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In light of the context - I think wierwille’s behavior showed he had more in common with the thieves, robbers, hired hands and wolves than with the good shepherd Jesus Christ! wierwille’s use of John 10:10 was actually the bait used for cult entrapment. “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. 7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep....John 10:1-13 NIV I got involved in TWI in ‘74 in NY and remember a flyer someone made for handing out when you witnessed - one particular detail of that flyer I still can vividly recall - in bold letters it said “you can have whatever you want”. ...thinking of when LCM would rant about the abundant life of John 10:10 was primarily spiritual to our corps I wish I had the ballz to jump up and say “that’s not what wierwille said in PFAL !” There’d probably be a long silence ...then I would mutter “uhm ...do I still have to do bless patrol tonight or do you want me to pack up and leave right now?” This would be included as DVD bonus features alternate ending of my film “Escape from Rome City”...which has me leaving during my corps assignment after figuring out PFAL and TWI had NOTHING to do with material or spiritual abundance! It was and still is a big scam - - a royal ripoff !

Wierwille was The Teacher................because he said he was. TWI is the true household of God......because they say it is. Elena Whiteside wrote The Way: Living in Love.......because she said they were. Mrs. Wierwille wrote Born Again to Serve............... because she said he was. What we have here is.....Self-Referential Greatness. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EVERYTHING we ever learned from wierwille or twi was self-referential? EVERYTHING........was spoon-fed to us via in-house messaging... EVERYTHING........was tweaked and skewed to place wierwille as "the teacher" EVERYTHING........fake doctorate, plagiarized books, stolen class, no research skills Circular logic: The Way Ministry is great, because they say it's great. No matter how many people exit..........twi still "has the word that no one else has." No matter how many people exit..........twi is still "the faithful remnant," because they say it is. No matter how many people expose their fraud..........they still label the dissenters "possessed." Self-Referential Greatness: Never admit faults, failures, fissures or fraud.

The irony of using this particular scripture out of context is that, in the blink of an eye, it shifted the focus from Christ to one's own self. That doesn't simply obscure the message, it contradicts it. You (not Christ) become the central figure, by operating the law of believing and faithfully following the formula for success. To say that Wierwille wasn't operating a bait & switch scheme would be a naive denial of reality.

Maybe it's time to divide this thread and lock this part of the thread, as it's now moving in a completely different direction, that could be interesting to explore. Thoughts, mods?

In pfal, vpw was rather specific that "the abundant life" was financial and visible. It's right at the beginning. He saw non-Christians living a more abundant life than Christians-according to him.

Don't confuse "prosperity gospel" with true gospel.

Rachael Denhollander was the first woman to publicly accuse former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. As she worked to find justice for herself and the doctor’s other victims, Denhollander began to turn a critical eye on a community that she depended on dearly for support ― her church. Denhollander, an evangelical Christian, saw that Biblical teachings about grace and repentance were being weaponized against victims, pressuring them into offering an easy forgiveness to their abusers. At the same time, churches lacked accountability structures that treated victims with compassion and respect. It soon became clear to her that when it comes to properly caring for survivors of sexual abuse, the church has a long way to go ― and experts HuffPost spoke to agree. Denhollander opened up about her disappointment with the American evangelical church in an interview Wednesday with Christianity Today’s Morgan Lee. “Church is one of the least safe places to acknowledge abuse because the way it is counseled is, more often than not, damaging to the victim,” said Denhollander, who now works as a lawyer in Kentucky. “There is an abhorrent lack of knowledge for the damage and devastation that sexual assault brings. It is with deep regret that I say the church is one of the worst places to go for help.” (continued) As far as I'm concerned, Ms Denhollander is a righteous warrior. Her insight obviously applies to what took place during Wierwille's reign of error (and terror).

One can get a better feel for what the Bible refers to as the abundant life by reading John 10:10 in its full context. Hint: it's not what Wierwille said it is. Wierwille clearly sucked this verse out of context in order to give the impression the abundant life is a material entity. " I looked all around me and saw the the unbelievers were living a more abundant life than the believers". So, if it's spiritual, what was it that the unbelievers had? (rhetorical question)

ANYONE with common-sense management skills, proper discernment and empathy for others........COULD SEE that this "high-speed train" was going to derail. Imagine........year after year, you are REQUIRED to take 3 weeks leave of pay......THEN work-for-free at corps wk/roa. Then.............drive home, and have added stress at work to catch up......OR.........need to find new employment And...............if you were married and had little kids, you were separated from them (mostly) during this time Also...............what about your OWN family??......parents/siblings/nieces/nephews........reunions/weddings/funerals/birthday celebrations The corps couples who started having children............of course, parents wanted to see them and spend time with NEW GRANDBABIES The demands and restraints put upon the corps by wierwille was IN-YOUR-FACE EXPLOITATION. There was NO WAY this was going to continue.......and each year, more and more corps drifted away. Understandably !! Wierwille was a narcissistic bully.........with NO compassion or christian character. NONE. The cult was DIVIDING families............the cult was ANTI-family.

