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Twi-Servitude


skyrider
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19 minutes ago, OldSkool said:

"just consider it abundant sharing".

Admittedly, it's been a really long time since I associated with The Way, but I remember distinctly that we were forbidden to do this. Everything changes with time.

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2 hours ago, OldSkool said:

That double standard is ingrained into the directors. Let's face it. Every director currently on the board has worked lower tier jobs in TWI and they know the field leadership regularly go out of pocket to cover ministry expenses. They've all been branch coordinators/fellowship coordinators. They know fuil well about the double standard and appearantly they like it. Any one of them Bill, Vern, John, could set a directive that all the field corps  are required to submit expense reimbursement forms for their cost over runs on ministry business. They don't and they won't. On the field it's so screwy. More times than not, when branch coordinators ask for gas reimbursement their limb guy tells them something like "just consider it abundant sharing". I've heard it so many many times from branch, and even limb coordinators. The field guys are afraid to do much more than what they are expected to do and most of them would never dream of rocking the boat by daring to ask for reimbursements. Many of the staff assignments are gravy compared to life in a field assignment and most all of them know it. The directors demand special treatment, so their hypocrisy knows no bounds. Christ really is absent for them and in his place is a big image of VPW. You know, that guy that had them play hail to the chief when he entered a room?

 

Yup.  That's why martindale's *all-field-corps-on payroll* FAILED.......when the rubber meets the road, the field corps and adv class grads are THE ONES DOING ALL THE WORK AND ABSORBING ALL THE COSTS TO RUN CLASSES.  

Anytime classes run on the field.....especially at a location where the room needs to cleaned, set-up, taken down and stored AFTER EACH SESSION.....is all kinds of grueling work.  How many times can someone be required to be on the set-up crew?  Time off work?  Skip dinner?  Who watches young kids at home? Refreshment crew?  Who buys it?  No wonder plastic (and styrofom?) cups were reused.....LOL

Gawd, twi is so pathetic.  With $68 million socked away.....you'd think that they would feel shame for screwing over the field people.  Nope.  They have no conscience, no guilt, no shame.  They are entitled and above reproach.  They are the modern-day Pharisees.

 

.

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1 hour ago, skyrider said:

the field corps are THE ONES DOING ALL THE WORK AND ABSORBING ALL THE COSTS TO RUN CLASSES.

This is 100% true. Even though HQ produces class materials (amply paid for by the class fee I might add) the classes themselves are absorbed by the field corps. Probably an obvious exception would be room rental and such - but that room rental stuff is rare. The field corps know to move to places that have a community type clubhouse for running classes, branch/limb/region meetings. So, literally most everything comes out of a guy's pockets who is working 40 hours a week, supporting a family, already giving 15% or more of his income to the way international....the make you give until it breaks a person.

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During our brief tenure in FWC we spent a lot of time harvesting produce grown there. I distinctly remember apples, potatoes, tomatoes and perhaps onions. We were involved in making salsa; I've written about that elsewhere. They raised chickens, beef and pigs as well.

Did we benefit from this largesse? Nope. It was shipped to HQ. it's a challenge to perform four hours of hard physical labor after a breakfast of one cup of granola and milk, and a delicious lunch of one cup of tomato soup and two zwieback crackers. On rare occasions we got chicken or other meats, and every day we had to exercise vigorously. 

I realized recently that this arrangement is very similar to a work camp in a communist country. We workers slaved away for the benefit of the elite, who graciously permitted us to have a few crumbs from under their gilded tables.

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4 hours ago, skyrider said:

Gawd, twi is so pathetic.  With $68 million socked away.....you'd think that they would feel shame for screwing over the field people.  Nope.  They have no conscience, no guilt, no shame.  They are entitled and above reproach.  They are the modern-day Pharisees.

Totally.

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1 hour ago, Watered Garden said:

On rare occasions we got chicken or other meats, and every day we had to exercise vigorously. 

I realized recently that this arrangement is very similar to a work camp in a communist country. We workers slaved away for the benefit of the elite, who graciously permitted us to have a few crumbs from under their gilded tables.

