penworks

Okay, so you double-dog dared me. Have you sent in your letter to the editor yet? (See my post above.)

Yes, it was called By The Way. I still have some of the reprints. VPW did not write them, but probably came up with the general ideas. The articles were written by a Corps grad woman, Al*lison He#ney, a writer who worked on the Way Magazine, too. Her brother was in the 2nd Corps with me.

Last Monday I submitted a letter to the editor at the St. Mary's Evening Leader newspaper online. The problem is it was only ONE letter. How about YOU send one, too? If anyone wants to joint the write-in Occupy TWI movement, you can. Just go to their site, fill out the form for submission of letters to the editor, and click SUBMIT. The more letters they receive the more attention they'll give to the matter.Well...maybe...Who knows. Maybe they'll even publish one. St. Mary's Evening Leader newspaper Good luck. Cheers! Pen

TWI counts on the ignorance of people looking for "answers" and captures their minds not only for alliegence to TWI but for the broader movement called "fundamentalism." Perhaps some people here will appreciate this article on why even some evangelicals fear fundamentalists. Read here: The Evangelical Rejection of Reason

Flooding TWI with phone calls would be a kick...or sending a mass mailing of snail mail to every employee who works there, if we could get their names and addresses. OR perhaps an article sent to the St. Mary's Evening Leader would be appropriate...mmm...you guys are giving me ideas...shame on you!

This video is lovely, inspiring, and reports on an important undertaking for the people who need those amazing bridges. It seems a clever analogy if you still think the mirage of VP's "Word" is real, but it is ridiculous of JL to claim the story "parallels what we are to be doing with the Word." That is propaganda, and it isn't even very good propaganda IMO. Call me overly analytical, but for the analogy to be a good one, I suspect there would need to be one undeniably clear (to everyone on the planet) interpretation of what "the Word" is and what it says, if "The Word" refers to the Bible (which Bible is another matter). News flash to JL: you've oversimplified a complex issue like VP did. In other words, you are digging around in a can of worms, and sorry, but you can't build bridges out of worms. The don't stay still long enough. Words, yes, even words in Bibles, are wiggly things, and are subject to "private" interpretation the minute a human being reads them. VP's "keys to research" that JL clings to do not create a dependable vine . Why do you think we've got so many Protestant denominations? Why do you think Martin Luther broke away from the Catholics? He interpreted scripture differently ( and a few other reasons). VP's interpretations which JL promotes, although with some "tweaks", is plagarized from others who were fundamentalists. No doubt there is value in some of the teachings, regardless of where they came from, but let's remember, we're still dealing with people's interpretations, not an objective "Word" that JL thinks he can move over the world. He's moving words that wiggle like worms. A quick trip to the public library or to Google to check the aisles containing works on theology and Biblical interpretation shows you that the matter of "the Word" is not so simple. Knowledge on these topics is readily available. Cheers! Pen "I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect, has intended us to forgo their use." Galileo

This video is lovely, inspiring, and reports on an important undertaking for the people who need those amazing bridges. It seems a clever analogy if you still think the mirage of VP's "Word" is real, but it is ridiculous of JL to claim the story "parallels what we are to be doing with the Word." That is propaganda, and it isn't even very good propaganda IMO. Call me overly analytical, but for the analogy to be a good one, I suspect there would need to be one undeniably clear (to everyone on the planet) interpretation of what "the Word" is and what it says, if "The Word" refers to the Bible (which Bible is another matter). News flash to JL: you've oversimplified a complex issue like VP did. In other words, you are digging around in a can of worms, and sorry, but you can't build bridges out of worms. The don't stay still long enough. Words, yes, even words in Bibles, are wiggly things, and are subject to "private" interpretation the minute a human being reads them. VP's "keys to research" that JL clings to do not create a dependable vine . Why do you think we've got so many Protestant denominations? Why do you think Martin Luther broke away from the Catholics? He interpreted scripture differently. VP's interpretations which JL promotes, although with some "tweaks", is plagarized from others who were fundamentalists. No doubt there is value in some of the teachings, regardless of where they came from, but let's remember, we're still dealing with people's interpretations, not an objective "Word" that JL thinks he can move over the world. He's moving words that wiggle like worms. A quick trip to the public library or to Google to check the aisles containing works on theology and Biblical interpretation shows you that the matter of "the Word" is not so simple. Knowledge on these topics is readily available. Cheers! Pen "I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect, has intended us to forgo their use." Galileo

