Belle

Again, nothing about your personal relationship or loving, caring, taking care of others. Nothing about doing "unto the least of these" and nothing about the true Christian walk. It's all about what benefits TWI. 1) Re-read and master OUR research and only look at the scriptures in the light we tell you to. 2) Pray for what we tell you to pray for: US, the BOD, WD, the upcoming classes, new money/people, the lawsuits... 3) Bring more people and their money to TWI. No sense in sharing anything you know with them if they aren't going to pay for it. If they don't want to get involved with TWI, don't waste your time, they don't deserve anything. 4) Give US your money, your time and your life. "Your life is not your own." it belongs to us - every minute and every red cent. 5) Stay in the household and don't waste your time with those God rejectors who refuse to come to our meetings and take our classes. It's not safe outside the walls of our group! Those people are evil, so only spend time with those who have current nametags. They no longer build people up. They SEEM to, but there's always a hook in it - such as teaching that we have grace, but that grace is there so we can DO MORE for TWI. If you don't DO what we tell you to do, then you're wasting grace and God isn't happy about that. Everything they teach is a backhanded compliment, so to speak. House, I bet if you go through that rag you'll see that every single teaching is about giving money, giving time or witnessing to get people to get involved with TWI. That's all they've been teaching about for years. I can't remember a teaching in my last 4 years in TWI that didn't mention abundantly sharing, doing more in service to the household or witnessing and bringing people to fellowship. Many teachings incorporated more than one or all three of these "goals". You'd think they would get tired of the same old rote "exhortations" after a while. --> I wish the innies would realize that and that there is so much more love, quality of friendships and family, freedom, abundance and peace outside the walls of TWI. The fellowship with God is so much sweeter and unconditional. It's the kind of relationship He wants to have, not scared children or children just doing what they're supposed to do. It's much nicer to do things because you WANT to and not because someone has pounded into your head that you're supposed to want to do those things.

Oh, Abi! You have your hands full enough without having to deal with obnoxious neighbors too. I have the most absolutely wonderful neighbors and couldn't be happier in my neighborhood. My dog and the next door neighbor's dog have "play dates" every morning on the week-ends. It's a good time to catch up with my neighbor and we look forward to it as much as the dogs do. We stand out front chatting while they play. They used to run loose, but one guy got peeved because he said they pooped on his deck. Now the big dog stays tethered to the tree while my dog runs around. Frequently half the neighborhood will be standing out in someone's front yard visiting and watching the dogs play and many times the ladies in the neighborhood will come over to my house and just hang out for a while. They are all happily married and so there's not really any male-bashing going on, just some good ole "girl time". Now, I did live in a townhouse once where just about the whole neighborhood was hispanic and I was about the only white person and non-spanish speaking person on the street. Every Saturday the Jehovah's Witnesses would come by and every Saturday they would be amazed that I didn't speak Spanish and since they couldn't speak English they didn't stay very long. They next door neighbors always parked their cars in our front yard. I think there must have been 20 people living in the 2 bedroom next to me. They played loud music till all hours of the night and once we caught one of the kids climbing on the overhang above my front door. I don't know if he was trying to get into my bedroom window or just playing Spiderman, but it was scary and there was quite the confrontation about it. There was a little yippie dog in the yard behind ours that would start barking at about 3am and bark for hours upon hours. I would call the cops and they would either not come out at all or when they did get there, there was no dog barking. In my town the cops or animal control has to actually witness the annoying behavior before there's any action taken at all. It sounds like it isn't like that in your area and it's a shame, it should be. One of the guys had a huge rottie and he made out like it was some vicious guard dog, but my sweet little mixed breed dog very easily established himself as the Alpha dog the one time we had a run in. The guy was totally humiliated and avoided me from then on. :D--> I moved out when more people started living 20 people to a townhouse and the front yards were all covered with cars and I felt less safe. I ride by there occasionally and the dramatic decline in the upkeep of the properties and increase in crime in the area is really sad. It was the longest year of my life living there and I'm so sorry you have to live with bad neighbors. I know how hard it is.

Whew! I was starting to get worried about him. :)-->

Typical TWI rhetoric that will be repeated over and over again to the innies and the definition of "fruit" will change depending on the motive of the day. Profit and fruit will mean worldly success and blessings when they want you to give more money (but how many really have that in TWI?) Fruit will mean new students and new people bringing money to TWI when they are pushing outreach. Fruit will mean spiritual growth when they want you to sign up for their Advanced Class Specials and pay for that new taped foundational class. They have the manipulation down to an art form and the innies are so used to it that they can read between the lines without even realizing it, thereby giving TWI what they want in their loyal followers. My concern is that nothing at all is mentioned about a personal relationship with God or Jesus Christ. It's all about "knowledge" and "rightly dividing the word" - where is God in all this? Where is Jesus Christ? --> They remind me more and more of the Epicureans they made fun of...."we'll hear you again on this matter." Nothing but puffed up knowledge inspires them anymore. It's really sad. :(-->

Why did BG not want vee pee up there? Do you think he had met vee pee and already knew what a grifter he was? OR Maybe BG just had an in depth spiritual awareness that vee pee was really a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Shellon, You never cease to amaze me! :D--> LOL! I'm shocked that he called you a liar. That's just not acceptable customer service at all!!! I'm floored.