And don’t forget chicken gizzards on pizza

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10 hours ago, waysider said:

Admittedly, it's been a really long time since I associated with The Way, but I remember distinctly that we were forbidden to do this. Everything changes with time.

lcm was outraged when he heard people did that.  He always wanted people to send more and more money to HQ.  He was also a man who'd never worked a normal job in his entire life-  he went straight from college and a football scholarship directly to "working" on twi grounds, and moved up while there.    He really had no idea what life was like for everyone else.

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10 hours ago, skyrider said:

 

Yup.  That's why martindale's *all-field-corps-on payroll* FAILED.......when the rubber meets the road, the field corps and adv class grads are THE ONES DOING ALL THE WORK AND ABSORBING ALL THE COSTS TO RUN CLASSES.  

Anytime classes run on the field.....especially at a location where the room needs to cleaned, set-up, taken down and stored AFTER EACH SESSION.....is all kinds of grueling work.  How many times can someone be required to be on the set-up crew?  Time off work?  Skip dinner?  Who watches young kids at home? Refreshment crew?  Who buys it?  No wonder plastic (and styrofom?) cups were reused.....LOL

Gawd, twi is so pathetic.  With $68 million socked away.....you'd think that they would feel shame for screwing over the field people.  Nope.  They have no conscience, no guilt, no shame.  They are entitled and above reproach.  They are the modern-day Pharisees.

 

.

Just for fun....  as we know, lcm had no idea what life was like for people who didn't live on twi grounds and weren't part of the cadre.    He also had no real understanding of life and his strengths and weaknesses.  When he was made the Grand Poobah of twi, there were people ready to inflate his ego further, and he was already on course to believe he'd become a de facto "Pope", inheriting "papal infallibility" and other super-powers by virtue of replacing vpw whom he believed had them.  

So, he replaced vpw's pfal class with his own class.  He had no idea how deficient his own skills were in preparing and executing such a class-  so he replaced pfal with an inferior product but insisted it was better because it was his.  He had no comprehension how the new class was making it even harder to retain new people, since his class kept driving them off!  

lcm insisted his class was so good, it would lead to continual growth in twi, if only it was promoted more.  So, he got an idea that he blamed God for-   put the corps all on full-time work for twi.  That way, they'd promote his class more, and the ranks of twi followers would swell, and lots more people would give 15-20% of their income, more than paying for the salaries of the corps.    This involved 2 horrible mistakes- at least from twi's  perspective.

1)  No matter how many hours the corps had, they couldn't increase the numbers by large amounts by using wap as a recruiting tool because his class was awful.   So, the predicted crowds of people could not arrive, and did not arrive, no matter what lcm expected.

2) Rather than all those corps working secular jobs and paying 15-20% of their salary to twi, they were now receiving money FROM twi as their sole salary. 

In short,  his plan drained money from twi rather than brought in more.   Honestly, his plan didn't work on paper, so this should not surprise anyone who took an honest look at it rather than flattering lcm's ego.

 

======================

As for the lack of a conscience at twi, there's a story I read a long time ago.  When asked what a conscience was, a man said it was a 3-cornered thing inside his chest.  When he did wrong, then it spun and the points hurt him. But if he KEPT doing wrong, the points wore down and they didn't hurt any more.     twi's top people have done wrongly for so long, they have no idea they're doing wrong.

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12 minutes ago, WordWolf said:

Discussions about the idealized life under communism always remind me of George Orwell's book, "Animal Farm." 

That's why Orwell wrote the book, to snark about communism; but actually, it's about any kind of power imbalance.  "The rules" don't apply to everyone equally.  Those in power, whether kings, presidents, senators, or party chairmen, simply do not live in the same conditions as the plebeians.

"We just wanted to make things better ..."better" doesn't mean better for everyone."  (Commander Waterford, The Handmaid's Tale)

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2 minutes ago, Twinky said:

That's why Orwell wrote the book, to snark about communism; but actually, it's about any kind of power imbalance.  "The rules" don't apply to everyone equally.  Those in power, whether kings, presidents, senators, or party chairmen, simply do not live in the same conditions as the plebeians.

