Twinky

Thanks, Chockfull. It's taken a lot of work to get to where I am now. After I got M&A'd I spent ten years down the bottom of a deep dark miserable well, unable to face life, people, anything and anyone. The lost years, I call that time. Then, extreme misery compelled me to act and I was going to crawl over broken glass or whatever, to get back to TWI. Instead, I got waylaid by GSC. And I started to heal, started to recover my thinking capacity, started to feel the warmth of God's love. Lots of miraculous things happened to me then. Like God was showering me with all that love and those gifts that I'd been hiding from before, when I was down that well. He found me a church where there was space to just be, gentle kind people, great teaching... People, strangers, befriended me and made space for me in their lives and in their homes. :knuddel:/> I said weird cult-head things :redface:/>, got strange looks :blink:/>, but nobody tore my head off for not group-thinking. :rolleyes:/> My pre-TWI friends and family welcomed "me" back. :eusa_clap:/> Long-term, I don't think my "identity" - my core being - has changed except to get back to where it was, the person I used to be before TWI got its hooks into me - but my "identity" is deeper and richer and with more to give now. More compassion and understanding for underprivileged and beaten-down people. And a lot more peace of heart. Still some big confusions; maybe everyone has those? None of us really has all the answers! Life is very good :dance:/>.

chockfull, I didn't bail out, I was cast out (and then heaped with slander, of course). I hold nothing against my fiance; I held a lot against the interfering person whom I have since forgiven. We were all so Waybrained but I was the bottom of the heap, so I got the most kicking. You know how it was. Whatever happened was because the woman wasn't meek enough. I still like my fiance (now 10+ years married to someone else) and think that if we'd been left alone to get on with life, we'd have been happy enough together. It seems that we actually have quite a lot of things in common that weren't clearly seen while we were involved with TWI. Unlikely ever to meet again, but if the opportunity arose, I'd fight anyone to try to keep his marriage safe from interference by others.

In the words of Princess Diana: "There were three of us in this marriage." She meant, the other woman. I mean: the nearest MoG / wannabe. I wasn't married - but I did get engaged. My fiance and I would discuss something and agree on it; then the twig leader above him (my own immature Corps bro) would say something else and the fiance would do that - something quite different from what we'd agreed. If I said anything ("Why did you do that thing opposite from what we'd agreed?"), I was told to defer, to be meek to my fiance. Goodness knows what a marriage would have been like. Nuff said. I'll get angry soon... :realmad:/>

Self-structured, yeah, right. Structure your time around: doing your laundry, fixing your clothes if they needed repair, waxing your boots if going LEAD, writing to your spiritual partners, catching up on sleep, get ready for the next meeting in a few hours, etc. Not too much to do I suppose, bearing in mind that you weren't allowed off campus without express permission and another person to accompany you (you'd also need transport). Yep, one's whole world encompassed by the boundaries of a small farm in NK. And don't forget that that was only for a few months - when preps for the Rock started, there was even less free time.

Jesus died for all, right? For Jew and for Gentile; and for Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, animist, atheist, witch, warlock, rich person, homeless street dweller, and all other human beings. Jesus thought the price he was to pay was worth it, for all these people. ALL these people. So who is anyone to say that any other person *isn't worth it"? Who is entitled to "look down on" any other person? Regardless of their beliefs and apparent standing in a "church" or their supposed membership of the "Body of Christ." Gal6:10 tells us: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." >>>>>> "Especially" is not another word for "exclusively." <<<<<< Here's that verse in context - an exhortation not to be picky or to demand entrance to "the club" - if you're interested: Gal 6:9-15

Good one, krys.

Is it "fairly well known that there were lesbian relationships"? Donna and Rosie, certainly, and the two women living in the basement (one of whom claimed to have been delivered from lesbianism). Others? I don't know. I wasn't aware of any of that whilst I was in rez. Craig spent months on Corps nights yelling about homos. Months! Months venting his "spiritual anger" upon us. And routing or outing males supposedly caught "in flagrante." Whether they really were or not, who knows. One of the men so "outed" had been very keen on me at one time (until that friendship got banned by LCM) and I got no sense that that man was other than interested in women. It was the standard departure slander, to say that a male was homosexual and a female was lesbian; I doubt most of it was true...maybe some were, but so many? If there were so many homos/lesbians, what had happened to CP1 (in-depth spiritual perception and awareness) that either or both of VPW/LCM had let these people get in/these devil spirits infiltrate? (And don't give me that "fog years" junk). Really, LCM was venting his anger and frustration at the way his wife was being stolen from him by Rosie. A bit of a change, the boot on the other foot - when he had stolen so many other men's wives. A taste of his own medicine - and he felt powerless to stop it. Serves him bloody well right.

Just to make it clear, it was DWBH's post #21 above that was edited - what DWBH said - not what I said (above).

I don't think pro-abortion was about controlling the minions, MRAP; it was more about attempting to controlling the evidence that this "church" advocated "free love" among its head men and needed to keep that hidden from the general public (and its own followers). That attituded filtered down and eventually reached the twigs. where people had already been primed in PFAL. If there is free love among the twig members and some of them might have had abortions, it would be easier to attack those same women if they came into the Corps: their barriers against this had already been broken down.

