waysider

I wound up in the spiritual heart of the universe, Well, we do have a river that's been known to catch fire, so that's nice.

He prefaced that particular part of the class by saying "I can't give you a scripture reference, you'll just have to trust me." (paraphrased somewhat) Then, he implied heavily that he had gotten the information by revelation. <_< He also said that "Eve partook of the *fruit*". I know that's bound to get a few "ewwww!" responses but that's what he said. I have no idea what this has to do with Way Corps numbers but it seemed like we were on a roll.

As I said in an earlier post, I thought it was a good article. I had no problem with the contents. It's important, though, to cite sources or at least acknowledge that a piece is the work of someone else. Sorry for the derailment.

Yes, MRAP, that really happened the first year that ROA was at HQ. (not the original ROA weekend event in 1971) There were some pretty teed-off old people. It was certainly a very poor PR move.....and they talked about walking by revelation...

".....about two years earlier at a camp fire in NC vpw stated that the original sin by Adam was masturbation." Finally, I've *met* someone who heard the same teaching I did. I heard it in CF&S in about 1974. There was a bit more added to it, as well, by that time. "In all the hind sight I "believe" that twi wanted folks to fornicate within the fold and marry in order to increase the twi numbers: primarily that it would take both to agree to leave twi (one will always want to stay)or through offspring if both decide to stay." In FellowLaborers, we were not allowed to date outside the program and needed special permission to leave the compound for anything personal. It was never written or stated directly but we were expected to marry Way believers, preferably at the same level of commitment.(ie: advanced class grad, leadership program grad, etc.)

"Was that twi induced, maybe the former but the later was just plain a horney girl, IMHO." We were all young. I'm sure there was a lot of non-TWI initiated physical activity taking place, just like everywhere else in the world. I know for a fact, though, that many instances were TWI sanctioned and approved. When a young lady and her TWI leader fiancé hide their relationship from new recruits and conspire to get them to sign the green card by having the young lady lead the new recruits on romantically until the green card is signed (rinse and repeat), there isn't much doubt about what's going on. It went on a whole lot more than some people care to admit.

I don't know about the bumper stickers at SNS but I do know that it happened at The Rock, much to the dismay of some older folks who I had invited, in hopes of signing them up for PFAL.

Yes, I understand that this is your opinion. Unfortunately, opinions don't change reality. If for no other reason, common courtesy requires proper credit be given where it is due. It's not that hard in this age of google. You obviously had a source because you copied it word for word. I've seen this same attitude expressed, time and time again with people who excuse Wierwille's plagiarism. Knowing who the author is or where it originated is not, as you say, superfluous. None of us would even be on this board if Wierwille had not done this very thing. (On a much larger and adversely consequential scale,of course)

Get Off My Lawn! Just kidding. As we age, we become increasingly distanced from the culture of the younger generation. Some of the differences are real, some are a matter of perception. My own peeve is how people have become increasingly inconsiderate of others. You see it on the highway, the shopping venues, air travel and the list goes on. Some of it is very real and some of it is just my perception. Maybe people have always been rude and I just didn't notice it that much. You can't let it drag you down. You have find a balance that allows you to treat people with the same respect you would expect of them and, yet, don't be so naiive as to think that everyone will follow suit. The internet certainly brings the immediacy of the issue to the forefront, without a doubt. Keep your chin up ....and tell your kids to keep their scooters off my lawn. .

I'm not a copyright lawyer. Generally speaking, though, when you produce a work, it is copyrighted at the time of its creation. The certification process is a formality, set in place for the copyright owner's legal purposes. HERE is a link to the New Zealand copyright law in case you're interested. What you did here was to copy and paste an entire newspaper article, giving no indication this was not your work. Frankly, if you had just said "I read this somewhere, its not my work." or something to that effect, it would have been fine with me. (Not legal, but O.K. with me.) The way you posted it would lead one to believe this is your own work. I'm not saying that was your intent, just that it leaves the reader with that impression. This sort of thing is a sore spot for the ex-Way community. As you know, V.P. Wierwille plagiarized the vast majority of the published materials that bear his name, in some cases entire chapters and even entire "books". He passed them off as original work and led the readers to believe he had been inspired by God. (Lots of documentation here for those who seek it.) This is a far cry from the relatively benign act of simply posting a short newspaper article. It's an explanation, though, of why it hits a nerve here on GSC. HERE is a link to the fair use guide for posting at GSC. edit: My problem wasn't with the contents of the article. My problem was with the way it was posted, presented. Also, I concede that the subtitle of the thread does give some indication the article may not be the work of the poster. Why not give authorship credit where credit is due then?

