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dearest bishop!.................... .wtf are you taking, drinking , or smoking??????????..............that is one of the most insane posts i've read in a looooonnnng time!........who are you really????????..............lmao................................peace.

I am in a very serious relationship with someone in the way, and her father is very big into it. I have never really been religious or anything like that, but I was wondering if there was anything I should look out for. I attended a service with her once to see her father preach or whatever, but I had always thought church was weird, and I just knew something wasn't right with the way. What should I look out for?? Any concerns I should have?

We knew them in Charleston SC and they were good, good folks. Moved to Louisville KY, were de-WC'D (if that's a sorta word)by the Forehead but stayed in Louisville and in TWI. Does anyone from that area recently know if they are still involved with TWI? God Bless them wherever they are and whatever they are doing. Thanks, WG

Hi: I am an advanced class grad. I have lived a life outside the Way since 19 years of age, and I did not think it effected me very much. I was wrong. I believed a whole lot of things about our Lord that could lead me to hell (like He is not God). I have studied the "word" myself and know my own mind on the subject at this point. But the abuse was left in me in other ways. I was kicked out of Twig when after having sex with two guys and I would not with the third. I have been blocking this out of my mind for years. However when a man tells me our relationship is of "God" I never put up any resistance if he tells me he is a "godly" person. It started when I was 16. I did not have a father in my life. I thought these people were my family. I was looking for stability and truth. They messed with me big time. I do not expect remorse or honesty from these men. Yet know as God is my witness I am telling the truth. Yes they hurt girls, but the main thing is in my opinion that the Word of God was sold to those looking for truth through Weirwille. We were lied to (some of us in a very vulnerable state...for example I was raped while living with wayers, I got the blood brushed out of my hair and a prayer said for me, thats all.) I left after that, but it was still with me, I still try to speak in tounges, I still believe in "men of God", I still look to a Greek translation and not the Holy Spirit. Our Lord remembers the little girl I was. He teaches me daily. If you participated in the sexual exploitation of girls, and you are reading this, your day will come at the last call. I leave it to our Lord.

Hey! I just recently left (got kick out of really) a splinter group. It's been kind of challenging since I was very committed to TWI teachings and all. It's kind of shocking to realize that there's nothing wrong with everyone else . . . been lurking on GSC and it has been a real help. Glad ya'll are here! Bishop

Hope it's a real good one for you!

Something that usually annoyed me about "ministry" themes was that everything had to be jammed into them. If the theme was "Living Sanctified" no matter what you were teaching about had to have the word "sanctified" in there somewhere. You still heard the same insipid teachings every year, they just used different terminology: Sanctified in Outreach Living Abundantly in Outreach God's Sufficiency in Outreach Prevailing in Outreach Outreach: The Way of Holiness Ambassadors for Christ in Outreach ad nauseum... All the same teaching. Then of course the important sounding "research" into Greek words that accompanied each new theme with Way Corps who could barely speak proper English lecturing us on Greek words.

Hi Kizka, I wish all the best for you. I hope you have the support of a safe circle of friends to help you continue to sort things out. It seems like a wise thing for you to be able to say that you may still feel a little prone to falling for guys who give you the old "We are of God" line. Did you really mean,"I never put up any resistance if he tells me he is a 'godly' person?" Wierwille used it. My former splinter group leaders utilized that same sentiment to get ten young women to make lifetime commitments to him. And I'm sure that plenty of clergy from many different types of groups have used that sentiment to take advantage of folks, even if it in some cases did not lead to sexual exploitation. I wish you well.

It seems like TWI has expended a lot of energy to keep some people around. They have, as long as I can remember sold themselves with all the determination of a rabid dung beetle. hehehe And since I first read the topic of this thread I can say for certain that for all the good people who have been staying faithful to an organization that I believe in truth deserves their censure instead of their loyalty. So many of the things that I once held onto because of TWI lies and spinning of the truth now pains me to see in someone else's thinking. Yeah, it breaks my heart sometimes too Krys.

The guests are web crawling robots indexing web pages for search engines like Google and Yahoo. At least most of them.

That ONE SENTENCE speaks volumes. As I look back......imo, the "twi machinery of sold-out-ism" was fueled and fanned by wierwille. He could have stepped in and stopped the nonsense at any time. Wierwille structured twi's caste system to his advantage......to increase the deception. And, in retrospect......the double-speak deception of wierwille is so obvious NOW. Heck, all we ever knew about wierwille was HIS SIDE OF THE STORY, HIS RE-WRITING OF HIS OWN BIOGRAPHY. Plus, the upper corps coordinator leadership and front-men....were polishing wierwille's image in every imaginable way. Heck, in all my years......I never saw wierwille anywhere near a sign, a miracle or a wonder. There are clear reasons why the scriptures repeat the warnings of following false teachers in a number of ways.......not shepherds but hirelings, seduced, sleight of hand, wolves in sheeps' clothing, clouds without rain, lording over, etc. etc. The rhetoric, the propaganda of twi were the megaphones that attracted many. TODAY........very few ex-corps leaders are willing to come to GS and expose the evil. And, so many of them only moved their hotdog stand over to another corner and changed the business name.....but the hotdog special is still the same. Edit: As per JeffSjo's comment........thanks, oops.

