JavaJane

All great reasons for getting the heck out, OldSkool!!! What got you IN? What was the bait? What made you such a mark for the con? twi filled some sort of need in some capacity or we wouldn't have been there in the first place - even though they were only there for their own lust and greed to feed off of us. They had to have something that got us involved, or we wouldn't be here at GSC now.

I should also add that I already spoke in tongues before I came to my first fellowship. I wasn't taught to do it by anyone, and I hadn't ever seen anyone do it - I just sort of did it on my own. I also had a quite a few very supernatural experiences in my life already by that point (I know some of you will think I am crazy as you read this) ...experiences with visions, spirits, etc. TWI accepted these things as real and actually offered at least some explanation for my experiences, although I told no one in twi about them and didn't speak in tongues in front of anyone until the appropriate class. Funny thing is that even though they had an explanation for what i experienced, in the end they condemned it as much as all the other Christian churches I had been a part of! Also, now that I am out of twi, the spiritual side of things has opened back up to me and God has been able to teach me more in this category than the Way ever did - much more on the good side of things than just devil spirits...

I've been trying to figure something out... The population of the GSC seems to be pretty varies as far as current belief systems. What was it that brought us all to twi? Is there a least common denominator? In short, why me, and why us? I got involved when my parents did in my early teens. I was a pretty big bookworm who didn't really fit in at school because I was a lot more advanced than the other kids and because I was a big pacifist who wouldn't stand up for myself in a fight because of moral reasons. I had a very strong belief in God and Jesus since almost birth and since I read constantly, I had read the Bible A LOT (I mean several times through cover to cover) in my spare time. I liked the fellowships my mom took me to because they read the Bible and didn't just talk about it. What got the rest of you involved?

Oh, we matter... And she knows it. A reliable source who used to have to ultimate honor of cleaning Rosie's office has told me that there were often printouts of GreaseSpot threads found on the HOGFODAT's desk.

So much for research teaching and fellowship! These kids aren't allowed to do any of it!

I find it terribly ironic that Way Productions made it onto The Soup with that terrible number, and at the same time they are afraid of the impression the younger crowd might make on New Knoxville with their music... strange, isn't it?

FOOLISHNESS IS BOUND IN THE HEART OF A CHILD!!!!!!! BUT THE BOD WILL DRIVE IT FAR FROM HIM. (Literal according to usage... Just ask Rosie!

Did the Way assume copyright on the songs, too?? My husband is an amazing musician but would never submit any songs because he couldn't keep the copyright. I always thought that was a load of poopoo. Especially since they would just take what he gave and turn it into some watered down Lawrence Welk version of what it really was.

I stopped buying the posters a few years before I left simply because I didn't want to have to explain why I had something so friggin ugly hanging on my wall to anyone who happened to stop by the house. We were chided about it the few times we had fellowship there, but we never bought one. I also never bought those little pictures of the BOD/BOT and VP, and I never understood why other people did. Why have pictures of people you didn't even know handing around your house? Nope, pictures like that for me are reserved for family and dear friends. Oh, and completely (maybe not completely) off topic - the last couple pictures we got of the BOD in their HOHO cards (before we moved and didn't leave a forwarding address) looked reall bad - like they were standing in front of a green screen and the background was added in later. Lighting was really wrong, just ugly. Haven't gotten a card since we moved. It makes Christmas just that much merrier.

I guess they got themselves a win-win situation by setting up the kids for failure. Talk about child sacrifice! By the way they are told to raise their children, they end up sacrificing them to the idol of twi.

