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Started in London in response to fears of locals in Brixton about knife crime. Has since widely expanded, both in remit and location. There are around 300 groups in Britain, some in Trinidad, some in Australia - in fact, in 7 countries including 3 teams in the USA (Chico, California; Bangor and Portland, Maine). In my city, we get heaps of people rushing up to hug us and to thank us for looking out for them. Homeless people know we don't judge, but offer kind words, a hot drink, and blankets etc in cold weather. Sometimes, homeless people tell us about someone (not usually a homeless person) whom they've noticed huddled in a doorway or alley, that they are concerned about. Parents are thankful we get their very drunk kids home safely. Security staff throw drunks out but then call us to ensure the drunks are warm and safe. Our universities have gained a good reputation as being in a safe city. The homosexual community welcomes us and some of them love to talk - they often have had horrendous times in churches. And EVERYONE knows we are volunteers - and volunteer CHRISTIANS. Our actions are a much better way of witnessing than door knocking!!!

I read somewhere here, from Penworks I think, that for those who've been in a cult, it takes about twice the time you were in to recover properly from the damage. So if you were in for 10 years, you'd be recovering for 20. I don't know at what point one can say that recovery is "complete"; maybe sooner for others, maybe perhaps never for a few . A lot will depend on why one is no longer with the cult, and also what counter-information is available. For ex-Wayfers, if people have found GSC, or some other anti-Way site, then once they can accept what they read, their recovery will speed up. But first, they have to get to the point of accepting what they read. If they try to ease out of their cult-thinking by joining other like "splinter" groups, it may be a slower process. (Worse yet if they want to start their own group, as so many ex-Wayfers do.) But an ease-exit by joining a splinter may help; it helped me a little, and because I felt free to challenge (having become immersed in GSC), it became very helpful to see Way thinking for what it is. The R&R bunch can recover - if they want to. Their minds aren't seared with a hot iron, more like buried under a vast quantity of concrete.

Hi again Taxidev! “But, from what I've heard from many of those folks you have named, they understand the evil works they were part of, and they have said multiple times how sorry they are, and have asked people to forgive them, and whoever still has issues they have encouraged to contact them directly. They seemed pretty repentant to me.” I contacted Boob and Doody MoneyHands the day of their Emancipation Proclamation last May. I wrote them a fairly lengthy letter. MoneyHands officiated at my wedding in July, 1973, just before we all entered the corpse. I’ve known them since 1971. I asked in that letter, if Boob and Doody were going to look up the families of the people they drove to suicide with their fake “counseling”, and ask their forgiveness. I asked if they were going to look up all the scores of Corpse and WOW girls they told to get abortions so they could remain in the Corpse or on the WOW “field”. I asked them if they wanted to apologize to my family and me for the lies, libel, and slander they spread worldwide about us when we left in 1986. I asked if they were going to go to Toledo and confront da forehead for the 48 years of their lives devoted to anti-Christ doctrine and practice which he and dictor paul ordered them to carry out to the destruction, ruination, and even death of hundreds of innocent Christians. I asked a couple more questions. I got a response about 5 days later. It read, in its totality, “Hi Ralph.” That’s it. Nothing else in response. You bet they understand “...the evil works they were a part of”! THEY COMMITTED THEM repeatedly for almost 50 years! I’ve contacted them directly MANY TIMES through the years since 12/86 when I left. They NEVER once asked me to “contact them directly” so they could apologize and ask my forgiveness! Never once! Even as recently as May, 2017, the last time I contacted them “directly”, you saw their snide, 2-Word reply. Yet YOU say they “seemed pretty repentant to me.” Really! Please read Matt 18, and I&II Timothy again and see if you’d like to re-phrase that. LOL! I’m not trying to be “snarky” here Taxidev. I’m simply saying that, imho, your opinion of them is NOT based on fact. Quite the contrary, it is the result of self-serving, CYA, propaganda which they’ve been sloshing around liberally since dictor paul died in 1985, to make themselves TWIt “legends”, and to mask their cruelty and guilt. Same with the Forts and the Horney’s. I was the Corpse Director when The Horney’s were at HQ for their final in-Rez year. I KNOW their crimes against the Church. I was Fort’s Region and Trunk Coordinator. He was a condescending, insulting , unproductive, blabbermouth, prick back then, and most likely remains one today. Point being, I KNOW these creeps far better and far more deeply than you do. That’s not bragging, it’s just fact. They have fooled you just like Vic’n’TWIt did in ‘95. The only thing they’re sorry about is not having their Golden TWIt parachute to retire with. Guess they’ll be using family “savings” or begging their relatives and followers to “give as God directs their hearts”, TO THEM! Same old same old. So, before you go singing the praises of a bunch of cruel, religious despots and liars, see if you can find out from them, some more of the REAL facts behind their sell-out to Satan and filthy lucre. And, NO! I carry no residual anger, nor do I live in the “gall of bitterness”. I am a seeker of Justice, like Jesus taught us to be. Try it. You’ll like it!.............peace.

Awesome. Congrats. Cleansing is just a process and part of overall Christian growth and maturity. Some want to remain stunted in their teenage years of growth. But you already have a head start. Attachment to the negatives, hurt, bad feelings, actions of others including top leadership only keep you from seeing the new growth of the flowers in the spring.

Hey Taxidev, I'm sure your decision was not easy, as the immediate impact of it will to be removing a support system that you are accustomed to. My encouragement at this moment would be to do the opposite of isolate. Shed the elitist "household of God" BS anti-Christ wrong dividing of scripture and embrace the true "one body" in all of its glory that Jesus Christ himself is the head of. Seek the pulse of that one body in your local area - where there is life there is blood flow. The best is ahead, but the path is not easy or one of least resistance. Prayers. The R&R folks are not dead, just as Twinky put it buried under a large mound of cemented BS.

