The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of corps training

[skyrider]

Since the subject of corps training makes for good conversation here at the Cafe......I thought some general categories might help.

Of course, there could be other categories added......like Indifference.......but then, that would take away from the "play on words" of The good, the bad and the ugly. :)

Certainly, every corps person had a different experience, different coordinators, different circumstances..... some corps gutted campuses and threw out statues before the twi curriculum year began, some were way builder types and went to gunnison for 4-6 month stints. Huge differences, varying discrepancies.

And, I will attempt to speak for me, my experience......not making bland generalizations.

The following are some of the things that come to mind.

The Good

Studies Related

.....Learning biblical truths in some classes like OT History, Greek, figures of speech, orientalisms.

.....The Christ-line geneology records, the gospel accounts of JC, his words & death & resurrection.

.....The book of acts and the dynamic men and women who walked by the spirit.

People Related

.....Many good-hearted corps who went into the program to serve God a lifetime.

.....Close friends, light-hearted moments, crazy times, plays & skits, jokes, etc.

.....The experience and exposure to people from all walks of life and many countries.

Principles Learned

.....Truth is truth and will hold up to the scrutiny of intense study and inspection.

.....Dark is dark.......and I'd rather SEE A SERMON than hear one any day.

.....Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, the religious leaders of legalism.

The Bad

Wierwille Related

.....Too much emphasis on wierwille, mogs, waytree structure, caste system, wierwille geneology.

.....Head table adulation was ridiculous; serving the campus coordinators; the favortisms.

.....In hindsight, I see the corps "training" as merely programming to fit the twi mold.

Curriculum Related

.....Always a group thing. Why couldn't we have some selection? Some choices?

.....Teaching overload.....heck, corps were falling asleep day after day.

.....Conspiracy theories, mal-paks, doomsday predictions, us versus them, uuuuugh!!

Lose of Opportunity

.....I expected SO MUCH MORE from the corps training. It was too regimented.

.....I believe that those four years could have been put to MUCH BETTER use for God.

.....I feel betrayed by wierwille & twi. They deceived & exploited my years of labor.

The Ugly

** The scream-fests, the face-melts, the sex & raping of my corps sisters, the abortions.

** The idolotrous adulation of the "man of god of the universe."

** The isolation of corps from family, roots, relatives......damaged relationships for a lifetime.

Okay, that's enough.

PS (for the benefit of Belle ) If I had a category for [/i]Indifference, I think that I'd put the Kansas Hunter Safety class in there.

[skyrider]

Maybe the world was caving in during my inresidence years........and doktor wierwille was called to wake us from our deep spiritual slumber????? But........

Communist takeovers?

Mal-paks.....more abundant living (in isolated areas) to keep "the word" alive?

Food storage, grains, nutrition, a water supply, good boots????

None Dare Call It Conspiracy, Seed boys, Dog Soldiers, General Patton book review, survival living, Jonestown, Government cover-ups?

Late night roll calls, In-corps twig preparations if someone storms the campus?

Red Dawn movie shown to corps.......Red Dawn Mentality?

:blink: :blink:

[rhino]

Kansas Hunter Safety was one of the better items I thought. :)

I remember the whole corps getting called out in the middle of the night to excercise in the muddy field. At one point Hendley said "hit your backs" drill seargent style, like to do sit ups. One branch decided to stay standing and "hit" their backs, like with their hands. That was pretty funny ... they had to do some extra excercises or something. Now I'm not sure if the BC was trying to be a wise guy, or just goofy blind obedience ...

Then on the interim year, there was the call to get a list of stuff cuz the country might be attacked ... like get a shotgun, some food, warm clothes ... kinda the Red Dawn thing. I think we had a big bag of millet that we ate for a long time after that. In a way it was kinda fun, but at some point it was easy to get a little to caught up in it all. Fortunately we came out ahead on some of the junk silver we bought on one WOW's mother's credit card. And some WOW's got some nice wool sweaters. I still use the parka and sleepng bag I bought then, and I have that backpack somewhere ... come on you commies ... bring it on LOL

[rascal]

Speaking of mal pack.....Does anybody remember wierwille teaching that if the end came...that if necessary that we were to scarifice our children if necessary to survive, in order to make sure the word didn`t die??

We could always have more children :(

How nuts is THAT?

