Broken Arrow

"With a broom and a mop...scub the bottom and top...make that a real shiny floor...you are in the Way Corps!!!"

I knew you were going to do that. Great song by the way.

Try not to laugh too loud...but assuming TWI was a good, wholesome, Christian, organization. it should have acted as a support organization for teaching and training only. People who wanted to would come for a couple of years for biblical instruction and perhaps some training on how to establish a new area, or developing a personal vision. The student would graduate and that would be it. Like I said, try not to laugh too hard. The graduate would go home, or do whatever it was they wanted to do. If the graduate started a work somewhere, The ministry could have supported them with teaching, music, counsel, accountability etc. and take a small percentage (say 3%) of the collection. Each work would stand on its own with the Ministry acting solely in a support function. Can you imagine that actually happening? The problem is, TWI never was a good wholesome organization and probably had no idea on how to open up new areas and their teachings were weak at best if not heretical. IMO TWI never went "off track" because it was never "on track" to begin with. Wierwille was not interested in "moving the Word" he was interested in W.O.W. That is, "Wierwille Over the Word". People should have been allowed to "fly on their own" with the Holy Spirit and not TWI as their guide and if they made mistakes, well, big deal.

FIVE...HQ, Rome City, Emporia, Tinney, Gunnison. Then there was The Way of Europe (I think).

JeffSjo...I'm just now reading this. I didn't think you were referring to me with your comment so I wasn't responding to that, at least not defensively. So I apologize to you if I came off that way. In reading your original post I think you were pretty clear. I guess I was just lamenting that I never saw any of the "stuff" while I was in. But it's pretty clear upon re-reading your post that you weren't referring to that. I guess I read that into what you were saying. But I wasn't offended. I apologize for any misunderstanding.

Where do you think Wierwille learned it? The con stuff I mean? Did he have a mentor, or did he receive it by "revelation"?

Right. Men that really did make a difference and stood for something. Those "lightweights" were nothing compared to us who could set up chairs and cut grass in a straighter row that any other organization in the world.

Ah yes. I remember hearing LCM's "great insight" into the death of John Lennon. Some of his other "insights" were that Muhammad Ali was born of the seed of the serpent and it was actually a devil spirit that ko'd Sonny Liston in Ali's first title fight (Cassius Clay at the time. Bill Russell (the great NBA star) was possessed and that's how he rose to great basketball stardom. I'm sure he had plenty to say about Michael Jordan but I was gone by then. In contrast, Adolf Hitler was brilliant. Seriously, he said that at an Advanced Class. I think it was AC '81 or '83. That even made me take a double-take at the time. I know what you mean about sitting there and doing nothing. Of course, if we had said something we would have just been escorted out of the building and branded "possessed". But so what? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If we left The Way we would be "greasespots".

And you would have been sooooo much more bored!

These weren't classes at Emporia when I was there. They made an entire class out of "Myth of the Six Million?" That's awful!! No, they taught stuff like, you know, the PFAL class and all those "collateral" classes ("Renewed Mind", "Dealing with the Adverssary") And they threw in "Old Testament and New Testment History". Stuff like that. Not that impressive, really, but not as sick as something like, "Martin Lucifer King". With the College Division thing, you were supposed to get your general educational credits at an accredited secular college and then return for a final year. Very few actually did that. Most would just do the one year program and then do something else like go to a real college or go WOW. They you had people like me who enjoyed pain so much that they went on to college, got a degree, and then entered the Way Corps.

I couldn't figure out how to do the "multiQuote" function so, yeah. I think you are spot on with saying he was well aware of "Pa's carryings on". I'm not so sure he was interested in changing things with the exception of (at first) wanting to instill some value for secular education. I also strongly agree with what you say about it being, "horrifying...etc". I would just add the word "sad". In Don Wierwille's case, he was without question a skilled educator with a passion for the field. He would have had a great career and perhaps made a big difference for a lot of people but he poured it into TWI. Also, I did not think I was the "bub" you were referring to but I appreciate your clarification nonetheless.

Prior to returning to The Way, Donald was a school principle in Wisconsin and I believe he had a seat on the Board of Education. VPW wanted him to come and be the Dean of the Way C of E. Somewhere I heard that dad offered to pay for son to get his doctorate if he came on staff. I'm not sure if that's true and I can't remember where I heard it. Of course, later he replaced Ermal Owens as Vice President and the rest is history.

Yeah...but that degree was from The Way College of Biblical Research Indiana Campus. I don't know how they pulled that one off.

