So_crates

I sent you an e. SoCrates

Really? I feast on the bones of trolls. SoCrates

The so called friend I knew from twig. I had previously went to his house a few times to study the bible. He of course was trying to get me into CES. I wasn't that interested. Then this severe depression came on. The real evil of Way doctrine: when you do everything by the numbers and your life still doesn't click, they're at a loss to explain it. I think he was implicating the truth. The whole ministry speil is a trick. Like when you play with your dog. You act like you throw the ball and the dog scampers off thinking its chasing the ball. Same with the ministry, they had us scampering after the abundent life. When the only ones who got what they preached was them. SoCrates

I despise it but for a different reason: its an easy out. Sure we promised you the windows of heaven would open and you'd get a blessing your storehouses wouldn't contain. Sure we said give and it'll be given onto you pressed down, shaken together and running over. Sure we belive in believing equals recieving (save the typing, I know its a misnomer). And sure we said God had an amazing life planned for you. Where is it all? Well, uh, uh, I'm getting nothin here. You must have gotten tricked. Yah, that's the ticket, that's the ticket. You got tricked. SoCrates

I empathize, OS. That's my major beef with Saint Vic and his demented circus. I got in when I was 19 or 20, went WOW when I was 21, left the ministry when I was 37, and didn't really give up on the doctrine until recently. Most of my life has been dedicated to TWI and the promise of "Wait until you see the life God has planned for you." I'm still waiting. As I mentioned in a couple of other threads, the straw that broke the camels back came in the form of someone I had knew from twig. He was a little further up the Way food chains than I was, so I went to him to learn more about the bible. Once I was in a steep depression. A depression so steep, people were saying they could see something was wrong. I went to him for answers, like where is all this abundance? Where is this great life promised. His answer: "You got tricked." Anybody who is still in the ministry reading this, make note of that. After all their promises and your sacrifices, their going to smile at you with shark teeth and say: "You got tricked." SoCrates

In other words: My mind is made up, don't confuse me withn facts. SoCrates

I guess that's one of the sad things about looking at old photos. I watch a lot of 50s and 60s TV. Usually I walk away with a similar feeling as what your expressing Geisha: What happened to us? SoCrates

After I left da vey, I continued the habit of collecting translations. Right now the whole bottom shelf of my bookshelf has various translatioins, from a companion bible to Greek interliniars. All are collecting dust. The only thing I've kept close to me--moving from the north to Florida and back to the north again--was the companion bible. But then my mother gave it to me as a Christmas present in my Way days. SoCrates

Oh, wow, Heavy deja vu.

For those interested, the following link leads to pictures of members of the First Way Corps Best veiwed while listening to Barbara Streisand singing Memories: Mmm. Mmm. Memories, light the corners of my mind Misty watercolor memories of the way we were. Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind smiles we give to one another for the way we were. Can it be that it was all so simple then or has time rewritten every line? If we had the chance to do it all again tell me would we? Could we? Memories, may be beautiful and yet what's too painful to remember we simply choose to forget So it's the laughter we will remember whenever we remember the way we were. First Way Corps pictures Navigation at the bottom of the page for more pictures. SoCrates

Caution: Repeated use of the d@mn word

Let's see if I can bring things back into focus. Waysider provided you with an example of Saint Vic's bullying, accusing everyone of killing a person when the individual snuck out to get cookies during a colon cleanse. Your response is Saint Vic wasn't bullying, he was telling everybody to get their act together. My response: Bullying (definition) Falsely accusing someone of anothers death is mental abusive. Can you even start to imagine the guilt the group felt, nonetheless carried with them? Over what? A colon cleanse and a couple of cookies. There wasn't a better way to transmit: get your act together? Here's a wild idea, how about using love (which frees) rather than guilt (which enslaves)? This should have been a time for mourning, not assigning blame. But Saint Vic and his ego the size of Rhode Island, just couldn't let it go. A terrible tragedy occured in Arizona a few months back. Can you imagine the outrage if Obama stepped up to the potium in the memorial service and blamed everyone in the country? You think Saint Vic did this out of love? Or out of trying to pass the buck? What happened to doctrine, reproof, and correction? Showing people the right way, showing them what they did wrong, then showing them how to do it right again? Far be it from Saint Vic to follow the bible. After all, he's better then the bible. SoCrates

And there are people who insist the earth is flat. That the round earth is just a conspiracy by globe manufacturers. They've seen men walk on the moon. They've seen Apollo launch. But somehow, they continue to insist the earth is flat... How's that for analogy? SoCrates PS When I die, I think I'll donate everything I own to the Flat Earth Society.

To illistrate to you how your trying to change definitions, I've posted both definitions below: Analogy (definition) Parable (definition) You start by calling your example an analogy, but when you see that doesn't get any legs you switch it to being a parable. Forked tongue anyone? SoCrates

No a parable is a parable and an analogy is an analogy: (to quote an expression thats all the rage: soup is soup and apple butter is apple butter. Now where did I hear that?) Remember your the one that called it an analogy, not me. Now, your trying to change definitions. Get it? Further, a percecutor is more in the public trust, like Saint Vic. Part of the reason for the outrage in my scenerio. I get it perfectly: my mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts. SoCrates

Oh, wow, heavy deja vu. SoCrates

Jon Steward sing Sanity an outtake from his speech on the National Mall. Be warned, there's mild profanity, repeated use of the "d@mn" word.

You just love these straw man arguments, don't you? Not to mention arguing to a false analogy. First off, to get a proper analogy you'd have to have this happen with a procecutor--who interprets the law books and decides who goes to trial and who doesn't. Not the cop in the street, while valuable, they're at about the level of a twig leader. The cop in the street is our contact with government, the twig leader is our contact with The Way. Now had a county procecutor raped a woman I'm sure you'd be outraged. Seducing, and raping many women--not to mention abusing his authority and using the county's political machine to stop him from being procecuted--and the villagers would be getting their pichforks and torches and asking what is this guy doing in a position of power. Same thing with Saint Vic, he seemed to want to tell everybody what their morals were without following them himself. SoCrates

Yes, but ther's a difference between being right and being stubborn. Stubborn ignore facts and continues forward blindly. SoCrates

There's an old Yiddish proverb: when the first man calls you a donkey, laugh. When the second man calls you a donkey, get angry. When the third man calls you a donkey, punch his face. When the fourth man calls you a donkey, buy a saddle. If you have a group of people "misrepresenting" you, maybe its not them, its you. As I said on the other thread, the purpose of communication is its result. If your being misrepresented, your obviously choosing to have it misrepresented, otherwise you would adjust whats being communicated so your not misrepresented. SoCrates

Figures. In the spirit of da vey, there's nothing expounding what the teaching is about. Only a huge blurb about who Saint Vic was (according to them). SoCrates

Hurry, hurry hurry. Step right up folks. The man with the golden tongue. Listen to Saint Vic plagerize. He professes, he parrots, he pontficates. Here and only here. There's no Saint Vic like our Saint Vic. You'll think you die and went to the other place--he sure sounds like he11. Toast of two continents---or he's been toasted on two continent. Come one, come all, where the elite fall off their feet. Hear him mangle Greek, listen to humor so dry it pops corn. Hear the sad stories of Maggie Muggins and Snowball Pete. Don't let Johnny Jumpup down. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll vomit. Step right up, folks. Here and only here. SoCrates

Read a quote once. It said "I don't know if this world is being ran by madmen taking themselves seriously or geniuses (genii?) who are putting us on." Thats what I would ask about their doing service for God schtick: Are they madmen taking themselves seriously or geniuses putting us on? SoCrates