waysider

Silence is golden.

Here's an abbreviated version of the incident to which I alluded in an earlier post: A very dear lady, to whom I literally owe my very life, decided to start a twig. Not just any old twig. This twig was to be a support group of sorts for people whose children and grandchildren were participants in the various Way training programs. (W.O.W., Way Homes, Way Corps, FellowLaborers) They met at an official level once or twice a week. At an unofficial level, they met a bit more often to have breakfast, help each other with non-ministry chores and just enjoy socializing with each other. They were all retired, some on fixed income. They enjoyed the singing, the praying, the SNS teaching tapes and interacting with each other on a personal level. What could possibly go wrong? These were all people of limited financial resources. They did not abundantly share. They did, however, give support and sponsorship to Way program participants. They also took up a love offering at the sanctioned weekly meeting. Who knows? Maybe someone reading this had parents or grandparents who attended this twig. It was small so it's probably unlikely. If so, I'll bet they never told you about what happened. Well, push came to shove regarding the "blue form" (weekly ABS sheet) and word came down from the mountain HQ that 1.)There was not enough age diversity represented in their group and 2.)Their ranks were not expanding as is expected of a typical twig. Thus, they were to either disband the twig or stop identifying it as being associated with The Way. Ultimately, they chose to simply socialize with each other on a casual basis. The twig as an entity ceased to be. It broke this lady's heart. It broke mine too because I was the one who had gotten her involved with The Way in the first place. Submit to our methods or hit the dusty trail. That's the REAL message of The Way "ministry". edit: That lady was my mother so don't even think to tell me it's time to "just get over it".

A large part of the appeal of Wierwille's message was that it was unique, proprietary, hadn't been known since dinosaurs learned to slice bread. So, yeah, had we known then that it was all rehashed, diced and sliced works of others of whom we had no interest, I do think it would have swayed our acceptance.

That's why I said "theoretically". Back then we didn't know it was just a money grubbing scam so we submitted ourselves to fulfilling the requirements as best we could.

I still have mine. (1972) It does not contain that particular sheet. My syllabus has a 1968 copyright date. Maybe it was added or deleted at some other time. The suggested reading for all the lessons comes from PFAL materials, with heavy emphasis on Ephesians and Romans.. Completion of these home studies was mandatory for acceptance into the Advanced Class, along with proof of faithfulness to abundant sharing and *active promotion* of The Way and PFAL. *active promotion*... means devoting your time to setting up chairs, making refreshments, leading songs, running a twig, etc. So, just completing the home studies and abundantly sharing could not theoretically buy you a seat in the class. You also had to submit to a lifestyle of serving the organization.

Ever think you knew how the Way Tree was structured? Take a closer look at this description from The Way Tree syllabus from 1974. It says the OPPOSITE of what many of us always thought it said. "Each twig is self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing IN COOPERATION WITH its respective Branch AS EACH BRANCH IS TO its respective Limb, AS EACH LIMB IS TO its respective Trunk, AS EACH TRUNK IS TO the Root of The Way. Self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing? Not so much.

Despite whatever it may say in the Way Tree syllabus, the twig was never self governing. Rules and regulation for operational procedure were generated from the mother ship in New Knockwurst, Ohio. Sing songs from Way approved sources, with Way approved lyrics. Exercise the manifestations in a manner that has been prescribed by the same mother ship. Expound on materials whose contents have been approved for presentation by...well, you know. Oh, don't forget to have a "love offering" and collect the tithes. (Boredom could have been minimized had we skipped to the final step at the onset.) And, I think we all know by now that the twig was never intended to be self supporting. (Perhaps in another post I'll expound on an incident that demonstrates a specific example of this.) Except for some limited occasions in the early days, twigs were NOT to have car washes or any other similar activity to generate revenue that would be used at the local level or help support a believer in need. Money traveled a one-way street in The Way. Strict adherence was mandatory. If you were ever involved in an HQ mandated "twig split" or simply decided to become part of a twig that was not the one to which you were assigned you found out rather quickly that any "self" propagating that took place was strategically governed by sources beyond the twig, itself. If you don't like the twig you're in, tough, renew your mind. Submission. That's what drove the train.