Surely a contradiction to the instructions biblical to parents :blink:

[Belle]

Thanks for the P.S., my friend. ;)

I wonder if any WC grads from the mid 1990's or later would even have that much "good" to post. :blink:

It seems such a waste that people in training at Gunnison were surrounded by all that beauty and nature and never got to explore or enjoy it, much less on their own and on their own time.

Weren't the only ones who got to go elk hunting the "elite"? Seems I remember hearing that somewhere, but can't recall perzackly.

[Lifted Up]

Speaking of mal pack.....Does anybody remember wierwille teaching that if the end came...that if necessary that we were to scarifice our children if necessary to survive, in order to make sure the word didn`t die??

Good question...that is, does anybody remember VPW teaching that? If so, when and where?

Edited March 17, 2006 by Lifted Up

[Nottawayfer]

Thanks for the P.S., my friend. ;)

It seems such a waste that people in training at Gunnison were surrounded by all that beauty and nature and never got to explore or enjoy it, much less on their own and on their own time.

I remember when Donna M came back from Gunnison saying that they were wayyyy too much in to the hunting there. There was a ban put on hunting for everyone! That sucks royally! If she knew men, she would know how much a man who enjoys hunting is IN TO IT! It's not idolatry; it's an ejoyment of freakin' life! She should have been chastising her husband for his extracurricular activities. His were damaging to people.

I hope they lose that place some day so that people can actually go there and enjoy the place instead of working the arses off all the damn time.

[topoftheworld]

Good question...that is, does anybody remember VPW teaching that? If so, when and where?

Er--NO!

[oldiesman]

Somehow I get the feeling that VP didn't literally mean that... but that our commitment should be that fanatical about the Word, and preserving it.

It does make a great sound byte.

Who knows, maybe he had a little too much drambuie that day.

[kierkegaard]

Good question...that is, does anybody remember VPW teaching that? If so, when and where?

I was raised in the Way, and the idea that children should be sacrificed for their parents (no doubt craig channeling vpw) was ingrained in my mind at an early age. When my fifth grade teacher (going back to '91 here) asked the class what they would do as parents if faced with the choice of their own death or the death of their child, I said they the parent should of course sacrifice the child because the parent is presumably a valuable human being whereas the child could turn out to be anything (serial killer, catholic, homosexual--the usual suspects). Why choose the risk over the safe bet? Met with horrfied looks from my teacher and classmates, I later put the question to my mother, who said she would sacrifice herself for me and that the Way would never teach otherwise. Sigh.

The constant rewriting of history by Way leadership and members is like a Stalinist nightmare. At 24 years old, I have such an impoverished sense of history, even family history. Every time a doctrine changed, it was as if it had ever been thus. And every time people we knew left the ministry, it was as if we had never known them, even when they were family members.

[skyrider]

Speaking of mal pack.....Does anybody remember wierwille teaching that if the end came...that if necessary that we were to scarifice our children if necessary to survive, in order to make sure the word didn`t die??

rascal,

I do remember hearing something to that effect......but I didn't hear it from the lips of wierwille.

That red dawn mentality sure gained alot of steam for about 3-4 years there....with many gung-ho, military-type men. Some with survival skills longsuits became instant experts and helped with some afternoon fill-in-time teachings.

Like so many things in twi, more hype than substance. Guess I was just out of the loop on this conspiracy theory stuff. I went along for the ride, but never really believed it was on the verge of happening.

[Belle]

I remember hearing craiggers yell about it. Even on the airplane you put the oxygen mask on yourself before putting it on the kid. What good is that kid going to be and what kind of life is the kid going to have if the mother or father is gone and not there to raise them? And think of the burden that would be for whoever was "stuck" raising the d@mn thing!

Just paraphrasing craiggers as best I can remember. He most likely learned that from someone he idolized and I don't think that's his own flesh & blood daddy....

Welcome, kierkegaard!! Great first post! We had to ignore a lot in TWI, didn't we? "If you don't talk about it, it didn't happen." "If you don't talk about 'copped out' loved ones, you can't miss them..." Pathetic - utterly pathetic - especially so for you who were raised in that environment.