This video is lovely, inspiring, and reports on an important undertaking for the people who need those amazing bridges. It seems a clever analogy if you still think the mirage of VP's "Word" is real, but it is ridiculous of JL to claim the story "parallels what we are to be doing with the Word." That is propaganda, and it isn't even very good propaganda IMO. Call me overly analytical, but for the analogy to be a good one, I suspect there would need to be one undeniably clear (to everyone on the planet) interpretation of what "the Word" is and what it says, if "The Word" refers to the Bible (which Bible is another matter). News flash to JL: you've oversimplified a complex issue like VP did. In other words, you are digging around in a can of worms, and sorry, but you can't build bridges out of worms. The don't stay still long enough. Words, yes, even words in Bibles, are wiggly things, and are subject to "private" interpretation the minute a human being reads them. VP's "keys to research" that JL clings to do not create a dependable vine . Why do you think we've got so many Protestant denominations? Why do you think Martin Luther broke away from the Catholics? He interpreted scripture differently. VP's interpretations which JL promotes, although with some "tweaks", is plagarized from others who were fundamentalists. No doubt there is value in some of the teachings, regardless of where they came from, but let's remember, we're still dealing with people's interpretations, not an objective "Word" that JL thinks he can move over the world. He's moving words that wiggle like worms. A quick trip to the public library or to Google to check the aisles containing works on theology and Biblical interpretation shows you that the matter of "the Word" is not so simple. Knowledge on these topics is readily available. Cheers! Pen "I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect, has intended us to forgo their use." Galileo

One reason is that many of us mentioned by name in the book no longer "stand with" TWI, and in fact some of us speak out against it (for instance, me). It is a work of propaganda, as you describe, and it makes me sick that I am in it. Boy, how things in our youth come back to haunt us... Cheers! Charlene Lamy Edge (part of the ECU group of fanatics written about in the TWLIL)

True, we can't know everything. Letting go of that idea is one of the first steps, IMO, to compassion. I do have one question, though. If the Christian life is ONLY as the teacher defined it, how does she describe what makes it "Christian," since other faiths (and atheistis included) say they are about the same things: "about being good, being kind, being loving. It's about living a good life. That's all" Just curious...this question has mattered to me for a long time....

I was shocked to stumble across this today...Has anyone else seen this piece of TWI propaganda? Judging from the actors (I remember two of them) I think this was made in the 1980s sometime...in the auditorium.

Well, I'm inclined to agree with Karen Armstrong when she says of fundamentalism that we can't get the genie back in the bottle. It's here to stay. What we can do is try to prevent the fundies from becoming more extreme and harming others. With Wayfers, their thinking is already extreme. With its dogmas and behaviors, harm is done emotionally, spiritually, and mentally and sometimes physically. What we can do is prevent others from getting seduced into TWI and groups like it. Keep posting here!! And anywhere we can. Check this out: The Fundamentalists Cheers! Pen

Since I post here, when I read a statement like, " Most people like me won't touch this place with a ten foot pole" said by Johniam, it sure makes me wonder what sorts of people those are. I try not to take those statements personally, though. But I don't know how to take them impersonally, either...just sayin.

Dear DWBH, You are the Dude! Your memory is photographic or something!!! I often think of your interview posted here at GSC and tell people to listen to it! You mentioned the women at the ECU Way Home. Before the guys I mentioned above moved in the ECU Way Home with JAL, there were a couple of women living there with J*hn and M*ry S*mmerville. One was M*rcia Faul* who later married B*ll Gr*en and ran the Corps at HQ. While we're naming names for historical records, J. S*mmerville works (or at least a couple of years ago he did) as a tour guide for Israel trips sponsored by John Hagee Ministries. I've watched Hagee on T.V. He is the closest clone of VP I've seen. Sorry JAL, you didn't make the cut . Cheers!

One would be too many.

