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Mr I'm-the-super-believer wierwille was supposed to be Par Excellence for the so-called "law" of believing, the "law" that has failed so many people, so many times. Supposedly, his believing was the Top Tier on the planet, so it should have been a piece of cake for him to believe for more years. Instead, he died too young. In his final hours, he was STILL the captive of his own teaching- he was literally trying to figure out what was blocking his ability to believe for his own healing. Even as death approached, he wouldn't, or couldn't, be honest with himself. You don't have a "prison" of your own making, in your mind. You do, however, have a "prison" that HE made. Step outside of it. The entire "Word-Faith" thing has shown to be toxic. When people suffer, the "Word-Faith" people are REQUIRED to blame them, kicking a man when he's down. Miserable comforters blaming those suffering are as old as the book of Job. They were wrong then and they're wrong now.

I ( personally ) have found 'believing' to work. It's actually believing IN believing...and then taking up the necessary 'works' to hook up to your faith. As a side note, my wife and I were told ( by leadership in the R&R movement ) that when we left the way our kids would grow up to be homos. 20 years later we have 7 grand children

Holy sh1t javajane. An artists depiction of recovering from a cult all with a central piece of Athletes of the Spirit? I would love to see pictures of Complex 3 if anyone in Texas is going to see the exhibit.

Penguin2, so sorry about the diagnosis that you've been given. I do believe that God desires health and healing for all, including and always, YOU; He made your magnificent body and He knows how to fix it. (But neither should we be foolish enough to ignore that sometimes the magnificence isn't fixed in this lifetime). Get pushy and demand healing. Meantime, while you're waiting, do what your docs tell you, and try to relax and enjoy life. Keep giving, keep sharing the gospel. And as to what the Mags told you: as the truth is usually diametrically opposite to what phony leadership pronounced, I'd suggest that instead of being the failure the Mags prophesied, you acknowledge they are false prophets; and the real truth is that you are in fact, in truth, a good wife and mom. Throw some ice-cold water on their fiery dart. You are still a seeker after God and the Lord Jesus, and that makes you anything but a failure. Jesus never called anyone a failure. He called them dear friends, companions, and empowered them.

JUN8 Complex 3 by Seth Schwaiger Public · Event · by Art League Houston Seth Orion Schwaiger invited you Interested Going Ignore More Friday at 6 PM - 9 PM 3 days from now · 73–93° Mostly Sunny Art League Houston 1953 Montrose Blvd, Houston, Texas 77006 About Discussion Write Something Details COMPLEX 3 Seth Orion Schwaiger Opening Reception: 6 – 9 PM Friday, June 8, 2018 Artist Talk: 6:30 PM Friday, June 8, 2018 Exhibition Dates: June 8 – July 21, 2018 Main Gallery Art League Houston presents Complex 3, an exhibition by Austin-based artist, curator, and writer Seth Orion Schwaiger. This exhibition is part of an ongoing series of projects exploring ideas of intrinsic and assigned value, with an increasing focus on the value and quality of non-linear thought. The works in the exhibition include architectural intervention, labyrinthine installation, and doubling of imagery and symbols as a strategy to pull the implied line of traditional exhibition viewing back in on itself. The looping or spiraling of information produces a unique environment that challenges the viewer’s proclivity to process information in a way that speaks to a more outcome-driven, practical, algebraic, cause and effect way of thinking. Complex 3 is Schwaiger’s first solo exhibition in Houston and his most transparently autobiographical exhibition to date. Here, Schwaiger transforms the gallery space into a spiritual quarantine, a space isolated through sonic and architectural means, in which a dark, yet comical image from the artist’s past can be processed in relative psychological safety. The centerpiece of the exhibition is an obscure video of an interpretive dance produced by the Midwestern Christian cult The Way International in 1986 in which their unique spiritual mythology is articulated through nylon clad performers — including the now disgraced former Way President the Reverend L. Craig Martindale who stars as the protagonist of this baffling film. By opening this sensitive memory, reexamining the absurdity of his own past, and presenting the imagery of it in a physical way analogous to the mental structures and processes that surround trauma, Schwaiger invites the viewer to consider absurdity and pointlessness — to consider elements that add up to nothing, or to less than the sum of their parts. It is an invitation to take in existence without the overwhelming desire for it to make sense, to consider one’s own past without making every moment integral or necessary, and, in the end, to undo these very same conclusions by putting such pointlessness at the center of thought. It is an invitation into the artists own private mental space. ABOUT THE ARTIST Seth Orion Schwaiger is a lecturer at the University of Texas. He earned a BFA from the University of Wyoming in 2007 and an MFA from the Glasgow School of art in 2013. Since that time he has published 100+ articles and exhibition essays through museums, galleries, and publications including art ltd., Artsy, Arts + Culture Texas, The Austin Chronicle, Glasstire, New American Painting, Sculpture Magazine, and Sightlines. His work has been shown and collected in Europe and North America including exhibitions in London, Zurich, Berlin, New York, Chicago, Austin, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Recent projects include several collaborations with Elizabeth McDonald Schwaiger: you i i i everything else at De Stijl Gallery, Austin; Arch , part of Good Mourning Tis of Thee at Co-Lab’s Demo Space, Austin; and Unheimlich at Anthem Gallery in San Antonio. 18 Going · 48 Interested