The Way threw down a gauntlet..... Meet the challenge and there will be spiritual enlightenment waiting for you at the finish line. Take all the classes, do the home studies, volunteer your labor and time for a chance to take the Advanced Class, the very pinnacle of instruction on manifesting "the other six" and living the more abundant life. But, as you reflect on your completion of the much heralded Advanced Class, you realize you are no more "spiritually enlightened" than you were at that very first twig meeting. It's not really a gauntlet, it's a goalpost that keeps moving farther and farther away from the starting point. And, it's depressing, very, very depressing, to realize you can never really reach that finish line they promised, at least not by following their instructions.

If you're going to quote a copyrighted article in its entirety, then yes, you need to credit your source.

The author is Louise Thompson. HERE is the article. Along with other reasons, we cite sources to give due credit to the deserving party. Nice article, by the way.

I'm not too good at doing searches but I did find THIS one. There are others if I remember correctly.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. In the original text there are 2 more words at the end that have been lost in the translation processes. It should literally read: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made....sorta, kinda. See how easy it is to understand now? You don't even have to do the Dispensation Tap Dance or Whozit Written To Polka.

He did walk on water, though, every winter when the pond froze.

Kind of like people who know what it was like at Woodstock because they saw the movie.

Another aspect to be considered is whether VPW/TWI's influence affected not just you but someone close to you, such as a family member or close friend, in such a way that the effects tricked down. Families were divided. Friendships were cast to the wayside. You don't have to have been an active part of The Way to have been affected.

Life is all about making mistakes and learning from them. That's part of how we grow and improve as individuals. If we don't do that, we're missing the boat. In retrospect, I learned a lot of lessons about trust, betrayal and the dark side of human nature from my time in The Way. It's quite possible I would have learned those lessons elsewhere had I not been involved with The Way. But you don't expect to learn those things from an organization that's supposed to be teaching you how to be a better Christian leader. I met a lot of good people. I had a lot of fun times. Overall, I have to say, though, that the negative impact on my life outweighs the positive by a goodly amount. My involvement with The Way negatively affected my marriage, my family, my career, my relationship with friends and my overall sense of self worth. At this stage of my life, much of that damage is irreparable. Yes, I learned some valuable lessons. The cost of tuition was much too high. That's my take on it. Your mileage may vary.

We learned very little about Jesus in The Way. Most of what we examined was based on the Pauline epistles. I think that's fairly typical of modern Christianity, at least based on my limited observation. As Tzaia pointed out, the epistles were written before the gospels and the cannon reversed the chronology. That makes it seem like the gospels were written before the epistles. Dispensationalism and inerrancy handily deal with the problems that generates. So here's the thing----If the religion is called Christianity, why is so much of it focused on someone other than its namesake?

Some were even publicly ridiculed in death because their lack of believing supposedly caused them to die.

Sometimes in life we have to draw a line that separates thankfulness from rationalization.

Yes, though it is scientifically incorrect, it does make for an interesting metaphor. Not only did The Way turn up the heat slowly, they cautioned us to ignore changes in temperature and remain in the pot. That lesson takes place in session 7, the one in which Eve starts to question why the water seems to be getting warmer. Don't question it like Eve did. We all know what happened to her. "So, class, having done all, STAND! Don't you dare even budge."

You start out just checking out a twig fellowship to see what it's all about. "Well, you really need the class to fully understand." Next thing you know "Would you mind helping out with refreshments? We just need someone to make the coffee." Then "Could you come a little early and help set up chairs?" Not long after "We really need someone to help us find a rent free place for the next class." "Would you mind leading songs at the branch meeting?" And little by little you find that, while your help was initially praised, now you don't seem to be abe to do anything good enough to please them so you buckle down and try harder . On and on it builds until somehow you find yourself looking in the mirror one day and wondering how in blazes you wound up hundreds of miles from home, living in a commune, doing and saying things you never in your wildest dreams imagined before that fateful night when you first went to casually check out a twig fellowship. It had to happen in increments because no one would willingly jump from point A to point Z if they knew what path they would be taking to get there.