"We just wanted to make things better ..."better" doesn't mean better for everyone."  (Commander Waterford, The Handmaid's Tale)

The rules don't apply to everyone equally- but under Communism or similar ideological systems, the official word is that the rules DO apply to everyone equally.  This is, of course, a big, fat lie.   Those in power always are Haves, and the rest are Have-Nots,  for some value of Have and Have-Not  (specifics vary wildly with different examples.)

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7 hours ago, Watered Garden said:

Did we benefit from this largesse? Nope. It was shipped to HQ. it's a challenge to perform four hours of hard physical labor after a breakfast of one cup of granola and milk, and a delicious lunch of one cup of tomato soup and two zwieback crackers. On rare occasions we got chicken or other meats, and every day we had to exercise vigorously. 

 

Actually, mostly I liked the food when I was at HQ.  And also at Gunnison. 

The stuff I didn't like would be stuff I wouldn't like anyway regardless of where it was offered on the menu.  There was occasionally very weird (to me) stuff or combinations of stuff, but most of the Americans loved it.  Sauerkraut, peculiar sausages (weinies?), sloppy joes - pizza featured occasionally, but I'm not a pizza fan.

Sometimes there was unusual stuff on offer for a meal - one evening the 5pm meal consisted of fresh fruit salad.  This I love - but most of my Corps hated it.  I ate a lot that evening :)  We'd had a big "main meal" at noon.  

One breakfast was 7-grain - porridge.  I hate porridge, makes me vomit.  The only thing I won't eat.  We were asked to have at least one spoonful of this meal.  And to my surprise, I loved it and really enjoyed the different textures.

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15 hours ago, skyrider said:

 

Just in case twi still *wonders* why field corps CONTINE TO EXIT.........THIS is one of the biggies.  

IT COSTS MONEY TO *WITNESS AND RUN PFAL/WAP CLASSES*......and twi won't pay the lion's share of expenses!!!!!  Driving here, there and yonder to witness, pick up people for class, take them home.....and do it ALL AGAIN throughout the class is challenging.  Add class room set-up and working your regular job ( 8 hrs a day ) tends to make for long days.  Those at headquarters simply do their little job and (many) have cafeteria meals prepared for them 3 times a  day.  Staffers don't have to do that grocery shopping, refreshments for classes, clean up, room set -up........etc. etc. etc.  UNTIL those bozos as directors figure out how aggravating it is to see and live the double standard that they pontificate.....there will ALWAYS be a revolving door of field corps exiting twi, gladly.  :spy:

 

 

And further..........not just money, but time and stress.  Rushing around after your work day to get to the class location for set-up.  Is the place locked?  Who's got the key?  Cleaning supplies?  Was it left a mess from the last time you were there?  Is the room too hot?  Rush, rush, rush.  Now, that the room is set-up.... change your clothes.  Get ready for students to arrive.

Add hours of sitting.  Then, when students leave...... store equipment, re-setup room as it was before.  Drive home.  Fall into bed.  And, do it all again.....tomorrow.

Hopefully, there's not some bad-arse corps leader confronting the class crew before they go home on something that was missed.  Or, headquarters people...... wanting an explanation as to why several students chose NOT to finish the class.  :realmad:

 

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2 hours ago, WordWolf said:

The rules don't apply to everyone equally- but under Communism or similar ideological systems, the official word is that the rules DO apply to everyone equally.  This is, of course, a big, fat lie.   Those in power always are Haves, and the rest are Have-Nots,  for some value of Have and Have-Not  (specifics vary wildly with different examples.)

The Haves in a Cult......get to sit at headquarters and pontificate on their "greatness."

The Have-Nots on the field.......slave away giving of their time, energy and money to the Haves who double-dip in salary and slothfulness.

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1 hour ago, skyrider said:

Hopefully, there's not some bad-arse corps leader confronting the class crew before they go home on something that was missed.  Or, headquarters people...... wanting an explanation as to why several students chose NOT to finish the class.  :realmad:

That would likely go something very simillar to this satirical version below. 

"I mean, why wouldn't Joe the new guy want to finish Reverend Martindale's class? It's God's Word for our day and time! Did you string the edges of the tables during setup? What? You have Eddie on coordinating the setup crew? You do know he hasn't abundantly shared since he lost his job? I mean how can you expext God to bless you if you have a hard, ungiving heart. You need to confront Eddie!"