That’s a tough one Penguin2...you certainly have my thoughts and prayers right now...going on my own experience i feel that anyone that gets into the law of believing, the health and wealth gospel , the power of the tongue, etc. will tend to put themselves under needless pressure in hopes of achieving the desired result... I do get the idea of having a fighter attitude but I don’t think that means to beat up on yourself...I recently saw a news spot about a young girl with a prosthetic leg who was a gymnast - and she was doing things that were amazingly nimble on high beam and floor mats...at the end in an interview I don’t remember how she put it exactly- but she was looking at her prosthetic leg and said rather than succumb to self-pity she said something like “this is the way it is now and this is what I’m going to do about it”... I remember some of the ways life is portrayed in the Bible (from Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” ) is that life is a test, an assignment, and a journey...for some biblical inspiration on having a fighter attitude I look to the lives and tough circumstances of folks like Peter, Paul and of course Jesus Christ...I don’t think the fight is really about beating down the negatives or pretending all is well...it’s about seeing things as they really are now and deciding what we’re going to do (and think) about it so we can carry on.

Maybe this has sat here too long for anyone to have given it any more thought or take issue with it, but if so, then so be it. Then I will. Because if that encapsulates the conclusions of his study, then it's obviously a downright shoddy piece of work. How so, you ask? Okay then, since you asked (or, were surely going to)... right out of the gate it is spun towards and reeks of uncertainty. Who thinks or says that the best that anyone ever has or can receive is "the promise" of salvation? So, you're not really saved. Nope, not yet. That's why that word promise is in there. It means you don't have it yet, as it's only something that can or will happen in the future. But... is that right? Nope. Without defining what one is saved from or to, I think not. And not according to Paul either (unless he's talking about or referring to Israel, or the change yet to come, or the wrath that is yet to come, or something else yet to come.) Why else would these next few verses say that we are saved? 1 Cor 1 [18]For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 2 Cor 2 [15] For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. Eph 2 [5] Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) [8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 2 Tim 2 [9] Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, Tit 3 [5] Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost When and where does he point out and plainly say that (or how) we have already been saved and/or ARE saved now? In other words, it greatly smacks of having an idea already in mind that he's going to find and use certain selected scriptures to prove, rather than honestly looking for what the truth here might be (or really is)...

Yes, that's something they did to in rez Corps, usually in the first semester, and now and again at other times, too. There's some tiny trigger event, nothing significant, and it's an excuse to blast everyone in sight, threaten them, browbeat them some more. I think one of the provocations for throwing out my Corps was: we were out running, outside, one cold and frosty midwinter morning: the usual 6am wake-up. Ed Horney, Corps Coordinator, had decreed that we must all wear our hats. Now, if a person is running, something to be expected is - getting hot! - so some people took off their hats for a while towards the end of their runs. Adults, right? Able to make decisions as to personal comfort levels?? This crime of taking off one's hat was grounds for giving all of us a bo££ocking and threatening to throw all of us out for disobedience. Happily (?), we were all allowed to stay, providing we didn't dare stray into disobedience again. What? They'd rather we got heatstroke from being too bundled up? (Never mind injuring ourselves by slipping on the ice, or snow, that they were making us run on!!) There were occasional other events of this type.