On a lighter note: Danish?

edited to fix a pet peeve grammatical error:

their is possessive

there is a location

Edited March 17, 2006 by Belle

[skyrider]

I was raised in the Way, and the idea that children should be sacrificed for their parents (no doubt craig channeling vpw) was ingrained in my mind at an early age. When my fifth grade teacher (going back to '91 here) asked the class what they would do as parents if faced with the choice of their own death or the death of their child, I said they the parent should of course sacrifice the child because the parent is presumably a valuable human being whereas the child could turn out to be anything (serial killer, catholic, homosexual--the usual suspects). Why choose the risk over the safe bet? Met with horrfied looks from my teacher and classmates, I later put the question to my mother, who said she would sacrifice herself for me and that the Way would never teach otherwise. Sigh.

The constant rewriting of history by Way leadership and members is like a Stalinist nightmare. At 24 years old, I have such an impoverished sense of history, even family history. Every time a doctrine changed, it was as if it had ever been thus. And every time people we knew left the ministry, it was as if we had never known them, even when they were family members.

Welcome kierkegaard.

Good post. Interesting, for sure. :)

[bliss]

I was raised in the Way, and the idea that children should be sacrificed for their parents (no doubt craig channeling vpw) was ingrained in my mind at an early age. When my fifth grade teacher (going back to '91 here) asked the class what they would do as parents if faced with the choice of their own death or the death of their child, I said they the parent should of course sacrifice the child because the parent is presumably a valuable human being whereas the child could turn out to be anything (serial killer, catholic, homosexual--the usual suspects). Why choose the risk over the safe bet? Met with horrfied looks from my teacher and classmates, I later put the question to my mother, who said she would sacrifice herself for me and that the Way would never teach otherwise. Sigh.

The constant rewriting of history by Way leadership and members is like a Stalinist nightmare. At 24 years old, I have such an impoverished sense of history, even family history. Every time a doctrine changed, it was as if it had ever been thus. And every time people we knew left the ministry, it was as if we had never known them, even when they were family members.

Hi my dear kierkegaard!!!! Welcome.

And yes, you make a great point. Unfortunately, the VEY is doing exactly that right now! Rewriting history again, pretending that "things" never really happen, or if they did, they DON't anymore....

it will repeat............

((((mwah))))

Edited March 18, 2006 by bliss

[CoolWaters]

I was raised in the Way, and the idea that children should be sacrificed for their parents (no doubt craig channeling vpw) was ingrained in my mind at an early age. When my fifth grade teacher (going back to '91 here) asked the class what they would do as parents if faced with the choice of their own death or the death of their child, I said they the parent should of course sacrifice the child because the parent is presumably a valuable human being whereas the child could turn out to be anything (serial killer, catholic, homosexual--the usual suspects). Why choose the risk over the safe bet? Met with horrfied looks from my teacher and classmates, I later put the question to my mother, who said she would sacrifice herself for me and that the Way would never teach otherwise. Sigh.

The constant rewriting of history by Way leadership and members is like a Stalinist nightmare. At 24 years old, I have such an impoverished sense of history, even family history. Every time a doctrine changed, it was as if it had ever been thus. And every time people we knew left the ministry, it was as if we had never known them, even when they were family members.

Welcome, kierkegaard!

Thank you for this post. It makes me cry because I raised my daughter in twi...and she says nearly the same things. In fact, until a couple of weeks ago she never knew that I'd sacrifice my own life for hers. I'm so sad to have raised a child in such an emotional environment. So sad to have ever made any child feel worthless and confused like this.

[Linda Z]

kierkegaard, welcome. Your post brought tears to my eyes. So often when we think of people leaving/getting kicked out of twi, our sympathies go straight to the parties departing. I think there's often a tendency to think of those who stayed in as heartless and uncaring, but you've just given a glimpse of what it was like to have your friends seem to "vanish" and the "truths" you knew change like shifting sands. How sad to go through that as a child and not understand what was happening.

Rascal, I never heard VPW say anything like that about sacrificing our kids. In fact, I never even heard Craig say anythihng that extreme while I was still around, though he might have later.

Minor point re: your post, Belle: It's standard procedure for adults to put on their own oxygen masks in an air emergency before putting them on their children. That's not a "twi thing"; it's part of the safety talk a flight attendant delivers at the start of every commercial flight--I guess cuz parents won't be much use to kids if they pass out for lack of oxygen.

