Ham

I might give him the backhand of a glove.

And.. SUPPOSING the account happened, not necessarily the way the vicster remembered it.. who can really say the guy wasn't FAKING? I can think of several motives.. or maybe he was just jeering him.. maybe the alleged rejoicing crowd that came to the station was just rejoicing to see the vicster leave town..

It would make more sense to hoist the name of P.T. Barnum on one's banner.. by his own admission, he was only arrogant and self-serving. at least he was honest about his scams, for the most part.. and still made a fortune.

I wonder if they've written a mission statement yet. I'll volunteer: "Fearlessly building agression in *believers* since 1942.."

maybe the vicster had a tough time distinguishing between the two.

I have seen people do some pretty foolhardy crap while they ignored fear. From what I've read, practically the whole lead experience seems to me to have been an exercise in foolhardiness.. Have to hitchike there.. no money, except for an emergency fiver or so that you'd BETTER come back with.. get hurt? Lose a few toes? Well.. it had to because of FEAR.. pretty much absolved the people supposedly running the thing from responsibility.. Get gored at rodeo school? Same as above. I think the "lack of fear" teaching wasn't primarily about lack of fear.. maybe it was to find out who could REALLY be aggressive..

from the Wikipdedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Beter among many of his claims: He seemed to have a pretty good start, being an attourney and all.. presidential advisor of sorts.. maybe he just "went a little funny" in the head..

What if the people running the place get more than a little "wacky"? Some of the same people on "staff" bought into vic's assertions that the u.s. was going to be taken over in 1976.. it was almost hysteria.. they probably STILL think that if it wasn't for vic's "greatness" that it would have happened.. then there was what.. 79 some kinda takeover or something.. people hoarding food, gasoline.. ammunition.. and his "greatness" saved us once again.. I would imagine at least ONE of them sat and listened with "ears of believing" as loy described how the pope was arming himself to the teeth, buying an aircraft carrier, and setting on a new inquisition, this time, in the west.. When I ask about qualifications, I think I have good reason. If their "experience" is corps training.. being around the "master".. I better not say. I wonder if they'll roust the trainees up to have little emergency meetings in the middle of the night.. where the world's coming to an end, if they don't muster up enough believing or something.. people crying.. dogs barking.. It's part of the "corps" experience ya know..

Well.. I did hear the vicster claim "the moon turning into blood" was because secretely, the russians ("reds") were going to put a military base there. If I remember correctly, the vicster said that the russians had some kind of missle base in guyana, and that OUR people went in, took it out, then staged the Jonestown suicide supposedly to cover their tracks.. God forbid that one should think the mind of leader of a "religious group" just might go a little "wacky"..

Beatles White Album, second disk..

well.. I offered him another one. You know, two for the price of one.. still waiting..

At this point, I don't believe that the said funeral occured, or the said minister existed. Nor that there was this particular woman with this particular son. Nor that there was the same street, with the perhaps three houses .. or the road, where the fictitious apparent "believed for " car came barrelling down to bring the demise to a fictitious boy, all due to the unbelief of the fictional mother.. No more than I believe the story of him going to some Jain convention in india, or receiving the keys to the city.. or that the vicster really invented the hookshot, the McDonald's concept, or got a legitimate doctorate..

I wasn't going to say that.. there's one around here with wings that shows up every once in a while.

and their greatest fear- many of them aren't constantly under threat of being whacked with a wooden spoon..

New perspective.. hmm. Well, they could emerge from obscurity with a prize-winning research team.. a new, dynamic leader.. offer a marketable product which MIGHT actually have something to offer.. local "leaders" who don't really mind if you don't show up for a couple of weeks to "twig".. or put off the "special" so you can spend time with family and friends during the holiday.. or put off corpses "training" so you can get a REAL education somewhere.. using student loans to do so, if need be.. or could care less if you buy a house or car and make bank payments.. and encourage people to get on the internet, check out the unsolicited evaluations they der vey is receiving. Not entirely inconceivable. They say cows can fly as well..

Ya know.. the discipline and focus you beat into people very well may one day turn against you..

The other thing I was thinking.. I can almost hear their argument.. "wayulll, we have a WHOLE COMMITTEE over this thing.. NEVER would be the same as the old way" want to bet? Look at CES. They had what.. how many people on the board.. and STILL it turned into an elite "prophcies and momentus R us" club.. what makes you think a committee makes any kind of difference. So you all are "of one mind".. "one accord" as far as what you PERCEIVE to be the Word of God. Tyranny really is the same, whether it is practiced by a dictator, or a board of five people who tow the line.