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You know, it'd be really interesting to know how many classes LCM put together after he was fired.

I know people who have been kicked out by TWI for spurious reasons, and they've immediately overcome their hurt and tried to get a class together.  

Well.  He was kicked out for non-spurious reasons.  Did he go out and try to get a class together?  Did he feel so passionate about The Word that even though he'd been kicked out, he felt compelled to "witness"?  Even though he'd had his name thoroughly (or even throughly) blackened, was he still wanting to do his utmost for His Highest?

Nah, don't think so.  Left with a golden parachute on condition he kept his mouth shut, most likely, unlike hundreds of decent people who were kicked out - basically, for being decent people, or for some minute and very forgivable infraction.

I recall him saying, many times, "You stay hurt for as long as you let yourself stay hurt," and other such things.  I wonder if he felt "hurt" or "condemned" for what he did?  Or maybe he was just angry at being thrown off the bus?  (even, being thrown under the bus!)

It would be rather interesting to know his thought processes at the time.  And whether he took his own advice, or whether he wallowed in self-pity.  We'll never know.  And TBH, I don't care.

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9 hours ago, OldSkool said:

That would likely go something very simillar to this satirical version below. 

"I mean, why wouldn't Joe the new guy want to finish Reverend Martindale's class? It's God's Word for our day and time! Did you string the edges of the tables during setup? What? You have Eddie on coordinating the setup crew? You do know he hasn't abundantly shared since he lost his job? I mean how can you expext God to bless you if you have a hard, ungiving heart. You need to confront Eddie!"

LOL......so true.

Back in the day, 1980-1983.....two incidents happened that changed my *reverence* for the big-shots at the helm of this organization:  

  1.  Wierwille announced during the Rock of Ages that tomorrow night, there would be a healing service in the Big Top (tent).  I was very excited.  Finally, we were going to see wierwille in action..... and the power of God in manifestation.  So, the next night when wierwille walks out on stage, he starts the *healing service* by summoning all the advanced class grads and corps who want to come forward to minister to others.  Then, he asks those that need healing/ministered to to come forward and someone will be there for one-on-one ministering.  Wierwille stood at the microphone the whole time.  Nothing more!!  I was SO DISAPPOINTED to see him delegate all this ministering to others.
  2. At Corps Week, it began raining nearly every day (1983).  On about the third night, Martindale or Dean Don came to microphone and blasted the corps for their unbelieving-believing for NOT STOPPING THE RAIN.  Huh???  I sat there pondering that confrontation.....why does it take *collective believing* from the corps household to stop the rain?  I didn't undertand.  Weren't there countless records in the Scripture of one person's walk of faith to change events....even if surrounded by unbelief?  If these spiritual big-wigs were so high and mighty, why couldn't THEY stop the rain?

 

Who'll stop the rain

 

 

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Was anybody actually healed, Skyrider?  I mean, actually, as opposed to saying they were at the time.

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14 minutes ago, skyrider said:

 Wierwille announced during the Rock of Ages that tomorrow night, there would be a healing service in the Big Top (tent).  I was very excited.  Finally, we were going to see wierwille in action..... and the power of God in manifestation.  So, the next night when wierwille walks out on stage, he starts the *healing service* by summoning all the advanced class grads and corps who want to come forward to minister to others.  Then, he asks those that need healing/ministered to to come forward and someone will be there for one-on-one ministering.  Wierwille stood at the microphone the whole time.  Nothing more!!  I was SO DISAPPOINTED to see him delegate all this ministering to others.

I was there. I think it may have been the year the Advanced Class ended right before The Rock. (1973, If I remember correctly.) We (A.C grads) were caught completely unaware this was going to happen. I felt very uncomfortable about it because of the "God told me to tell you" stuff we had been taught. I didn't get any "revelation" to go forward to participate so I didn't. This inaction was a source of self-condemnation for me for a long, long time. Funny how stuff from almost 50 years ago sticks with you for so long. 

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2 hours ago, waysider said:

This inaction was a source of self-condemnation for me for a long, long time.

And if you had "volunteered" as a healer, and there was no obvious sign of having healed anyone at this event, your self-condemnation likely would have been even greater.

