JavaJane

It seems to me that the more you make yourself into the mold, the more you supress who you are, the farther away you get from what God made you in the first place. The more rules you had to follow, the less room you had for God. I saw people who were beautiful souls go into the WC training program and either leave immediately, or have their personality so squelched that when they came out they weren't recognizable as the same person. So everything they had that made them shine was gone - replaced by the WC personality, which was non-existant.

I'm still thinking about this... What is the gain in looking like a cult? Is it the type of people you attract? Is it a way to isolate people once they are involved? (ok, that's sort of a given). Is it like a series of tests to prove loyalty? Because I don't think it really works as a marketing approach.

There were some things we used to do in twi that always made me cringe to explain to those outside twi - things that really looked cultish. Like the group weddings they did around the pond back in the day. Or the entire concept of two by two for everything while you were WOW or WD. Or witnessing in malls or door to door. Or how leadership always came off to new people like a vulture circling a potential meal... Or how they pushed the class on everyone they met. Or being confronted by someone in front of an "unbeliever.". (Especially a coworker/employer!) Or have a fellow believer start talking in way-speak jargon about devil spirits around new people. I hated trying to come off as normal while surrounded by a completely abnormal environment and group of people. Why do these things if you don't want to look like a cult?

Thanks! I couldn't remember how it read in the original...

You're always welcome at the Way! vs Mark and Avoid I guess it's an all with distinction instead of an all without distinction (or something like that - I'm thankfully starting to forget all the cliches)...

I'm just glad that confused some other people, too...

Needs and wants parallel... ?? Parallel lines never meet? So, your needs and wants can't ever be the same thing? This always confused the heck out of me... But I really like geometry, so that's probably my problem. It just DOESN'T have that mathematical exactness and scientific precision, does it?

You know, for God being all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere present, He really had a lot of stuff He couldn't do in Way-world. God couldn't: speak to anyone unless they had spirit override a person's believing protect someone who was "out of fellowship" (or their kids, or their stuff) give revelation unless you were "in fellowship" give anything other than that which he is, which is spirit (because spirit is the light of God in concretion, because Gods light would kill us, like a laser!!) operate outside the laws of nature that he set up contradict himself speak to anyone outside twi work in anyone outside twi (ESPECIALLY non-Christians!) has no hands but our hands only shows his love through the believers only has one group as His remnant and One True Household! Follows Way tree as far as revelation goes BUT, don't "put God in a box" or "limit God"!! As if anything I could do as a puny insignificant human could put a limit on what God could do!!

God can only speak to that which He is, which is spirit.

God is not a respector of persons... But He is a respector of believing. (and leadership, and amount of nametags, etc.) The revelation and impartation manifestations are God's perogative... But didn't VP say that when he needed revelation her just "reached into Daddy's comie jar?" puh-lease....

Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they recieved the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. This means that they wanted to be as convinced as their teachers were so they searched the scriptures. They weren't actually searching the scriptures to see if what they were being taught was true... No, they were studying the doctrine as taught to them by their teachers. In other words, only study what we say, don't question it. Don't try and have any independent thought. Edited to add that last sentence.

I remember being told that since my parents went in the WC that it meant that I also was supposed to go into the WC program because if God called my parents then He had called the whole family... I was terrified, because going in the WC was one thing I knew I never ever ever wanted to do. Ever.

Maybe if they ate more familia they could get something going in that department... Of course the housekeeping girls would get called in to clean it up when it did happen... Oh what a mess that would be. to paraphrase the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie - This ministry needs an enema! Ok, I'm done. Once again, I apologize. I have the sense of humor of an 8 year old.

I apologize in advance for this really horrible joke... If it has been 25 years since TWI passed a poop, it is no wonder they are so very very full of $h!t. It's probably because they are so uptight that no more poop has passed... it's a reflection on how tight-a$$ed they are.

I usually fell for the silence and ended up babbling. Towards the end I just would sit quietly during interrogation sessions and not say anything, which drove them CRAZY. I got the idea from when Jesus Christ didn't answer his accusers. It sure worked. And the look on their faces was priceless... (You know who I speak of, OldSkool. ) Later the ranking leader came back to me after one face melting where I sat quietly without saying a word... He had come to the conclusion I had done nothing wrong but wanted me to apologize to the other leader. I asked him what I was supposed to apologize for... he had no answer, but said I should do it for peace in the household. I told him that it would be LYING if I apologized when I had done nothing wrong. He pulled me aside three more times to get me to apologize - I never did. Even though he was my coordinator, the guy never spoke to me again unless he had to. What a douche.

