Broken Arrow

I'm just guessing here, but LCM probably pulled the tapes to keep the Corps info. away from the splinter groups, namely the Geer-ites. I'm just speculating, but there was a push from splinter groups there for awhile to get as much of Wierwille's teachings as possible and use them to start other ministries. It would fit that LCM would freeze the University of Life teachings otherwise someone could have started a corps by just plugging in a tape player. LCM also banned any bookstore sales to "non-standing" grads.

That's funny! Everyone was supposed to go to the Rock. Even the folks who lived overseas. University of Life folks weren't included in Corps Week as I recall. They also were never given Corps assignments. There was not as much pressure on them to attend the Rock as was the Corps, but that is not to say there wasn't any pressure put on them, or anyone else. To be in University of Life you had to be recommended by a Corps grad. The program lasted a number of years. I want to say at least 5 or so.

I'll admit up front that I've only read 2 books on Buddhism so I may only be sharing my ignorance. There was something I came across in my readings called "Karma", which gave me some concern. "Karma", you probably know, is that if you do good, good will come back to you. If you do evil, evil will come back to you. When taken to an extreme, I can see this belief causing serious emotional problems. Let's say someone contracts cancer. If we strongly adhere to this belief of "karma", then instead of being moved with compassion to comfort the person in need, we judge them and say, "Well, you must have done something to deserve it. You must have created bad karma." Or let's say someone has a kid with behavioral problems...the cause is baad karma. Or, let's say I'm rich (in fact, let's say that loud and long!). I'm rich, you're not because I have gooood karma. I'm better than you!!! A popular way of describing karma, by the way, is, "what goes around comes around", or, "you reap what you sow". In my opinion this belief was what TWI taught masked under the title of believing=receiving. That is, "You are where you are because of your believing." In other words, if there is anything out of kilter in your life, it's solely your fault. But sometimes bad things happen to people who have done nothing wrong. Good parents sometimes have rebellious children. Good people have their spouses leave them sometimes. Someone can get cancer and there is no particular reason other than they live in an imperfect world, and we have imperfect bodies. In my opinion, that is the lesson of the Book of Job. Not that silly-assed teaching that everything bad that happened was because of Job's fear. Having said all of this, I believe there is some truth with "reaping and sowing", or karma. I think it's good to do good things, and think good things, and often that can be the cause of certain events, but not always.

I saw it advertised in the Way Mag. The government doesn't even do that. Are you familiar with a Roth IRA?

I once asked a music teacher to explain to "Baroque" music to me. He said, "Sure! 'Barrr-oke' is what happens to you when you decide to become a musician." True story, although I think he'd heard he joke somewhere else before. Here's another one. Do you know what you call a jazz drummer whose girlfriend just broke up with him? Homeless.

Rivenbark, Martindale, or V.P. Wierwille...do you think that TWI's decline was inevitable anyway no matter who held the reins? The participants were getting older and therefore priorities were changing within the lives of the general populace. It was quickly becoming inpractical for the followers to continue participating in the manner to which TWI had become accustomed. I'm speaking of one's ability to invest the time needed to run a class, or the many trips to many meeting most of which were unnecessary. The inability to drop everything to a meeting of a top name leader just because they passed through one's area, etc. etc. How long coud TWI have survived? Is it possible that the purge's, splits, and firings actually helped TWI because it gave their followers something to focus on rather than the group's ineffectiveness? When I say "helped", I mean prolonged TWI's decline.

This is very very sad in my opinion. It's the place to be, though, if you want the familiar feel of TWI without having to go to headquarters and deal with the leadership there. These groups are more dangerous, imo, than even TWI in that their only accountability is within themselves. I mean it. Not just annoying, dangerous. They are still elitist, like TWI, because they heard the "real truth" taught in PFAL. There is no one to check their egos. They are self-appointed "Men of God" who cannot be replaced or confronted when their conduct falls short of scripture.

Advanced Class either '81 or '83. V.P. was teaching and he mentioned a certain female professional athlete who TWI used heavily as a PFAL success story. All of a sudden we stopped hearing anything about her. I think we had her picture up in the Ambassador Room at Emporia along with other PFAL professional athletes, and then it was taken down without explanation. It was rumored she was a lesbian. At the Advanced Class V.P. talked about it and he talked about counseling her. He said he had her write down what attracted her sexually to other women and other things about lesbian attraction. Even as a Way Corps drone I was getting the impression that Wierwille was getting a sexual charge from the whole thing. I remember thinking it was strange, but that he must know what he was doing. I never saw her around again and never heard of her again on the professional sports circuit of which she competed. Knowing his style of counseling young women in need, one can only speculate what might have happened. So, yeah, I think he might have had a fascination with lesbian sex.

For what it's worth, S@nn isn't in Idaho anymore, @rmstrong is. M3rrill, W@junberg, Luk3, Wr3nn, and Burk3 are in Ohio. I can't speak much for what any of them are doing now. Burk3 and K. McC@w are heading up a splinter in Central Ohio with Burk3 as the main leader. They've actually built a building the size of a church. It's not called a church, though. I think they call it a "Fellowship Hall", or "Fellowship House" maybe? I dunno. "Kingdom Hall"? (I'm just kidding, they don't call it a Kingdom Hall.)

Hmm, call ur marketing research. Much like a company that watches trends. Know what the competition is saying or doing to woo customers away. That way one can anesthesize their customers from outside sources and beat the competition even before they strike. What TWI doesn't realize is that it isn't splinter groups sapping their numbers, it's their own ineffectiveness. But hey WayGB keep reading anyway...it's something to do to make yourself feel useful. You might want to consider getting a real job, though, before it's too late.

