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The Purpose, Joy and Reward of The Way Corps


Catcup
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Ever wonder what it was?

Victor Paul Wierwille outlined it for us from the very beginning. At the dedication of The Way Corps in August of 1969, he laid it out for us right then and there, exactly what he expected and what we could expect out of it:

"The purpose of The Way Corps is that the realization again comes in your hearts and in the lives of the people that man does not live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

"Our great joy in the Corps is to understand what we read. And we're going to understand it so well that we can communicate it to somebody else who wants to understand it too.

And the reward of this Corps is the exceeding greatness of God's Word and His power that's available. If that isn't enough the Corps can die."

In other words,

Your purpose is that you get it through your head and the heads of your people that your very lives depend upon every single word that emerges from my pie hole, because I've already told you by now, and you believe that "the Word is the ministry, and the ministry is the Word."

Your joy is to bust your foot and discipline yourself to comprehend what we tell you the Word says so well that you can feed it to the next gullible person.

Your only reward for all of the work we expect you to do in sacrificing your family, your finances, your selves, and the best and most productive years of your youth and your life to our organization, is a bouquet of intangible promises we cannot guarantee.

If that's not good enough for you, then you can just shrivel up and die, because we just don't give a damn about you.

Edited by Catcup
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quote:
"the Word is the ministry, and the ministry is the Word."

So then if Jesus Christ is also "the Word" then it follows that Christ is the ministry.

Guess he wasn't absent after all.

Now keeds, when you read your Bible just substitute the word 'ministry' whenever you see the words Jesus, Christ, or Jesus Christ.

Here's a few examples.

Eph 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and [the minstry] shall give thee light.

Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as [the ministry] is the head of the church: and he [the ministry]is the saviour of the body.

Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church [those that are called] is [are] subject unto [the ministry], so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing.

Eph 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of [the ministry].

See, it's pretty simple really.

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How chilling Catcup Too bad those words weren't on the Corpse application. Then everyone would have known what they were getting themselves in to. How cold hearted.

Goey those verses with ministry in them describe and fit twit world to a "t".

Goey that would mean that we learn the integrity of the ministry--not the Word-- in twit world's classes.

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I know about the love-dove stuff, but when you get down to brass tacks, isn't the jihad-or-death mentality what Jesus & Paul expected? How did the 12 disciples die, by the way?

Christianity never would have survived if those early guys hadn't been willing to take up "the cross." One way or another, they died on it too.

Wierwille was right, frankly. He exploited that "truth" for his own dirty purpose, but it's no less true just because he was a rotten, philandering, egotistical, two-faced scumbag. (Did I leave anything out? Yeah, plenty.)

Christianity is a gruesome religion, if ya think about it. Does Islam have any more blood on its hands?

The Corps was a cake walk.

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Quite true. But I think the heart of the problem, was Wierwille and others tried to resurrect a unique version of a "christian" Jihad for modern times.

More commitment. More this, more that..

Loy claimed that it required blood, sweat, and tears, if you had any "salt" to you..

And that there are "those among us who would GLADLY execute you"- for homosexuality, "unfaithfulness", etc..

as if they were doing God service or something.

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Another thing Vee Pee said was, "If you leave the Way the devil will use you to tear down the very ministry that gave you life."

That really put the lid on me considering getting out and speaking out even after my life in TWI became total misery.

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I love the bible and the power I hear in the story.

Yes power. not magic.

I see and hear and feel a difference, God is a personal God, Christ came to save all sinners, yet He knows every hair on our head and calls us by name.

that is an individual call not a group thing. yes it is the body which is a group of parts. I think twi missed it when they lumped Jesuschrist into a set of rules that fit every person and said it was from the bible..pick this verse it will fit here in the case type of stuff.

I think it became far removed from wheat the individual will of God was for each INDIVIDUAL , I have several children one I can be one way with speak and talk and converse another gets confused and I need another path to teach them or instruct them in what Im trying to express to them .

I believe God is the same way He knows us better than we know our own self.

twi tried to can everyone into what they thought worked for them, and it just didnt , one alot of times work for them and for others.

frankly I do not think God is that stupid or simple for us to figure we got the plan and will down pat for everyone.

that is why He is God n none of us happen to be.. and that has been the issue from day one people thinking they know how to be God better than HIm.

Satori

your right the history of this religion and even what is happening today under the name of God is brutal and killing it always has been. it is NOT a wishy washy IM a nice guy love ya book, it is full of right wrong and your going to pay mafia type stories.

lol I love it.

