Leaderboard

Peggy, a dear friend and fellowship coordinator in Stillwater, OK for Rod and Jo Mart!ndale, passed away suddenly of heart complications in early September of 1997. At the time, I was the limb coordinator of Oklahoma and was jolted by this news. Death, and the sting of it, is most always inconvenient and ushers in a plethora of rapid decisions. On one level.......there was the ministry side of things. Peggy had specifically come to Oklahoma in 1994 from Wisconsin at the request of her region coordinator. She was told that her loving support and abilities were needed in Stillwater to help the Martindales. That was Peggy......the heart of serving others. But on another level.......there was her family, her brother. Peggy's parents were both deceased, but there was a brother in Florida. Problem was: according to twi, this brother was blacklisted with that dastardly label.......mark and avoid. So, since Peggy had been the twig coordinator for Rod and Jo, it didn't take but a few hours for this news to reach Craig Martindale. And then, subsequently.....the brother in Florida phones Bob Moynihan about this funeral. Whereupon Bob, the Florida Limb guy calls me and informs me that this brother SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED to attend his sister's funeral. Well, I disagreed. Here And, now.............some 20 years later, I'm sure damn glad he did. I would NOT want it laid "at my doorstep" that I would not permit a bereaved brother to attend his sister's funeral. In my mind, it gave him great comfort and healing to be there for her, his sister. RIP, Peggy. And, Bob..............now, some 20 years later, YOU are mark and avoid. Thankful, that I didn't heed your "counsel" back then. What's up with that pathetic command, Bob? You guys and your "lockstep loyalty" to serve wierwille/twi? You might want to RE-think that and lots of other things.

Hey, Moynihan............... If wierwille had lived longer........maybe we would have seen him led away in handcuffs (like Harvey Weinstein).

As i understand, the leadership of rnr consider the current state of affairs in twi (led by rosie n donna) wrong on many levels, but the "package" put together by wierwolf is solid. The leadership of rnr lack a central focus, and are figuring out how to move onwards from twi. Many of them didnt expect to get marked and avoided and are scrambling. They basically follow the same model as twi, they even do phone hookups. It seems to me that they are trying to pick up the pieces but dont understand how deeply the damage of an abusive cult has affected them. If you dont recognize the problem you cant fix it. They dont see the problems in wierwille theology, they dont see that selling classes isnt working or that perhaps webex is better than a live telephone hookup.

Get ready to watch the A&E special program next week on Cults and Extreme Belief. Janja Lalich, Phd is interviewed. She enthusiastically read and blurbed my memoir, Undertow, before I published it, and with this televised interview, she will help more people understand the recruitment process. It airs on Monday, May 28th at 10 pm, then continues at its regular time on Tuesday, May 29th at 10 pm. Here she is in a promo clip: I posted it on my Facebook page You can "like" the A&E page on Facebook. Cults and Extreme Belief About Undertow: “A magnificently written life story that sheds light on the enticing ways of cult recruitment and indoctrination ... An important and must-read book—more gripping than a mystery, Undertow will sweep you away.”—Janja Lalich, PhD. Professor Emerita of Sociology at California State University, Chico, author of Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults

Skyrider, enough can’t be said for the truly good leaders like yourself ... ...Plenty has been said about the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - - I mean the Revival and Restoration of the Turd Reich.

And there are those who still think these folks are going to change. Thanks for this post skyrider.

I really should check in here more often. This thread answers some questions I've had about some vague Facebook posts from friends still in Way World. Now I know why they suddenly seemed to grow some proverbial balls/ovaries... they didn't suddenly realize TWI was rotten from the root. They just had another place they could go. So many people who I used to idolize for being such strong, faithful believers. They were good people, wanting to do good and serve God. But they were devoid of critical thinking, and easily led. Now they just went with another pack of wolves pretending to be shepherds.

One more side-topic.......before getting back to timeline. ~~~~~~~ Funerals: It comes with the territory: There are just some things that you cannot plan into your monthly calendar......and funerals are one of them. For clergy, they come with the territory of helping others. They are untimely matters that add abruptness, inconvenience, necessity, sorrow and devastation.....depending who it is and who it affects. For me, it was a time to stop all else and embrace those who were hurting. Each funeral service is unique......the deceased have left love-imprints on the hearts of those who sorrow. A string of significant funerals had found their way to my door: Craig Martindale's grandmother ...... March 1994 Connie Panar3llo's mom................... Sept 1996 John Reyn0lds's mom.......................May 1997 Rod & Jo's twig coord, Peggy...........Sept 1997 When Peggy died, her brother in Florida was on probationary status in lieu of twi-mandates. Bob Moneyhands phoned me to let me know, in his stern opinion, that this guy should NOT be allowed at the funeral or around the believers. This brother would be calling me within the hour, he said. And.....he did. We talked for about 5 minutes and I told him.....absolutely, he should come and attend his sister's funeral and call me when he arrived in OKC. The days passed quickly as we scurried around with all the details of the funeral. Four days later, and this brother called me. He had arrived in town. We made every effort to ease his depth of hurt and sorrow. After the funeral, I invited him to the limb home to join several of us at supper, snacks, a movie and/or just hang out. He nearly cried when I offered this invitation. Nothing was really planned.....just kickin' back and living life was on the evening's agenda. Keeping. It. Simple. And. Loving. -------before leaving that evening, this brother gave me a big bear hug. He left OKC a changed man.