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waysider

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Everything posted by waysider

  1. waysider
    Stop and think for a moment how utterly ludicrous that is. Without the infusion of fresh ideas, totally disconnected to any previously existing ideas, mans' cache of knowledge would have stagnated at the discover of fire..
  2. waysider
    "You can't go beyond what you've been taught."- vpw So, where do new ideas come from?
  3. waysider

    Doug Mastriano

    waysider replied to penworks's topic in Open

    I haven't read the article yet, though I plan to when I get some time later today. Any discussion of it would probably need to tread lightly, to avoid crashing through the thin ice that lurks menacingly above political discourse.
  4. waysider
    On the topic of "Big Jobs": Wasn't it stated, somewhere in one of the classes, that you can't receive revelation when you're out of fellowship? I guess there must be an exceptions clause that covers "Big Jobs".
  5. waysider
    Once upon a time, in a land far away, there lived a hard headed man named Paul...
  6. waysider
    Only two? That seems a bit restrictive.
  7. waysider
    You have evidence of this?
  8. waysider
    Wierwille's personal doctrine was "Anything is okay if you can find a way to personally rationalize it." In contrast, consider, if you will, the words of John Donne: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
  9. waysider
    You might ask yourself, "How did I get here?"
  10. waysider
    Every little breeze seems to whisper Louise but the wind cries Mary. Meanwhile, all the little birds on Jaybird Street love to hear the robin go "Yea, my children." Now, be honest. Does that or does that not edify and exhort?
  11. waysider
    Have you ever seen someone get called out for BS and then try to cover their tracks by saying they were only joking? Why does this remind me of that?
  12. waysider
    Mike, all writing follows structure. Poems follow structure, songs follow structure, novels follow structure, documentaries follow structure...well, I think you get my point. Words simply strung together randomly don't make sense. Notes haphazardly strung together don't constitute music. Boards and nails, pieced together without purpose, don't produce a house. That's why writing practitioners study how works are constructed and consciously strive to build within that framework. Writers in ancient times were certainly aware of this reality. Some might even argue they had a deeper understanding of this than we do today. If, indeed, these writings do follow the ababababa structure, as you call it, why are we to think it's because of a divine intervention and not because of the writers' intentions to purposely construct it this manner?
  13. waysider
    If the canon is ababababa, wouldn't that make it a palindrome? Maybe we've been reading the bible backwards this whole time.
  14. waysider
    You can't lie on the internet. (I read that on the internet.)
  15. waysider
    Could you just give me a brief summary? I'm awfully busy at the moment.
  16. waysider
    Imagine if TWI was an insurance company. They would need a clever advertising slogan, something like, "Come on home. We don't suck quite as much as we used to". Or maybe a crazy mascot like Tic (VPW's dog) dressed up in a Halloween-style devil costume, complete with a doggy sized pitchfork. I think they're already in good shape for a jingle. They could use that "Renewed Mind Is The Key" mess.
  17. 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.
  18. waysider
    This right here.
  19. waysider
    I'm curious, as well.
  20. 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
  21. waysider
    What was it about VPW that made us want to emulate him? Maybe that's really the greatest mystery in the world today.
  22. waysider
    "There's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut."
  23. waysider
    Have you ever considered there may be an unseen, mystic force guiding your preference?
  24. 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.
  25. waysider
    No new doctrine: The seed of satan is not new doctrine? No new books: Not even PFAL?
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