You want submission examples? O.K., here goes. (I've posted this before in the course of other discussions.) This incident took place in approximately 1977. While I was involved in FellowLaborers of Ohio (a 2 year, in-residence training program), we received notification at our housing units to report to the state headquarters immediately. We were given an arrival time frame that was physically impossible to meet. I don't remember the exact directive but it was something along the lines of "Be here in 20 minutes.", even though we were at a location that was a 30 minute drive away. (I'm simplifying this a bit to speed it along.) As we arrived (there were about 50 of us.) we were told to enter the BRC and remain silent. No talking allowed. We sat there in the dark room (it was during the early morning hours.), silently waiting for the emergency meeting to begin. It seemed like an eternity though it was probably more like 20 or 30 minutes. Finally, the limb leader took his position at the front of the room. He proceeded to chastise us for our tardiness. Next, he informed us that, because of our negative believing and lack of commitment, the ministry goal of Word Over The World was in serious jeopardy. It was especially grievous because we were in Ohio, the birthplace of The Way and our negativity was dragging down the worldwide effort. We had absolutely no idea what we could have done wrong. We were not to speak or ask questions. As a result, the program was, at that very moment, being cancelled. We were to return to our housing units and begin to disperse in the morning. People had come from hundreds, even thousands of miles away to be a part of the program. It was quite a blow. When morning came (5:30 AM) we met one last time as a group, just as we did every morning. It was at that meeting that we were told we were being given one more chance to make the program work, on the condition that we, from that point forward, do exactly as we were told, when we were told, without questioning. Much later, of course, I learned on GSC that the same scenario was being played out at what seems to have been the same time in the Way Corps. It was all a staged charade, designed to insure our submission. Does that speak sufficiently to the issue being examined? Edited to note: Some of these die-hard cats you see on facebook, praising the wonders of VP and the glory days came from this exact same group and may have even occupied the very chair next to me at that meeting.

ATDAN?

(I would be guessing here . . . Dead are Not Alive was written during a time seances were more popular?) More accurately, the works that were plagiarized to produce it were written at a time when seances were very popular.

Whether he would have lived any longer, I don't know. I think the reasoning behind his declaration, though, is a load of crap, always trying to make himself look like some great one. He said "he did not want to 'disgrace' gawd." Really? I think that ship had sailed long before his eye problems afflicted him.

Well said.

It reminds me of Neil Young introducing a song. (I don't remember which one now) He says something like "Here's one that starts out kinda slow and then just......fizzles out completely."

One aspect of subscribing to The Way's anti-trinity based dogma is that it insures the subscriber is less likely to veer from the core tenets of The Way and be more prone to associate with individuals who are already on the same page, theologically. "Pickles in a jar labeled 'peaches'" is the analogy that comes to mind. Of course, that phenomena is not unique to The Way or even religion, in general.

Letting go of the anti-Trinity stance is an admission that you don't have the powers you once thought you had. The world is a big, scary, uncontrollable place. Yeah, letting go of it can be scary, as can letting go of believing or tithing or speaking in tongues. There's a certain sense of liberation that comes with the scariness, though.

And so it came to pass that the Lord was unable to bless even the most needful of the lot, for their vegetation had become unruly and tainted with demons.

It's called The Concorde Fallacy or Sunken Costs Fallacy.

sonder ‎(countable and uncountable, plural sonders) (neologism) The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it. SOURCE onism n. the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time, which is like standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here. SOURCE I'll never "really" know you. You'll never "really" know me. Hence, the need to ponder the fruit another's life has produced in an effort to more clearly understand them and the motives that drive/drove them.

I'm not pretending to know more than I do, I'm simply stating what is written in the Bible......"By their fruits you shall know them." Yes, it could be approached from a doctrinal perspective, examining scripture that relates to the matter. However, Rocky clearly indicated his interest was in understanding where and when, historically, Christianity adopted the said belief. This is the type of question one might find in a secular class comparing various religious beliefs and histories.

There are pre-existing threads that deal with this question. Some may be a bit old chronologically, but, nevertheless, still relevant enough to rekindle.

It's not a doctrinal question. Rocky posed the question: "From a historical perspective, at what point did some human declare that Jesus is God?" You don't have to have any knowledge of the Bible or particular religious slant to address this from a historical perspective. "It's really that simple."

It isn't necessarily required that one be personally acquainted with someone to see evidence of their true character. It says so in the Bible. Something about knowing them by their fruits or some such thing.

That's the same problem I had. Except, in my case, I already had a PayPal account. I just didn't think to submit it that way. When I did, it was successful. I've used GoFundMe to donate to other causes without any problems. Maybe that's one of the things that will be fixed with the forthcoming updates.

Looking back now, it occurs to me that this idea of "Jesus is not God" has the indirect effect of empowering dispensationalism. It draws attention away from the gospels and refocuses it on the epistles. (written for our learning vs. written directly to us)

I never sat through Momentus. I know it had a profoundly negative effect on some of its students, one of which was Barnard. Can someone provide a short explanation of what it was all about?