chockfull

The original had way too much humility.

Nah, that won't work. That's a co-dependant relationship. The dominatrix, and the spineless coward who waffles more than John Kerry's teflon iron all heated up on a Saturday morning. He'd have to have a meeting to see which face he should show. Oh, and Linder is a staple. He not only knows where bodies are buried, he probably buried many of them. He is as much a staple of TWI's payroll as the Martindale harem in full time field positions. Have to keep them from writing memoirs, you know.

Spoken by a man who is comfortable with all of the "shades of meaning" TWI provides under the label "truth".

Ah yes. The harsh reality of taking your resume to a headhunter and having them deflate the balloon. Then use some kind of creative writing for damage control. It's a shocking experience, and a lesson in humility. One that I would recommend to all TWI employees, as the humility gained will actually build your character beyond the damaged state it was in previously. Reality is such a great repellant for arrogance. But never fear, TWIbots. God is ever present and can restore the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25). Use your prayer life, the semblance of morals you have left, and good old American propensity for hard work and ingenuity and the years will be better to you. The one encouraging thing I can recollect about whasisface's Corps Ning site is I remember JR doing a highlight of all the professional successes of Way Corps post TWI. You see, we do have the propensity to actually becoming contributing members of society.

If they really were corporately legitimate, they would report to shareholders. If they did that, they would actually have some accountability in top leadership positions. If they had that, I'm sure they would have tossed the Rosalie and Rupp out on their @$$es years ago, and TWI would be more productive, less filled with arrogance, and probably less evil in general.

The "growth periods" of TWI were basically during the years 1972 - 1984, mostly centered around riding the zeitgeist of the Jesus movement, and were also centered around distinct individual personalities where people who were genuine Christians functioned. In every case, VP rode in on a white horse, replaced these individuals with his trained "Corps" who he had spent 2 years indoctrinating on the farm, and took over the increase. In other cases, some people went through the Corps training and maintained by the grace of God somewhat of a genuine Christian life, so they were able to do some good. What stands out is the following: 1 Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. You cannot counterfeit a true foundation. And when men try to build upon a different foundation, their works crumble. TWI rapidly became every bit as legalistic as Jerusalem circa 60's AD. And did so rapidly after any succession in leadership. Anything built around the cult of personality of one man or woman will do so. That's what's at the root of this, not the lack of motivation for twiggies to accost people in malls.

And, conveniently, that helped VP with his next logical point, which was to make VP your center of reference for truth. Oh, but you'll say, he never said that, didn't want that, in reality pointed people towards "The Word" as "our only rule of faith and practice." You see, this is why in the Bible Jesus warns us about false prophets and false teachers - wolves in sheep's clothing. It is also why he teaches his disciples to know people "by their fruits" rather than by their words. You see VP - by his fruit would not listen to the Word as people's only rule of faith and practice. There are many accounts of that here, one of the most notable being John Schoenheit writing the paper on adultery. If VP's words were how he lived, no problem. However, John was fired for writing a paper saying adultery is wrong. In practice, what VP meant by "the Word, the Word, and nothing but the Word" was "VP's words, VP's words, and nothing but VP's words". He expected the Corps to jump at his words teaching them "the suggestion of a general is tantamount to a command". This pervading culture permeated all of TWI, and has carried forward to two generations of successing presidents. In comparison, having Newton's laws, or Skinner's behaviorism as your center of reference is far less damaging to a person's self and the others around them.

God, I like this better than any definition of the word on the whole thread. + 100.

I've gone back and forth on the practice of extensive margin notes in the Bible. To me it was a practice of TWI to convince people they were more "hard core" Bible students, and yet in reality the effect was that TWI followers developed an elitism and arrogance not there in most Christians. Truly an embodiment of "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up". I certainly can't condemn the overall practice as a whole, but I will say when coming across egotistical Christians with copious Bible margin notes, it turns me off completely. I still have at least one old TWI Bible. It's not the one I read. I keep it as a relic more like certain other old photos and meaningful items. I can't completely erase my whole life from TWI, or vice versa as it was many years and I don't want my current existence to feel like I'm in a witness protection program. I just relegate the artifacts to the artifact storage location and throw out stuff that has or has had very negative emotional impact. Anyway just a few more random thoughts on the topic.

