So_crates

JWs believe the soul is in the blood. So, by transfusing the blood, you're als transfusing the soul.

A woman in her 40s just came to my door and started to pitch knowledge in the bible. "Ma'am, I'm going to save you a lot of time," I told her. "I'm not interested in joining church." "This isn't for a church," she said, "we're just sharing what we know from the bible." She started back into her pitch pointing to the tract she had. "Ma'am, I was with The Way International for the better part of my life." At that point she said "Okay", terminated the conversation and went on her way to the next house. Could she have been with The Way? It's the abrupt termination that makes me wonder.

And this is one of the reasons why I think the whole thing is a scam. As long as they can blame you for failure, they're covered. Let me ask you, when you go skydiving, how long does it take gravity to respond? Or do you just dangle in midair like Wile E. Coyote? Why is believing different than any other universal law?

A more pertinent question would be: do I believe people in the Way manifest God's power? The answer is no. I think most of the upper structure knew the whole thing was a con, they just went along with it for whatever they could gain out of it, al la Rummy Michens in Major Barbara .

And your point is...? This is like Saint Vic preaching about unicorns and me saying we never were meant to have unicorns, so you respond: Since you left the ministry have you gotten any unicorns?

I think many of us here have done a brilliant job of moving on with our lives. We've succeed not because of, but in spite of the Way. We've moved on, we're in it won't happen again mode. Methinks thou protests too much. What haven't you forgiven and is stopping you from moving on with your life?

We were told we would manifest the power of God. How many do you know really did? How many healing and miricles are you aware that news of such didn't come from a friend of a friend (a ministry urban legend) ? You see, the truth of the matter is that we were never meant to manifest the power of God, to become successful. Because if we ever did manifest that power we would become to Independent and, in Saint Vic's mind, might no longer need him. So it was to his benefit to keep us in a cycle of failure which would keep us dependent on the ministry. You would think God would want you to succeed and be a shining example of his love. Yet, the ministry was based on you failing.

Why would someone come onto a place where Way victims congregate and start talking about forgiving? Do you think we haven't forgiven all the evil The Way brought? There's forgiving, then there's warning others. If someone mugged me in certain place I could forgive the mugger. However, I would also warn other to stay away from the place were the mugging occurred.

Yah, forgiveness. Everytime my mother would betray me, she would want to be forgiven. "We've got to start over from scratch," she would say. So I would forgive and forget and all she was really doing was setting me up for her to do the same thing all over again. It sound to me like you want us to forgive and forget. God require us to forgive, he says nothing about us having to forget. God says we are to be as wise a serpents, which includes not falling into the same trap again. The ministry sending out time to come home cards feels like deja vu all over again. The type of forgiveness you want us to have requires trust and trust is earned.

Did Saint Vic know that he knew that he knew? Depends on what you think he knew. I, personally, think he knew he was running a con. Proof of this is in the POP paper. Saint Vic went to G33r whining that Martindale was "ruining the whole thing.* Just what was the "whole thing?" Upon leaving that meeting, Saint Vic said, "Well bring it back." Notice, in both instances, there was no ta!k of for the glory of God, or the people needing the Word. Just ruining the 'whole thing" and "bringing it back.' Saint Vic was talking about ruining the con and that he wanted to bring it back.

I couldn't say it better than this

Kinda like "Corps Nazis" and "Snappers," right?

Sure, why not? If I narrow my thinking to only what I see I'd come to the conclusion that the earth is flat. We know better, don't we?

Then there's the questions salvation brings: Does God "budget" who gets saved when? Does the individual seeking salvation have to wait for "doors" to open?