People do not have that power. Position is attained through political maneuvering as with any company, government, etc. Those in office have Machiavellian traits. They ought to go to churches to learn not to judge their brothers and sisters, act elitist, and be Pharisees. The idea of the small autonomous group is one of the few genuine things TWI has had to offer in its history. They are better if not under the authority of a group. Some orgs have run with that, like Promise Keepers and others. Her leadership style builds lemmings. What do lemmings do? They run off cliffs. It's inevitable.

She maintains her position by eliminating any dissenting opinion. You know, kind of like Stalin and Lenin did? It's not an elected office that people can vote her out of. She brought in Pl@t1g because he kissed booty well, then demoted him later. She has a bobblehead crew in office now. She cans, demotes, marks and avoids, defames and slanders those she doesn't like and keeps in lock-step those that comply. "Toning things down" - interesting there. She retained 100% of the structure of the foundational class from when LCM refilmed it. Yet she eliminated "crazy" doctrine. Now all the earthquake and methane gas stuff was a little less substantiated. But the interesting part she removed was all references to homosexuality in the class. Now Craig's rants on it were out of line, and closing with Romans 1 was not congruent. But she removed all that stuff, including any reference to it in the Eve teaching. That certainly turned the spotlight off her and Donna, and others like that around. She won't post her picture on TWI's website for fear of someone from her background "discovering" her. Music and productions she's taken from being relatively decent Christian music to elevator music drivel that is openly mocked on The Soup. Publications the same. Teachings the same. Advances the same. Anything she touches and "organizes" basically has the life sucked out of it and is left a structured shell. She has visions of bringing all the Corps in who trained under previous leaders to see "the heart of HQ". No leaders ever go out from HQ to help develop work anywhere. Only on secretive missions. In many ways she is much worse than either of her predecessors. With them you could see the problems right out front.

I can recall one particular time in FLO when I had to get special permission to go to the post office in town to retrieve a special package from home on a Saturday morning. Hey! If they let ME ditch work assignment, EVERYBODY will be doing it before long. (Same deal with haircuts and dental appointments.)

The state of Kentucky does not have laws forbidding sex offenders, convicted or otherwise, from being ordained. Not the only state that fails in this area. He was convicted of the molestation of one child and another victim surfaced, but the victim couldn't, didn't want to, testify so it never got prosecuted. Clearly understandable from the childs point of view. Will he re-offend? The recitivism rate for sex offenders is staggering, so if it were my call I'd say no question, no doubt and I'd not be shocked to learn of another offense in the last 8 years since he's been a free man. So a minister should be held accountable, what about a minister that already wasn't?

I saw a fair number of the >40 crowd led by JAL's parents. No one went corp - too strenuous, but they were big on the whole twig thing.

Living Victoriously Vicariously through others. i.e., their kids.

Well, if it really is based on Volume III of Studies in Abundant Living, it would certainly be ironic. The contents of that particular book have been weighed in the GSC balance and found to be dreadfully lacking. Hey, Innies! Pick any chapter in that book and do a search here at GSC. I'll be sure to buy you your first cup of java at GSC when you bail out of that sinking ship called The Way International.

The thing is we can speculate all kinds but we do not know her or really you... What we do know is how the ministry operates... and if you have been dating her for a while you are probably a good judge of her heart. But you do need to keep in mind what was said by others. The way does not encourage and probably actively discourages dating and (Marriage..if that is your ultimate goal) with non way people. Now being as you are Atheist/ agnostic/ don't attend Church????.... you didn't really specify... I am gonna go out on a limb here and say she is probably thinking she can convert you ... not because she is actively trying but because girls are always thinking they can fix boys.. it is stupid.. you are who you are but when we are young we women are silly that way. The best thing you can do for your self is peruse the threads of the Forum here read up on what the way is really like and then sit her down and be frank with her... IT would be a waste of both of your times if you were thinking you would get her out of the way and she was thinking she was going to get you into the way.. By the way you are probably not going to win her away from the WAY she would have to leave her family then. You might have her for a while but she would go back to them. And it is not fair at your age and hers to become a blockade between her and her family. Oh and one more word of advice as it were It doesn't matter if her Dad is a big muckity muck or who he is... IF her parents decide you are not good for their daughter they will let HER know, not necessarily you.. This is one of those things most parents do..

Thank you for your response, I have really been enlightened by all of your responses. I have been dating this girl for quite a while, but she really doesn't talk about the ministry that much to me. Is that normal for peopl in the way? Or is it just because she knows I don't live my life religiously. If I could message someone and ask about her father, that would be great, as I have read through posts on this message board about him. I'd like to know what I was in for. We are young, i'm 21 and she's 20, so does her trying to recruit me or whatever not happen until later? I have not seen any intentions or had any pressure from her thus far. She's very hush hush about the ministry, except for the time she asked me to attend a service at HQ.