I know many truly believed twi was "Gods" ministry and I was told by a LC that the books were the same as the bible.. hence I can understand why people thought they may have been serving God when joining the corps BUT clearly it was serving the way inistry and what they offered.

by the time you made the commintment to go corps, you already knew how twi felt about main stream christians andworking with other religoins so I just do NOT understand how anyone could be confused on who they would work and do for.

the fact twi fell apart in a hand basket rather quickly is one point and promises got messed up may have been surprising but Im sorry it was always clear to me that the twi served the twi and no one eles. esp. at the corps level.

do ya want to know how I knew?

I watch families sacrafice and give give give just to go into the corps. I knew then that this was a group that was about helping itself, I didnt think it was "bad" I just knew I would NOT,heck if Im going to commint to something it had better be more money and rest time on a personal level . that is me.

that is why I think some of those who got involved as deeply as they did may benefit from a check of just why they wanted to get that involved that comminted that giving of themself.

to change the world? that was the sales pitch i know I do know.

I alsways considered that the Job of Jesus christ and HIm alone praise God. I do not compete with his throne and frankly I do not understand those who vainly did and then complain when it came to nothing at all. put your egss in a basket and when it falls down it is a mess.

true of many avenues in life.

I did think people loved me once and I can still allw myself to get sad about that niave part of me.. I now do not think they were evil and hated me, I think they felt they had something better to loveat allcost ie the ministry.ok now I was in shock till I grew up and realized where I put my baskets anyways.

I do understand how those who got caught up farther into feeling they were important , got hurt.

today I realize I really do that god does and will love me no matter what happens.

it is an unconditional love.

it isnt an unconditional bible, the bible can be or say whatever a person choses to make it say. to themself or to another.

that is why I believe God is so very personal and very individual.

also probably why I have a hard time praying with and joining a group who claim to know and understand God and want to teach me. my bad.

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Catcup,

I must tell you ... your thread here is very timely for me.

Last night I was visiting with relatives who were in TWI up until a few years ago. My children and their children were present and we were talking about TWI and their beliefs.

One thing led to another and I started talking about the Corps Training and what it was like for me (a living hell).

Up until that point I had never talked to my daughters about what the Corps was or what I had experienced when I was in.

We had been kicked out of TWI in 94 and my eldest daughter was only 7 at the time. I have two other daughters who have NEVER had any association with TWI or that doctrine (thank God!)

So, last night I was recounting one of my most favourable experiences with one of the cult leaders' wives (oooooops corps leader icon_biggrin.gif:D-->)and the girls were asking all sorts of questions like: "Were you allowed to do this or that or this etc?" which most of the answers to their questions were 'NO'.

Then my 14 year old pipes in very innocently but intently, after hearing all of these restrictions and asks, "Did anyone ever try to escape?"

WE All SCREAMED WITH LAUGHTER AND COULD BARELY BREATHE!!!

It made me realize the insanity of it all and what this looked like to an outsider.

It made me also think about the 'escapees' of the way corps/wow program/staff and how those who did escape sometimes in the middle of the night were then labelled possessed and never to be associated with again.

MY GOD! icon_rolleyes.gif:rolleyes:--> I feel like barfing again!

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Is it possible that VPW meant the WAY CORPS PROGRAM and not the individuals in it when he said the Corps could just die .. it had already "died" once (the Zero Corps) ... not that I am defending the Corps... my time in it had the highs and lows of my life, all within a three year period, with many more lows than highs ... just a thought.

TF

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Yes, I am sure that at the time he said it, he meant the program itself, and not the people in it.

However, it is interesting to note that over the years, that is the attitude those in charge eventually adopted, especially Martindale. We owed our very lives to the mean*is*try, and they could have cared less about us.

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Yes IMHO you had to be a very high up person to mean anything to twi. twi was all about the LOVE of money and that is it. Whether corps or non corps. They cared not who they hurt. As long as you would tow the company line and keep bringing in the money that is all they cared about.

Yes the early days through the 60's and 70's may have been kinder but it was still to bring in the money. Yes it was more gentle then. The word had to be taught to "love one another and God" that was the "flavor" of the times. It was the young people to bring in other young people. As we matured the teachings changed.

The 80's we were starting to get older with real jobs so the twi's policy changed to grab our money and run. lcm's great homo purge and raping anyone he could was just a man that went nuts. Now into the 90's and the 00's.

What do they have? A bunch of older farts running around trying to justify what has happened and saying twi is the ministry of God still. Still running it by fear with no insight on how to make it grow. It was a "ME ME Me" outfit when it started and it still is today. Today the BOT are just soaking it in. They say they want twi to grow but where is the insight to make it grow? IMHO they are lazy and just want to live in a comfy life style. They can talk the game but when it comes to putting their nuts on the table they are just shrivled up rasins.

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Im not so sure it was the program they wanted to die only.

I saw hate while in twi and I was taught hate by them. a type of righteous hate .

