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Commune of Enablers


skyrider
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It takes a Commune of Enablers..........to build a cult.

Nearly every one of these "New Religious Movements," variants of old ones, starts with one common ingredient:  Communal Living

  • Isolated from the general public
  • Own set of systems and standards
  • Incestuous in-breeding of doctrine....and next generation
  • Cauldron of Indoctrination......in communal campfire
  • Only when "patriarch" dies off......does it slowly burn out

Everything about wierwille/twi history.....show us how he step-by-step built his commune-concept.  Classes were NOT enough.......wierwille taught, basically, 10 classes per year from 1958-1966 (averaging 20-25 students per class = 1,800 - 2,250 grads).  What happened to all those people?  Well, obviously.......nearly 80% or more never committed themselves to wierwille's movement.  The class information was NOT enough to sway a majority........but it did sway a few to join wierwille.  Plus, we know that contention arose in the Troy/Piqua area in 1960.......when believers were in major disagreement to move twi's headquarters to the Wierwille Homestead, because they did not trust veepee and harry to keep ministry finances separate from the farm business.

The first exodus from wierwille...............1960.

Scratching for a foothold, and leverage.....financially, socially and spiritually......wierwille moved back to the 147-acre farm.  He needed his brother Harry's financial backing:  Enabler #1.  And, with Ermal and Dorothy Owens' strong support, wierwille gained Enabler #2 and Enabler #3.  Ermal had background experience in construction and practical management;  Dorothy was a retired school teacher and played the organ.  Howard and Emogene Allen, from Kentucky, were instrumental as well.  Working in a lumberyard, Howard was around the building trades......so when it came time to build the BRC, Howard was johnny-pound-the-nails.  And, Emogene found her place in the overseeing twi's bookstore.

Classes were NOT enough.........so twi ran Summer Camps.

Summer Camps were NOT enough........so twi started Way Homes.

Way Homes were NOT enough.......so twi started the Way Corps Program.

See, you've got to have people ensconced (positioned and "secured") in a situation for a longer duration of time to indoctrinate them.  Not just classes, or summer camps, or way homes.......but an isolated program that embodies a set of circumstances and structure to mold thinking processes.  It has to embody peers ruling over peers to maximize affect [Lord of the Flies]....not just old farts in authoritarian positions.  A corps program.....where elder corps "rule" and groom the younger corps.  A program structured as such where area, branch and twig coordinators mentor the "apprentice" corps........and yet, all are in a system of structured selectiveness. Where classes are in-house teachings.....of which, many classes taught by these elder corps.

Campus after campus.....with unique variables.....but ALL are communes.

The concept of communes has a sordid history.  No, I don't pretend to have done a massive study on this......but c'mon, it is SO BLATANTLY OBVIOUS. 

 

Quote

When Does a Religion Become a Cult?

By MITCH HOROWITZ

America has probably supplied the world with more new religions than any other nation. Since the first half of the 19th century, the country's atmosphere of religious experimentation has produced dozens of movements, from Mormonism to a wide range of nature-based practices grouped under the name Wicca.

By 1970 the religious scholar Jacob Needleman popularized the term "New Religious Movements" (NRM) to classify the new faiths, or variants of old ones, that were being embraced by the Woodstock generation. But how do we tell when a religious movement ceases to be novel or unusual and becomes a cult?

It's a question with a long history in this country. The controversy involving Hollywood writer-director Paul Haggis is only its most recent occurrence. Mr. Haggis left the Church of Scientology and has accused it of abusive practices, including demands that members disconnect from their families, which the church vigorously denies.

