1995 Rock of Ages: The Last One: From my perspective, this roa started out as same old, same old......since 1989, the smaller ones. Since 1984, I had long held the opinion that these "festivals" were little more than repetitious herd-fests........moving groups from meeting to meeting. Why didn't they ever do something..... ANYTHING....outside of the wierwille box? Sigh.
But definitely, after a couple of days, martindale was irritated by teenagers at the gazebo late at night....and some who stayed in "tent city" not attending the evening teaching. I'm sure others could fill in much more background on this than me. Since I was a limb guy, I had a list of responsibilities on my plate......one of which was Mr. Coat&Tie Guy usher duties in the main tent. Ugh.....it was so damn stupid. Sh!t.....why was twi so anal with the dress code at roa? It was this kind of stupid stuff that I deeply despised.
Not sure if it was Tuesday or Wednesday when martindale started confronting the parents. Main stage confrontation....not just the chain-of-command wherein the region -->limb-->down to the branches. Nope. The "homo-infiltration" charge got the rapt attention of everyone. The waves of confrontation swept through the crowd like strong breezes over a wheat field. And, by the next morning (as I remember it).......martindale turned the roa into a class, of sorts. Namely, each session built on the previous one.....therefore, "structured attendance." That's one way to get people in the seats!
I do remember this......a friend of mine, (spouse corps guy) asked for my counsel as to whether he should quit his job and go thru the corps program to be re-instated. His wife was 7th corps and he was "corps spouse"....until martindale sent out that July 1994 "dump the corps spouse labels." So, the corps spouse purge had knocked them for a loop and added stress to their marriage. Well, I spend about 20 minutes with him and listening to his desires and goals.....I told him not to go into the corps program. And, further.....I told him that I wasn't sure how many more years I was going to be "jumping all the hoops." Years later, he thanked me aplenty for this counsel.
The 1995 Rock of Ages will be long remembered as the "homo infiltration at roa".......but I don't describe it in those terms. IMO.....there were dozens upon dozens in attendance who were dealing with "a purge" of some sort (debt, unproductive, corps spouse, etc.). Martindale was adamant on devil spirit infiltration and possession.......but I'd seen this same movie by wierwille 15 years earlier.
The sooner martindale quit yelling......the sooner I could get out of that suit.