Damn straight, DWBH......................you rock !! THAT is what leadership looks like......and should have been taught and detailed in corps training. LOVE in all of its manifestations helping others.......caring for the weak and vulnerable, ministering to the wounded souls, fighting against those who ravage the flock, leading them to "still waters and green pastures," replenishing their souls with righteous nutrition, etc. etc. In essence, to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd. In Canada, from March 1984 - April 1987.........my wife and I embraced our duties of ministering/oversight of the Canadian brethren with every fiber of our beings. We deemed it an honor and privilege of a lifetime to serve them. The only reason that our tenure was 3 years......was because our work visas had expired and the Canadian government officials would not extend them. The country coordinators before us were Americans, Danny and Rhonda Stephenson, [3 years]........and then, we had 3 years. The visa/immigration/custom officers terminated our visa status at the end of March 1987.........and then, Randy and Diane Ginn [Canadian birthright citizen] assumed the duties. Here at GreaseSpot Café.........we document the multi-layered fabric of micro-management, legalism and abuse on countless threads. BUT..........THERE WAS A TIME AND PLACE when those things were not so. Canada, for a number of years, was young, vibrant, sharing, loving........without the tentacles of spiritual overlords and mandates. Each year, we had a "Western Canadian Advance" and "Eastern Canadian Advance" that were like a 3-day family gathering of hugs, fun, laughter, prayer/healing, outdoor games, short vibrant evening teachings, and capped the Saturday night with a two-hour songs/talent/skit night. Nearly everyone got involved......and lots of us stayed up till 2am hanging out together, because we just didn't want to go to bed. Love saturated these wonderful times. We had corps and believers in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Windsor, London, Toronto, Mississauga, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and other small hamlets ......most notably around Ontario. During our tenure, the outreach and ABS grew near 300%.........as we stayed valiant for the truth. In confidence, I had many corps and believers tell me that our "Canadian Advances" were far superior to the rock of ages in ohio.