At that point I was taking vacations to get AWAY from the witnessing!!! But I did take a couple of believers with me to qualify for two by two - just in case... (actually we just headed out into the wilderness, made a big fire, and spent the rest of the time cooking, eating, and going past the two drink limit.)

I alwys was in constant fear that my secret sins would be revealed to upper leadership... Not a pleasant feeling at all, but when you are involved from a kid sometimes you just buy into this stuff. And I was always the kind to say exactly the wrong thing which would get me the old way-corpse-stare as a response. You know the look. They stare at you like they can see your every flaw... Or maybe it was "does not compute"... I was never sure if it was just that they didn't understand me, or if they were getting revelation. Usually happened when I made a joke, come to think of it. your response sounds like the way a lot of people describe feeling when they meet a psychopath... I've read that this response is instinctual, a warning that you are in the presence of a predator. Makes sense to me!! I'll see if I can find out where I read it and give some documentation.

And then he said, "I have made a terrible mistake... I gave the forehead power beyond his wildest imaginings! God forgive me!". And he gave up the ghost. As he fell back upon his bed, there was nothing to be heard except silence.... And the sound of his glass eye rolling across the floor.

I remembered another one... After the LCM scandal broke we got new leadership in our area. The wife of the WC couple said in passing conversation that she wondered why LCM had never made a pass at her while she was at HQ... She wondered if he had thought there was something wrong with her. (as if she was missing out on some great honor or something) And then there was the time I decided to go on vacation and not fill out that stupid form for my fellowship coordinator. I verbally told her where I was going. She called my cell phone the day after I left and started giving me a face melting about how I didn't fill out the form. I asked her why she needed the form completed. She said it was so she could have my contact information if she needed to find me in an emergency. I told her that she obviously didn't need it since she had found me without it just fine. She hung up on me after that... It's no wonder I started taking vacations after that where I knew I couldn't get cell phone service and you would have to hike for two miles off the main road to be able to find me.

HAHA! Oh, the tshirt slogans we could come up with!! BWAHAHAHA!

and then sell it on t-shirts... Remember the red-thread t-shirts? Supposed to be a great witnessing tool!

WOW.... reading this one this morning was kinda like a slap upside the head. Hadn't thought about it this way before. The Way completely obliterated any real love (as shown by action) for anything other than the doctrine. "He magnified His Word above His Name" was made into "The Word, the Word, and nothing but the Word." They turned a genuine love of God and his people into a love of constant learning, of putting that learning and knowledge ABOVE any actual love that inspired action to care for others. I have really grown to hate the quibbling over this and that doctrine and religion since I have left twi. I don't care what religion anyone else is, or whatever religion they aren't. I know agnostics and atheists and Muslims and pagans that live a more "Christian" lifestyle than some people in twi and other fundamentalist Christian groups. They show more love and care for God and humanity than those who are just there to condemn and be superior to others. Amen and Amen to that! Yup, people like us... selling the class for them... all the while VP was boozing and whoring and taking our money, using us and throwing us away. Hungry for power, prestige, and worship. They are finally starting to reap what they sow... The money is there, but the people are not. I think one of my first moments of clarity about twi doctrine was the realization that I hadn't learned all that much about Jesus in twi - but I sure knew a lot about Paul. Not that Paul is bad, but the focus wasn't right. By putting the focus on the epistles and the works of Paul, you put your focus away from Jesus Christ and put it on how ONE MAN (not the Son of God, but a regular man like VP or LCM)... and the one man is much more easily replaced by a MOGFODAT than Jesus Chris would be. Luke 11:39-46 (The Message) But the Master said unto him, "I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. Stupid Pharisees! Didn't the one who made the outside also make the inside? Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor, then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands. I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God's love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. Frauds! You're just like unmarked graves: People walk over that nice, grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under." One of the religious scholars spoke up: "Teacher, do you realize that in saying these things you're insulting us?" He said, "Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You're hopeless, you religious scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift even a finger to help." Good point on the "busy work"... we spent so much time washing the outside of the cup we never bothered to look on the inside. It was all smoke and mirrors, slieght of hand and distraction - then we were too far into the maze to even know we had been trapped.