Hazing was far more accepted in the 50s-70s. Then again, one of the chapters of the fraternity I belong to was de-chartered because of an incident gone wrong. (The pledges were to dig a big pit on the beach. It collapsed, suffocating one of the pledges.) That incident provoked a LOT of changes in the national fraternity's codes. This is a bit of a de-rail, I suppose; but I'm reminded of how different individual chapters were. At my undergrad institution (MIT), when I was a freshman, some of the seniors remembered having a lineup, ONCE. In grad school (U of Illinois), pledges were rousted out of bed about once a month, along with other "games." George

It happened in the mid 1970's, in the middle of the night. Our program was in the the middle of rural Ohio. Just packing up and leaving on a moment's notice would have been very difficult for most. We were told the program had been cancelled because our "believing" was corrupted and inadequate. No specifics were given. A few hours later we were told we would be allowed to continue, contingent on our following orders without question. I later found out that the same stunt was being played out, at the same time, in the Way Corps. It was all staged to push people into pledging loyalty. For some people it was quite a traumatic experience. edit: Here's the thing about these kind of incidents.Some people can walk away unscathed while others are deeply scarred emotionally. There was no follow up for those who were deeply affected. In fact, those who were deeply affected were made to feel it was their own fault they were hurt. Like a spouse who is led to believe it's somehow their own fault they were the victim of abuse. It's bass-ackwards.

Pen, I too had Cancer fourteen years ago. People get Cancer for various reasons; it had nothing to do with leaving TWI. I think you were very smart to leave TWI; what a bunch of losers. Please seek out medical advice, and then do as your doctors suggest. If you can, you might want to join a Cancer Support group. Nowdays, a diagnosis of Cancer, isn't necessarily a death sentence. Bless you, and I will keep you in my prayers.

I think the artist's parents may have been in family way corps when we were.

Hi Penguin2, I think you put your post in a fine place. I'm glad several greasespotters have given you encouragement and comfort. I'm reminded of something Jesus is quoted in John 16:33 as saying. And that an author who helped me break free from the mental and emotional chains from TWI. M. Scott Peck opens his book, The Road Less Traveled with this simple three word sentence: "Life is difficult." John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” I don't want to sound preachy. The bottom line is, IMO, what Twinky shared above. Love and peace to you, my sister.

yeah, well... you weren't (or aren't) alone with that issue. Perhaps this will help (or at least, ease your mind.) There is something incredibly powerful that a sufficiently disciplined mind appears to touch upon. (So it should not be without caution that words and thoughts are brought to bear on such matters.) However, if no clear distinction is made or drawn between the works of the law (which encompasses the totality of anything that you, me or any man can do) and the grace of God (which none of us really understand the fullness of), then how is anyone ever very sure or how much their life (however it's being lived) is in harmony with God? So what if "your believing" (call it whatever you will) gets you to what you might think is a better position or place in this life, if it's only wood, hay or stubble that all ends up going away one day? Those are tough shoes for anyone to walk in (and I sure can't.) What I can share, though, is the perspective I see that Paul would have on this and ... well, on most everything, actually. Philippians 4 [6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. [7] And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That pretty much covers how I think prayer (and believing) should be taught. We make our requests known to God, and the answer (to say it in those terms) back to us is this --> that the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (So, we let it go at that. Let go, and let God... for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's just something that no one else can dictate to you. )

I had the same issue with the law of believing, which is crap. Put and keep your faith, believing in God and Jesus Christ, we arent responsible to fulfill God's promises, God is. We receive through trust in God. Let your heart rest in God's goodness. And forget about making people happy, keep your thoughts focused on rhings above. Im on lunch and in a hurry, but please private message me. I have dealt with so very much with my sons health, and have lived through the self loathing that judgement from others brings. Much love!

I remember a number of years ago visiting Washington state. During that time we took a ferry across to Orcas Island and spent a little time there. We ended up seeing a slide show and a piano presentation in a small theater at this place called Rosario. Apparently this place was built by a former mayor of Seattle who was a shipping magnate. He had been diagnosed with cancer and given only a few months to live by doctors. He retired from Seattle and moved to Rosario on Orcas island and took care of himself and relaxed and enjoyed it. Instead of dying in a few months he ended up living 20 years more to the end of his normal life expectancy. During that time he developed his interest in black and white photography, and ended up having an extensive collection drawn upon by the city of Seattle for turn of the century history in Seattle. I hope stories like these are encouraging to you. My prayers go out for sure. My vision for your living each day in peace and victory one day at a time.

The magpies are full of sh1t. I'm so sorry for your struggles and what you are going through. For encouragement, we all do have an expiration date upon this earth. We all do not necessarily know when that date is, in spite of our struggles or facts we are faced with currently. This is all the more reason to live the days we do have left like we want to. Like a warrior. With our kids.

Of course, that hypothetical is... well, I think of his self-destructive behavior and laugh at the notion he could have lived another three plus decades.