There is a great deal of truth to that. It takes us humans a long time to unlearn. Factors that can mitigate that time frame can include how diligently they challenge the dogma they've allowed to dominate their world view over the decades.

TWI, and all cults, intentionally confuse likemindedness with lockstep thinking. There can (and should be) disagreements but these should be done with gracefulness and respect. Especially between Christians, who are all children of God, children of the same father. Siblings quarrel, but shouldn't fall out to the point of violence. I am a (volunteer) Street Pastor. One of the requirements is that Christians from at least four different churches come together to serve the needs of their city. The idea behind this is to build Christian unity of heart. As we patrol, we talk with each other, sometimes about tenets of faith, but frequently about how we've seen God at work in our lives. Theological discussions don't have a place; we see God at work in each other - whether Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, RC, or some independent housegroup. SPs talk about God's love, his grace, and his powerful outworking. And when we talk to vulnerable people on the street (whether they are homeless, or drunk, or drugged, or rowdy, or celebrating, or homosexuals, or just plain lost), we speak with one voice: we tell them that God loves them, cares for them, that we are the church and we've come to help them, talk with them, and see that they are safe. We preach by actions. It's got the attention of the whole country. http://www.streetpastors.org/

Twinky, great posts !!! I always like when you share about what’s happening in your neck of the woods…I mean by your shore of the pond…I think you are a truly sweet and kind person…and more power to all you street pastors! …I’m glad I got to meet you too at the Texas BBQ.

The R&R fiasco was just a group effort to "redeploy" (another ploy, if you prefer) and present themselves in a "leadership" position to (hopefully) gain some kind of alternate financial (and maybe some emotional) support - which they just lost from the old system that they were inextricably (mentally speaking) entrenched in.

Very cool the Street Pastor stuff. God energizing Christians to move as one body in a local area. London movement there. It may spread worldwide or there may be something else that God is moving locally everywhere. We need more of this type of ministry, and less of the Way International or splinter Way Internataional group make a YouTube channel for Sunday teachings and a new class and beg for money type of ministry.

Taxi,

I think that depends on how deeply one is "in". I'm officially out for 5 days now and I feel great. But I was not sold out to TWI, and I wasn't in the corps. I seriously doubt my 22 years will require anywhere near 44 to cleanse. I wasn't in the corps, and have been more of a spectator for the past two years.

A point to consider is that they left only around 2 years ago, mostly. And what I have heard, and perceived, is that many of them are still struggling to shed the crap. It's like they were blind for so long that now that they can see they don't really know where they are, because they don't recognize anything around them. It does seem at times that they are continuing, somewhat, in the same structural M.O. as when they were in TWI, except they aren't trying to control anyone, and they don't want anyone's money, although there does seem to be an inner circle that calls the shots as to what happens in the group. But the teachings they do on Sundays are, mostly, vastly superior to what has been coming out of Ohio for the past few years. Maybe it would help them to come here to vent, and to see what all of you have to say. While it's been educational to me - I wasn't involved in anything in Ohio other than taking the advanced class - it would probably be extremely eye opening for them, and ideally helpful for them to resolve things within themselves.

I also understand that. But anger at an organization is very different than anger at an individual, especially if that individual has also broken away from that organization. I was with the Roman Church until 12 years old, when I walked out of that church building and never went back. The hypocrisy was oozing down the aisles from the pulpit, it was disgusting. But I have met a few priests from that organization that actually believe they are in the right place, and have an obvious love for God and His people. So, while I am repulsed by that organization, I am not repulsed by those who have been sucked into it. I was impacted also, in that I could have owned several investment properties by now. But, that no debt thing, you know... But I hold no grudges against those that misguided me. It was still my choice. Maybe some didn't actually understand that God gave us free will, but I did. And I chose poorly. But to hang onto the anger I initially felt when I realized what had happened would be worse for me than what has already happened.

While I understand the anger, have you considered that maybe they bought VPW's BS so completely that this is how they ended up acting? Now, please don't misunderstand me, I am certainly not defending any of them. Many I have never met, and several I have, and only a few did I actually get to spend time with and get to know them. But, from what I've heard from many of those folks you have named, they understand the evil works they were part of, and they have said multiple times how sorry they are, and have asked people to forgive them, and whoever still has issues they have encouraged to contact them directly. They seemed pretty repentant to me. Yes, I'm glad I was introduced to the group, and I really appreciate the blatant honesty - something that was so lacking in TWI. But along with that honesty I do perceive residual anger, and an unwillingness to forgive people that have also broken away from the cult, and maybe have even more "crap" to shed than some here have had. Unfortunately, I won't have anymore current info. Just last Friday I told my branch coordinator that after everything I have learned over the past year and a half, I just can't continue attending their fellowship. I gave her a teaching I had put together recently on the fallacy of the tithe, and told her this is a teaching they would never want me to do because it runs at cross purposes to TWI. I gave a lot of background also, where my thinking has been for the past couple years. The R&R group, GreaseSpot and others all had a hand in my decision. And I thank all of you for helping me see things more clearly.

Oh, I don't doubt that you found some of his sources and found that they may have matched up. That alone doesn't mean he or his sources necessarily properly divined the actual will of God. I do believe, however, that God is far bigger than the box Wierwille (and we) put him in.

Not necessarily a valid supposition. I personally wouldn't give the benefit of the doubt.

Indeed. One thing that strikes me is that the labels are different but the template is virtually identical to the cult we escaped from. And this young lady does a great job of showing how not to be trapped for a lifetime.