waysider

Why the LOL?

I think what Teach is saying here is that mankind can't (or shouldn't) take credit for his own salvation. It seems to make more sense if I interpret it that way.

Not gonna happen, Allan.

"What we should teaching is love. Who cares about what one believes? Like us or not, but the love touches hearts." There's a ton of wisdom in that, Roy. ( I re-punctuated for clarity. I hope you don't mind.)

It can be done. All the members of the board of directors must agree to dissolving the corporation. Assets can not be assigned to members of the organization. In essence, what they would have to do is to give all the assets to some other non-profit organization. Providing the related government bodies, as well as the IRS, agreed with the dissolution, the transfer could take place...I see the chances of that happening to be as likely as a snowball fight in (a place where snowball fights don't happen).

I can't read minds but I doubt that facing his victims would affect him very much.

Just a personal opinion here. The guy is 53 years old. If he can survive the stresses of prison life (not an easy task), a 30 year sentence would make him 83 when he gets out. You might as well think of it as a life sentence. I'm just sayin'.

Did I say anything about following the law? Because I don't think I did. And why should it be harder to "learn to walk by the spirit" than to follow The Golden Rule?

The message attributed to Jesus is simple, straightforward and easy to understand while the message that is attributed to Paul is filled with detail and minutia and requires close scrutiny to grasp. Paul's message talks about being free from the law, while, in reality, it's filled with "micro" laws. The gospels were written AFTER the epistles yet there is no mention of speaking in tongues or running on "all 9, all the time", so to speak. To me, they appear to be very different.

That's great news, Roy. I've been thinking of you lately. I'm glad everything is going well. Keep getting stronger and enjoy life as it comes your way. Sometimes you just have to live life by the drop.

My great, great grandfather, thrice removed, invented fire...and the wheel. Yes, that's it. He invented the fiery wheel. Family legend has it that it was the year after he invented the exploding hook shot. (We're not sure about the exact date because the records were all lost in the now famous black snow storm of July 32nd.)

My personal experience in trying to get VPW related transcripts leads me to believe that institutions purposely distance themselves from any appearance of being associated with VPW in order to avoid unwanted controversy. I can't say that I blame them.

Amazing, isn't it? It was not so much a lesson in how to behave as it was a smokescreen for unacceptable behavior.

A hypocrite in all his might, So wrong in that he thinks he's right.

Wierwile was purulent? The very idea invites me to construct a joke about a sharp young man named Lance.The explosive punchline would bring piercing relief.

Back in the day, we probably would have just said he was a "sicko". Assuming, of course, we had known what we know today.

Thank you for spearheading this effort, Raf.

Ya know, if you think of this as a letter that some guy wrote to a bunch of people a long time ago, in a place and culture that confounds us, about a situation whose details we really don't understand...it suddenly doesn't seem so important.

Yes, content. So many times (I'm not singling out any one poster or topic.) we see people come on to these boards and essentially regurgitate PFAL, using new phrasing and previously not seen grammatical devices. You take off the disguise and whatta ya got? PLAF (The Wonder Class) all over again.

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.