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Did TWI celebrate Christmas


Thomas Loy Bumgarner
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I know VPW was of German background, but did The Way International celebrate Christmas/Birth of Jesus? I am familrar with JCING and Jesus Christ, Our Promised Seed, plus Ernest Martin's Star of Bethlehem, plus One God and Father from Lynn and company. Outside of Children's Sing Along songbook with Silent Night and O Come, all ye faithful,anything about Advent, Christmas/Nativity, Epiphany?

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11 hours ago, Thomas Loy Bumgarner said:

I know VPW was of German background, but did The Way International celebrate Christmas/Birth of Jesus? I am familrar with JCING and Jesus Christ, Our Promised Seed, plus Ernest Martin's Star of Bethlehem, plus One God and Father from Lynn and company. Outside of Children's Sing Along songbook with Silent Night and O Come, all ye faithful,anything about Advent, Christmas/Nativity, Epiphany?

In twi, it was fine to celebrate the Birth of Jesus-  so long as you did so on September 11th (and looked down on people who celebrated any other day.)

Celebrate Christmas?   lcm used to claim that Christmas (named after the Christ Mass people attended) was named after the MASSACRE of the innocents by Herod.  (So, the holiday of Candlemas would have commemorated the massacre of a lot of candles, etc.)   Yes, when I was in, I knew he was wrong.    But, could not celebrate Christmas or Advent. 

Mind you, in twi, it was totally fine to celebrate a Household Holiday (Ho-Ho)  on December 25th, with a decorated tree, presents, carols,  and so on.  You were totally not supposed to celebrate Christmas.  Seriously, I'm NOT making ANY of that up!

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I think it depends on where and when you were involved. In the 1970's, it was OK to celebrate or choose to not celebrate. The only consistency I really saw was that we were expected to declare that Christ was born in September, not on Christmas Day.

Edited by waysider
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25 minutes ago, waysider said:

I think it depends on where and when you were involved. In the 1970's, it was OK to celebrate or choose to not celebrate. The only consistency I really saw was that we were expected to declare that Christ was born in September, not on Christmas Day.

..but by the mid 80s, places like where I was had those silly caveats I mentioned above.   Couldn't call it Christmas if you were celebrating it- had to call it "HO-HO".   Then you could do almost everything (except changing carol lyrics so "Christmas" was "Ho-Ho.")    I'm not sure if that last part was done locally and tongue-in-cheek,  or if someone seriously said this was a rule about the songs. 

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The CES book was One God and one Lord

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I vaguely remember a rewrite of the 12 days of Christmas - it became the 12 days of the class...it went something like: 

on the first day of the class my father showed to me believing equals receiving

 

 

disclaimer - I don't remember exactly how it went or the main topic of each day/session...guess that's a good thing

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Just depended who.  VPW said on several occasions that he had no respect for anyone who used the word Christmas because it was not a mass for Christ.  It was contempt for the Roman Catholic "Christ mass" that started all the brouhaha about using the word Christmas.  Still, many of us Corps at the time (I was 13th) went along with it when we were on campus or at Way-sponsored events, and said and still celebrated Christmas at home with Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas carols, etc.  We had a big formal Christmas party at both Way HQ and Emporia, but probably called it something else.  It was John Lynn (who coordinated Way Corps 9 through Way Corps 13 at Emporia) who came up with the idea of Ho-Ho Relo instead of Christmas Vacation.  We were supposed to not be on vacation during that time, but I suspect everyone was, just another example of being put in a position to do one thing under the watchful eye of the overseers, but another thing in real life.  I suspect the few faithful Waybots still do the same ... Happy Household Holidays being the thing now, but I will bet they still have a Christmas tree and exchange gifts.

Edited by DogLover
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It was Good Seed who re-wrote 12 days of Christmas

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5 hours ago, DogLover said:

Just depended who.  VPW said on several occasions that he had no respect for anyone who used the word Christmas because it was not a mass for Christ.  It was contempt for the Roman Catholic "Christ mass" that started all the brouhaha about using the word Christmas.  Still, many of us Corps at the time (I was 13th) went along with it when we were on campus or at Way-sponsored events, and said and still celebrated Christmas at home with Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas carols, etc.  We had a big formal Christmas party at both Way HQ and Emporia, but probably called it something else.  It was John Lynn (who coordinated Way Corps 9 through Way Corps 13 at Emporia) who came up with the idea of Ho-Ho Relo instead of Christmas Vacation.  We were supposed to not be on vacation during that time, but I suspect everyone was, just another example of being put in a position to do one thing under the watchful eye of the overseers, but another thing in real life.  I suspect the few faithful Waybots still do the same ... Happy Household Holidays being the thing now, but I will bet they still have a Christmas tree and exchange gifts.

JALvis wasn't coordinating the 9th corpse its first year in res... the first and only year I was there. But we called it ho-ho relo that year too.