Great comments on this thread. It is a very telling contrast between what TWI teaches about the Word taking the place of the absent Christ, and the crux of Christianity being the very present Christ. It is absolutely the belief of the false prophets at the top of TWI that since the "Word" (i.e. their mandates) takes the place of Christ that is at the center of their abuse and control. Their arrogance will be dealt with through Him to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. In our day and time let's enjoy the very present Christ.

scared to ask which 3 ;)

Giorgio Jessio. Abundant in quantity if not quality. Several versions - the dessert version had sugar added and higher alchohol content. Better to numb the brain at holiday parties to explain away your mundane existence. But no - legendary more in the name than the quality. I guess that's representative of TWI, though, isn't it? yeah mostly. I met him a few times. Not much of a conversationalist - maybe 10 words total out of multiple conversations. The directors didn't know him either, mostly. Maybe Mittler. The ironic thing about it is that I'm sure if they tried to make George Jess turn in a schedule, he would give them a puzzled look and walk away without a word. He was mostly a local farmer type. Which is why he worked. He helped in the whole 70's Corps model of getting hippies off horse by doing farm labor. I'm sure that compared to those dip sh1t$ in the Directors he probably was like one of Jesus Apostles. He worked, didn't mouth off, and didn't cheat on his wife. But of course those clowns enshrine anything. The purpose of it all is indoctrination and control, not reality. Again, comparatively, maybe so. Which means they were your average Christian church going farm folk with morals.

You do like to play with words, don't you. Burned = forced out unjustly, denigrated, shunned, etc. You certainly shouldn't blame ALL way corps for the actions of the corrupt few at the top. However, you do seem to adeptly avoid discussing those in power, which are those which SHOULD be blamed, which are STILL AT THE TOP. Your account and timelines of LCDumb@$$ are uninformed at best. There's plenty of records here on this site to document his downfall. If that guy did personally coordinate every twig fellowship the outcome would be about the same - fathers and husbands hunting him with shotguns, people p1$$ed off, and 90% of the people saying f this I'm outta here. And you have the same leadership style in place today. Including the guy's wife / ex-wife right at the top with her bestest friend. Who conveniently didn't have the corps policy applied to her forcing her to assume the same fate as her husband as she and all the other so-called leaders have across the board applied to everybody else. Sure I've seen "Undercover Boss". However here all I see is "Undercover johniam", burying that head deep. "Love bombed every day by Jesus". My God, man. I love my Lord and Savior too, but I hate to break it to you - the 60's are over. Now it's time to cut the hair, get off the reefer, go back to college, and get a job - figuratively speaking. Jesus loves reality as well as you too.

I wanted to revisit this. So apparantly you were kicked out of TWI by a local region/limb idiot. He told you that you were "too dangerous" to come to fellowship. As a result you've rejected him as well as the leadership in power during that time, LCDumb@$$. Now years later apparently you've found a local Corpse or Corpse Alumni that accepts you and has you in their fellowship. Because they accept you, and you play songs at their kids fellowships, and have a little family like circle around you, you feel safe, esconced in the love bombing or whatever, and don't give a second thought to the fact that LCDumb@$$'s wife and her girlfriend Rosie the Horrible currently are carrying out the same type of monstrocities burning people just like that local region / limb idiot did to you. Do you think that during LCDumb@$$'s reign he burned all those people on his own? Or maybe possibly his wife helped and was the source of a lot of that too? Of course she was, and I have heard multiple accounts of this in the past and recent past. Sheesh, it's like people have to put their hands on a hot stove multiple times to figure out that it's hot. It's TWI. That means that eventually you're going to feel the effects. It's just amazing to me how even the second and third time around all you need to do is a little "love bombing" and people are ready to give up their entire base of rational thought for a feeling. Disgusting. Dog returning to its vomit.

That you could. It wouldn't be very classy at all though. Comparisons with loss of property seem to be something more universal to discuss. Sex abuse - not so much. Actually when I die and then wake up at the return I'll be in the presence of God for eternity. Now I seem to be in the presence of idiots and their tomfoolery. Just a general statement on the nature of mankind - nothing personal. It feels like needing to describe the nature of mankind as idiots. They tend to impose upon themselves 'vexation of spirit'. But not before they vex others to their maximum potential. OK. More tentacles but less money? I actually wouldn't describe the US government as having "evil" at the top. I wouldn't want to hurt the devil's feelings by comparing him to US Senators. I would describe it more as "lies, d@m-n lies, and politics". As far as the "what should I do?" there is the dilemma. Fight, flight, or apathy. If you believe the US has inherent value then fight is a good option. If not, then flight. Apathy is what most of the ground slugs on the planet settle for. Does this hold true for TWI? Well, anecdotes help here. The latest in a long line of people with pedigrees trying the "fight" method recently got demoted and moved out "on the field". Guy whose dad was one of the longest standing clergymen and doofaces, etc. You could try the fight, but statistics show that unless someone grew some juevos and sent the legendary lady couple at the top packing you'd just wake up with a knife in your back. So it seems the "flight" and "apathy" options are the two most commonly picked lately.