[rhino]

I remember hearing craiggers yell about it. Even on the airplane you put the oxygen mask on yourself before putting it on the kid. What good is that kid going to be ...

Well, wonder if he read that in a manual ... you do put the mask on yourself first ... 'cuz then you will be conscious to put it on your kid second. That is how I learned it. But craig only got it half right.

Oh look, Linda is all over that :)

Edited March 18, 2006 by rhino

[penguin]

Hmm corpse of the nineties.....

In rez started with back to back face meltings....... continued with more face meltings...not wanting to sit in front row of corpse nites or STS due to spittle flying in your direction.....learned to be mean and tough to fellow corpse bros and sis.....no weakness allowed.....and tons of in rez corpse getting kicked out...along with disappearing staff...corpse people being killed in accidents and craig said it was because they 1. changed their schedule 2. were not 2 by 2 ....no questions allowed-just jump!

[Linda Z]

Rhino said: "Oh look, Linda is all over that ."

Heh heh, that's because I'm such a chicken when I fly that I actually pay attention to the safety talk--every single time I fly. When others are casually reading their In-Flight magazines and trying to find a comfy position (ha!) for a nap, too cooooool to listen to the safety rap, I'm there, watching and listening, in case there's anything I missed the other few dozen times I've heard it.

[Linda Z]

Sorry Skyrider--back to the original topic:

The good for me outweighed the bad and the ugly (although those elements weren't missing entirely!)

The good:

I really enjoyed some of the classes, like OT History, Early Church History--anything that wasn't rehashed PFAL (I liked PFAL--I just didn't see the greatness of sitting through it repeatedly). I enjoyed the heck out of having the time my last in-rez year to work on my research paper. That was a luxury and a joy.

The skits and the dances and parties and crazy stunts were a hoot, and the people for the most part were fabulous. Only a handful had that "climbing the corporate ladder" gleam in their eyes in the Family Corps in the late 70s, thank God.

Being on the Indiana Campus was, for me, heavenly. I loved the buildings and the grounds and the woods and the little lake and the animals on the farm. Working 4 hours a day was a break for me, because as a single mom I'd sometimes held 2 and 3 jobs at once to support my child.

The bad:

The pace was pretty insane, even in the Family Corps. Up before dawn to exercise, run, get the kids ready for school, breakfast, 1/2 day job, class, homework, help kids with homework, evening class or meeting, nightowls. Makes me cringe to even think about it.

The ugly:

Getting screaamed at for not ratting out younger Corps girls whose room was not freekin' perfect when charged with doing a room inspection during a particularly hectic week. What was it, summer camp, for crying out loud?

Getting screamed at by D. Moynihan for not "respecting a man of God" when I didn't take his crap while our Twigs were doing "chapel set-up" together (love ya still, Ron ) I told her when he acted like a man of God I'd treat him like one. That went over well.

Seeing people struggle to all fit into the same mold, for fear they'd get kicked out of the Corps--like during "Christian Communications" or Lightbearers or other challenges.

L.E.A.D. was good, bad AND ugly all by itself! I liked the rapelling. Although I was not fond of the scorpion family I met on my "duo" or the snakes and spiders encountered at other times, it was a good exercise in trusting God to keep me safe. :D I do wish I'd made good my threat to sit on that stupid ledge till they sent an effing helicopter to rescue me. I cratered and got bullied into finishing the climb. :) What the hel l? I was a 35-year-old woman, and it was somehow necessary for me to prove my freekin' spirituality by rock climbing on climbs that 20-somethings found challenging? Sheesh.

Edited March 18, 2006 by Linda Z

[skyrider]

Thanks Linda.......the family corps sure had its own set of unique challenges and routine. With kids in tow, and homework and bedtime schedules.....amazing you guys kept up the pace.

All of those comparisons of regular corps is more committed.....or visa versa......just stupid, carnal, mind games. Why the competitive judgements, anyways?? Who really cared? Sometimes, I thought it was an ego thing among campus coordinators, or something like that?

You mentioned three topics that were very controversial in the corps experience:

....1) Christian Communications ---- upfront and personal.......public critiqued

....2) Lightbearers ---- I enjoyed my experiences, but not returning to campus :)

....3) L.E.A.D. ------ the testing ground of whether one graduated or not..!!

L.E.A.D. was good, bad AND ugly all by itself!