To use the term cult too casually risks tarring the merely unconventional, for which America has long been a safe harbor. In the early 19th century, the "Burned-over District" of central New York state—so named for the religious passions of those who settled there following the Revolutionary War—gave rise to a wave of new movements, including Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism and Spiritualism (or talking to the dead). It was an era, as historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom wrote, when "Farmers became theologians, offbeat village youths became bishops, odd girls became prophets."

~~~~~~~~~~

Burned-over District  --->   ..........Oneida Community  --->   .........John Humphrey Noyes

COMMUNES................................COMMUNES..............................COMMUNES

 

 

Communes in 1848.............1848.

The Way International was a commune of enablers. 

  • Harry...........was his business, and personal life, on the up-and-up?
  • Ermal..........how much spiritual savvy does it take to rubber-stamp a cult leader?
  • Dorothy.......she never figured out the difference between education and indoctrination?
  • Howard.......was wierwille's greatest enablers.  What does that tell you?
  • Emogene.....got her little fiefdom in twi's bookstore to wield her contempt over others.

Self-appointed authoritative leader --->  ...communal living --->   ...utopian doctrine --->  ...sexual intercourse was spiritual --->  ....it ministers to the young people facing sexual starvation  --->  ....and most favored virgin females of the community were reserved for cult leader.

Nothing new under the sun...................

 

.

Edited by skyrider
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Commune of Enablers............

  • Needed housing for the commune.........add trashy trailer houses in back forty acres
  • Set up kitchen and "dining room" in basement of the teaching center..........lol
  • Have gatherings and Saturday night gigs.....on the black top by wierwille home
  • Funky lighted "dove"........on the red barn to symbolize holy spirit given
  • Leader states most spiritual spots on grounds:  #1) BRC,  #2) Way Woods
  • Bark wood structure is known as "House of His Healing Presence"
  • Teaching Doctrine.......confess sin at end of day, then start anew
  • You are righteous now.......no matter how much sexual predation is involved

Wierwille dies..............and the cult movement is scattered to the wind.

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24 minutes ago, waysider said:

"but...but...but...we're replicating the first century church."

 

ummmm...ok...soooo...they lived in communes in the first century?

Waysider............LOL.

Yeah, I get the sarcasm.......but as we both know, those communes, to survive and thrive, were NOT indoctrination centers.

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This is the stuff people who didn't participate in the various in-residence programs don't understand. If you were Joe B. Lever, attending a local twig in Hoopyville, U.S.A., you went home when fellowship was over.Period. Done. Rinse and repeat when it's time for the next fellowship meeting. If you were in one of these programs, you were already home. It was 24 hours a day, no clocking in and clocking out. 

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15 minutes ago, waysider said:

This is the stuff people who didn't participate in the various in-residence programs don't understand. If you were Joe B. Lever, attending a local twig in Hoopyville, U.S.A., you went home when fellowship was over.Period. Done. Rinse and repeat when it's time for the next fellowship meeting. If you were in one of these programs, you were already home. It was 24 hours a day, no clocking in and clocking out. 

Yup - and the indoctrination program was designed to “clean your clock”....I.e. a mental and physical beating!

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On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 11:28 AM, T-Bone said:

Yup - and the indoctrination program was designed to “clean your clock”....I.e. a mental and physical beating!

All of this was policy-driven.......

One of the driving policies of the Corps Program:  To become a great leader you must be an obedient follower (paraphrased).  Obedience to leadership (....i.e. spiritual marine corps....) was tantamount to one's learning how to obey God's voice, holy spirit within.  If you couldn't "listen, remember and obey" the corps leaders, how could you possibly be entrusted when God spoke revelation to you and have the discipline to obey His instructions?  Every campus had its structure of obedience rules.  The Indiana campus corps were instructed to always have a wooden spoon in their back pocket......to remind the kids, any one who needed reproof, who held authority.  At LEAD, the final report of one's "spiritual test in the wilderness" was wholly scripted from the corps policy of "obedience."

The underlying fault lines of the corps training.........were mapped by a skewering of the scriptures.  Wierwille's incompetence was NOT the problem:  his agenda and policy-driven mandates underscored the cumulative effect of hardened, inept corps grads that were later placed in leadership positions.  Everything wrong that was instituted in the corps program personified the pathologies of victor paul wierwille.

The rise and fall of twi........was greatly hastened by the corps program.

 

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1 hour ago, skyrider said:

All of this was policy-driven.......

One of the driving policies of the Corps Program:  To become a great leader you must be an obedient follower (paraphrased).  Obedience to leadership (....i.e. spiritual marine corps....) was tantamount to one's learning how to obey God's voice, holy spirit within.  If you couldn't "listen, remember and obey" the corps leaders, how could you possibly be entrusted when God spoke revelation to you and have the discipline to obey His instructions?  Every campus had its structure of obedience rules.  The Indiana campus corps were instructed to always have a wooden spoon in their back pocket......to remind the kids, any one who needed reproof, who held authority.  At LEAD, the final report of one's "spiritual test in the wilderness" was wholly scripted from the corps policy of "obedience."

