waysider

Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto----you're beautiful!

----The Beatles

"One book on cults called 'Youth, brainwashing, and the extremist cults' quotes a minister saying that cults are the unpaid bills of the church. This means that cults (spinoffs, offshoots, etc.) wouldn't exist if the church was taking care of people properly." Cults come in all shapes and sizes, not just the church/religious variety. For that reason, I would have to say that the above conclusion is flawed.

Did he really? Or did he he simply propound his personal interpretation of what he thought the scriptures ought to say?

I remember Steed. Michael Fart and a couple of other (then to be) future "leaders" were involved with that one.

Back in the 1970s, if you wanted to throw a branch picnic or BBQ, you weren't allowed to have a bake sale or car wash to defray the cost. Wouldn't want to portray the "ministry" as being needy and all that. My, how things have changed.

...and why, if God had really shown him truths that hadn't been known for two thousand years, did he have to default to the works of psychics, spiritualists, magic-thinking promoters and the like as a vehicle to deliver the message?

NEXT!

Wow! I just levitated a coffee table on the other side of the room by the power of my mind! This stuff is amazing! Heh!

Was that meant to be rhetorical? We all know that, to be considered an active member of "the ministry", you have to give them at least 10-15% of your income. What better reason could there be than that to encourage members to involve themselves in an income increasing venture?

I was kinda thinking it was the other way around. The PFAL version of the "law of believing" is a repackaging of Napoleon Hill.

Never say never.

I have never been associated with these people and don't have a dog in the fight. I certainly don't mean to imply that these people have anything less than good intentions or that they don't do good things. The fact is, though, at least in my opinion, if you promote a system that is heavily vested in Way dogma, such as the "law of believing", you are promoting a flawed system. In retrospect, I find I disagree with much of what Wierwille said. I do agree with him on this one key point, however.... "Sincerity is no guarantee for truth."

Does anyone else remember studying Napoleon Hill and W.Clement Stone in the various leadership training seminars? HERE HERE and on and on and on........x17

"He traveled all over the country, going wherever he thought someone might be able to help him in his quest." There's some truth in that. You just have to understand that the object of his quest was to bed young female followers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kLq2Q4MWds&feature=related

Hmmmm----9th grade would have been about 1964 for me. No, it's not Dylan or Springsteen.

To be more clear about this.....Wierwille presented a variety of conspiracy-type theories and, though I don't think he ever actually said he got them via revelation, he implied that he did.... and let people believe his implications. There were some who knew of his connection to Liberty Lobby, but, the vast majority of people had no idea until decades after the fact.

I saw all sorts of these theories and reports around the time of the bicentennial. In fact, the now defunct Liberty Lobby was notoriously active in constructing and disseminating such theories. Wierwille, you may or may not know, had direct ties to Liberty Lobby. A lot of the conspiracy ideas that Wierwille lead us believe came to him by revelation actually came from The Spotlight, Liberty Lobby's newsletter. Never saw any proof that those things Wierwille was promoting were true, though. Still not seeing any, for that matter.

Phruck 'em! hahahahahahahaha!

TWI is like one of those old rock bands that has no original members but keeps on touring the world, using the same name.

I think that's what I meant about the journey being more important than the destination.

Competent To Counsel Yep I remember this one . I took a seminar that used it as the main text. I think it lasted a whole weekend! hahahahaha! Anyhow, maybe this transcript was an addendum to the seminar. I guess that might explain why I don't remember it.

From what I've looked at so far, there is plenty of "how". Most of it consists of pumping yourself full of scriptures, going WOW and signing people up for the class. I'll see if I can get back later with some excerpts.