Broken Arrow

I was watching a documentary about a battle early in the Vietnam War. An entire division got pinned down by the North Vietnamese and the Americans called in an airstrike. The code word was "Broken Arrow! Broken Arrow!" and the fighters came in with their ordinance. I thought it sounded cool. Also, there was a movie called "Broken Arrow" with John Travolta and (I think) Nicholas Cage. The two are chasing bad guys who just stole a couple of nukes from an aresenal. Cage decides to fire a pistol at the bad guys. Travolta, who was driving, and just like a tour guide says, "Please do not fire at the thermo-nuclear weapons." Thought that was funny.

It just cracks me up that he said that. When I was a young man going into the Way Corps, Martindale's line then was that, "parents are responsible to provide an education for their children." Now the folks going in are of the age to be one of my children, but wait. I went through the WC, he knows I'm destitute because I've been (hypothetically) working on staff for 25 years. So he switches his line now to grandparents being responsible for a kid's education. Those, by the way, would be the same people who, if I did what he said, paid for my education. Now they're going to pay for my kid's education? A lot of our parents are retired now, they can ill afford to put a kid through college. Guess they should have believed God better.

(Broken Arrow now steps down from his soap box and begins to engage in mirth and revelry)

And he didn't know the territory!

The same question can be posed to you and me. That is, why do we try to convince Johniam? None of us, I don't think are fooled as to whether anyone's going to have an epiphany. If that's what we're trying to accomplish we may as well give up. People can change their opinions, but not typically when they're being attacked and both sides have been attacking the other. Perhaps this feeds Johniam's perception of himself as the "defender of the faith" where he alone is standing against infidels in the name of all that is good. Maybe someone will turn, and if just one person turns, it will have made it all worth it. Or maybe he just feels disempowered and arguing here makes him feel important. We have less than holy motives ourselves though Ham will probably claim he is just an observer. What benefit are we getting out of all this? We wouldn't be involved in this discourse unless we were. Why do we keep coming back with "clever" argument after "clever" argument knowing it's falling on deaf ears? I doubt that it has anything to do with caring about Johniam's well being.

Ham, you wrote this in response to my saying that Phil Donahue was a "jerk". [quote name='Ham' date='09 March 2011 - 12:33 AM' timestamp='1299648795' post='524301' How do you know? Maybe he was just being honest. As in.. if you are the cat's meow here.. lets see YOU walk on water.. I dunno. Fair question, to me.. You are correct, I have no right to refer to Phil Donahue, or any other human being as a "jerk", or a "bigot", or any other slur.

Sorry for the oversight, you're right, you said "Christianity bigot" and I quoted you saying "Christian bigot", and yes, thank you for the correction. You must have had nothing to say in response to any of the other things I wrote in that post.

It's called...denial.

The first time I heard it was in the Renewed Mind Class, and it bothered me, I thought it was weird. When I graduated high school and went into the College Division, I felt bad because I didn't like Wierwille; he bugged me. I thought he was obnocious. I never had been around him before. But, after a year of indoctrination I was buying it all hook, line, and sinker. I was weeping calling him my "father in the Word". Mind you, I never had a personal conversation with the man my whole 15 years in TWI...scared of him. Yet, for some reason I had all these "gooshy" feelings about Wierwille. I believed he was The Man of God. It's amazing what a difference a year of "maturity" can make. I went from reading the man perfectly as a con, to worshipping him and calling him my father. Personally, I think I was starving for a father figure and fatherly affirmation and I would do anything to get even an illusion of it. Sad sad sad.

Sorry you're not feeling well. Hope you feel better soon dabob.

Who is saying anything about arresting people, and how did sex offenders and pedophiles get into this conversation? We're talking about whether TWI had violent tendencies. Actually, we were talking about the lack of taste a restaurant showed in comparing their food to the poison kool-aid drunk in the Jonestown massacre.

All hail the green frog!

I used to believe that but not anymore. IMO, people start spin-offs because they want to be the top dog. People follow because the spin-off offers a shortcut to something fantastic (the more abundant life, inner peace, sense of meaning, material prosperity the list is vast).

He sees his life "going from generation to generation causing the Mystery to be lived"? What does that even mean?

Okay, I see what your're saying. VP was equating TWI involvement and all its activities with the whole of Christendom. Pretty pathetic, really. Once again, he stole that idea from someone else.

Weren't they nazi's, or at the very least, anti-semitic? Liberty Lobby that is.

That's just insane, yet all too common from what I've seen. If a victim speaks out against their abuser, people in their insanity find a way to blame the abuser. I mean, just listen to that, "You shouldn't say anything because you're hurting the children and grandchildren." No, he abused you, you're telling the truth, and that is what is hurting the children and grandchildren, not you. I hope you keep telling your story. BTW, are SOWERS and CFFM the same thing? If they're embracing TWI doctrine then they're drinking from the same poisonous well and trying to get others to do the same. Give it time.

Another thing. Just as a rule of thumb, if you're ever involved with a group of people that actually think they can square off with the U.S. government in an armed conflict, run like Hell.

Ted Patrick, as you know, didn't work for the FBI. He was a "hired gun" so to speak. He'd kidnap and brainwash your children for a fee. My point is, Wierwille made the claim and offered no substantiation. Maybe there were agents, I dunno. I would be disappointed if the FBI or some federal agency didn't at least give TWI a look see. Wierwille didn't know either, he was grandstanding, making himself look important. The ironic thing is is that in Karl Kahler's book, The Cult that Snapped, he showed where there really was an ammo dump at TWI at one time. Of course, one has to evaluate the creditility of his source as well.

Reminds me of the movie, The Robe. Richard Burton and I think Jean Simmons are walking away and a crazed Caligula hysterically yells after them, "They're going to a better kingdom! They're going to a better kingdom!"

Right, that's the real world whether we want to face that or not. I don't know about you, but I never did get to the point where "I know that I know that I know." My experience is that no matter which path one chooses there is an element of the unknown and the unsure. Some, well, quite a few folks, think that "Pascal's Wager" is a statement of doubt. I don't. I think it's honest. I don't believe it's something to rest my entire faith on, but I've found it helpful.

I can't believe I spent all that time changing light bulbs, staightening rows of chairs, placing silverware perfectly on a table, picking cigarette butts from the sidewalk, and directing people to where they should sit at a meeting. Still, after all that "training" I wasn't able to counsel someone on how to raise their children. Go figure. My holy spirit dove descended toward my W.O.W. pin, too, and I wore my name tag on the right. I just don't understand it.

If someone lives their life full of bitterness, hatred, jealousy and all kinds of basic "yech", and at the end of all things finds out there is an afterlife, "oops!". They've just wasted a lot of time, maybe even their entire life. On the other hand, if someone fills their life with good things such as compassion, love, peace, patience, and faith (as opposed to anxiety), and they come to end of all things and find out there is no God, or afterlife, what have they lost? The point is, why should one waste their time in bitterness and doubt when there is a better way to live this life? We have absolutely nothing to lose by embracing a life of peace and oneness with God. (Sorry about the cliche) This argument is known as, "Pascal's Wager" named after a French theologian and philosopher by the name of Blaise Pascal. I think he lived in the 1600's.