Steve Lortz

I like John too, and figure he's ALWAYS trying to do something. In the beginning, John and the other principals of CES did a good job of re-examing what they had learned in TWI. For awhile, they actually encouraged dialogue. But whenever they put one of their doctrines into print or on tape, that doctrine became set in stone. The only time they would revisit a topic would be to shore it up with further rationalization of why it had to be right, even if it contradicted the words of the Word, or worse yet... even their OWN words! Blinded by their own arrogance... TO their own arrogance. To me, John seems like a sleep-walker, going though the old, familiar motions without any new, critical mental activity involved. The sad thing is when people turn against John. He really doesn't see it coming. He has NO IDEA of why people would no longer want to follow him. When people tell him what's wrong, he blows it off, and then gets shocked when they do what they told him they'd HAVE to do. Sad. Love, Steve

Where is Torchwood when you need 'em? Love, Steve

I was in a little cornfield way out in the country tonight, with less than a few hundred people. My nephew and I were at the Muncie Dragway, watching drag races. Now the Muncie Dragway is in east central Indiana, just across the border from west central Ohio. We had beautiful weather for the races, but as we were driving home, we heard on the radio that there were Tasmanian adversary watches for a certain Ohio county of interest to folks on these forums. Love, Steve

I'm reminded of the lyrics to the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Meet the new boss... same as the old boss..." "Won't Get Fooled Again" should be the official theme song of ex-Wafers. Love, Steve

I don't remember this being specifically taught anywhere, but it seemed to be something in the air (or the kool-aid, as it were). Paul the apostle failed to take the Word over the world because of his trip to Jerusalem. God had to wait nearly 2000 years for Victor Paul to rise up and finish the job of taking the Word over the world. Not only had God groomed the Wierwille family tree to produce V.P., God also had him NAMED to show forth his mission!?! Apparently, Wierwille was NOT going to make mistakes like that ol' Paul did! When it was pointed out to the princes of CES that Romans doesn't actually say the things they teach, they declared that the prison epistles ONLY... Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians... are reliable, because the things Paul wrote before he was "broken of his Jewish mindset" (ala the Momentus training) on his trip to Jerusalem were tainted by his Jewish character. I personally think Luke-Acts was written to present to the Roman magistrate who heard Paul's case in lieu of the emperor himself. I think Luke-Acts was Paul's defense. I think this purpose may well have influenced the tenor of Luke's account of Paul's trip to Jerusalem. James Dunn has a new book out, The New Perspective on Paul. I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure I will at some point. Stephen Dando-Collins is a historian who has written a number of "biographies" of Roman legions. In Mark Antony's Heroes, How the Third Gallica Legion Saved an Apostle and Created an Emperor, Dando-Collins devotes several chapters to how Paul must have come into the hands of Legio III Gallica, and what his trip to Rome must have been like. He uses material from Acts, but its interesting to see it interpreted from the context of the legionnaires. Love, Steve

Thanks for the info. My question was rhetorical, as in "For slogans he's hitch-hiking on an advertising campaign that's been obsolete for how many years?" Thanks to you, we know the answer is about 15. Lynn may as well have recorded his videos in black & white on beta cassettes. Love, Steve

TWI and the splinters are very heavy on teaching that once you've made a vow, you have to fulfill it, and there's no godly way out. But there is! If you've made a foolish vow, all you have to do is REPENT. Just like any other sin. I felt very liberated when I started repenting of all the foolish vows I had made while involved with TWI and the splinters. Dale Sides was one of the worst manipulators in this category. He would be in front of a group and ask us to join him in prayer by repeating out load the things he was saying as he prayed. Then, in the middle of the prayer, he would insert something like, "...and I'll pray 15 minutes each day for the India mission... and I'll contribute money for the India mission...", and before you know it, you've made a vow that you MUST fulfill. Momentus used vows to manipulate people. Love, Steve