DWBH, you make the above allegation - but how do you know this?

Very often, people who have been either heavily dependent on drugs, or in prison (let's just say, captured, for both) go through a sort of arrested development. When they come out of prison, or get free of their drugs - there their old self is, but delayed by the period they've been captured. So if someone goes to prison at age 18 for 7 or 8 years, in many ways they're still only 18 when released. And for druggies, the same. And that's despite a lot of experiences, mostly unpleasant, that were enjoyed or endured whilst captured. That's because the normal emotional growing up that they would do with their peer group has been suspended. Now think : TWI as imprisonment, drugged-up, etc.

Hit singles? You mean, like that song that made it onto YouTube - The Renewed Mind is the Key - like that? :evildenk:/> I won't offend your ears and eyes by posting it again. Ah! You didn't mean songs that were singles...

:offtopic:/> In context of being a cheerful giver and of being conscious (thoughtful) of where you give money, you might be interested in the following two websites that attempt to evaluate charities for their impact and their best use of donated moneys. Notably some of the bigger/more famous charities don't make it to the "best value" places. It does not mean, of course, that your pet charity/ies isn't "good value" or doesn't carefully manage donations. You may prefer to donate to charities of which you have your own knowledge and involvement with. It's your hard-earned money; make it work hard for someone else when they spend it; don't let it line the pocket of a rich CEO. One of the following has a page on "tips" to consider, questions to ask, when it comes to giving, particularly of large donations. GiveWell Giving What We Can

Report in ComputerWorld: My link

Thanks, George. I don't think I'll be going there any time soon! I dislike Win 8 and don't need any more annoyances! When MS sorts out Win 10 properly...in a few years...maybe... :)

Nice to see you back here for a while, DWBH.

Dana - your story gets worse. Who set that for the second wedding date? Not your Mum, I'm sure! If she's still alive, it's time for her to open her "lock box" and shout loudly about the contents - just as you are doing. How is your brother doing now? Please remember some of the good times with your dad, with us. The things some people have posted on this thread are very kind and perhaps a comfort for you to read.

VPW also used this verse to support his claim: Ex 21:22: If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. VPW said that if she miscarried as a result of the fighting (striving), then the punishment was only a fine. If it had been a person, it would have had a life and the penalties for the taking of a life would have applied [death or banishment]. He glossed over or rather ignored the "no further mischief" aspect. But look at this same verse in other translations. Several look at this as meaning simply "premature birth" and some go on to talk about premature birth with no further injury (mischief) - ie, death of the child/ren or the mother. The commentaries on this Biblehub link are interesting, especially Gill's commentary (at the bottom of the page).

:offtopic:/>I thought this was interesting from that web page, waysider: © 2014 S.O.W.E.R.S.®. (L.E.A.D. Outdoor Academy™ and W.O.W. Ambassadors™ are trademarks of S.O.W.E.R.S.®) And you know who fiercely protected their trademarks, name, etc...

So - Johniam - what "faith" was VPW demonstrating by his works upon young women? And upon the young women's husbands, if they had a husband? or more familiarly: If one can tell what is going on in a child's head and heart by the child's actions, by the outward demonstration of what the child believes, how much more for an adult? Remember, we're not looking in the short term of a quick and convenient lie about something that VPW did or didn't do - anyone can lie and dissemble for a short period. On the contrary, we're considering the pattern of behavior over a period of years. Over some decades, what does that man's actions betray about his heart? His thoughts? His faith? And that's what gives the right, or insight, to know what's in someone else's heart. The long-term actions, or works, of that someone. Whether that someone be VPW, Johniam, Rocky, the Pope, the President, the Queen ...

Another excellent post, Steve. Well put. :eusa_clap:/> For those not interested in "multiple centres of reference" - Proverbs 15:22 (ESV) (my emphasis): 22 Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. For anyone interested in wise counsel: Wise Counsel - from Open Bible

Steve - thanks for these three wonderful posts that set out your history (and perhaps something akin to the history of many of us). You present your account very clearly. I especially liked: " I had been in love with TWI because the people in my original twig had loved me, and I attributed the same kind of love to all of the rest of the people involved with TWI..." The hook that got most of us, it seems. Thank you again.

Over HoHo Relo, they expected you to meet and mate with some random female? Or some female that you'd already known? Sh@g 'em and leave 'em? Only responsibility = get rid of the evidence? A somewhat different approach from most churches, which advocate more of a pre-marital celibacy line.

Mea culpa, Sky, thought you were out before 1995. I'd been banished by then. I never got there in 1995. So... a RoA with "real" (ahem) d.s. infiltration. (1) where was the BoDs' "believing" to keep these d.s. away in the first place? (2) why didn't the BoD or one or more of them simply banish the d.s.? You know, a real exorcism. Ah heck. Much easier for the BoD to banish all believers, rather than banish a few d.s. Holding a RoA might also have exposed the dramatic fall in numbers. If the BigTop was as empty as the auditorium is now, who'd want to be there at all? But you could well be right, Sky, with your assessment that the cost of bringing all the WC in wouldn't be cheap (even if you do have$65m in the bank).