The underlying fault lines of the corps training.........were mapped by a skewering of the scriptures.  Wierwille's incompetence was NOT the problem:  his agenda and policy-driven mandates underscored the cumulative effect of hardened, inept corps grads that were later placed in leadership positions.  Everything wrong that was instituted in the corps program personified the pathologies of victor paul wierwille.

The rise and fall of twi........was greatly hastened by the corps program.

 

Great points, Skyrider !

Yeah wierwille may have been incompetent in a lot of things…but I think he was adept at harnessing…corralling…looking for the right word - - maybe hijacking the goals, skills, and talents of others via an indoctrination program…and there is something to be said for wierwille’s quote in Lifelines – nothing happens without leadership - - in light of that I found an interesting article on leadership - - Can Bad People be Good Leaders ?  

an excerpt from the article:

“Most definitions of leadership include two elements. Leadership involves both getting people to work together and the pursuit of some common purpose or goal. Superficial responses to the question in the title of this column respond by evaluating only the purpose. Mother Teresa was a good leader; Hitler was a bad leader. This judgement has nothing to do with our knowledge or evaluation of their leadership styles. Rather, it is a moral judgement of the goals they pursued.

But beyond evaluating the purpose, we need to understand the process of leadership. Even in the pursuit of objectives we agree are worthwhile, we know that there can be a difference significant enough between Leader A and Leader B to warrant moral distinctions. Success is part of the equation. Machiavelli equated good leadership with strong leadership, rationalizing any casualties in the process with a type of ends-justifying-the-means philosophy. Good leadership involves something more than the successful achievement of worthwhile ends. The how of leadership is a factor in the equation.”

 

Edited by T-Bone
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  • 2 weeks later...

A Tale of Two Citadels

  1. The citadel of good-hearted Christians was the one that strengthened and fortified the bonds of love, giving and support in the early days of twi.  They believed in serving God and their fellow man with kindness and genuine concern. And, daily meditation in the Scriptures along with wholesome living were their guiding light.  You found them serving at hq in the kitchen, on grounds and sometimes in the offices.  Men and women like Milford and Betty Bowen, George and Bernita Jess or J. Fred Wilson. 
  2. The citadel of the opportunists, yes-men and the cunning.  Wierwille, commander-of-the-corps-sycophants, found solace and narcissistic pleasure in this citadel.  The implementation of the corps program gave wierwille escalating power.....as this training was based on strict obedience to leadership, not scriptures.  Obedience was the alpha and omega of the corps indoctrination program.  It was a cunning move of deception within the ranks.......one that removed and displaced the "Christian element" from headquarters proper and filtered out on the field.  The *way tree* was its marketing but the true reality was one of building a power base of control over others.

Long gone was............A Mighty Fortress is Our God.

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39 minutes ago, skyrider said:

A Tale of Two Citadels

  1. The citadel of good-hearted Christians was the one that strengthened and fortified the bonds of love, giving and support in the early days of twi.  They believed in serving God and their fellow man with kindness and genuine concern. And, daily meditation in the Scriptures along with wholesome living were their guiding light.  You found them serving at hq in the kitchen, on grounds and sometimes in the offices.  Men and women like Milford and Betty Bowen, George and Bernita Jess or J. Fred Wilson. 
  2. The citadel of the opportunists, yes-men and the cunning.  Wierwille, commander-of-the-corps-sycophants, found solace and narcissistic pleasure in this citadel.  The implementation of the corps program gave wierwille escalating power.....as this training was based on strict obedience to leadership, not scriptures.  Obedience was the alpha and omega of the corps indoctrination program.  It was a cunning move of deception within the ranks.......one that removed and displaced the "Christian element" from headquarters proper and filtered out on the field.  The *way tree* was its marketing but the true reality was one of building a power base of control over others.

Long gone was............A Mighty Fortress is Our God.

Hey sky - you know I've been thinking for a while about the mixture of people in the Way throughout the years.  I'm sure percentages probably fluctuated, but from my experience over time I've always seen a few categories:

1.  Good pure-hearted Christians - the laity mostly.   

2.  Laity Leadership - a mixed bag.  Some mushrooms and opportunists.  Some genuine pure hearted Christians.

3.  Corps - hate to say but mostly problematic.  some good hearted just like other categories.   Modeled after Marines (i.e. unspoken expected commitment levels and following of instructions) the Way Corps were mostly trained to kiss behind upwards and take frustrations out on those under authority downwards.  That was what was modeled.  Like the Freemasons (LOL) they had secret initiations, behavior, phrases.  sorry that came into play on another thread LOL.   the older ones initiate the younger ones in the Freemason rites - all the way up to the Grand Poobah of the Board of Directors.  Councils of Pharisees.  After reading up on Greasespot some of those Councils involved illegal and immoral activity.   I personally only experienced the people playing politics stuff, not the darker tales when I was in.  As I've read mostly in court documents because those who should have told me lied about it, there was an "initiated inner circle" that I never knew about.  I'm sure that is only one of many.  

Where is or was God?