"Just Truth It" Was it Nike that was doing the slogan, "Just Do It"? How long ago was that? I think they came up with "Just Truth It" about the same time John was wearing all the "No Fear" accessories. There was some discussion on another thread about how we all thought Wierwille was so wise because he was so much older than we were. I don't think today's young people could watch Lynn and stand in awe of his "sagacity". Watching Lynn teach is like operating a Gestetner spirit duplicator! Love, Steve

Not just vanity... IDENTITY! They led us to invest identity, to define our SELVES in terms of their organization. And shameful to say, I at least led others also. Love, Steve

No doubt about it. The only thing left in the middle of that cornfield is the defication of V.P. Wierwille! Love, Steve

Speechless as in "how?", Shellon... as in "can't believe John's still telling the same old jokes?"... as in "when was the last time he actually thought about the words coming out of his mouth?"... as in "didn't he get fed up with this stuff about two cults ago?" How, Shellon? Inquiring minds want to know! Love, Steve

You know (or "yanno" as Gen-2 would write), I remember watching Bishop Fulton Sheen's TV show, Life Is Worth Living, back in the 1950s. I've sometimes wondered whether Wierwille patterned PFAL's visual presentation after Life Is Worth Living. Now, here we see JAL going for it again, only on Youtube! Some things never change. He'd do better using his ears for awhile rather than his mouth. Love, Steve

Thanks for confirming my reconstruction of events! Love, Steve

I think the whole Advanced Class was ONE Big Fat (but unsubstantiated) Claim! Love, Steve

Wierwille taught that the first thing Eve did that was wrong was to "respond by considering." Proverbs 18:13 says, "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him." How about that, in the context of "keeping things positive?" Love, Steve

I was just watching Judge Judy. The case involved a plaintiff who had co-signed for a friend who defaulted on the loan. Judge Judy ruled in favor of the plaintiff. Out in the hallway afterward, when the producers ask the participants what lessons they had leared, the plaintiff said, "It's good to do things for people, just not with your credit." The Trustees traded on our credibility. When we would present a greencard to someone, that person was't thinking, "Can I trust V.P. Wierwille, or Martindale and the Trustees?" That person was thinking "Can I trust this guy sticking this card in my face?" When I borrowed folding chairs from a funeral home to run PFAL, I was the one who had to sign for them. TWI built its multi-level marketing "ministry," not just by hoovering down our money, but also by making merchandise of OUR believability, OUR reputations for honesty. TWI broke me when I went Lightbearers while in residence, and I finally deliberately, heartlessly, manipulated two people to get them to sign greencards. After we got back to Gunnison we were told "Oh well, it doesn't really matter if you didn't get anybody to sign up." That was the beginning of the end for me. It's good to do things for people, just not with your credit, INDEED! Love, Steve

Hi, Danny! Good to see you again... Oh... Wait... ...I can't see you Love, Steve

When the lady (bless her heart) who signed me up put the green card in front of my face and asked me which benefit I'd like to receive, I opted for "enables you to separate truth from error." That happened all right, but only after I had left TWI and begun re-examing PFAL with a fine-tooth cootie comb. Love, Steve

Thanks for posting that, Gen-2! That has always been one of my favorites since I first saw it on PBS in the late-'70s. Love, Steve

