Twinky

Awesome, those miners who have been trapped underground for 69 days are now in process of being extracted; the tenth (as I write this) has just emerged. It's a joyful occasion. Originally it had been thought that it may not happen until after Christmas. The shift leader has shown great leadership and has kept the men in good condition. Dunno what training he had received, or whether it was "common sense" but he has done much to ensure the safety of all, including, right from the beginning, rationing the food that was available. Perhaps he has also led the discussions between the men, that they will all share the profits from selling their stories. I think this is the same man who's said, yes, he does want to carry on mining. I watched video footage of the first extraction. Now it may be partially to do with genetics, that he's not a naturally hairy man - but that man was clean shaven! He'd done himself up as best as possible (think: Joseph presenting himself to Pharaoh). Here this man presents himself to the world - and he's showing great, positive, Chilean spirit. Several of the others sport facial hair, some quite bushy beards, others neat partial beards and moustaches. Here's a link, updated every 90 seconds, but things might have moved on so tomorrow this link might not work. Live link to Mining Rescue :) <<even has miner's sunglasses on Well done all! (13 up now!!)

I started a topic in Doctrinal about a specific aspect of symbolism. Crossing the Jordan

Waysider's thread in ATW about Symbolism got me thinking of this... Lots of LCM's teachings were based on symbolism. I'm particularly thinking of Joshua crossing the Jordan as being symbolic of Jesus leading us into the renewed mind" and the children of Israel clearing out the Promised Land as symbolic of us cleaning out our old ways of thinking and putting on the renewed mind. They didn't clear out all the previous occupants and got drawn into the ways of former inhabitants. We clear out old ways of thinking so we don't get drawn back. I've never heard this taught anywhere else, though I doubt LCM thought of it himself. I find it a helpful analogy. I wonder if others do, too? Is it accurate? And I wonder where he poached it from.

My Corps Coord definitely taught us to "think in pictures" - as aids to remembering things. No doubt some of you will remember 1-hen 2-shoe 3-tree with "the object you want to remember" on the hen, shoe, tree or whatever. The Bible is full of imagery. Symbolism. Everything in the Tabernacle was symbolic of something to come. Jesus was following a long-established method of teaching. It still works as a method of teaching today - relate something to the person you're trying to teach. Use of symbols, parables, etc is not "private interpretation." What is private interpretation is pseudo interpretations of Greek and Hebrew words, and then hanging a whole theology on them.

Oh Froggy, as if Floyd wasn't enough, now you're doing it with Crimson.

Okay, who's going to "shop" them? Bet they manage to do just enough to keep it "legit". After all, don't they compel people to go to "fellowshop" or some teaching series whilst on grounds?

Maybe you can also check out what the requirements are in Indiana. When I was in rez, the "training" was notionally run from the Way Coll of Indiana (again, not Ohio) - something to do with not being able to get accreditation in OH. Never occurred to me that the reason we sat through all those classes that we'd already done ??? number of times was simply to keep some sort of property tax exemption.

Nonetheless, LCM as the veritable leader, is standing in the gap in his tights, and beats off all the wicked devil spirits.

Froggy, you did a bad thing with that link. That song/tune has been floating itself around in my head all day. Been so long since I heard it, I wouldn't have thought I'd've recognized it.

The poison word...great phrase. Looks like every collegiate body cult has its poison words....that describe little but serve greatly to differentiate and divide opinion. (Doncha just love it when you get your quote marks wrong and have to edit?)

Floyd!!!!

It's all "us and them" culture. We're in the front line. Everyone else is the enemy's front line. Certainly we were taught to look on every negative thing that was said against TWI as being an attack of the adversary. Including everything that pointed out the holes in TWI dogma. When you come to think you are on the front line of anything... you've really lost sight of the "service element" of serving fellow human beings in (Christian) love.

No disputing man's inhumanity to (wo)man.

Maybe say...I was just looking on this website [the Cafe] and there's some stuff about your organization...could you explain it please? And put the rottie by the door so's they couldn't leave (LOL).

Comes with lifetime guarantee...is that for the person to whose belt it's attached? what a monster!

Spanish Inquisition? (and yes, Wordie, I did expect you to mention that). I thought that was headed up by a guy named L1nder? I notice you don't mention the Salem witch trials but only European ones.

Invite 'em in. Give 'em a cup of coffee. Express an interest in what they had to say. And ask the hard questions. But it ain't gonna happen, where I am. All are turned aside and doing their own thing. God bless 'em.

6 cities? 14 of these kids? Are they sending them out in pairs now, then, rather than "families" of 4-6? I wish the disciples well in all that they as individuals could learn. And the best they can have is that the eyes of their understanding are opened very wide to see the unChristianness of the organization they are promoting.

Them as wants to, can conduct their own research into ancient means of determining right and wrong. European law is based on Roman law; English & Welsh law is different; Scottish law is different agan. Standards have varied through the ages. Not really what this thread is about. There seems to be a resurgence of people claiming to be "white witches" and interest in "spells" and "magic". Not sure whether this is the desire to be "different" or a genuine seeking after the spiritual side of life. But then: some people are just plain wacky. And some are mocking. Some recent census forms (including the one that we are to complete in 2011) include under their Religion section: Jedi. Census Jedi The census people leave in because it does get some people to complete the census forms. Of course, what it says for the quality of their responses to other questions is debatable.

Why, it's their "abundant sharing" at work, of course.

Very sad people who so completely misunderstand their God. A different group, but same tactic: Wwatched a doco on TV last night (rare for me, I don't have a TV) about the "Church of Scientology." A couple of escapees were talking about the tactics used by that organization. Went further than the clip Hap posted; the Scientologists had gorgeous surroundings - in fact, a beautiful prison camp. Everything was video'd and used against them. Smear tactics, and extreme M&A tactics too. Control by fear and intimidation. That's all these groups have. So different from freewill submission. Can't help but wonder what the poor little kids on Hap's video are going to turn into in a couple of decades, if they don't see what their oldest sibling saw.

A link in case anyonoe's interested. "Official druid website" Good swipe at Christians part way down. Link to OBOD near the bottom which takes you to another website where ultimately you can learn about the seven gifts of druidism. And some of it looks like "cult language." Their special way of putting things.

A fundie pagan/witch group??? Sounds like crossed broomsticks at dawn! Don't know about witchcraft law repeal, I'll check it out. I do think that a lot of people (almost always women) were just folk with a knowledge of herbs and their healing properties. Medieval magic - gosh, you healed someone with those herbs, must be magic, let's dunk you till you drown (big pharma at work even then!). No idea what druids are supposed to be. A lot of strange people do odd things at Stonehenge and like places at certain times of the year like midsummer and solstice. I doubt there is anything at all historic in what they do. Modern fantasies and rituals to be a bit different, I think.

News article This might appeal to some people here. Bramble, perhaps? Most people think that this would be just another bonkers lot that prance around at Stonehenge. The Charity Commission clearly thinks otherwise, though apparently the CC took some convincing. A long way from mainstream...just thinking of another current thread on cults. News item just on the radio. "First pagan religion to be recognized in this way."

Heh heh, funny, Groucho. Never thought I'd agree with you on anything.