "creeping into" the US trunk. Then, looking straight at me and pointing at me he said: "I'd rather lose the ministry by blowing it on the grace side than killing it with legalism". That was all that was ever said directly to my face by dictor about what we BOTH knew was his "devilish" or "spirit influenced" behavior and serial sexual predation. That was in May, 1982. It was the beginning of the end for me. Sadly, it took 4 more years of bullshit before I finally left.
Thanks Twinky, for sharing the horror of life under the reign of King Okie the Doofus. All the stories I hear about life in the 90s in wayville are terrifying. The abuse was out of control. And yet, it was not very different under dictor. He was everybody's "faddah in da woid"! Da Forehead was nobody. Just a stand-in until dictor's prophecy over Luke Somerville came to pass, that Luke would be the third president of TWIt, thereby re-instituting the pure Wierwille bloodline to it's rightful place as the RULERS of the household of TWIt. Dictor had the added influence of age and perfected fraud. He also had undisputed and unquestioning adulation which Da Forehead never had nor would he ever.
There was only one person in those early letter daze, who resisted the reproof, and sought to "take it easy" on dic and the BOTs. That was jalvis. The results of that obstinance are now online for all the world to see and shake their heads. Every one of the rest of us who wrote that letter became bonded for life in that struggle. Jalvis had his own ideas, and has always been too self-obsessed to see beyond himself and his own "wants and needs". He's still looking for those red curtains! Thanks for reading, and......peace.
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Grace Valerie Claire
DWBH, speaking of curtains, I am gaining a greater understanding of the evilness of TWI, by various writers, especially you. I feel, I am finally being allowed to peek, behind the TWI curtains, and what I see is a huge wasteland of stink, pus, and corruption!! When much of TWI was sinking in this rot, many of us ordinary believers, were being fed a diet of liquid BS. I feel like Judy in "The Wizard of Oz." When the curtain was pulled back, we discovered that VPW was a huckster, and worse. Reality hit, and it hit hard; much of we had been taught in TWI was garbage, and poor quality garbage at that. But like Judy, I found my way home to my family; bless them for taking me back. Shalem to everyone here at the GSC.
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T-Bone
some of this stuff reminds me of Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter…NIV
Kudos to DWBH and to all the other courageous souls who dared to confront those consummate hypocrites! I picked the above 3 quotes because they resonated with me at some deep level – it got me to think back on when we started on the long journey that led us further and further away from TWI – my closest companions on this journey were my wife and a nervous feeling of not knowing where we would end up…and maybe it’s something some other folks can relate to also.
In the aftermath of the reading of passing of a patriarch – I was as frustrated as everyone else…looking to top leadership with the hope that they would get their heads out of their a$$ and tell us what to do…what we all should do to straighten everything out…to get us back to the simple task of “moving the word”…But that type of thinking was still addressing the problem in the very limited language of way-speak. And to be honest – in the midst of all that, and being fresh out of corps training and trying to maintain some semblance of enthusiasm for TWI and “The Word” during our field assignment was probably one of the toughest challenges at the time. But whatever hopes I had of the ministry somehow fixing itself – were dwindling…not just from the stonewalling of top leadership but as we became more and more aware of their abject hypocrisy. I think that’s when it hit me – I’ve been had by a bunch of phonies!
In my opinion it’s the hypocrisy - more than anything else – that just totally knocks the wind out of your sails. I remember as a kid cruising down the road, perched on the handlebars of my friend's bike, with pigeon toed footing on the front axle – when my right foot pointed inward too much - got caught in the spokes – we flipped and I landed flat on my back – I could not breath and it freaked me out…as Rosanne Rosanna Dana would say “I thought I was gonna die!”
Hey any corps out there still standing with TWI, wanna read something interesting? Check out Matthew 23 and compare that with how things are done in TWI…could Jesus Christ’s words be applicable today? What if he was speaking directly to TWI’s leadership today:
Woe to you, teachers of the Bible, you hypocrites! You make an outward show of righteous living. But you have neglected the more important matters of the Bible - like justice, mercy, faithfulness, and honesty. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting to set an example of living a morally sound and upright life. You blind guides! You may be very scrupulous in studying every word of the Bible yet you show very little concern for the real intent of the Bible.
Edited by T-Boneformatting
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