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As a morphed, uniquely American, now political, phenomenon. . .I would hope one would reject it. . . . but, having fundamental Christian beliefs is not a bad thing. . . . I believe in objective truth. . . i.e., truth having a corresponding object. . . . I also believe life takes a little faith. :)

partial questionnaire from the Association (in lieu) of Profoundly Preposterrific Queries 1. In what famous "Gone with the Wind" movie did Clark Gable first appear in? 2. Describe in your own words the exact moment when you became aware you were another person. 3. What are the chances of lightning striking another bolt of lightning? Please list all documentation to validate your answer including graphs, pie charts, still shots and home-video footage. Word to the wise: clay animation, artist's conception or dramatization with hand puppets does not count. 4. Train A is leaving Chicago on the South Shore Line heading east toward South Bend Airport, Indiana. At the same time, train B is leaving South Bend Airport, Indiana on the same South Shore Line track, heading west toward Chicago, Illinois. Both trains are moving at 68 miles per hour. The engineer on board train A is wearing a black & red ball cap and is very familiar with high-speed rail systems especially the 0 Series Shinkansen high-speed train [built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries], and happens to be related to someone at KHI. The engineer on train B is the estranged twin brother of the engineer on train A. He is not wearing a ball cap because of a falling out with his brother over team sports exactly seven years ago to the day. At 68 seconds before these two trains collide – which one of the brothers would text the other first with his soon to be famous last words – and what would those words be? 5. Do you feel there is an intellectual obligation to inform your children that Sponge Bob's square pants are actually rectangular? 6. After coming out of a coma, the last thing you remember was sitting next to Mrs. Lincoln enjoying a theatrical production. Would you know who shot J.R.? 7. Do you ever feel like there is a band around your head? Bonus question: what tune are they playing? Extra Bonus question worth double the payout: Who were the 6th & 7th Beatle? 8. What is the price of envy in an economy based on the currency code RUB [number 643 of the ISO 4217 listing]? 9. ? 10. The level of radiation from a typical scan by Superman's X-ray vision is between 25 to 30 millirems – which is equivalent to a cervical spine series of X-rays. Backscatter scans such as those employed by some airports at security checkpoints produce a much lower level of radiation – only .005 to .009 millirems. Do you think the government should regulate Superman's use of his X-ray vision? 11. You happen to meet your twin from a parallel universe. Over a nice dinner (your treat using a 2-for-1 dinner coupon you just received in the mail), your twin informs you of yet another twin in a perpendicular universe. After ironing out a few interdimensional travel issues you finally get all three of you together. Your parallel universe twin starts talking about lunch and says to your perpendicular universe twin "Old money bags here bought me dinner last week so I think money bags should get to choose the restaurant." What is your gut-level feeling about mooching twins? 12. Let's say the average size lot in your neighborhood is one fourth of an acre. Now imagine for sixteen weeks in a row each one of the neighbors on your block wins the lotto, in sequential order starting from the lowest street address. However, you and your house are skipped over. In other words, you did not win a lotto. How much would you charge your neighbors to mow their yards?

There was a time when twi had Q & A (questions and answers) sessions at Word in Business conferences and some of their Corps Weeks. The microphone was set up in the audience where one could stand in line and address a question to wierwille and the board of trustees. From 1979-1981, I vividly remember this as some questions poked some serious questions and exposed some flawed concept held by twi. Not only did wierwille become inflamed by some questions, he attacked the "messenger." At WIB conferences, the questions were more directed at getting "word in business" or business ethics and its relationship to profits. Some of twi's businessmen, at the time.....where not die-hard wierwille followers, and wanted more explanation on scriptural background. Whereas, questions at Corps Week were more directed at doctrinal issues or corps development or balancing work vs moving the word. TWI SHUT DOWN THOSE Q & A SESSIONS.........WHY? Well, I believe, that questioning begets MORE questioning......leading one down the path of critical thinking skills. Twi soon found that the masses were starting to question their sole status of leadership and authority. Even wierwille could not withstand open and upfront questions. Twi had to retreat back to the lecture-mode and teaching-format of teacher and pupil. Authoritative leaders do NOT like to be questioned. Claim big truths, and once they are out there, never relinquish. Allow those big claims like....."we have the word".....to sit out there, unquestioned. Nor would Chris Geer allow anyone to question his "Passing of a Patriarch" thesis......giving the last will and testament (cough, cough) of dr. wierwille. This happened all the time in twi. And, yet......twi doesn't have exclusive rights on this issue. Note the youtube segment..... Q & A Segment Questions are a good thing!

