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In the process of unraveling the cult's indoctrination in my life........I hold the belief that pfal had a subterfuge agenda. The pfal class held the keys to the doors alright......and once locked inside the cult, it was hard to find your way out. Wierwille used preemptive strikes against church, family and community to sever the ties to one's support system.....and then, taught us that we needed to rebuild our support systems based on his teachings and pseudo-Christian cult family. After sitting thru pfal, wierwille closes the last session with stern admonition to "stand on this word".......whether no one believes it. And further, take this material and....."if you'll put away all of your other reading material for the next three months and *study this word,* you won't know yourself." After months of anticipation to take pfal......and the deep truths and secrets to the universe.....we were ushered into this class with hyper-sensitive expectations. It was promoted as the greatest secret in the world today. And, by the end of the class.......you will KNOW it, too. Young, naïve and searching for belonging, how could you NOT take this class? If you walked thru this door, then you'll be a part of it, too. And, if you don't take the class.....you will be shunned or badgered until you drop your objections and sit thru it. After all, everyone else seemed so excited about it. Years ago, I read this article...........The Destruction of Self But now, I understand more fully that all of this started with pfal........not the Defeating the Adversary class. The Word of God truly is a Sword ---- it was used in pfal to sever ties of family, friends, church and community. Wierwille had spent 10 years traveling up and down the highways trying to build a faithful following who would tithe weekly and become workers in building his ministry. Letter after letter, even as early as 1959..... wierwille pressed his deep desire for "co-laborers" and "fellow-workers." By 1967, at the filming of pfal.......wierwille was ready to cross the line into *indoctrination.* He gave lip-service to the Body of Christ, but did everything to subvert each one's uniqueness as a member in particular.......as he rushed onward to plant The Way Tree. LOL. And, all of that "Christ-in-you" evolved into groupthink and follow your cult leadership. It took years and years of discarding individual identity and sovereignty.......to get to the point of "destruction of self."

If we want to continue reaching people wanting to exit twi, my view is to not speculate about things like whether VP was molested as a child unless there's something concrete that points to it.

Well, not that dark or anything, but definitely being the youngest of 6 children is an aspect. The baby of a large family. 6 children over 19 years. When Vic was born, the family dynamics looked like: Reuben - 4 Harry - 9 Sevilla - 13 Otto - 17 Lydia - 20 Babies of families are often known for certain characteristics - pampered, get away with murder, attention-seeking, bullied by older siblings, parents are too old and tired for strict standards, used to getting their own way. Of course not every youngest child of 6 becomes a VPW, but there are certain family dynamics that are absolutely present in his childhood as a fertile ground for the narcissist to develop. I do believe that mentally ill people bear responsibility for awareness and treatment of their illness. These traits sound like they were unchecked through his teenage years with the attitudes and stunts noted above in this thread. Homiletics as a field of study is the perfect breeding ground for the narcissist - it's all about 'me' - how do ' I ' look? How are people responding to ME? With all the misogynistic views on women, some of that was part of that staunch German culture, who knows what demons are in the background there when you think about the origins to some of his perverseness. Anyway my thoughts / contributions on the topic. For the .03 with inflation they are worth. LOL.

In other words..........this is what all the splinter groups are doing. They point to Martindale/Rivenbark saying they were (are) the reason why things went bad! NOPE........ ........Wierwille was the warden of this prison.