You know on this element, honestly I'm a little more alarmed with you at your acceptance of all the evil at the top of TWI because it doesn't affect you than I am about a few people in your local fellowship coming over for a chainsaw wood splitting party. What of all the control at the top of TWI? What of the regurgitatingly vanilla STS teachings, magazine articles? What of the mandates regarding debt? The egotistical arrogant attitude? These are matters of substance, not how many youth fellowship members like your rendition of an old Dean Ellenwood song.

Don't get me started on insurance. They are selling air and statistics. And they do hedge their bets against statistics when they lose like you describe. All of which makes me not lose any sleep for filing claims when accidents happen.

I don't have any problems with the insurance angle. The adjusters are in business and are fully aware of the claim - you pay money every month on what I am supposing is homeowners insurance, so when things like that happen it is the service you pay for. That is unless you were dancing naked. Then that is just a mind picture that is not really necessary Fair enough. That CFFM thread is pretty much complete - it's OK if activity dies out on it - there's always another thread. As far as excitement goes, I usually seek it off of the Internet ;) But maybe your goal is to rile people up here anyway.

Way too f'ing much IMO. It was all part of the attitude of intellectual or spiritual superiority bred by TWI. So I marked up what amounts to my own commentary in wide margins. Except none of it was mine - no original thoughts about the scripture, references, etc. like any of the men who did commentaries did. All it amounted to was a huge repetitious indelible means of indoctrination. Now I prefer to read it as it stands, and use software to link in libraries of external reference material including multiple translations. I really don't give a $htttttttttttt about whether the current green underlined verse was used in session 6 of the FNC or not. Or how many angels can dance on the head of Peter's denial. Or certainly not whether "owe no man anything" is in the category of verses which were Old Testament but carried forth into the New Testament and if not specifically changed there were still in effect. As I currently consider all those notes, interpretations, and efforts to be complete Boooooooooooooooolllllllllllllsssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just currently read my Bible and search things out due to specific interest at times and others just to maintain and enhance my relationship with my Savior.

Actually I have no desire to argue against that comparison. I find it irrelevant. What I do find relevant is that VPW was a man who rose to authority who did unspeakable things behind the guise of standing for the Bible. Next in line, his protege LCM did similar things. After that, currently RFR is carrying on the same tradition. Now there's an analogy I can draw a conclusion from. If the fruit of the first, second and current president of an organization is all putrid fruit, then what does that tell you about the organization?

I'm not great at analogy interpretation, so will have to guess. 1. Cosmopolitans are a New York drink and drinking them in St. Louis while you are a woman in a public service office will cause New Yorkers to give you a black eye? 2. We should be outraged at VPW, he should be held to a higher standard, and God should do that? 3. The fact that VPW was a drunken lecherous charlatan didn't change the Bible, just cause new interpretations of it? 4. Citizens of St. Louis county aren't rethinking criminal law? I don't know, man, maybe I've got it all wrong. But people will do stupid things, cult leaders will bewitch masses, people will get used, God is still God, and a good portion of citizens of St. Louis county are selling meth thereby living criminal law as opposed to rethinking it, for which it's doubtful they have the capacity.

The funniest thing about all that was how RR early on highlighted the problem with LCM "having too much power" - the main teacher AND the main administrator functions together. Then through stifling micromanagement she garners up ALL of the power and basically takes the power away from any of the teaching side by requiring them to submit teachings ahead of time for approval, go through a dress rehearsal before her and other BOD members where she can change "approve/disapprove" of content, etc. I guess that's what you get when you cross a little old lady schoolteacher with Godzilla - Rozilla

Big Love is awesome from a perspective of highlighting the "cult think" angle. Sister Wives is cool too - I keep watching that and wondering how on earth those women are stupid enough to put up with the ego of that guy. I mean maybe after a nuclear holocaust if there were a 10:1 female:male population on earth you could see how people could justify it, but seriously, people just settle for so much less than they could achieve.

Spot on. And the only two things you will never in a million years get out of them.