I remember I really did fear for my life for a few weeks after I was marked ok ok maybe it was all in my mind but it came from a thought process that believed they were capable of such acts.

I mean really think about it how did I go from going to a bible class to thinking they could come to my house and kill me or have me killed and have a blessing?

I know how nuts that sounds.

but I clearly remember thinking they had that much power.

now decades later I still fear anyone having that much trust in my life all wrapped up in what God may or may not think .

I was not born this way, I was taught this mess. and at times I still battle it.

that whole higher powers red book chapter and how some would and could be so dismissing even of their own family members for the ministry.

yeah honestly I do think they could care less if somone who disagreed with them died.. in fact I think they would count it as a reward.

I didnt like the way many conversations went and Im serious glad I didnt get more involved than I did because it seems the more in ya got the worse this fear was relished and feared.

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yeah honestly I do think they could care less if somone who disagreed with them died.. in fact I think they would count it as a reward.

As a matter of fact, yes, I remember a certain advanced class "spayshull" (1992?) during which Fartindale spewed out precisely such hate, when teaching about "turning people over to the devil."

He said he WISHED God would give him revelation regarding specific people who had left the ministry, that he could turn them over to the devil and they would physically DIE.

--And yes, it would be a reward-worthy action to turn over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh, such a "traitor against God." Craig said they so disgusted God, that they actually "wagged their penises in God's face." And he said those people deserved to die.

He said it several times... and he said it regarding Way Corps who no longer tolerated his BS and left. Those who no longer "stood" with TWI.

So, yeah, the head honcho's wish was if you didn't buy his line of bull****, he wanted you dead. And he was very public about it-- in front of several thousand people.

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quote:
Originally posted by mj412:

now decades later I still fear anyone having that much trust in my life all wrapped up in what God may or may not think .

I was not born this way, I was taught this mess. and at times I still battle it.

MJ check you private message

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I enjoyed my time in The Way Corps. I had a lot of fun, and learned a great deal about life and living. And, I had quite a few girlfriends when in residense too! I was in res between the ages of 22 and 25, and I had a great time and had friends that were some of the funniest, most intelligent, witty, and gregarious people that I have ever met. I am thankful for that.

I loved my two LEAD expeditions, I loved the public speaking classes, and I learned a great deal about the work ethic which I didn't know much about before I went in. I went in because I wanted to learn about discipline and work and attention to detail. I didn't complain about late nights and early mornings. I was young and knew that what I was being challenged with could in no way be tougher than let's say, the Marine Corps basic training.

I welcomed all of the challenges thrown at me, and for me, it was what I wanted and needed. But that was me, and not you, or at least some of you. I liked the late night runs and early morning teachings at top floor Wierwille Library. I finally got to do my "ten minute teaching" in front of the whole student body, and, although it was "scary", it was rewarding. I was in the best physical shape of my life as I ran four times a week, three miles at a shot, and earned sixty plus aerobics points a week. I even ran 8.10 miles in 59:02 which is an average of 7:20 a mile for 8 miles. The best I ever did, and I am still proud of that. Could I have done that elsewhere? Sure! but this is where I ended up doing these things, and I loved and enjoyed doing it with the friends that I made in the Corps.

I love what was perhaps one of America's greatest mud fights when the Tenth and Eight Corps were cleaning out the Pond. I and one of my Tenth Corps Brothers (J*y W*lson) tackled our Corps coordinator, R*chard Th*mas, and drove him to the bottom of the muck filled nearly empty pond, where his face was smeared amongst the stunted catfish, baby bass, and stagnant goose crap.

Alot of it was grand and glorious to me, and many of those times I still cherish. But I was a happy go lucky boy, and I lived with an attitude of thankfulness and naivette'.

Yes, I have learned of much of the insidious workings behind the scenes, but I am still thankful that I had a chance to spend such great quality time with some of the greatest people on this Earth. We went there because we wanted to help this old world, and we thought that this was the way to do it. Not all of us maybe, but a great deal of us to be sure. And many of you know it. This is heavily reflected in the "In Memorium" forum, when one of our dear friends passes on. Joe Guarini, Donnie Fugit, and on and on.

There were SO MANY who loved, and I still love you and them for what we tried to do to help this tired old world. Misguided? Maybe. But with a motive to help? There is no question in my heart concerning the majority with whom I spent my time.

Selah...

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Ditto what Johnny said for us as well and we went through with 5 kids for one year.

What spoilt our fun was a wad named Mos***da.

We enjoyed the challenges too, especially things like having 20 minutes after Kitchen duty to get ourselves and kids ready for S.E.S..

We saw people with 1 child struggling, but then we saw people in-res that really shouldn't have been there anyway.

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