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If "death by a thousand cuts" has any truth to it, then "death by a thousand exits" will be the epitaph of twi. These past few months, more threads and posts signal the current state of affairs in twi: 1)dissenters are voicing their concerns, 2)staffers wanting to leave hq, 3)no incoming personnel to fill meager staff positions, 4)corps abruptly quitting, 5)home fellowships that are nearly dead, and 6)rfr is on another terror to purge the ranks. Lovely. For me, the sweet validation of leaving that cult grows stronger with each passing year. Reading thru that thread Where's the EXIT?.......gives a clear picture of today's twi and its demise. It portrays an ugly use-and-abuse cult that manipulates its followers from day one until they've finally had enough abuse to walk away. And, the poster BlueCord got involved in 2010.....a way disciple, a staffer and the stench was just too much. You know, Rosalie.....if the newbies can smell this stuff that quickly, then twi-death is nearing your doorstep. The youngbloods know that its rotten in cultville. Me thinks that many of the next generation......are having NONE of it. Few ever want to follow in their parents' old-time religion and FEWER want to stay in a cult. YET, here you are....standing at the threshold of another year [September-August] with a measly group of incoming-corps to indoctrinate. Give it up, Rosalie. After 16 years of failure, how much longer do you intend to press forward against the Lord? Rosalie, by every measurement except one [hoarding of $$$].......your head-strong stubbornness has failed. Will you never learn? Oh well, go ahead and plod into another year of failure...... Where is Balaam's arse when you need him?

twi is a group with no future. It had a past/present that was based entirely on 3 things, all of which are unavailable now: A) the scarcity of information from obscure Christians (Leonard, Stiles, Bullinger, etc.) presented as proprietary ("only WE have 'The Truth'") B) the conman skills and showmanship of victor paul wierwille (who died decades ago) C) capitalizing on the zeitgeist of the hippie generation, and the Jesus People therein (which stopped decades ago) Its current existence is primarily on nostalgia for those, and on inertia. So, twi has nothing new to offer outsiders, and does not draw significant outsiders. It used to draw lots of people. Many would stay and many would leave soon. twi no longer has a reason for any to stay. So, twi can't add to its members for more than a year, and it loses members from exits and from deaths, since it's a slowly aging subculture of slowly aging people. The group's being kept intact from the top solely because its finances can be exploited if it technically exists as a group. So, they have lots of "creature comforts" and hope enough people are clueless enough to stay and keep the group existing through the top people's retirements. So, Rosa-lie's just buying time and "running out the clock." Donna's strategy has to be different because twi may not last through her retirement. So, she's had twi pay for her kids' full education. Perhaps she's hoping they'll take care of her when there's no twi.

An ambitious and seductively pretty Nicole KIdman lures Joaquin Phoenix into killing her husband for her because she thinks he would interfere with her television career but tragically meets her own death when she dies numerous times.

My point is that the ripples of The Way's extremism are far reaching--through generations, not just those that got involved back in the 60's, 70's and 80's. How terrible to feel as though the community that shaped you would want you to be dead.