Jump to content
GreaseSpot Cafe

waysider

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    18,997

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    302

 Content Type 

Everything posted by waysider

  1. waysider
    At the most fundamental level, Wierwille sought to establish a loyal base of followers who would willingly supply financial support with consistent frequency. It was no mistake that "Christians Should Be Prosperous" was one of the first reading requirements. The foundational class on Power For Abundant Living (PFAL) was only the bait that lured people into the organization, with promises of newly found freedom and deliverance. The Intermediate and Advanced Classes, along with other classes, such as Dealing With The Adversary and Renewed Mind, were what set the hook and reeled us in. There was always an unofficial, undercurrent of teaching that flowed freely through the organization. Looking back, I believe it may have been done this way to distance the official organization from culpability. One of the concepts that seemed to gain a foothold quickly was the idea that, once you had heard "the truth", the devil would put a target on your back to keep you from spreading "the word". Bad things could happen to you if you ever left the hedge of protection that fellowshipping with likeminded believers provided. You could never go back to your old way of life. There were plenty of anecdotes being spread to fortify this thinking. One such example came straight from VPW when he brutally chastised the Way Corp, and one individual in particular, for the death of a Way Corp member who died in a car crash when he disobeyed the Man of God and left the HQ grounds, in violation of a directive not to do so. Supposedly, the believer's death was the result of defying revelation and walking out of fellowship... Well, you have to be En Garde! at all times, now, don't you? In the course of only a few short weeks or months, a new believer went from a feeling of exhilaration and liberation to a feeling of paranoia, always having to mentally sneak a peek over the shoulder to make sure the devil was still at bay. You could never contemplate leaving. You were trapped. When the subsequent classes failed to provide answers of how to deal with this, a feeling of hopelessness eventually replaced the original excitement. Being a promoter of PFAL is like being a drug dealer who gifts someone their first hit of heroin. The user goes from a euphoric rush to abject desolation. Staying addicted in hope of avoiding the inevitable is a painful act of futility.
  2. waysider
    This right here.
  3. waysider
    I'm curious, as well.
  4. waysider
    There's another poster here who is more qualified than many to offer an opinion on that if they desire to do so...or not
  5. waysider
    What was it about VPW that made us want to emulate him? Maybe that's really the greatest mystery in the world today.
  6. waysider
    "There's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut."
  7. waysider
    Have you ever considered there may be an unseen, mystic force guiding your preference?
  8. waysider
    If I said he was a Wierwille clone it would sound like I was trying to be disparaging, but, I mean it in a more literal sense. He imitated the mannerisms and speech patterns of VPW in a rather extreme way when he taught. To be fair, a lot of us picked up little bits of Wierwille's idiosyncrasies unconsciously. We sometimes put more emphasis on theatrics than content . JT went to the extreme and tried to pull off that "aww, shucks" kind of image. I'm just stating the obvious here. It's embarrassing now to admit but, if we're honest, a lot of us had a tendency to do it, at least to some degree. My first branch leader, on the other hand, was a very straight shooting guy with a rather stoic, academic approach, who was focused on content and relevance. The contrast was stark. Just another red flag I willingly chose to ignore.
  9. waysider
    No new doctrine: The seed of satan is not new doctrine? No new books: Not even PFAL?
  10. waysider
    PFAL was one of God's "big jobs"? Who knew?
  11. waysider
    Ahhh, those were the days.
  12. waysider
    Rare footage of the good old days has been recently discovered.
  13. waysider
    I'm curious what you make of this: A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach...I Timothy 3:2
  14. waysider
    I chalk it up to the raw power of believing.
  15. waysider
    Bake 'em away, toys.
  16. waysider
    Ok, so while we're still off topic, I'll toss this in. A lot of us learned to play bass, back in the day, on cheap six string rigs. I never did any mods or anything like that, but, yeah, we just played the bass parts on regular old guitars until we could afford the real thing. Sure, it sounded just as thin as you would expect, but, hey, it sounded ok in the basement and it was the height of the Little Black Egg era. Know what I'm sayin'? I gave up a lot of my musical activity to focus on "the ministry". Life is full of regrets, but that's Ok. You have to "keep on keepin' on" and not allow them to drag you down.
  17. waysider
    Sweet is the melody, so hard to come by. It's so hard to make every note bend just right. You lay down the hours and leave not one trace, But a tune for the dancing is there in it's place.
  18. waysider
    Yes, I heard him teach that live at the AC. I'm not sure, but it must have been in his teaching on word of knowledge. He also taught, in the discerning of spirits session, I think, that he could tell if someone was born again of the devil because he could see a black heart in them. (white=holy spirit/black=seed of satan/nothing=unbeliever)
  19. waysider
    And so, the cycle of giving and receiving perpetuates.
  20. waysider
    My granddaughter, Clara Belle (that's short for Helen.), said, "Geeze, Grampaw, don't you guys know nothin'? Sickness comes from cooties." That girl has a mind of her own.
  21. waysider
    Of course, but when new students are present we have to act excited. "If I act excited, I'll be excited."
  22. waysider
    Yes, an Intermediate Class syllabus. At one time, those sessions were part of the foundational class and referred to as session 13. It was like an unlisted bonus track on a CD. It was optional and attendance was not required for you to be to be considered a PFAL grad. It didn't follow session 12 immediately, though, like the other sessions. I seem to recall there was a short period between the two (maybe a week or two) and then the material was covered in two sessions that were unofficially called the T.I.P. class. This is where the concept of excellor sessions was introduced. I'm not sure if it had any official, printed material to accompany it other that a sheet of scripture references.. Later, it was spun off into a three session class with the same material and had its own printed syllabus. You had to pay extra for that class, even if you had already taken the T.I.P. class. It was required for admittance into the A.C. (Advanced Class). There was also material that dealt with being born again of the seed of the devil. This was in the second of the two sessions. That was dropped completely and showed up again in the A.C. I may be fuzzy on some of the details, but that's how I wound up with this syllabus.
  23. waysider
    I don't have a transcript, but I do have a '71 syllabus.
  24. waysider
    Something about spiritual mashed potatoes errr ...somethin'. "I am just a poor boy Though my story's seldom told I have squandered my resistance For a pocketful of mumbles such are promises All lies and jest Still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest, mhmm"...Paul Simon (The Boxer)
  25. waysider
    Why would you need to practice tongues if it's supposedly perfect?
×
×
  • Create New...