Not to mention condemnation and abuse from VPW, and everyone lower down the "Way tree."

Bum remaining on seat was probably the best thing to do, IMO.

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1 hour ago, Twinky said:

And if you had "volunteered" as a healer, and there was no obvious sign of having healed anyone at this event, your self-condemnation likely would have been even greater.

Not to mention condemnation and abuse from VPW, and everyone lower down the "Way tree."

Bum remaining on seat was probably the best thing to do, IMO.

Thanks, Twinky. You're a kind soul.

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13 hours ago, Twinky said:

You know, it'd be really interesting to know how many classes LCM put together after he was fired.

I know people who have been kicked out by TWI for spurious reasons, and they've immediately overcome their hurt and tried to get a class together.  

Well.  He was kicked out for non-spurious reasons.  Did he go out and try to get a class together?  Did he feel so passionate about The Word that even though he'd been kicked out, he felt compelled to "witness"?  Even though he'd had his name thoroughly (or even throughly) blackened, was he still wanting to do his utmost for His Highest?

Nah, don't think so.  Left with a golden parachute on condition he kept his mouth shut, most likely, unlike hundreds of decent people who were kicked out - basically, for being decent people, or for some minute and very forgivable infraction.

I recall him saying, many times, "You stay hurt for as long as you let yourself stay hurt," and other such things.  I wonder if he felt "hurt" or "condemned" for what he did?  Or maybe he was just angry at being thrown off the bus?  (even, being thrown under the bus!)

It would be rather interesting to know his thought processes at the time.  And whether he took his own advice, or whether he wallowed in self-pity.  We'll never know.  And TBH, I don't care.

This, of course, was the SAME lcm who spent several years wandering the grounds in a fog-by his OWN ADMISSION- following the reading of Passing of the Patriarch.  Somebody who knew him said it looked like he might have been on psychiatric medication or something.    AFTER that, he was known for such "gems" as this one.   So, he learned nothing about humility or compassion from needing help or needing compassion because he was hurting.

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21 hours ago, Twinky said:

Sometimes there was unusual stuff on offer for a meal - one evening the 5pm meal consisted of fresh fruit salad.  This I love - but most of my Corps hated it.  I ate a lot that evening :)  We'd had a big "main meal" at noon. 

That was one of my favorites! Fruit salad, yogurt dressing, almonds and that ginger cinnamon bread.  But they served it in the summer during ROA setup and especially the men really needed more substantial food/calories/protein.

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6 hours ago, WordWolf said:

This, of course, was the SAME lcm who spent several years wandering the grounds in a fog-by his OWN ADMISSION- following the reading of Passing of the Patriarch.  Somebody who knew him said it looked like he might have been on psychiatric medication or something.    AFTER that, he was known for such "gems" as this one.   So, he learned nothing about humility or compassion from needing help or needing compassion because he was hurting.

 

Whether it was martindale, geer, rivenbark, john lynn, etc.......these wannabe-leaders were molded in the same image as their "plagiarist father" - wierwille.  As a boy, victor would hide in the woods to avoid work.  As a teenager, he would do trick-riding on his motorcycle to attract attention to himself.  Victor was anti-social and had learning issues.  Is there any wonder why wierwille could not pursue the business/professional life, but rather the church denomination preacher path?

After 16 years of stagnant church conformity in mid-west Ohio, wierwille wanted to forge ahead with his OWN ambitions and undertaking.  For nearly four years (1953-1957)......wierwille gained access to Rev. B.G. Leonard's Gifts of the Spirit class in Canada and taught it as his own.  Now, at age 40 .....wierwille was forging ahead with this stolen class and LEAVING church boards and their directives behind.

His narcissism was the leading force of his pursuits.  Thus, wierwille capitalizes on the two main areas of his quest for power over others......money and control.  There was no room for humility, compassion or empathy in his pathological disorders.  That's why one finds this gaping path of destruction in twi as wierwille torn thru people's lives to attain his "way ministry."

Mrs. Wierwille's book, Born Again to Serve attempts to elevate her husband to this spiritual calling of God ..... but it details a moth-eaten tapestry weaved together by deception and dishonesty.

 

.

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