Most religious organizations do not give you any room to question the authorities in an open forum and everyone knows that, so they don't expect it. BUT, TWI never set itself up as a religious organization. It was supposed to be a RESEARCH and TEACHING ministry. I have no idea what went on at a WIB conference, but I have an idea that it was more around learning how to present the correct facade in a business environment to get people to sign a green card, because by 1982 I was aware of a lack of ethics in leadership, so I can't imagine they were teaching ethics. TWI, IMO, was actually hostile to the concept of growing a business due to the time it takes to do that. Heck it was hard enough to work full time for someone else and devote the time to TWI that they wanted and actually have a life outside of TWI (which I later understood why it was like that), much less do God's (TWI) work and build a business. Anyway, TWI kinda opened Pandora's box by pretending it wanted to hear questions, which kind of made it hard for LCM. He was really pretty transparent from the get-go.

Those who have been on the receiving end (or the delivering end, depending on how you define it) of things science would scoff at tend to be among the slowest to be persuaded that modern science has all the answers- because we've seen otherwise. I know science has many, many, MANY answers, but that's far short of a Richard Dawkins-like "science has all the answers to everything except ignorance" position. Not for nothing are there notable scientists who are steadfast Christians....

Did I read correctly, 14 members in this parish? They are in posession of all these books? I thought it hilarious...they are so close to Asheville and burning Billy Graham books.

Personally it seems butt ugly obvious to me that this supposedly bad environment here at the GSC is much healthier than these control-freak cowards who can't figure out how to work on figuring out their truth while treating folks with vastly different perspectives with a little respect. It would be most interesting to here exactly which questions inflamed Wierwille or troubled CES if anyone knows. For whatever it is worth I feel certain that these doubtlessly logical and pointed questions actually were good questions but ended up being thought of as dangerous and devilish. They thought they taught truth but could not even handle a challenging question or a challenging personality perhaps. They did not exactly live up to the examples of Solomon, Jesus Christ, Paul or others in the bible, did they? Dare I say their example in a gramatically correct sense was even anti-Christ? It sure looks opposite or opposing to me. (added in editing) Biblical examples of questions and answers that I can recall seem to have good and wise answers to hard questions on a public level. And no matter what any of us happen to believe these days I would hope that even those among us who do not hang our hats on the scriptures would have appreciated it if TWI or CES could at least scrounge together their best attempt to have handled public discourse according to the best biblical examples. But if anyone questions how I meant anti-Christ I can handle it here in a manner that I trust will not require a trip over to the doctrinal section to deal with. Anti as a Greek prefix simply refers to opposite or something in opposition as I can simply state it best. And in that sense the way that Wierwille handled this encounter I feel free to say without too many doctrinal questions is in opposition to how Jesus Christ handled questions. Eventually Jesus' critics were afraid to ask him questions, he did not shut their questions down, they did out of fear. So at best TWI and CES are a bunch of wannabes in comparison. At worst...well...we may need to take that point to the doctrinal section IMO. But I think that these wannabe turds like TWI and my former splinter group are able to handle things only behind closed doors and with evil intent directed at their harshest critics.....so much for "Love your enemies"..huh? and they can only destroy those who are timid or those who have already placed their lives in their hands as some kind of twisted and petty dungeon master might do to gamers that happen to be in their game.

Isn't "having [a] fundamental Christian belief..." different from a fundamentalist approach to Christianity? As for me and my house, we will reject fundamentalism of any kind....

Fundamentalism. . . . was a movement that arose to combat what many considered modern or liberal theology. . . . it was a movement that gained momentum in the early 20th century. It was an attempt to affirm the fundamentals of the Christian faith. . . not really a sinister movement. . . . it has morphed into something else. . . . it is in large part a political movement now. . . . . . IMHO. . . and pretty much an American phenomenon. Although TWI doggedly hold to their own fundamentals. . . . they are not really recognizable as Fundamentalists and in general are not accepted by the Christian community at large. Exactly because of the fundamentals TWI clings to. . . . . . JCNG, Are the dead alive now. . . . their understanding of The Holy Spirit. . . . etc. etc. Not only does TWI qualify as a cult because of the mind control techniques(Lifton's 8 criteria) it practices. . . . but, from a Christian perspective it qualifies because it denies certain fundamentals. Everyone has a worldview. . . . but, . . . and this is me. . . . rejecting one based on our experience with an aberrant biblical faith is short sighted.

T Bone said I lost confidence in my own thinking skills This is a powerful statement... copenhagen