The answer has to be in the individual hearts.  I think the pure essence of God being love has to mean very specific individually, as well as if you are talking about collectively it has to be from the perspective of a whole body of Christ.   The whole teaching of "household of God" is a doctrine of devils.  I mean there's this group that my mom can't be in because she doesn't tithe to the Way.  Thus she will be treated as slightly less than the homeless guy coming to fellowship.  God or man? 

I mean dear lord baby Jesus on a pogo stick how does that make any d@mn sense at all?

It makes about as much sense as Sharia law telling them to cut off little girls sex organs and then subject them to rape from relatives as part of God's idea of culture.

So when you get man's mixture of law and organization in in my opinion you get such extreme anomalies like the Way we see here.   So much exploitation.  So little God.

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1 hour ago, chockfull said:

Hey sky - you know I've been thinking for a while about the mixture of people in the Way throughout the years.  I'm sure percentages probably fluctuated, but from my experience over time I've always seen a few categories:

1.  Good pure-hearted Christians - the laity mostly.   

2.  Laity Leadership - a mixed bag.  Some mushrooms and opportunists.  Some genuine pure hearted Christians.

3.  Corps - hate to say but mostly problematic.  some good hearted just like other categories.   Modeled after Marines (i.e. unspoken expected commitment levels and following of instructions) the Way Corps were mostly trained to kiss behind upwards and take frustrations out on those under authority downwards.  That was what was modeled.  Like the Freemasons (LOL) they had secret initiations, behavior, phrases.  sorry that came into play on another thread LOL.   the older ones initiate the younger ones in the Freemason rites - all the way up to the Grand Poobah of the Board of Directors.  Councils of Pharisees.  After reading up on Greasespot some of those Councils involved illegal and immoral activity.   I personally only experienced the people playing politics stuff, not the darker tales when I was in.  As I've read mostly in court documents because those who should have told me lied about it, there was an "initiated inner circle" that I never knew about.  I'm sure that is only one of many.  

Where is or was God?

.......snip

chockfull........yeah, a mixture of people and problematic corps recruits.

You know, everything begins and ends with leadership.  I sometimes remind myself that the Old Testament gives vivid illustrations and documentation of the kings of old.  When a king did right in the sight of God........the people flourished.  When a king did evil in the sight of God.......the kingdom went into bondage.

Even though God blessed many of us, individually, in spite of twi and its leadership.........it succumbed to bondage. 

The legalistic mandates, the trappings of man-made policies and the skewering of scripture took its toll.  Those who had the means, and wits, to exit early.......did.  In fact, looking back......I often found that the most independent and strong-minded people left FIRST.  They did not allow themselves to be cornered.......socially, psychologically or doctrinally.  So often, those who were Area Coordinators during in-residence........EXITED.

Within two years after my 9th corps graduation..........I would safely estimate that about 60-70 of those 9th corps were gone. 

Just like the assembling of that way orchestra........so much talent...........then, a couple of years later...........poof, its gone.

 

.

 

Edited by skyrider
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On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 7:29 AM, waysider said:

"but...but...but...we're replicating the first century church."

 

ummmm...ok...soooo...they lived in communes in the first century?

After the events of Pentecost (Acts 2), I think so.  Socialism works great until you run out of other people's monies. Which is also why they ended up so broke.  No joke.  (Rom.15:26.) 

So why did they do it?  Simply because they were convinced that once all of Israel recognized the error of their ways and accepted Christ as their Messiah, he would return from the heavens (to Jerusalem) and restore the kingdom after a relatively short period of tribulation. (The time of Jacob's trouble.)  So, they prepared... by selling their homes and pooling their resources.  Worked just fine... until the money ran out.

The attempt to "replicate" the first century church (i.e., Acts 2:4ff) was one helluva mistake, and a gross misunderstanding of when the church of the body of Christ actually first began.  (take a closer look at the meaning of that word "chief" in 1 Tim.1:15.) 

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6 hours ago, chockfull said:

the Way Corps were mostly trained to kiss behind upwards and take frustrations out on those under authority downwards.  That was what was modeled. 

Well, I'm not convinced of that "mostly trained" part of your statement.  But, apply it to the WC's greatly oversized "how great thou art" ego development program, and yeah - I'm all in.  (Been there, done that.  Damaged right along with the rest of y'alls...)     

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1 hour ago, TLC said:

After the events of Pentecost (Acts 2), I think so.  Socialism works great until you run out of other people's monies. Which is also why they ended up so broke.  No joke.  (Rom.15:26.) 

So why did they do it?  Simply because they were convinced that once all of Israel recognized the error of their ways and accepted Christ as their Messiah, he would return from the heavens (to Jerusalem) and restore the kingdom after a relatively short period of tribulation. (The time of Jacob's trouble.)  So, they prepared... by selling their homes and pooling their resources.  Worked just fine... until the money ran out.

The attempt to "replicate" the first century church (i.e., Acts 2:4ff) was one helluva mistake, and a gross misunderstanding of when the church of the body of Christ actually first began.  (take a closer look at the meaning of that word "chief" in 1 Tim.1:15.) 

:offtopic:

The topic is communalism, not socialism. I could easily rebut your editorial comments on economics but that wouldn't be proper for this website.

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