Hi everyone, esp. nice to see DWBH! This info might solve the photo mystery: I was from the ECU fellowship and was in the second Corps (1971-73). In those days, there was a Way Home set up in Greenville, NC, down the street from the ECU campus. When I took PFAL at the Way Home in Dec. 1970, John and Pat Lynn were living in it and so were several guys enrolled at ECU. They helped run PFAL classes, recruit other students into TWI, etc. VPW had set up this kind of thing because he wanted college educated leaders for his cult. The requirement for living with the Lynns was this: stay in college, get your degree, be a slave for TWI and then lucky you, you can come to HQ and spend only one year doing the in-resident program with the Way Corps and then graduate. Under this plan, Earl Burto*, Duk* Clark*, Randy Anders*n, Ger*ld Wren, I*n Murphy, and G*orge H*nley all did the Corps thing. Specifically, E*rl and R*ndy got their college degree before the others, so they came to HQ in the fall of 1971 and joined the First Corps, graduating with them in 1972. D*ke, Ger*ald, and I*an arrived at HQ in 1972 and graduated with us in the 2nd Corps in 1973. G*orge H. showed up in the fall of 1973 and graduated with the 3rd Corps in 1974. I believe the third corps was the last Corps to have two back-to-back years of Corps indoctrination and then graduate. After that, an interim year was added. Is this right, DWBH? Cheers!

Socks, you crack me up. " If God taught him, opened the scriptures ok, but apparently God wasn't up to redoing old work and just directed him to previous efforts. That's understandable, God has a lot to do but if it's all one happy bag of inspired work, all the better to clearly accredit God for past work well done and note the sources." Cheers! Penworks

I agree. I can verify this is what I witnessed in TWI from the two of them, too.

I truly believed God led me to it because I wanted to know what His Word "really" said. I found out what VPW "really" said that other people had already said.

Looks as if they might be able to climb rocks but spelling isn't part of their gig --- "Where Back!!!" What does that mean, Sowers????

About 2 years ago, from a very reliable source, I heard he was conducting tours around Israel for John Hagee's ministry. J.S. taught O.T. history at HQ a very long time ago.

Utterly amazing. Thanks for the links to the old threads on this topic, too.

In the PFAL book, it's clear VPW had one view and one view only of what the Bible was: The inerrant Word of God. Period. Grads of the class all heard it drilled into them, and they still do no matter how many name changes the PFAL class has undergone. IMO, VPW was just one more voice pushing Bibliolatry. Offshoots of TWI continue to propagate this cherished belief, feeling they must carry the torch of "their father in Bibliolatry." I remember while I was in TWI, I refused to accept that I was in effect worshipping a book, but indeed I was. And in the process indirectly worshipping a man who said he knew what that book "really said." What I like about this article (link below) is that it tries to offer a realistic way of appreciating the Bible for what it is, not what men have tried to make it be. BTW - This is something I've spent only the last few 25 years of my life doing - in my spare time :-) Let's get real: The Bible is Dead; Long Live the Bible Cheers! Pen

Someone recently asked me whether VPW told me for whom to vote. All I could say was I don't remember his outright TELLING me which persons to vote for, but he usually made it plain who he was voting for. i.e. Reagan. He was clearly Republican and in those days (1970 - 1987) I was strongly influenced by VPW even after he died in 1985. How 'bout you? OOPS, the title should read "Do" not "Does". How do I change that?

HA. While looking through mine, prompted by this post, I discovered some things on the inside cover pages, though, that brought back some weird memories: I pasted a small scrap of paper listing the 5 Corps principles. Also is a yearly calendar (stick-on kind), and nother scrap of paper with James 1:17 on it. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning." I have no idea why I chose that verse. On the next inside page, I taped a sheet titled, "Keys to Walking in the Spirit." Looks like its from the Advanced Class. It's printed with decorations in the corners so I guess we were given it during the class. Each "tip" has at least one verse to substantiate it, from all over the N.T. and some from the O.T, which raises some issues ...but that's another topic. On the next page I stuck another stick-on sheet which is about 1/2 page, titled, "God's Word Speaks of Five Crowns of Highest Award for Believers. They are...(then it lists and defines them.) No verses were given for each one but I wrote them in ink in the margin. Then I have the phone number of the Rome City campus for some odd reason. And a list of 4 attributes of what "twigs are: Positive, Teaching, Fellowship, Ministering. Then a statement: The Way Tree is a white oak tree. The next inside page (there were many, how come?) has another stick on page with "Biblical Truths we Must Adhere to as Workmen" and some other tips on "letting the Bible interpret itself." All lifted from Bullinger, I'm sure. Then there is the note to self: Inherent means "from within," Inerrant means "without error." Interesting that, more than 25 years later, "inerrant" has now become part of my research on fundamentalism.... I've got to "move on!" ---Given all these cheat-sheet helpful hints, who needs to turn the pages and actually read the Bible? With all that "accurate" help, I can't for the life of me figure out why I left!!