Tzaia

So he knew it was going down the tube...

I know it was wrong, but it turned out for the best. After that, when someone attempted to tell me that TWI was my "real" family, I could say no without a trace of doubt. I knew who my real family was, and it was no one in TWI.

VPW died about a month after I had cancer surgery. My family had to come in from out of town and help with my kids as no one from TWI was "available" to help. Fortunately, no one from TWI came right out and told me I was possessed; they just stayed away.

It's all about choice. No one drags anyone here. No one cares whether you come or don't come. Pretty much everyone here can relate to the experience. The doctrinal discussions have all but stopped (thankfully). I'm just kind of curious as to why you care what any of us are doing?

No idea anymore. JAL is not doing any of the monthly podcasts.

I have read several places where the blame for VPW's illness and death lie solely on the "believers" who simply didn't have their minds renewed and operating correctly to keep VPW alive, while at the same time blaming anyone who got sick and wasn't healed for their own misfortune and lack of believing. Why wasn't VPW reamed for his lack of believing? Why wasn't he mark & avoided? Why didn't anyone cast out his devil spirits? Isn't that a bit of a double standard? Seriously though, most of us rank and file were unaware of his illness. His death was a complete surprise while the cause was shrouded in secrecy.

I used to be a target for bullies. When I was about 15 I started fighting back, following the rules my dad laid out - Don't throw the first punch. Don't let them get up. Got pulled into the principal's office a couple of times for defending myself. Told him to call my dad, but rest assured that I wasn't going to take any crap from anyone anymore. I was tired of not being able to go to the bathroom, and if the school wasn't going to stop them, I would. That was said in front of my tormentors. From that point, my threshold for bullying was rather low. By the time I got to TWI, I had learned to ignore or deflect. People who do not deal well with direct people tend to go behind people's backs, they tend to gossip, and they tend to judge. There is nothing you can do to change their behavior. However, they tend to have a heightened awareness of what's "fair" for them, and little awareness that their own behavior is unfair, so getting in their face just makes things worse.

I'm headed post-modern, post-protestant, post-evangelical.

I take back what I said. He's headed in a whole nuther direction.

I would have to agree that this particular page has more of the all inclusive flair of the post-modern movement. Then I started looking around and I'm getting more of a zionist kingdom (exclusionist) vibe than a post-modern kingdom vibe. So it's the same ol' our ways are the righteous path stuff.

It seems to be a bit of Mormon flavor added to post-modern thinking. I think you will notice that the emphasis is on community and not doctrine, which sets it apart from the TWI home church concept. Could you imagine having a dialog during the actual "message" part of a twig gathering? I don't think so. What this guy is talking about is pretty much where I've been headed for the past 10 years (without the Mormon thing of being pre-destined royalty), and didn't know why. It seems to be kind of a stream of consciousness that's been awakening in people. This is yet another person who is manifesting it with some interesting twists.

Then there's the truth in advertising issue. The Way International is not "The" Way, it is merely "A" Way.

I struggled with the tithe when I was in TWI mainly because I didn't think it had anything to do with the grace administration. When I was at a ROA and saw row upon row of cars that were rusted, battered, and obviously unsafe, that was when I realized that the only people benefiting from this belief system were the ones on top. It's one thing to give 10%, but when (on top of that) people are actively discouraged from doing anything that would give them a reasonable lifestyle, it is ridiculous.

Yeah, that was a pretty crappy thing to tell people that supporting other ministries, or supporting missions, or even sponsoring corp members was not included in the tithe. You couldn't quantify your time, or include anything like providing cups, plates, coffee, cream, or whatever and have any of that count towards a tithe. It really is a shame how TWI turned God into such a spiteful, small little god.

Doh!

That's the common fallacy - if there were one and only true way to interpret scriptures, there wouldn't be any discussion about truth as it would be self evident.

What good is knowing the "truth" if you don't do anything with it? It's really not an end in itself, or at least shouldn't be when it comes to being a follower of Jesus.

Sometimes I find it helps to mimic their accent and speech cadence. They understand what we are saying better.

I was on a plane with someone who was showing a cat in a cat show. Brought him in carry on luggage. Very pretty cat.

Stop it!

Do you have any idea how many people would be out of a job if there weren't these technical problems and people were happy and productive?

I like Daily Bread (or anything along those lines). I was not into TWI's aversion to material outside TWI.

Taking me off on another tangent. I think one of the things that I liked (and now I find I dislike) about TWI was that the organization filled a desire to correct people on insignificant stuff. Since I was low on the totem pole in TWI, I really couldn't correct anyone in the organization because everyone in it aspired to a higher level of spirituality than I did, but I could turn and peck on someone outside the organization. The "grow a pair" comment was made when I was stupid enough to tell someone no. It was easier to tell someone you would do something and then just not do it.

I can fix that if you'd like

I was unaware that revelation was an act of believing.