Belle

Jen, indeed it could be the different moderators. My bro is in San Francisco whereas I'm in Orlando. I belong to quite a few Freecycle groups because the area is so large, but in my brother's area, you can only belong to the one group specific to your zip code - maybe it's California nazis running their program? *shrug* I've given away things I didn't dream anyone would want and I've given away things that I was moved to tears over being able to help someone in real need. Some people give their items away to the first person, but I collect e-mails before deciding who I think should get the item in question. Two of my favorite memories with freecycle are giving a VCR to a house-ridden senior citizen who had lots of videos and could not afford to start all over with a DVD player and DVDs. I delivered that VCR to her personally and cried all the way home.... and giving my soft-side waterbed to a Marine coming back from Iraq to live with his parents who were strapped for cash, helping elderly parents and the Marine had been sleeping on the floor in an empty room since coming home (long story there). I've also received some really kewl things, too. Different areas have different needs and dishonest people can ruin a good thing for everyone depending on how things are handled. Overall, I think Freecycle offers a great service and highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. I wish I had enough time and money to let all garage sale hosts know about it so they can continue to help others by donating items when the garage sale is over.

Well, Dove thinks vee pee was a nice guy, too.

I go to the Farmer's Markets in the area on the week-ends and buy local produce when I can.... it's much cheaper, usually organic and tastes good! I've tried growing some things in the yard but apparently I have a brown thumb. I can't even get mint to grow and it's supposed to be highly invasive and hard to kill. :ph34r: Dot, your cooperative extension office will do soil testing for you and help you design a garden ideal for your soil and region.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!! :love3: :wub: :wub: Paw, there are no words that can adequately explain how valuable the cafe has been to my leaving and recovery from TWI. It is impossible to put a dollar figure on the priceless friendships I've made here in your booths and at the counter. You've done a good thing here and I hope the cafe will be around for many, many years to come.

TWI would have been much more interesting if we'd passed around the blotters or sugar cubes during meetings. I liked Lucy but loved shrooms- they were free, easy to get in Mississippi and didn't have the same gritty feeling when coming down. Eight times and you're insane, eh? :unsure: You're not turning anyone in, are you?

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE FREECYCLE!! Got my brother and my dad using it, too! I think Daddy really just likes going on to see what people are giving away and what they are asking for more than anything else. I know he has given some things away, but it's more entertainment for him, I think. I think they are getting rather legalistic at the actual "freecycle.org" site, but there are yahoo groups who "used to be" freecycle and now continue on separately and without all the rules. My brother signed up to see if he could get some much needed kitchen appliances and they said he had to give three things away before posting for something he wants.... they also asked for tons of information whereas when I signed up they just wanted an e-mail address. I hope they don't ruin the whole thing by micro-managing it.

JJ, I think the boredom led a lot of folks to looking around and starting to wonder what the heck they were doing. :) The long version of my story is here and here. Short version - I was "allowed to leave" after getting caught sending research proving the fallacy of their "no debt" policy to someone at headquarters....well, that, and under suspicion of being an insurgent poster at WayDale and here at the Cafe. I had grown weary of being oppressed and micro-managed in every aspect of my life. The lawsuits (and resulting demands to stay off the internet) gave me a reason to look, which is when I found WayDale and then the Cafe.

:eusa_clap: “Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.” Usually attributed to Dr. Seuss.

Sweetheart, this is a discussion forum and there will be people who agree with you and there will be people who disagree with you. There will be people who are nice and there will be people who are not nice. How you handle those people is up to you. :) We do not know you, so how can you look like a fool? Why would you look like a fool? Just because you took the initiative to research, think and put together something on your own? That's not foolish at all. :) Your conclusions may be wrong according to some points of view, but that's not foolish either - it is what it is. Maybe it is your presentation that has started you off on the wrong foot and not what you have to share. Also, it is considered "teasing" in my book to say you have some great information and then ask who is interested like you're wanting us to salivate like Pavlov's dogs all over some wonderful information some stranger is dangling in front of us. I don't beg. You want to share and discuss what's burning inside of you? Great! Please do! I love a good discussion. But, know that I, personally, am never going to beg you to share what you seem to think you know and I am not promising to agree with it - especially if it agrees with anything we learned in TWI. Oakspear and I both taught contrary to TWI doctrine in fellowship before we left - some got it, most did not. Mostly, in my opinion is because people in TWI are brain-dead - they don't care anymore - they are apathethic and just go through the motions. They wouldn't know something exciting if it hit them upside the head. You can not reason with die-hard TWIts - they do not think, reason, deduce or even consider things the same way one does without TWI blinders on. It is not your fault, it is the audience is not ready, willing or able to come to any conclusion other than what TWI tells them. I seriously doubt it is your lack of "ammunition" that is the problem, but rather the audience. That, I deduce based on my own experiences trying to do the same. Well, you have a point there - TWI leaders do not care about people - they care about numbers, money and position. If you rock the boat, you might jeopardize their position, income or lifestyle and well, we can't have that going on in TWI, now can we? How about starting a thread on this fascinating research that you've done. There are some really genius folks here who will help you work through it and help you see where you're right, wrong, on the right track but just not there, etc.... I am not one of those geniuses. That's why I come to the Doctrinal Dungeon with my questions.