[skyrider]

Remember those Branch Household responsibilities? Didn't they rotate every couple of months, or so? It seemed like just about the time that we got the work organized and down pat, it was time to rotate.

At Emporia, we had branch responsibilities like:

...1) Dining Room Setup................not my favorite, stringing chairs and all

...2) Top Floor Wierwille Setup.......more stringing chairs and loads of meetings, the worst

...3) Chapel Setup........................pews, I liked this one

...4) Kenyon.................................don't remember having this one

...5) Plurality Palace......................was never good in the clothing dept.

...6) Lost and Found......................nice and simple

...7) Snack Shop...........................popped lots of popcorn

...8) Ushering??.............................or was that included in the setup part?

Besides our 4 hour work schedules [with work coordinators, assistants & group coordinators].......these branch duties had another set of coordinators over us. Uuuuuugh. And, most of the time it wasn't any big deal, unless you got the white-glove fanatic who wanted millimeter precision.

Ooooh, the memories of being in-rez.

[doojable]

I know I'm gonna get picked apart for this one - but I had a fairly good experience in the corps (10th +11th)

I agree that all the classes tht weren't PFAl wer a lwhole lot more fun - I really like the language classes.

LEAD was actually not bad for me either - even though I'm still afraid of heights - I hated the hitchhiking though

I never had to run from any MOG's - which is a good thing but unbeknownst to anyone there I was so starved for acceptance that I would have enjoyed a little hanky-panky - like up in the tower of the library - I only heard about those (I AM NOT MAKING LIGHT OF ANY ABUSES!!!)

I didnt' like all night bless patrol.

Hated never knowing when the poop would fly.

wasnt' much into running - which is funny 'cause I really got into it after graduation -

[Belle]

Y'all, I KNOW that's the standard on the airlines. I think craiggers USED that as proof for his point that the parents' lives are more important than the children's. IF the parents are dead, what use are they to the child's? He used that as a legitimizing of abortion and of choosing YOUR LIFE over the life of a child - whether it was born already or not.

Granted, TWI taught that if it didn't breath on it's own it wasn't a child and it wasn't a human being, soul to even be considered..... :unsure:

That ranting just shocked and stood out to me, that's why I remember it so vividly.

Sorry, Sky. I'm done. :)

I never went through the corps training but have the highest respect for y'all that did. I do enjoy hearing about the good, bad and ugly of your experiences. :)

Edited March 18, 2006 by Belle

[Linda Z]

Skyrider said:

"All of those comparisons of regular corps is more committed.....or visa versa......just stupid, carnal, mind games."

Thanks for saying that, SR. I heartily agree!

Oooh, Branch duties--I'd forgotten about those. At Rome City we had dining room set-up ("make sure you bring your 'incher'!"), scullery duty, chapel set-up (that's where our chair stringing came in), and lots of others.

We also had special "work days" where everyone helped dig a big trench or clean the moat or pick up rocks or whatever. I didn't mind the work days--they were really sorta fun, all working together and joking about paying for the privilege of digging a ditch. When at Rome City, VPW liked to call work days in the woods--we'd spend hours picking up dead wood and chopping/splitting firewood, and invariably we'd have a wonderful bonfire.

I don't recall a lot of yelling in residence. I do remember once VPW yelling at our elder Corps, who failed to dress up appropriately for a class or for some visiting twi dignitary or other. TJ, later of Gunnison fame, used to yell at us but we just sorta snickered. When I heard he'd become such a tyrant at Gunnison I was surprised, because his yelling in Indiana always seemed sorta tongue-in-cheek and no one took him all that seriously.

One of the things I liked most about the Family Corps was the wide diversity of ages, personalities, talents, and experiences it brought together. Between us, we could come up with a way to pull off just about any event we wanted to. There were amazing musicians and artists and farmers and mechanics and disc jockeys and nurses and successful business people of several types--we even had a real-live physician in our Corps. Want a hayride or an intramural football game? We could do that in a blink. Want a formal dinner with chamber music? No problem. I'd never been among such a great group of people before and I still haven't to this day.

We could debate (and have!) the bad and good of twi all day long, but I can say one thing for sure: It attracted some incredibly wonderful, talented people, many of whom ended up in the Corps (and I hasten to add that there were many, many equally wonderful and talented people who didn't go into the Corps).