When I graduated from the corpse (4th), my assignment was VP of the Way of MI and State WOW Coordinator. I had 20 WOW families in 10 different cities, each pair coordinated by Interim 6th corpse. There were only 6 interim corpse college WOWS, who coordinated College WOW wayhomes at MSU, Uof MI, and Ferris State College, and University of Detroit. Of those 20 WOW families, 2 were in Detroit city, and there were 2 families in the Detroit suburbs of Livonia, Warren, Dearborn, and an interim family corpse couple with a group of 3 twigs in the City. I lived just north of the city in Berkeley, MI. I had an interim corpse WOW meeting for all the interim corpse WOWS once a month in my apt in Berkley. They were fabulous, and we all became very close friends. Word got out, and then all the rest of the corpses in the state wanted to come too. So, after a buncha hoohey from Ken Brown, turd corpse LC, it was opened to any corpse who wanted to attend. At the second one of those monthly meetings, we decided we'd do a weekly SNS for the Detroit Area. We started on Anniversary Sunday, 1976, with about 80 people, including all the WOWS & corpse. At the December meeting, we had over 350, and never looked back! When I first got involved with TWIt, in Long Island and Rye, NY in 1970, when we used to pass the horns at fellowships (not called "Twigs yet!), both Steve Heefner (LC) and Steve Perez each used to say before passing the horn, "If you are in serious need of $, take out whatever will help you get through tonight and tomorrow." We had petty cash for ministry expenses, and ALL the ABS was kept in the local branches and areas until all the bills were paid, our meager "salaries" fluctuated with the ABS, which many times meant that our total weekly salary was $10-20. However, whenever there was an emergent need among the fellowships, ABS was used to pay Dr./Hospital bills, buy food or clothing for homeless folks who came to fellowship, pay for refreshments and food at classes and Sunday night meetings every week, etc. Sometimes we even gave people the $45 "donation" so they could take the class and repay when they got back on their feet. Those decisions were made at the Branch and Area levels. At the end of the month, whatever was left over, we sent to the Limb in Rye. Those amounts rose dramatically from month to month, and the same was done by Heefner for the whole Limb every month. How much we sent was determined by how much came in, and since we emptied the bank accounts every month, that was a lot of moolah, and everybody was happy, except dictor. When he saw the amount of $ coming in from just NY, he wanted it all for himself. So, with the help of none other than Christopher Geer, dictor and coward Allen, fired Heefner and the limb staff he brought with him from CA, during the Advanced Class in Rye in March of 1972. Boob and Doody MoneyHands came in with Gary Frederick to take over the limb, close all branch and area bank accounts in the state other than the Limb, and change over to blue forms and the way tree structure. Perez quit, and all the rest of us fulltimers (2 of us, Ed Goebel and myself) quit and got jobs. The Way of Long Island was broken into just the Nassau and Suffolk branches, Brooklyn/Queens became a separate area, and the Bronx branch was run by a guy named Steffen Emerick. I ran the Bklyn/Queens area, and refused to take any salary. I ran it the way I was taught by Heefner and Perez, and it boomed. I NEVER told Moynihan what I was doing. I just gathered the blue forms and cash from the branches and deposited them all directly into the one Limb account. Since the area was booming, I never got any complaints. So, getting back to MI, when we started the weekly Sunday Area meetings, I had all this abundant sharing to send to the limb, checks and cash. I kept a couple of hundred dollars cash in my apt. and used it as the needs arose among the corpse and their WOWS. For example, the interim family corpse couple had 2 young daughters living in the heart of Detroit the summer after the Cobo riots. Well, mommy got pregnant again, which meant they could not re-enter the corpse. So, to help them out, I paid their medical bills from the delivery and their rent for 3 months, from that ABS stash I kept. Sometimes, WOWS couldn't pay their rent or buy decent food, so i'd pay it from my stash. I even paid for a WOW apprentice corpse to have an abortion when her corpse leader got her pregnant, so she could go into the corpse as planned. To me, THIS was the PUREST and most Christ-like use of ABS for ANYTHING!! I still feel that way. Well.....Bo Reahard was the Trunk guy and the Midwest region guy too. So, he came for a visit in March, and I had him teach at the Detroit SNS. When we got back to my apt, he watched me prepare The ABS to send to the limb. I took out my $200 cash, and zipped up the remaining cash, checks, and coins into a bank pouch with the blue form to take to the limb. Bo wanted to know what the cash was for, and I told him. He asked me if Ken Brown knew about this. I said "No, why? I didn't think i needed to tell him." Well he calls Ken Brown and then rips me a new one for "stealing the ABS"! I called his bullshit, bullshit, and he said he was gonna tell dictor when he got back to HQ. I said, "Good! Tell him to call me and tell me I'm stealing his ABS!" Well, I get a phone call 2 days later from dictor himself! He's got Bo in his office "so he can hear this too". Then he says: "Son, you're right and Bo is full-of-shit like you told him! THAT IS the best use of our ABS and you just go right ahead and keep on doing the right thing, OK?? OK BO??". Then, in harmony comes 2 "yessirs"!! LOL! Then he puts Bo on the phone! Bo says, "You were right. I'm sorry for falsely accusing you. When I hang up, I'm calling Ken Brown to tell him the same thing." I said "thanks Bo, I love ya!" Throughout my entire time in TWIt, at every level of the verkackte Way tree I served in, I did exactly the same thing! And NO ONE, not even Coward or Ding Dong ever said another word to me. There are people still living because of that, who would have been dead, maimed, or arrested. I never used any of those monies for any personal needs or purchases for anybody. I distributed to each as there was need. AND, IT WORKED! i watched dictor and da Forehead take baskets and baskets of ABS from various large meetings and stuff it all in brown shopping bags and take it onto the coach never to be seen again. I watched them splurge on themselves and their corpse girls.....gifts, booze, drugs, bribes, and "contributions to their lockboxes"! I confronted da Forehead several times, and accomplished NOTHING. That one time on the phone with dictor and Bo was the ONLY time I ever talked about it with dictor. So, what Skyrider was doing was absolutely "right-on" as far as dictor and Howard were concerned. Even though it could never have been done under da forehead's reign here in the USA, Skyrider being in Canada and having a pair.....did the right thing. If only there were more who had the guts to do the right thing, which, as usual, meant going against HQ and the board of terrorists, perhaps fewer people would have endured life-altering hurts and pains. We'll never know. Thanks for reading!.........peace.

One corps grad in Vancouver, British Columbia was struggling with financial burdens and trying to keep pace with attending yearly corps week/roa. She had this amazing, genuine heart to serve others.......giving thanks to her lord and savior, Jesus Christ......to be there for others. So, when it came to my attention that she needed $4,000 for dental work........I addressed this matter at our next executive meeting. [Yes, in Canada......we had a three-member executive board to discuss business and financial decisions. Each year, The Way of Canada paid an audit firm to do a thorough, in-depth yearly audit of our books. Thus, we were tasked with submitting official *meeting minutes* from our executive board to the audit firm.] Without hesitation, we authorized this $4,000 payment/gift to enable this wonderful corps grad to get the best dental care available. And, if she needed more......that was absolutely available. And, it brought great joy to our hearts to see her beautiful smile once again. June Marie Casey...........one of the finest disciples of Christ I ever knew. .............Sadly, she died in a car accident about 17 years later or so [2003 or 2004].