Sounds like more posturing here.. I'm Paul.. he's.. whatever? I asked many of the same honest questions personally, of the guy who is supposedly spearheading the new (old) endeavor. probably "designed" for the "special" fellow laborer.. the few, the elite.. Who's running it. What are their qualifications. What qualified people do you have on staff. Oh, the little "we can terminate the program at any time".. is it a threat you'll hold over the trainees and scream if they don't seem to muster up the superhuman strength to cut and stack firewood, take care of your farm animals, hoe the garden, AND be able to stay awake for four more hours listening to old "doc" vic's tapes at night? Something like "take our .... or leave"? Of course I asked that question a lot more politely.. What do you do when someone gets hurt in this "extreme" adventure? Blame them because of their supposed lack of believing, and send them home? Do you REALLY think that having the enrollees sign a hold harmless agreement will REALLY protect you if you can be shown to be negligent? Do you know about the abuses that were "enjoyed" in the old system, the one you are trying to resurrect.. What safeguards have you put in the "program" to keep THAT from happening again.. or are you just going to run a spiritually and physically slip shod operation like the one before turned out to be? What kind of five year plan do you have to get these people through some REAL education, REAL qualifications? If you don't, you're sunk.. you're just gonna teach people how to live in poverty.. Are you just gonna raise another bunch of hardened yes men, bound to some standard that even you can't live up to? as far as qualifications.. "well, I was on fellow laborers.. isn't that good enough.." "Marine Corps" for the "body of Christ".. bull sheet. You haven't even been through basic training yourself to begin with.. You've got the name, but hardly the means.. and the question I didn't ask, before communication was shut off: and the staff. Yes.. the staff.. what kind of a system of ACCOUNTABILITY do you have in place? Or are they all just old "aunts and uncles" from the old way organization.. those who "can do no wrong"? "Honorable" counsellors, whom you may not have the balls to confront? What if an enrollee claims that someone laid a greasy hand on them? What do you do? Send them home, claiming they must be POSSESSED to make such a claim? It worked for the old organization on more than one ocassion.. where are the checks and balances? If these questions bring someone to a rage.. the only thing I can say, is you REALLY haven't thought the program through. You may not care for, or ask for an evaluation from the *special* graduates at the end of the year.. but in twenty years.. or maybe thirty, those you put through your "training" very well may be writing YOUR evaluations in a place like Greasespot.. will we be reading the same thing? Reports of "Incidents" that were carefully swept under a rug, along with passioned pleas for forgiveness? "Just get over it brotha.. look what Jesus went through.."

so what you are saying is there is no *real* standard for a person OUTSIDE of the one speaking to make ANY valid comments about the genuineness, or lack of..and if that is the case: speaking in tongues means absolutely NOTHING to anybody, except to the one speaking. Only he knows whether he is supposedly sincere, or faking it. Then It is an external evidence to others- of absolutely NOTHING. The vicster wouldn't be exactly self-serving when he claimed it could not be counterfieted, would he not? I mean.. whoda think that a false prophet or jackal in sheeps clothing could possibly be "born again" or something? Sure.. he "speaks in tongues." as far as the "sincere belief in the heart".. almost every successuful scam involves one portraying that illusion. They can rain tears.. "cry like a baby" if they have to.. I think WW posted the answer to that:

wow.. no replies.. have I been a baaad Squirrel today? *checks armpits* *sniff* I guess I did take a bath this morning.. maybe nothing more needs to really be said.. :)

so we have this "fruit of the spirit" that is undefined, fleeting and nebulous, and like the Cheshire cat, once one turns the back and looks again, it is gone.. so, on a practical level, Christianity is no different than any other religion. And cannot be differentiated from other religions, except for some perhaps a few unique beliefs? Is that what you are saying? That the "exclusive" salvation that is enjoyed by it's adherants give them the freedom to "do as thy will", and in the end let karma, the universe, or whatever is there figure it out? I smell the scent of Aleister Crowley here..

No replies, yet? there was a minister here, in one of the local mainstream churches. He was smart, charismatic.. really could move people.. they found out he was a womanizer. Documented of course.. so as a board, what do you do? Sweep in under the rug so as to not lose membership.. or threaten the victims to keep silence.. tell the church that they were possessed? Put him in charge of RESEARCH? The guy was OUT inside of a week. No notice. I was impressed. Oh.. the church didn't lose "the truth as it hath not been know since Martin Luther" either. those who "came after" him don't adore his name, or reference their sermons to his material.. or praise his name from the pulpit. some people actually take their beliefs and ethics rather seriously. One thing I can say for them.. they knew how to take the trash out..

It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Why would one hold a plagiarizing, arrogant, self-serving, womanizing, adulterant, mean, power hungry, drambuie sucking, self-worshipping, falatial scoundrel (forgive me if I left anything out), as an example of the merits of redemption.. "well, he's in the book of life doncha know.." isn't this trashing one's own religion? All it suggests to me is that "that kind" of redemption is rather powerless.. where a man who supposedly has changed, merely continues life worse than before. Capone would make an equally good example. He could be a nice guy, buy poor people doughnuts.. but his day to day living habits wouldn't exactly exemplify redemption either. If the argument is "well, it's grace. the lord saves to the uttermost.." point out some salvation here, other than when he was receiving adulation on stage. If that is being "touched by the master's hand".. I don't think I would exactly want to be touched.

No. I don't think he was. If his day to day life was any real indication of the merits of redemption or the "new birth", I question the existence of either of them. It's just.. the "enormity" of the new birth and all.. a man supposedly being "changed".. how is it he can just go on with life and sin worse and worse. I thought it was supposed to be about WHOLENESS. Obviously it didn't exactly work in this particular case.. at least as indicated in THIS life..