waysider

During my time in The Way (1972-1990) I can recall VPW being asked about his opinion of environmental type issues. For the most part, he shrugged off the inquiries and said we needn't worry about such things because God saw the whole thing in His foreknowledge and that Christ would return before it would affect us. Now, remember, anything and everything that Wierwille stated in those days was accepted as being on a Gospel-like level. As a result, many people adopted a cavalier attitude about the environment and ecology. Recently, in various posts, I was somewhat surprised to see evidence that this attitude persists, even all these years after VPW's demise. Wierwille was not only wrong in what he taught about Bible verses, he was wrong to promote this destructive sort of attitude about our stewardship of the planet we call home. Here is a brief link to an alarming situation that defies this cavalier approach: A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said. The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html

Any particular examples come to mind?

I remember slapping creosote on the railroad ties but I don't recall that specific incident. I drove by the old place recently in the course of a work day. It seems the BRC may have been returned to its original usage as a party barn. At least that's what the sign at the edge of the parking lot indicates. I thought at first that the house out front had been torn down but on closer examination, discovered it was buried in weeds and overgrowth. Of course, the good news is that, somewhere underneath all that brush and bramble, there are some railroad ties that are probably in pristine condition.

Like hearing an 8 year old kid sing "To All The Girls I've Loved Before".

This is a good poll IMO. However, question #1 leaves no room for those who attended or graduated from Associate Degree programs. I have an A.A.S. in one field and was 10 hours short of a second when I "dropped out".

I found this passage to be particularly interesting: "Dr. Cath defined a cult as a group of people joined together by a common ideological system fostered by a charismatic leader, where, he said, ''the expectation is that they can transcend the imperfections and finitude of life.'' He said: ''Often they set up a we-they philosophy: We have the truth and you do not.'' In what Dr. Clark called healthy, valid groups, conversion is achieved in good faith without coercion, and the individual is encouraged to reconcile himself to his history, his family and his culture, even when he may be working for change in his society. ''But in destructive cults,'' said Dr. Clark, ''current and prior connectedness is denied.'' Dr. Clark said that the pattern of manipulated cult conversions may not appear especially radical to outsiders, since no one is beaten or otherwise physically harmed."

Yeah, I guess it is rather silly to think that today's 16 year olds don't know what sex sounds like.

If you should discover a dead Crow or Bluejay, do NOT handle it! Contact your local authorities. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060901185431.htm

While I will concede that it is remotely possible for Wierwille to have come up with this on his own (complete with identical grammatical error), it seems unlikely that a man (Wierwille) whose lifelong quest was, supposedly, to discover "The Truth", had somehow missed the works of a man (Bullinger) who had been dead since 1913. HERE How To Enjoy The Bible had been in print since 1916. HERE Wierwille was so academically lazy, he didn't even bother to try to understand why this concept was grammatically incorrect and thus rephrase it to disguise his plagiarism. He did, however, make the effort to change "dispensations" to "administrations". I suspect he did this because there was a pre-existing awareness of "Dispensationalism". He just didn't care because (IMO) he didn't think he would ever be caught in his deception.

Thank you, Roy. That was outstanding!

I'm not so sure about that, Jeff. There are people who still, after all these years, have a hard time accepting Wierwille for who and what he really was.

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I believe at one point we expanded it to include songs that could be instantly recognized from a catch phrase that was not in the opening line. Like "The butter wouldn't melt so I put it in the pie." (Hands Across the Water) But, it's bulwinkls' thread so maybe he can clarify that point.

Wood ash (potash) will help to increase the potassium level but not the phosphorous level. Fertilizers, such as Miracle-Gro, serve to supplement the three key nutritional requirements of plants---nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. It's important to know the individual requirements of the plants you are fertilizing. For instance, the main requirement for sod is nitrogen. (Lightning "strikes" release high levels of nitrogen and cause the affected area to green-up and grow quite nicely. But, you certainly can't control where lightning decides to strike.)) That's why Miracle-Gro makes a special recipe just for grass that is high in nitrogen. Their other products are formulated with this same concept in mind. Taking this one step further, consider that the soil you are trying to grow veggies in was previously used to grow sod, which placed a high demand for nitrogen on it. Around this part of the country, you can somewhat predict the future for a particular piece of farm land. What I mean is, if a particular piece of land has historically been used for corn and soy beans but is now being used to cultivate sod, it's a pretty good bet the land is being deliberately played out of its nitrogen supply in anticipation of non-agricultural development. And, though the topic here is not lawns, here is a link that helps to establish this basic concept of first determining the proper nitrogen/phosphorous/potassium ratio for the particular plant being fertilized. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/4000/4006.html

Yes. Not a recipe of something to be cooked, but rather an analysis of that which has already been cooked.

Absolutely!! And it would be likewise absurd for us to think that we were the chosen ones who were uniquely qualified for that task.

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Thank you all for your responses. The world is filled with "Mrs. Parkers", eager to help us understand what the poet really meant to say.

Dedicated to Fellow Laborers.-----

It's because most dish soaps currently contain phosphorous. Plants like that. New environmental laws are changing that because soaps containing phosphorous, when released into watersheds, promote algae growth which, in turn, strips oxygen from the water. And that's some "bad chicken".

Well, I guess my point is that, by explaining what a verse REALLY meant, it was like saying God was a failure at communicating his true meaning. We, on the other hand, were much more ably equipped to expound on the scripture's true meaning than the author himself.

Yes, you are correct. That is what he said. Maybe I watered down my explanation a bit too much to convey the point. I apologize. What a dilemma it presented. If he was right, we'd been following the ramblings of a possessed man. If he was wrong, his credibility was in the toilet. He could, therefore, have been wrong about virtually any and every thing he ever taught us. Based on his own teaching in the AC and his personal lifestyle, stop and consider how many of these puppies he would have kenneled.

The concept behind this thread was inspired by this piece I recently heard on National Public Radio. (Writer's Almanac) *********************************************************** The Effort by Billy Collins From Writer’s Almanac June 29, 2009. The Effort by Billy Collins Would anyone care to join me in flicking a few pebbles in the direction of teachers who are fond of asking the question: “What is the poet trying to say?” as if Thomas Hardy and Emily Dickinson had struggled but ultimately failed in their efforts— inarticulate wretches that they were, biting their pens and staring out the window for a clue. Yes, it seems that Whitman, Amy Lowell and the rest could only try and fail but we in Mrs. Parker’s third-period English class here at Springfield High will succeed with the help of these study questions in saying what the poor poet could not, and we will get all this done before that orgy of egg salad and tuna fish known as lunch. Tonight, however, I am the one trying to say what it is this absence means, the two of us sleeping and waking under different roofs. The image of this vase of cut flowers, not from our garden, is no help. And the same goes for the single plate, the solitary lamp, and the weather that presses its face against these new windows–the drizzle and the morning frost. So I will leave it up to Mrs. Parker, who is tapping a piece of chalk against the blackboard, and her students—a few with their hands up, others slouching with their caps on backwards— to figure out what it is I am trying to say about this place where I find myself and to do it before the noon bell rings and that whirlwind of meatloaf is unleashed. “The Effort” by Billy Collins, from Ballistics. © Random House, 2008. Taken from Writer’s Almanac June 29, 2009.

Just wanted to add that, not only were branch leaders unpaid, they were expected to "donate" 15-20% of their GROSS income to "the ministry".