waysider

No. In fact, part of Wierwille's gimmick was that this was supposedly proprietary information that contradicted the conventional materials one might find in a library. So, he was already telling us that if we were to "research" other sources, we would likely find "erroneous" information. He was a master of obviation. OBVIATION

What basis do you have for comparison? In light of you having never been in the corps, it's reasonable to expect you would not see the connection.

There have been cases of children being sexually molested by leadership that resulted, not only in charges, but in convictions and incarcerations. These are matters of public record. Upper leadership made deliberate efforts to cover them up and allowed the practice to continue. These things have, in fact, been documented on GSC, as I'm sure you're well aware.

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Thanks, George That is an amazing album. I can't even begin to count how many times I've listened to it. Here's some more jazz for a lazy afternoon. SUGAR PLUM----Bill Evans Trio

Such as?

Sunday Will Never Be The Same-------------Spanky and Our Gang NEXT!

I think most of us share that sentiment with you, Leafy. Thirty three pages recalling child abuse in TWI. First hand testimony of abuse. First hand testimony of cover ups at the highest levels.. Documentation of felony convictions and incarceration. And yet there are people who continue to beyotch and whine about needing more "proof", hoping the new arrivals will be driven off before they find this stuff. Kinda makes ya sick, don't it?

-----Gloria Gaynor

The things that attracted us to The Way are timeless. A need to belong, personal relationships, desire to know what life is all about, desire to serve God, etc. The difference today, I think, is that kids are more skeptical and world conditioned than we were. We were coming out of a generation when kids were largely naive. I think it's like a con game that changes its form to suit the audience or one of those urban legends that sounds as believable today as it did when we first heard it 40 years ago because the '57 Chevy has become a Cadillac Escalade in the modern version. Side note: I was witnessed to by a twig of complete strangers but the people in the twig had known each other prior to TWI. One took an immediate special interest in me. (Date and Switch) I wish I had seen through that.

I'm curious. In Fellow Laborers (mid 1970s) we did something that sounds just like Momentus. I don't remember if it was referred to by any specific name. It was run by outsiders, one of which was J@!m!3 L0u!5. Does anyone else remember this or remember if it was a precursor to Momentus?

It seems to me that the voices of the ones who WERE there are the ones you so aggressively toil to silence.

Most men would be reluctant to acknowledge they've been played for a CUCKOLD Take, for example, a man whose wife is given the honor of cleaning the leader's home whenever the leader's wife is out of town. By TWI standards, it would be a sign of spiritual weakness for him to allow his mind to suspect that anything dishonorable was taking place. So what does he do, announce that he's spiritually weak or wait to be exposed as a cuckold?

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http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=2081489 http://www.genesispursuit.com/

I can whistle "Three Blind Mice" in Spanish.

Eyesopen and Eagle have both written books.

No I meant "date and switch." That's when someone feigns a special interest in you and leads you on in order to get you to take the class. Then, once they have you in the class, they dump you and find someone else to work on. There are even instances of WOWs sleeping with multiple class prospects in order to close the sale. Once the person is indoctrinated into the fellowship, they "date and switch" another prospect. This very thing happened to me personally, though I did not have sex with the person. I think it was probably a lot more commonplace than many people realize. In the least common denominator, it's prostitution. Sex is being exchanged for a signed "green card" and class "donation".

A lot of this had to do with the degree of involvement and commitment one invested in the whole thing. For instance, I was all gung-ho for my first 3 or 4 years. This was before I ventured out of my local area. Then, I had a brief assignment that required me to quit my job and move to another area of the state. It got me to start to question things but I still didn't really see what was going on. After that, I moved again to go into the FLO program. This is where I really started to seriously wonder if the whole thing wasn't some cruel illusion. I mean, here we were, supposedly living a lifestyle that replicated the church of the first century but, in reality, we were living a lifestyle that was contrary to it. It took ten more years to really start to have some confidence that my doubts were well founded. Had I simply stayed in my little local area, I probably never would have seen the ugly reality of TWI in its naked state.

And then there was (He was the bravest of them all.)

It a component of the cathartic process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis

And let's not forget the old "date and switch". It was a common sales tactic I confess. It's what got me to my first twig meeting and motivated me to sign the green card. By the time the class was over, of course, I had all sorts of other reasons for staying. (That's where it gets complicated.)

"Ain't but one thing'll give me the blues Got a hole in the bottom of my last pair of shoes" Now it seems that even The Blues has the blues. The San Francisco Blues Festival, the country's oldest running event of its kind, has canceled due to economic woes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...001&sc=1000 Support live music! (Blues or otherwise.)

I thought the jester get-up was appropriate.