chockfull

What the h are they holding up in that picture?

Well, if you actually evaluate this series of teachings from a cult control perspective, you have to introduce fear into followers somehow. Without fear motivation, how can you have control? Many people hang around TWI out of fear of the consequences of dropping off. That fear is introduced and built by teachings such as their interpretation of Job in the FNC. There are large leaps of logic there. Come on. Questioning whether or not your kids are doing the right things leads to their deaths and all that calamity? Oh, but the questioning happened deep down. And he didn't confront their kids. O RLY???????? Where does it say Job never confronted his kids? No, that book is all about dealing with adversity. And overcoming it. To blame the guy going through adversity that it's his fault because of fear is just so classic TWI. And they do that in real life too. They see people's adversity. And blame them for it. That is not Christian behavior. Jesus Christ saw people's adversity, and helped them out of it through healing, teaching, etc. The Way? Never in a lifetime. That's why long-time people in the Way, especially leadership, become especially adept at hiding their adversity so that other followers won't see it and attack them. Oh, and welcome to the Cafe! But he's "Chocolicious". I would not be surprised if at some point she didn't drop the married name and go back to Lombardi.

Do be blunt, I don't owe TWI the sweat off my balls. And I would give my last .10 to help starving children in Africa before I would ever give those charlatans another cent. I know. Tell us how you really feel.

Yes, TWI leadership collects information about how much followers give, and reviews and discusses it in leadership meetings. They will make comments and decisions regarding perceived "commitment" levels based upon this information. In reality, with this type of behavior, they deserve to receive NOTHING. It's none of their f-ing business, what people decide to give as a freewill offering out of the love in their heart for God, and abusing that by playing little gods judging people as to amounts I'm certain makes God sick to His stomach. And yes, that's a figure of speech.

And.... don't forget ..... your signal bars will be bigger.

Deep Thought

JOHN!!!!! What is that sucking sound????? Oh, nothing, ma'am. It's just my lips.

That's second cousin to the phrase "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". Or the more morbid TWI version "What happens on the motorcoach stays on the motorcoach". Which brings up another common reason why people in the Way lie. To cover things up.

If they have elementary school age children they can buy them in bulk for work and school?

It's the same old story. Selling truth, and practicing lies. Somehow that just doesn't seem to me what Christianity is all about.

Does then information just exist, and it's our limited perception and modeling of it that is flexible and inflexible?

Word Over the World was nothing more than a successful corporate strategy and slogan for TWI. They haven't had another one since. Paul had a ministry to the Greeks because his own Hebrew brethren had their little hierarchy and wouldn't accept him. So he traveled. Many have tried to mimic this to set up kingdom's of man's influence. Some have succeeded more than others.

Reconciling carbon dating with Biblical records is always an entertaining endeavor I have read anecdotes of carbon dating placing volcanic rock at 1M years old, surrounding a pocket of a mosquito larvae known to not be more than 14,000 years old. However, on the other end of the spectrum, I don't think Usher's dates, which consist of trying to timeline the Bible, are 100% trustworthy either. I don't think that God's intent was to write a history timeline. My views tend to fall somewhere in the middle of that. I think mankind's timeline is older than 6000 years. I think dinosaur's and hominid's timelines may be more recent than dates thrown out there. I do feel there is leeway for the gap theory between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2. But I'm a little leery as to placing exact timelines into that gap, for reasons stated above.

Hahahahaha. That's what you get when you have a schoolteacher that's the CEO.

V & D is pretty much a sales quota for field personnel. Did you ever consider that Rupp might be ..... gasp ..... lying?

Sarah McLachlan and PETA. And BTW Cesar Milan approves of this thread.

Interesting stuff, OldSkool. I split off a new thread to delve into the les couple stuff and policies. The Corps Annex seems to be where the Bored Dummies Group does all their little "teach with the fingers" stuff and makes decisions on who to burn and who to promote. Nice little out of the way place so as not to attract attention by meeting in their official conference room in the OSC.

As time has gone on this has been less and less clear. For the purposes of politics, especially in the US, (read for the intent of preserving J0hn Rupp's position), informal policies have been handed down to lessen the outward appearance of attrition. For example, people are kept on rolls even when they have only attended 1 fellowship in a year or two, and don't financially contribute. This way the overall numbers can look higher, mostly to justify field people keeping a salaried position. All salaried field personnel know how to play this game to preserve their little income. Another example, now approval is required from the Way of the USA to remove someone from the rolls. Why does this make any sense? Johnny Jumpup hasn't come to fellowship in 6 months. He's not "active". Where does the Way of the USA's opinion play into the facts there at all?

The purpose of this is not to get into this to be judgmental towards this group of people. This is more towards defining the position of TWI, as their words and the fruit evident here as with so many other things just does not line up. Under VPW's reign, it certainly was 100% against, but required "proof" before any detrimental action was taken. Under the Forehead's reign, the Foundational Class closed out with Romans 1 and a rant against it, purges were made throughout Staff / Way D / Corps / fellowships to kick out people under the pretext of "genuine spiritual suspicion", very vulgar public teachings made against it. Under Rozilla's reign, who knows? No more purges for sure. Some evidence of people with the appearance of living as lesbian couples on staff at HQ. Rozilla and Donna the 2 highest officers suspected of a les relationship. Many unmarried single ladies in positions of power at TWI, especially Donna's relatives. References to teaching against homosexuality removed from the Foundational Class, although all the rest of the FNC structure was retained. Teachings in Believer's Family Class don't directly address it being wrong, but skirt the issue by teaching that the intent of sex is between a heterosexual married couple. So, what is the story here? Inquiring minds want to know. TWI's roots are seemingly very Fundamentalist - literal interpretation of the Bible, etc. Have they become "more progressive"? How do they explain seemingly literal Bible passages that are thumped on by fire and brimstone Fundamentalist preachers all over the world? What is the real story?

IMO the extreme teachings they have surrounding the "household" wall off the group and teach placing honesty to people outside that group as something that is lower priority. Also, in the higher ranks, justification for lies even to "the household" is made under the pretext that the dishonestly furthers the higher goals of the organization, for which the scripture "so the ministry is not blamed" is used to fuel the rationalization of that.

Seconded. Do they have rap music in Ireland? Because that little rhyme has potential.

So I've thought a little about doing a thread on the Corps Chalet. I remember touring it once, and that someone said it is a $1 million plus home. I remember them building an annex onto it so that the Forehead could walk from his office across to some meeting places. I remember them building "Corps-Tel's" and telling us the idea was that Corps could be traveling through and stay there. Does anyone have pictures of this monstrosity? How many bedrooms is it? Who lives there? What do they use all the extended facilities for? I mean a $1M house - pretty wild. What types of things go on there? Inquiring minds want to know.

d@mn. well if you're on a roll f'ing up so many other people's lives, why not a dog's too? i feel sorry for the dog. Let's start a prayer vigil for Sam... btw - before you ask, this isn't a picture of Sam, but another chocolate lab.

We really need a new stock image for "Your ABS at Work!!!!". $29,000 Your ABS at Work!!! Socks, awesome stories man. Puts me right there - would have love to have been there. Jimmy must have been quite the man - never had the pleasure.

d@mn. well if you're on a roll f'ing up so many other people's lives, why not a dog's too? i feel sorry for the dog. Let's start a prayer vigil for Sam...