Ahhhh, yes, the internet can be a valuable thing! Here's a link to study materials some of our Greasespotters use. Here's a great review of the PFAL class.... an excellent place for baby / bathwater questions. WayDale and Greasespot have been invaluable to me and, if it weren't for WayDale I might still be sitting in a fellowship somewhere grinding my molars down to stubs and wishing there was some way I could put my finger on all that was wrong with TWI. HappyHeart, I think our personal background affects most all of our decisions in life and how we react/handle decisions. Don Miguel Ruiz wrote a series of books on "The Four Agreements" and in those books he talks about how we believe what others tell us about ourselves, when really is is only their perception of those things. However, by believing that what others see in us is true, we behave in such a manner as to "fit" into their image of us. For some of us, TWI found us when we were at our weakest, at a crossroads or just plain fed up with life. They swooped in and took advantage. Not all of us were taken advantage of this way, but some of us were.

Eyes, and anyone else interested in a most excellent discussion - Banned from the Bible. I watched that show and was shocked - Mark O'Malley, Goey, The Invisible Dan, Oak, Digi and others really spent a great deal of time sharing valuable information and resources with me. I continue to go back to this thread time and time again as I am still working through the information presented there. I also now lament the fact that Digi and I got off on the wrong foot with each other and she no longer visits the cafe. :( This is why I think it's ..... I don't know the word..... I think it's dangerous? limiting? small minded? ignorant? sad? when someone says they only use the bible as their only source for truth. Of course history is much more fun when you're not sitting at a desk waiting for the bell to ring. And we have some incredible teachers down here in the doctrinal booths.

:blink: I guess I do not understand how one can only use the bible as the sole source of information and foundation of everything - comparing everything else to what the bible says and using only the bible to prove that the bible is what one professes it to be without the background information of how it came to be. That's just ill informed circular reasoning, isn't it?

HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS, GOEY! I hope it's smooth sailing all year long for you!

:blink: Well, that didn't last long. Like Potato said, just high school hijynx.

Good poll, Twinky. It'll be interesting to watch. :) I chose the HFC option even though we were only ever assistant household coordinators. In the "why you left" section I chose "other" because, while I did not leave of my own accord, I was not exactly kicked out either. I was "allowed" to "take a break" for a while and I'm pretty sure that if I had declared an epiphany of the egregious nature of my thoughts and behavior, I would have been "allowed" to go back into the fold of TWI. My leaving was not, at the time, all that cut and dried. After I left I did many of the things mentioned in that section, but not necessarily in that order. Tried a different Christian religious organization Tried a different religion Didn't do anything for a long time Was seriously depressed Life became wonderful Counselling/psychotherapy/similar

Here's mine.... :)

A perspective I hadn't considered which was PM'd to me and, with permission, I share here:

Thanks tons, Abi! I suspect TWI's lawyers take on cases because they get paid big bucks.... I seriously doubt the validity of the lawsuit nor the ability to win has any weight on that decision. ^_^ Heck, as much as they like to sue folks, if I was a lawyer, I'd want them to keep me on retainer. :P

:P You wouldn't fool us with any porcupine outfit, Potato. We know you're just a Sweet Tater!

The Way International makes another blog.

It looks like someone's just trying to cause trouble. <_< I never once got the impression that the cafe or any of its patrons were responsible for the Trojan, if that's even what it was. She had folks alerted to the problem in case something did happen and, knowing Dooj, took care of it with the folks that may have been affected by it. *shrug* Anything else is none of our business. At least that's how I see it.

Wow, lots of new people at the booths lately. Welcome!! Welcome HappyHeart! Welcome Cattcar! First order is always on the house. I'll be back as soon as I get these goodies down to the booths in the Doctrinal section. Just real quick, cause I don't want the ice cream to melt.... Cattcar, good questions and I kind of see where you're coming from. When I left TWI a lot of well meaning people would tell me, "you're right where you're supposed to be," and I thought "WTF?? I'm supposed to be hurt, depressed, suicidal, divorced, childless and alone? What the he11 kind of god is that?!?!" Furthermore, not having been in TWI, as you said, you could be missing some critical information regarding the teachings that were ingrained into our psyche - one that comes to mind is that God is good always and nothing bad ever comes from God - if something bad happens(ed) in our lives it was because we screwed up somewhere and God could not protect us. Also, the majority of the folks here are not here to place blame on anyone - we sometimes wonder how the heck we ended up where we did for so long, and we may talk about how we got involved with TWI and how we got out, but not with a view toward blame. I think, too, we're all too aware of the fact that there are way too many organizations out there just as, if not more destructive than TWI. We can certainly learn from a bad experience, but I don't necessarily think that means we were supposed to have that bad experience. Also... just in case you're not aware, this is not a Christian site even though we all were involved with this wanna be "Christian" group at one time. Some of us have moved onto other things or nothing at all. :)

Beautiful letter, Roy. I hope Dale responds in kind. :)

You Know You've Attained Dispensationalist Divine Status, when ....................................... you're convinced that you've attained divine status with "new light" you just can't wait to share. Funny, Bliss! Thanks for sharing! Are we the only ones who also had that four-colored pen for better categorizing of our notes? And, Spectrum, welcome to the cafe. First order is on the house.... Would you like some pie?

Well, welcome, Jafin! First order is always on the house. What can I get ya, Hon? Like the sage advice you've already received here - I, too, encourage you to read, research and check out what's out there and then come to your own conclusion.... my conclusion changes almost daily as I continue to read, learn and participate in discussions. I love it! I also love the freedom of not having to try to believe or blindly accept what someone else tells me I should believe or accept as the absolute truth. If you want to see a great discussion about the foundational things we were taught by The Way International - This Link will take you to one of the best I've read. We're a diverse group here and there are amazingly intelligent individuals here. Ask questions, hop from booth to booth getting to know us and enjoy.... just don't put your gum under the counter near the register. That's where I keep my stash.