Belle

In college we would slide on water, but there was no mopping intended. :D--> I used to have a list of which soap made the best bubbles and which made the best slide. :)-->

LOL! 2for, that's one of my favorite movies! Janet, I'm so sorry that it didn't live up to your expectations, but at least you had the wherewithall to recognize it and not let it spoil your trip. :)--> The Swiss Rail Pass sounds like the perfect decision! Would love to see some pictures from that Street Parade!!! ;)--> Here's my Dalai Lama quote for the day: You have a clever mind. Think of a solution. And in the meantime you can explain to me, what is an elevator.

As long as you keep handing out snow cones, I think you'll be safe. :D-->

Voting! :D-->

That is truly scary.

However, that could become quite the opposite should some way-brained self-proclaimed know-it-all so-called-Christian continue to label, flame and disparage everyone on the board (that's everyone without exception).

I relate most to my friend Oak's experience. I'm still trying to figure things out as it's only been about a year. What I did was church hop till I found a church that I am really happy with. I went for a few months, but then started spending more time on me. I began reading books and looking into areas of Christianity and spirituality that would have been verbotten in TWI. It's no secret that I'm in therapy and, so much of my reading and my time have been spent on why and how I made the choices I made and then which parts of my guilt, oppression and depression are my responsibility and which parts are not. Healing and forgiving and moving on.... I put "church" on hold while I work these things out, but I stay in close contact with my friend who attends the church. She puts no pressure on me whatsoever and doesn't even bring up church. We only talk about it if I start the conversation. She knows that I'm working on "me" and that I know church is there and that I'll be back when I'm ready. There's still too many things that trigger bad memories, bad feelings or anger. I'm working on getting past that because the church is absolutely nothing like TWI and I really do enjoy it when I go.

Is it just me, or do you get the biggest kick out of the b.s. these kool-aid drinkers are believing and then cringe at the thought that you once were so adamant and so gullible to believe that cr@p too? It's funny now, but also it hurts to think about how stupid I was to have believed it at one time, too. I just thank God for taking those rose colored glasses off my face.

Interesting, but I'll need to read through the whole thread when I have a little more time. Intially though, my thoughts are that vee pee would LOVE to be thought of in light of this type of conspiracy theory, though doubtful that he was.

Straining gnats and swallowing camels comes to mind. All that Greek and 4 crucified and thoroughly and throughly doesn't mean jack when there's no teaching of the one-body (the real one-body and not TWI's private interpretation of it) and the personal relationships with God and Jesus.

That's the kind of headline I'd love to see, Ham! He's been burned pretty bad at HQ before and I have no idea how he continues to justify what they've done to him. Hopefully, if he does go, then having to move back home with his parents yet again when they burn him one more time will be the final straw.

How many other keys of right dividing are you getting wrong? You seem to *think* you KNOW what the word says thereby discounting anything that discredicts that which contradicts what you want to believe. How about "What God Wants is NOTHING from us"? How does that strike you?

Yeppers! The first few times I visited a real church with real love for God and for JC, I felt more "connected" than I have been since my h.s. connection with them. TWI made it clinical and dependent upon my hoop jumping which makes no sense to me at all given the fact that my parents do make me jump through hoops for their love and appreciation. They expect nothing from me. How much more would my heavenly father expect from me????

Alan, I read it as she is calling you an anti-witness. If I were interested in Christianity and I read your diatribes on here I would be totally turned off from Christianity. You still exude the arrogant, elitist and close-minded nature taught to us by TWI. Remember that Jesus was nothing but love and nothing but kindness towards people - primarily those that TWI would have turned their back on. You come across as a pharisee or sadduccee as opposed to a real live Christian. Tone of voice doesn't come across in type so I'm inclined to give you the benefit of doubt, but your posts come across as arrogant and full of anything but the love of Christ.

I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was.

Your thread, Laleo. I respectfully remove myself from the conversation.