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On 12/4/2019 at 4:59 AM, WordWolf said:

lcm used to claim that Christmas (named after the Christ Mass people attended) was named after the MASSACRE of the innocents by Herod.

Don't remember him ever saying this when I was in rez and he was Prez.

"Mass" simply means "meal."  Same root word as the services' "mess hall."

 

Not celebrate Christmas?  No, just have a large decorated tree, a day or two off, and give gifts.  Naomi W always used to give us a slimline "pocket planner," very simple.  I still have mine.  And a big dress-up best-clothes party, with escorts, corsages for women, buttonholes for the men.

People were allowed a few days off to visit friends and family, but had to be back for NY Eve, ostensibly to pray in the New Year, but actually a party/Way Prods splash to celebrate the birthday of VPW (who was long dead before I went in rez).

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 12/7/2019 at 3:00 AM, Twinky said:

Not celebrate Christmas?  No, just have a large decorated tree, a day or two off, and give gifts.  Naomi W always used to give us a slimline "pocket planner," very simple.  I still have mine.  And a big dress-up best-clothes party, with escorts, corsages for women, buttonholes for the men.

People were allowed a few days off to visit friends and family, but had to be back for NY Eve, ostensibly to pray in the New Year, but actually a party/Way Prods splash to celebrate the birthday of VPW (who was long dead before I went in rez).

I never lived at any of the so-called root locales, but out in "the world" we did everything that non-Way people did, we just called it "Household Holiday". They talked a good game about not being observers of days & seasons, but didn't have the balls to walk the walk

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On 12/7/2019 at 6:00 AM, Twinky said:

Don't remember him ever saying this when I was in rez and he was Prez.

"Mass" simply means "meal."  Same root word as the services' "mess hall."

 

Not celebrate Christmas?  No, just have a large decorated tree, a day or two off, and give gifts.  Naomi W always used to give us a slimline "pocket planner," very simple.  I still have mine.  And a big dress-up best-clothes party, with escorts, corsages for women, buttonholes for the men.

People were allowed a few days off to visit friends and family, but had to be back for NY Eve, ostensibly to pray in the New Year, but actually a party/Way Prods splash to celebrate the birthday of VPW (who was long dead before I went in rez).

lcm said this a number of times,  including several on different tapes.  One local person started responding to "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Kill-Christ Day to you too."  purely on lcm's say-so that the "mass" was for the "massacre" and not an actual "mass" (church service.)

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On 12/7/2019 at 6:00 AM, Twinky said:

Don't remember him ever saying this when I was in rez and he was Prez.

"Mass" simply means "meal."  Same root word as the services' "mess hall."

 

Not celebrate Christmas?  No, just have a large decorated tree, a day or two off, and give gifts.  Naomi W always used to give us a slimline "pocket planner," very simple.  I still have mine.  And a big dress-up best-clothes party, with escorts, corsages for women, buttonholes for the men.

People were allowed a few days off to visit friends and family, but had to be back for NY Eve, ostensibly to pray in the New Year, but actually a party/Way Prods splash to celebrate the birthday of VPW (who was long dead before I went in rez).

vpw died in 1985. I was out by 1990.   If vpw was "long dead before you were in rez". then that was at least the 1990s.  I don't know if lcm kept saying that through the 1990s,  but he said it in the 1980s.

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4 hours ago, Oakspear said:

I never lived at any of the so-called root locales, but out in "the world" we did everything that non-Way people did, we just called it "Household Holiday". They talked a good game about not being observers of days & seasons, but didn't have the balls to walk the walk

Yeah, changed the names, called outsiders names for being outsiders, then did the same thing with the new names.   Didn't celebrate Valentines, but "Happy Hearts" was the same thing with a different name,  "Ho-Ho" was celebrated the same as Christmas,   and so on.  I forget the other name for Halloween, but locally we never renamed it.

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As it's said, a rose by any other name...

Yes, on the field, TWI absolutely celebrated christmas and valentine's day, and st patrick's day, and every other pagan ritual celebrated in the USA, just with their own twist, like that makes it all okay.  Just another of their twisted logic BS methods of control.

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Twinky, mass comes from the word ite missa est, which means to leave, to go. The worship service is over. Go home.

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8 hours ago, Taxidev said:

As it's said, a rose by any other name...

Yes, on the field, TWI absolutely celebrated christmas and valentine's day, and st patrick's day, and every other pagan ritual celebrated in the USA, just with their own twist, like that makes it all okay.  Just another of their twisted logic BS methods of control.

I understand how twi labeled them all as pagan. But twi's interpretation of culture wasn't necessarily the most rational much of the time. :wink2:

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46 minutes ago, penguin2 said:

 "Bless n treat" 

Interesting thing that occurred to me this evening.

It seems spookily Orwellian that (or how) twi changed names of holidays and words to songs.

Each instance was clearly intended to mark/enhance the image of twi as better or more correct or more right than anyone else.

In that regard, it just elevated the narcissistic nature of wierwille's subculture.

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