Ham

Ever consider the possibility that "light" may lie in TRUTH? And I don't mean any one particular archaic doctrine or superstition either. Light doesn't need focussed on. In fact, you'd better bring a pair of sunglasses..

To this day, many of those I loved and supported.. fellowshipped with.. even some I knew before way days who are still in wouldn't even DREAM of looking me up. Even before my first post on greasespot. I never was placed on some kind of special blacklist before. a lot of offshoots are almost as bad.. they'll "play" if one wants to go to "twig".

Sounds more like crack cocaine.. like a lot of them had a "dealer's habit", where they'd shoot their own grandma for touching their latest stash.. true? Some people were convinced to mark and avoid (or worse) those in their own families. For little or no reason outside of some meddler's suspicions. How powerful WAS the drug that twi offered?

reminds me of a Springsteen song..

I thought this might have some relevance to the "new corpsy" thingy. Having been subjected to der vey's "swinging door" policy, i.e. OUR way or the HIGHWAY, or just plain the HIGHWAY if we happen to not like you.. why institute the SAME POLICY? It's like.. you've either left, or been driven off to just become what you've left. you've left a power hungry, authoritarian, self-posturing bunch of legalistic hucksters to become one of them in the end?

I wonder how much of this nonsense was more about how the vicster saw his family being scattered to the winds so to speak. Older group gone, off making a different kind of life.. and facing the same possibility with the younger group. Who in their right mind would put that kind of pressure on his own offspring to tow the line.. "if it fails, it's YOUR fault.." any way I look at it, it looks like he was NUTS. Did he REALLY think that he could sow the seeds of destruction- what.. about twenty Drambuie soaked years of adulterous and worse behavior, and somehow, the kids could pull the "ministry" out of the fire? that's a yoke I wouldn't put on MY offspring..

Actually, the narrow confines of way beliefs didn't exactly fit the parents either.. "some of us" have abandoned the way beliefs we thought we'd embrace for a lifetime..

The only thing I can say.. shame on them, or the one who allowed it.. why put that kind of yoke on a baby..

Socks, that reminds me of a contractor here, who managed to lose his license. I know another contractor who witnessed his "handiwork".. he said they literally built houses like the three stooges.. a wall went up, a wall went down. Plumbing got put in, plumbing got ripped out.. heating ducts got ripped out, the wall removed, the wall put back two feet further, where it actually belonged, and then.. the ducts went back in. They considered his operation a laughingstock. Maybe I'll start a new thread.. loy the "contractor"..

The same could be said of colleges, universities, etc. Growth is expected. As of yet, though, I have NEVER EVER EVER seen any one given student singled out by ANY professor to be a recepient of crushing ridicule and criticism and made and "example" of in front of a class.. or a blind student ridiculed and screamed at because of their unbelief that they could not follow along in the reading. I've NEVER EVER seen or heard of any fellow students being rousted up in the middle of the night for some kind of emergency meeting.. or to line the driveway to meet the president of the college as he pulls in town in his motorcoach.. in fact, hazing incidents back in the old days at their worst didn't come close to what some people were put through to develop "christian" character. Now let's look at the results of this development of "christian" character.. look at ces.. a bunch of tough, stubborn, neurotic mog wanabes.. and rood's scam of a "ministry".. and the friggin idjuts trying to go live in the woods again, and drag kids along to do the work.. the other "advertisers" on cff's website, running more pfal degree mills.. selling more toilet paper degrees. I'm not sure about the Belezian deal.. they MIGHT be a little more legitimate.. but I wouldn't bet on it at the moment.. but vic produced offspring groups that are no better than scientology. Or SELLERS of kaballah. You really can't SELL what's holy..

At best I pity the poor bastards. Obviously, SOME of them think they are "special".. regard their heritage as a gift of gawd or something. Why else would they try to resurrect the wierwille name and ministry on a farm in the middle of nowhere.. I don't think ALL of them are actively involved, but at least the one who named his kid after gramps. The older kids managed to strike out on their own, and you couldn't see the road for dust. I wonder what they think of this new venture.. why they'd yoke a baby with this, I have no idea.. either way you look at his "heritage"- the "official" white-washed version, or the "unofficial" testimony of what really went on behind the scenes, it's a heritage I personally would not want to deal with. I wonder what he's gonna do when he finally realizes he can't live up to the illusion of the supposed icon they've given him.

But why the desperate need to drag some young kids into this.. maybe it'll make the little camping experience in the woods a little more comfortable. Maybe they need omeone to chop and stack the firewood, feed and slaughter the animals, build the farm.. repair the equipment, build the fires, cook the meals.. Iit's obvious they are too old to muster up the kind of stamina to do it themselves. "This is YOUR farm. It will be what you make of it. You are always welcome here.." where have I heard that before.. Why put it on the backs of yet another generation of youth.. How many of you guys slaved away at Emporia, Rome City, HQ.. my name is in the little book in the auditorium as a contributor. I wonder if the book is even still there.