Laleo: Wow, Laleo, I never worried about God deserting me or "removing his hedge of protection" or "allowing bad things to happen" until I got into TWI. I always knew I was going to heaven and I always expected God to answer my prayers until I was taught in TWI that if I didn't give minimum 15% of my income or follow all of TWI's rules that God couldn't protect or bless me. That I was "tying his hands". In fact, I never even thought about God not protecting me or anything bad happening to me until I was taught that there were so many things I had to do to stay where he could protect me. TWI was responsible for putting that fear and concern in my heart, not the Baptists.

George, I'm so sorry for your friend! I really hope that doesn't happen to my ex. He's really been beat up by them and continues to think that all the problems and unhappiness in his life is because so many refuse to "hear the truth" and are "weak in the face of adversity". He thinks I and his family have hurt him. Furthermore he thinks that if he could just be better at jumping through TWI's hoops that he'll finally see those blessings they keep promising God has in store for his kids. He won't talk to me and those who keep me informed as to how he's doing are reluctant to get involved, and rightly so. All I can do is sit on the sidelines and watch through my fingers. I continue to pray that he'll wake up one day and get his life together.

You'll have to weed through the thread to find the comments from people about being born again, but I actually think you'll benefit from reading the whole thing. You may find that you and Oldiesman are kindred spirits. :)--> BG Leonard Thread

To the top for Alan.

Alan, here's a link to one of the many threads on SIT here and how many people actually faked it: SIT and Faking It

I guess they are no longer trying to win people to Christ or share the accuracy of the word. So much for Word over the World and Bringing the Prevailing Word to the World. What's their new slogan going to be? "Continuing to Control, Deceive, Rape and Pillage the Flock of God" might be a good one to consider.

Alan, do not turn this thread into yet another unwarranted attack on Rascal. If you don't like her posts just ignore them. Regarding people growing up in other churches....that was then - this is now. Churches have come a long way in just the past ten years. They are now teaching just as much as TWI ever though of teaching and it's properly attributed to the correct sources and way more accurate than 90% of what TWI taught. If TWI is so wonderful, why are you no longer involved? We're discussing things here, not attacking one another. If you want a Christian forum there's plenty around. If you want to attack and flame people, there's other websites for that. This is not the place for you.

Yeah, teaching people something wasn't enough. They weren't anything but a p.o.s. if they didn't hang around. Now they are saying that things are great because they are smaller and that they want to stay small. So much for Word over the World, eh? So much for sharing the good news. I suppose that's a wee bit more honest, "We're a controlling cult and that's not for everyone. Keeping it small is an easy way to control and keep tabs on you, so don't you go bringing any high maintenance people into our little group." What was wrong? Those who were running things didn't give a crap about God or people's lives. That was just the merchandise they peddled to get our money. If it's not of God it will come to naught? Seems like TWI has come to naught.

Hmmmmm.....I've honestly thought about this and, perhaps I'm a bit different. I was raised in a very loving, very normal family. I was raised in the Baptist church and was extremely involved in the youth group and all the activities that includes. I learned about God. I memorized scriptures. I learned how to read the Bible. I was raised by a banker so I already knew how to budget and invest my money. Daddy was also a neatnik and very organized. I got his genes, although my house isn't always as neat as his. ;)--> I was naive, but not ignorant about life in the "real world" and was on the path to a nice career by the time I was introduced to TWI. I was happy to get answers to questions that I'd always had, but now I realize those answers are wrong. What TWI did for me was stroke my ego by giving me more knowledge than the average minister and foster my self-righteous attitude I was already prone to. It enabled me to be right in every situation and to "love" people by getting in their face. I honestly don't think I got any benefit from TWI. If I did, it's such a small benefit that I can't think of it. I suppose, if I had to pick something it was meeting you wonderful people here as I'm not in touch with anyone in or out that I met while in TWI. Again, I was already an adult, a young adult, but an adult when I got involved and I was never in during any warm fuzzy time period. Craig was in full control and cutting people left and right when I got involved. I never even had vee pee's advanced class. But, maybe I'm unique. :)-->