Yeah, it takes more than a library but ya gotta have one if you want to be a college. Looking at from a broader view. IMO Wierwill was trying to compete, at least in his mind, with Oral Roberts. I mean look at it. Oral has a college in Tulsa, Wierwille wanted a college and Emporia wasn't all that far from Tulsa. Oral JR. was president of ORU, VP brought his son on board to run WCOE. You can actually get a bonified degree from ORU, Wierwille wanted the same thing but he didn't have the resources so he went with that "adjunct faculty" thing. There wasn't a chance it was going to be accredited but maybe VP and DE thought they could "believe" for it to come to pass. I'm just speculating here.

Perhaps I can shed some light here. I was also College Division the first year '75/76. Part of the purpose of Owens Library (I remember it as Anderson Library but maybe they changed it) was to get accredidation for The Way College of Emporia. My recollection is that when the BOT purchased the college they thought the accredidation of the original College of Emporia would come with it. What I heard was that the ooriginal C of E had let the accredidation lapse. But I also heard that the Kansas Board of Regents revoked or would not approve an accredidation once TWI purchased it. I don't know which is true. A college could not be accredited unless it had a decent library. Occasionally the Kansas Board of Regents would visit to evaluate the "school" and Donald Wierwille wanted to show them a library. It didn't matter that very few people in the WC or College Division actually used the place. The books that were in there had little or nothing to do with what was being taught in the "classrooms". But I'm sure what was available in the library was true state of the art. However, as someone mentioned, there were some good books to be read in there albeit secular. I forget where they purchased the books. Oh yes, you could check out SNS tapes and read research papers from former Way Corps! That was, of course, something we all clamoured to do on our "self-structured time". Anderson LIbrary (as it was originally called) itself was kind of a neat building as far as the architecture was concerned and I liked that rotunda. I believe it was one of a handful of libraries that Andrew Carnegie donated for higher education. I heard they've torn everything down and built a strip mall. Is that true?

2 things...or as Richard Nixon would say..."just let me say this about that". I clearly remember listening to a SNS teaching from HQ and it would have been along about 1975 or so. VPW, on tape, really nailed the Corps about not having enough respect for him for how accurately he taught "The Word". He was teaching from II Peter 1 and he mentioned by name how neither Oral Roberts or Billy Graham had the the accuracy that he did. Then, to make his point very clear, he spoke into the mic and said that, E.W. Bullinger didn't have "it" either. I remember this because I was 18 years old and it really shook me up. He didn't come out and actually say that he was the "Man of God", but he definitely said he had the greatest teaching and revelation of "The Word" of anyone and in PFAL (or as some affectionately call PLAF) he all but said the teaching was the greatest since the Apostle Paul. I just sat there at the age of 17 and said, "UUHHHHH...YUP!! SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!" VP being the MOG was pushed very heavily in the Corps. LCM screamed it from the rafters. VPW let other people say it for him, but I have a hard time believing that he didn't propogate this himself and let others carry the fight for him. He certainly never said anything against it. So, I said all of that to say this, I think VPW deluded himself into believing that he was the MOGFOT. Many of us, and I'll speak for myself, replaced Christ with him. BTW, when you say "most normal folks would have moments when they knew it was b.s...." Not me. I swallowed it all, hook, line, and sinker. Than again, maybe I wasn't a normal folk. I was, after all, in a cult.

Well said JeffSjo...very well said.

Oh man, that's one of the funniest things I've seen for quite awhile! I have the same question...where do you come up with this stuff?

Maybe he considered that a type of blessing.

Going waaaay back...I vaguely...and I mean very vaguely...remember something about Bishop K.C. Pillai teaching this. You remember K.C. Pillai, right Waysider? You know, the author of Light through an Eastern Window? Hope I'm not giving you serious flashbacks now. Also, don't some eastern religions teach this like with the Samurai etc. Maybe that's just a Hollywood thing.

Didn't Craig fire "Uncle Howard"?

VAT A COUNTRY!! Land of the free and home of the attorneys!! In the words of Steve Miller..."somebody give me a cheeseburger!"

I think I know what you're saying. For me it was more than just my being wrong about certain doctrines, but being wrong, in same cases very wrong, about my entire approach to life. This included parenting, marriage and vocational. Mentally I was living in a fantasy world and that type of thinking needed to be challenged. I've been "out" for 26 years.

Thanks for digging up that info. That's helpful.

You're right. The framework would certainly be in place. I just can't see how anyone, even Uncle Sam could "shut down" the Internet.