I dunno. I think the "board" here is pretty human. Like anybody else.. "so now what' may depend on the particular person involved.. "now what".. you tell me.. :) where is it exactly you want to go?

I tend to think either one "has it" or one does not.. it's like.. after all the fair speeches.. either it's really there or it isn't. If it's not, one can "renew the mind" to doomsday..

I dunno.. looks like a heck of a lot of assumptions. 1. Yes, I'd still be alive. I wasn't exactly on a course of self-destruction, neither did the debil have me in his sights for destruction, lest I believed the words of the vicster. 2. I don't entirely agree that what I got from twi I or II for that matter, was "given" to me. In fact, I think I paid far too much. 3. No, he was not a Doctor. He bought his "doctorate" with a short stint at a degree mill, and tried to use this second rate sheepskin to maneuver his way into high religious circles, political circles, and into the trust of unwary individuals. sometimes he was successful.

Personally.. I think they have delusions of grandeur.. I really think they've gone off the deep end.. we have one guy on the board who regards the "fire ring" at hq as some kind of holy place, on par with Arlington Cemetary.. we have another who stumbled through as abused and abuser, and doesn't have a stinking clue.. but has the ego the size of Texas.. another who just goes along with it all.. "well, it's biblical. It's biblical, isn't it?" "counsellors".. yes men, one and all.. and one kid.. "groomed" just for the moment.. kid, I'd run if I were you.. you're the one left holding the bag.

Perhaps. But then again, look at ces. Look at the viciousness, infighting, false prophecy against false prophecy. and ten years is a LONG TIME to put off a career.. in ten years, the resources to build one may not even exist. Maybe the others will move on, but where does that leave a 38 year old megalomaniac who won't be able to explain why he didn't do anything in the field of his degree for the last ten years or so? "ummm, well, I ran a camp for a few years.." Maybe that's the plan.. most of these old timers really behind the thing will likely have left this world.. cff will need a new president.. all he needs now is a "doctorate" from akribos or something..

Thanks friend DWBH. Your questions and observations are certainly relevant to the discussion at hand. These old time "elders of the church" you refer to are the young man's "counsellors". It's.. all in the family. I'm sure jp knows full well how abusive the old man could be. I would choose to think that he is intellegent enough to have observed and remember a lot of the abuse inflicted upon God's people in pa's "survivor new knoxville" program. McM*llen likewise. Why resurrect a system with such a STRONG potential for abuse, and actually advertises it? I think the kid doesn't have a clue.. he just thinks or they've convinced him that the rottenness was just something that happened long ago, that couldn't possibly have any relevance to life at hand. I think they've fed his ego.. got him on some grand expedition where he thinks he's gramps successor.. got him thinking he's got some kind of "ministry". They may not officially support this fiasco, but the ties to CFF are all too apparent. I wonder if they have a monument there in rememberance of "da teacher" yet.. wouldn't be suprised. The worst thing about all of this.. I really do care for these people, and it looks like they are digging themselves a grave they won't be able to climb out of..

and almost every step along the way he dropped those who had some real experience in life who wouldn't go along. He pretty much abandoned his old congregation. The old "fuddie duddies" who wouldn't blindly follow him down a wide swath of insanity. Then he lost another group of "fuddie duddies" about 1976 or so with the publication of jcing, in his attempt to put his name in the mogster "hall of fame". "I don't mean to be splashy or controversial, so I'll just publish the book with big letters and "not" in red.."

but.. like one his later followers, he managed to pull the failed lightbearer experience out of the fire by bringing back the head of "Swatratra" on a pole. In his case, he didn't have a tape recorder, so could only bring back a "stowrie" at best.. *comes back out of breath* *cough, cough, wheeze* "sorry we coulnd't get a class together folks.. we were too busy battling demons..but they told us we could always come back and try again.."

I think it was a mutual agreement. I found myself eye to eye with a madman and slowly backed away.. as far as recovery is concerned.. I had already started getting involved in the community. Shortly after, I went back to college.

darn.. I shoulda shot the dog instead..

On top of that.. has anyone else noticed how the vicster has other people address him in his dialog in the class? like the deal in india.. "that a man o gawd".. or other dialog, "well, DR Wierwille.." nooo.. he wouldn't call himself that.. but he'd have Johnny Jumpup do it for him..

In a normal family, one would not ordinarily subject their offspring to hours of screaming, acts of incest, demands that they perform activities that hold the possibility of losing fingers and toes, harsh criticism if they get sick, express supreme dissapointment if they fail to willingly offer you fifteen percent of their income, make threats that if they can't muster up a eight hour workday and manage to stay awake as you ramble on incoherently for another four or five hours, that you'll send them outside to fend for themselves. in a normal family that is.. "just getting you ready for the world, kiddo.." The world is a heck of a lot better place, for most people..

Pink Floyd, the Dark side of the moon..