It actually reminds me of Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty. The parents try to hide the child from the evil, first by not inviting the evil fairy to the christening, so while the child is being blessed by the good fairies (with beauty and song - not strength or smarts) the evil Maleficent shows up to "bless" the child - she says she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and DIE! This causes the last of the good fairies to have to change her blessing to lessen the effect of the curse (I always hoped that the last fairy's blessing would have been intelligence, but probably not) so that the child will only sleep and not die. Well, the king and queen decide to remove ALL the spinning wheels from the ENTIRE kingdom, and then hide the child in the forest, away from all the evil. However, they neglect to remove one spinning wheel from their very own house. When the princess is 16 years old, she is brought to the castle, and everyone rejoices that she beat the curse! But, she goes up some stairs and finds the spinning wheel. Having never been told of the curse, and never knowing what the spinning wheel is because she has never seen one, and no one has told her anything EVER, she touches the spindle and fulfulls the prophecy. Lesson to be learned: teach your kids about the evil so they can recognize it when they see it and so they know what to do to handle it. (and smarts beat beauty any day of the week!) In TWI's case, the "evil" isn't even evil, and that makes it 100 times worse.

The really sad thing is that TWI is responsible for their children's "misbehavior"... they kept them all in the dark about anything outside the cult and then expected them to stay in those confines when they became adults! When you take away all the bad things out of a child's life, when you shelter them to the point they don't even understand how to function in the real world you are setting them up for failure. Either they will run into freedom and all its wonders and live La Vida Loca to its fullest, or you end up with timid little mice who are afraid of their own shadow - when they are confronted with the real world they fall apart. I'm thinking TWI would prefer the second option.

Gen, just don't blow up our dimension in the process, ok?

"Little Timmy" is probably not exactly being corrupted, but doing the corrupting... I actually like that guy. And OldSkool, I'm sure glad that couple is out!!

Well, I know at HQ for a while at least they were doing a youth fellowship for the younger folks on Staff... And it was probably the only place at HQ where there was some passionate teachings. But what brought it about was an "incident" where some of the WC kids and younger Staffers decided to go into a local church in the middle of the night to ask some questions of the pastor/preist. They walked in to find that the church was all prepped for a funeral the next day, complete with coffin and body. They freaked. And then someone told on them. I also have heard (all second hand) that when the younger folks (teens, specifically) would try and get together on HQ property to read the Bible and study together that they were told not to do so, that they needed an adult there to supervise and make sure they kept it on the Word. One kid even told me that there Bible study was interrupted by Safety. They were studying the Bible because the teachings were boring the crap out of them. Sounds to me like for the most part they wanted the "keeds" to only be exposed to twi teachings, and definately not to foster any independent thoughts. I remember some of the teens in twi telling me that the collaterals didn't teach them anything because they never knew any other teaching. They didn't understand the Trinity, or why the body of Christ was so emphasized in Communion - they didn't understand the WINE being the BLOOD because that part wasn't taught. There was no exposure to other religions or ways of thinking. I had a few of them tell me that they had a hard time witnessing because they just didn't understand where the other people were coming from. Raised in a bubble of twi doctrine. It's no wonder they all decided en masse to head to a local church and ask questions there on the down low.

WordWolf, that is the best explaination I have heard. Thank you!

All the catchphrases hurt my ears. Why do they have to try and force science into their belief system? Why do they feel like they have to KNOW so darn much? I mean, just let spirit and God and all that stuff be MYSTERIOUS. It's bigger than any human being, and for humanity to claim they can explain God/spirit is just plain arrogant. And not very fun. I really enjoy feeling like I have to have an explanation for EVERY thing out there. It takes the pressure off and allows me to just observe and sit in awe of how incredible our universe and Creator is. (I'm not speaking about science here or subatomic particles, but specifically trying to scientifically explain the unexplainable.)

I think it is one of my all time favorite threads. It sure helped me a lot!!

Thanks, waysider!!

Bump.

OldSkool, I had a topic (I think the first one I ever started here on GSC) a long time ago about creativity in twi. Now I can't find it and I don't have time to delve into the depths of the Cafe to find it. It was a great discussion with several creative people on the subject.

Yes, you are correct. Thanks!!

Ham, that was awesome! I am STILL laughing!

That sounds exactly like the fellowship I first attended while still a kid. Great people who loved people. I miss those folks... And then WC showed up a few years later. It all went downhill from there. More commitment was required... I went WOW, my folks went in the Corps. And the rest is explained in the first post. And now that I think back, the WC that showed up were the first Way people to give me the heebie jeebies.

Thank you, Rascal... It was only because I was more afraid of the WC program than I was of WC leadership!