I could be wrong, but I thought I heard LCM say that during our graduating Corps days in 1983. Then again, maybe I drreamt the whole thing. He was talking worldwide. Ah, maybe he even said 100,000 but I thought I heard 300,000. Okay...never mind then. I can't remember my point anymore anyway, if there ever was one.

Good one!

Good point! Maybe it was the Rose Bowl or something.

It's somewhat humorous when you get on the outside to see how much TWI is into image. Really, the more a cult can get their followers to have an "us vs. them" viewpoint, the better it is for the cult. They try to develop a persecution complex in their followers. Now, in TWI's defense, the grounds does have buildings that need to be secured and watched over during the night. The way their top leaders surround themselves with an entourage when they travel about, however, is an absolute joke. It's all about image. Now you're telling me she has a attack guard dog? Come on! Here's a newsflash, no one is out to get Ms. Rivenbark, frankly, she's just not that important. I know people with larger congregations than TWI, who have just as much, probably more responsibility than anyone in TWI, and they drive themselves to and from work in their own car that they paid for. They also live in regular houses in regular neighborhoods and they do regular neighborhood things with people who (gasp!) may not attend their church. How busy can they be at HQ? Under V.P. I think we were somewhere around 300,000, and it dropped to 100,000 under LCM (I'm guessing). Last I heard, TWI was down to about 4,000 nationwide. Do they even need a President and Board of Trustees now? Move the whole thing to a one room office in Sidney and staff it with 5 people. Maybe more so you can cover vacations. Job everything else out, and grow corn on the farm. That oughta bring in some extra income.

Yes. I don't know if you're still lurking, but yes, I remember Wierwille busting somebody for making him look bad. Excie, if she's lurking, should remember this as well. It was Rev L0nn3ll Johnson, who was coordinating the Corps at HQ. They were having a picnic and Wierwille was late in showing. Rev. Johnson (I still highly regard this man) started the picnic without him. Wierwille was furious! He compared it to when Saul started the sacrifices before Samuel arrived. Then he said that L0nn3l's life will never reach the heights it once could have. All because he started a picnic without Wierwille's presence! Johnson was fired from his position of course. I don't know if he was reassigned, or if he was given the boot. Rev. Johnson is doing great, by the way. He is a college professor teaching African American studies and has been doing so for a number of years. I only know this because I happen to bump in to others who know him. I don't think he would know me from Adam.

Oh yeah, the sale of the plane, I understand, was huge in restoring TWI's financial health. One interesting note about the plane; I heard there was a buyer who put up a substantial amount of money as downpayment. I want to say the amount was $100,000. The buyer was not able to come up with the rest, so the plane went back on the market and TWI got to retain the downpayment. Then they sold the plane for I think over $300,000. I could be completely off on those figures. My point is, they made a ton of money off of Ambassador One. I doubt anyone made much money off that Harley. It was custom made and all and it was, in fact, a Harley. So some collector probably has it unless it's wrecked. Did he wreck the Twig Hopper?

If memory serves me correctly, the W.O.W. program as it later became known, was actually the brainchild of a young Donnie Fugit. He had the idea to travel to different cities in an RV and run classes. The folks that went out were small in number, and I guess they had some level of success. It was definitely a hippie kind of thing. I'm pretty sure there was no attritition in that initial wave. V.P. liked it and decided to make a program of it and like everything he made a program of, killed the heart of it. When the number of ambassadors increased, so did the attritition rate. Then V.P. would get to cry in front of everybody at the Rock because his "heart would just ache" for those poor "keeds".

Yup! Wasn't that the year where he got up in front of the Rock and said, "My heart just aches!"? He was referring to the low number of W.O.W. sign-ups. Then he mentioned 900 people reneged on their commitment.

The young man is lucky he is getting off of staff now. There is still time to fix this mess.

So in other words, it was wrongful firing, they knew it, and they could not defend it. So they fell back on the fact that they were the ones that really had the power. So they forced everyone back in line by saying, in essence, "You need us, we don't need you." Makes you wonder why they even held the meeting at all. Why didn't they just issue a memo? That's a rhetorical question, by the way. The reason is, of course, they wanted to give an image of actually caring, but, oops! the employees weren't the sheep they thought they were, and (gasp!) they had questions. Even more to the point, one wonders just what the "philosophical differences" were? Just what philosophy did she not "agree to" and with whom? I'm just sayin'. Oh, and socks! Great post, well said!

I always assume they would have been slaves. A lot of Christians were Roman slaves. At least that what I was told by someone not in TWI, which gives it some credibility.

Absolutely georgeous pics!

We paid for the Harley they gave him on the 40th anniverssary. I guess TWi was too strapped for cash at the time to buy it themselves. That was when he retired. Remember they called it the "Twig Hopper"? VP and the Mrs. were supposed to go traveling the country and visit twigs with it. In my memory, this "itinerary" never happened. I don't know if he ever even drove the thing all that much. As far as Teachme's comment about VW's, I think he's referring to the fact that VW's were originally produced in Germany at the request of Hitler. VP was strictly a "made in America" man, though.

Well, you make a good point. I haven't really read the POP. I just heard it read once. It was shocking to me at the time because it said things like the President's Office was, "basically vacant", and Donald Wierwille was to blame for all these horrible horrible things. I can't remember any of them now. So, you're saying maybe my perspective has changed? I'd read that paper again, but there are so many things I'd rather do with my time, like stick my hand in a blender or count all the tiny fibers in my carpet one at a time.

Waysider, nothing is good about that song.