I wrote a paper on this contradiction in CES thinking and sent copies to John L., Mark G. and John S. individually. I did it specifically to see if I could get one or the other, or any combination of them, to recognize that at least one thing they were teaching expressly contradicts the words written in the Word. But... once they published anything, it was set in stone as God's own Sacred truth. All further effort regarding a particular subject would be directed toward rationalizing why their error wasn't really and error. The rationalization of the error of Principle #15.c. wasn't much of a much. Their rationalization of the havoc they worked in the lives of people who followed them into Momentus, sometimes with deadly effect, was blasphemous. In my paper, I pointed out that the only evidence for this doctrine was what Bullinger wrote on page 1660 and in Appendix 192.B. of The Companion Bible. I also pointed out how Bullinger's interpretation in The Companion Bible also cantradicted his own interpretation of II Timothy 3:16 on page 146 of Figures of Speech Used in the Bible. Of course, Bullinger also contradicts on page 147 of FoSUitB the interpetation he gave on page 146. His passion for perceiving order apparently overwhelmed his passion for perceiving figures of speech. Bullinger reduced the number of things for which all scripture is profitable from four to three by equating "doctrine" with "instruction in righteous". Wierwille reduced the number from four to three by twisting Ricker-Berry's interpretation from "for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness" to "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, which is instruction in righteousness." The only time I have ever heard this "principle"... that Romans, Ephesians and Thessalonians are doctrine, Corinthians and Philippians are reproof, and Galatians and Colossians are correction... the only time I ever heard it used in practice was once, when discussing the adultery issue with an innie. The innie objected that we could ignore the injunctions against adultery in Corinthians because those injunctions weren't "for doctrine", only "for reproof". :blink: Principle #15.c. is still posted on the CES/STFI website. They are full of something!!! Several possibilities come to mind. Love, Steve

Thanks for posting those things, WordWolf. Arneson had much more influence on our world as a whole, and positive influence at that, than Wierwille ever had. Attendence at GenCon usually surpasses attendence at the Rock of Ages at its heighth. Love, Steve

Hey, Bob! I don't know enough about Hebrew or Aramaic to make an informed judgment, though it seems difficult for me to imagine Paul writing to the Corinthians in Aramaic. What do you think about Q? Could Q have been an Aramaic document? Could that be why its traces survive in other gospels, but Q itself has not survived? Love, Steve

They never offered anything more than booze or cigarettes (maybe a cigar or two) to Dave at the parties, but Dave didn't smoke, and he didn't drink because of diabetes. He wasn't one of those followers considered spurtully mature enuff (he was never Way Corps) to handle any "sin consciouness" more heavy duty than that. Dave would have left if he had known about the adultery. As it was, I think his branch coordinator pulled the branch out when Martindale required personal fealty. I wasn't up in Minnesota at that particular time. Dave had no regrets about his generosity, to TWI or anybody else. His marriage broke up after his wife took Momentus, and he didn't. Dave was too leery to be sucked back in by the time Victor Barnard did his thing in the Twin Cities. Dave died of cancer last year. He was a staunch Christian and friend until the end. Love, Steve

In the late-'60s, Dave Arneson hosted a miniatures gaming group in his parents' basement. They were primarily interested in Napoleonic miniatures campaigns, and they came up with some systems for figuring out what their generals were doing between battles. Dave Wesley took those systems and ran a spy-type skirmish game where the miniatures represented individual characters. After a weekend of watching too many old grade-B monster movies, Dave Arneson took Wesley's individual character rules and created a fantasy setting he called Blackmoor, where individual characters could fight fantasy monsters. Arneson demonstrated the game for Gary Gygax at Lake Geneva, WI, and just about the same time, took PFAL. Gygax decided to collaborate on a version to be published by Tactical Studies Rules, and thus D&D was released in the fall of 1974, and became a surprising success. Arneson was not possessed. He was a genius at story-telling. He was one of the humblest and kindest people I have ever known. Arneson tithed tens of thousands of dollars a year to TWI from his income off of D&D, and TWI was happy to accept it. When Wierwille and other "leadership" came to the Twin Cities, Dave was always invited to the parties regular believers didn't get to go to. At Word in Business and Profession conferences, which he liked to attend, he was held up as an example of a successful believer, because of his income. Leadership waited till he was out of hearing to talk trash about D&D. I personally think God inspired recreational role-playing to serve as a laboratory for exercising a person's moral imagination. I think Gygax dragged it down for commercial reasons. I think there was more "possession" involved in the production of PFAL, and especially Athletes of the Spirit, than there was in the production OR the playing of D&D. Love, Steve

For what it's worth, ex, my heart goes out to you. Love, Steve