OM, that's probably the most logical thing I think I've heard from you. :)--> It IS interesting and this has been rehashed many times in threads about what red flags did you ignore? What clued you in? Why did you stay? How much did you know before you left? What was the breaking point for your leaving? And it seems everyone has different levels of perception and knowledge of the corruption. Some of us are just slow. :)--> I started feeling less and less normal and more and more pressure to perform. I quit feeling like I was living any sort of abundant life and got tired of always feeling like I was trying to walk uphill in quicksand while wearing 50 lb. army boots. I didn't know anything was going on at hq and had no clue about the plagarism, abuse, lies, cover ups, and just plan evil corruption of the ministry. I just knew I didn't feel good or right. I did see the favoritism and verbal abuse the wc were dishing out and experienced first hand the problems associated with trying to step down from any responsibility in the ministry so as to have time for family and normal life duties. I experienced some harsh confrontations (not all were about me) and I experienced my husband's inability to stand up for me and what he knew was right. I saw him struggle in his mind, but fear of losing God's love paralyzed him. Since he sees God's love and protection as only being available "in the household", he will cow tow to leadership and believe whatever they say. I showed him doctrinal errors and pointed out practical wrongs to him and he would dismiss me and treat me like I was stupid or stubborn. However, on several occasions, they changed and said exactly what I had been telling him. Then all of a sudden it was the most wonderful, crystal clear, intelligent thing he ever heard - and as if he had just heard it for the first time. Despite all this, I spent years fighting for my marriage and hoping that my husband would grow to see that there is life outside the glass walls of TWI's zion. I did everything I could and it just got to be too hard and too tense between us. Finally, I gave in and we divorced. I'm out and he's still in. He has lost so much because of TWI and especially because of his fear of leaving TWI. Now I suppose his ego is entrenched in there since he has given up family, friends, me and is now really all alone in the world except for people he knows will not be his friend because their love is conditional upon his continuing to jump through hoops and following the company line. I didn't mean to get so long-winded. I apologize. If you made it this far - thanks! :)--> My point is that people stay for different reasons and, especially in the 90's, even if the product isn't useful it's not that easy to "just open the door and leave." And, if I'm getting rid of my headache but not my arthritis, I might be inclined to stay a little bit longer than I probably should. ;)-->

Yeah, all that advertising, recruiting and work for "the work of the ministry" is sure a lot harder and more time-intensive than merely teaching the Word and taking care of people's hearts. --> Just think if how much harder it is now with all the paperwork, micromanagement and reporting back that has to be done. Hard to fit time for God into all that, I imagine.

dmiller, how did you get banned? The message boards are still down. Could it be just a mis-understanding?

HCW, thanks for taking the time to clarify. That's a position I can respect. May I buy you a danish to go with that cup of coffee? :)-->

Does anyone remember this booklet? I was looking over the checklist for leaders and everything on it revolves around getting money to HQ and getting people to sign up for classes, way corps so they bring more money to the organization. Looks like things haven't really changed all that much from the "good old days" --> 1 - study God's word daily 2 - speaking in tongues daily 3 - standing financially with TWI by abundantly sharing 4 - witnessing to bring new people in continually 5 - undersheperding new people 6 - Strongly suggesting your people subscribe to the magazine. Do YOU have a subscription? 7 - Exhorting your people to stay in touch with HQ by listening to the STS tapes faithfully every week. Do YOU have a subscription. 8 - Encourage people, often, to buy and use the materials from the bookstore 9 - Look at ways your twig can help with the college and prison outreach or TWI Theater 10 - Take the Rock of Ages '72 album to radio stations and have your believers call in to request it 11 - Work hard toward the next class in your area because we need more classes 12 - Twigs should meet daily 13 - Work on the Advanced Studies Program in your area 14 - Encourage people to go into the Way Family Corps 15 - Train someone to take your place I'm sorry, but I just don't see how any of that fits with:

Even the Family Tables website that's not affiliated with TWI doesn't mention her name. Maybe "Born Again to Serve" mentions her name?

OH NO! Should we put out an APB on him?

Actually, Mr. H, craig taught...errr....yelled that having an "open mind" was a gold plated invitation for devil spirits to possess you. You are NOT supposed to have an open mind when it comes to da verd aka TWI.

RottieGrrrl we are definitely cut from the same cloth! Yep, me too - MY dog, not yours - She also likes to drink from my coffee cup in the morning when we're playing fetch. :D--> And we share a water glass when we're outside playing. A little dog hair in your food never hurt anyone. I have a tremendous fear of holding babies and won't do it. My favorite dinner is fat free refried beans, cheese, picante sauce and sour cream. Depending on how much I've had to eat, it takes 3-4 glasses of wine to make me loopy. I actually like mucadine wine. I was in my mid 20's before I ever heard that you're supposed to shave your toe hair if you're a girl and wear sandals.

Looks like she was a good TWIt and is still practicing the doctrine she learned: "If you can't get anything out of them then move on and quit wasting your time."

My first post on THE!

I'm impressed!!!

My mother never made us eat liver because she hated it. :D--> She never made us eat anything she wouldn't eat. She DID threaten us at Aunt Helen's house when we wouldn't eat her weird gourmet things...the standing deal was "3 bites of everything I put on your plate and we'll go to McDonald's as soon as we leave here." Aunt Helen never knew about that deal. I think my dad was included in the deal as he always got a burger and fries with us.

I would gladly trade any good I got out of TWI for having been smart enough to have never gotten involved with them in the first place.

Jardinero, always good to see you post. I think it's cool that you know about your ancestors. I don't know anything about mine. I've got Smith, Brown, Jones and Williams in my blood and actually have a couple of family reunions each year with some of them. I tell people I don't know my family history, but do know that I am about as plain as you can get. :D-->

Laleo, I have enjoyed reading HCW's accounts and perceptions and experiences. I was starting to like the guy until he made the following statements: He's obviously a vpw worshipper who attributes his spiritual growth, healing and any miracles to vpw instead of God or his own belief. He obviously has no compassion and is without natural affection and probably even blames his daughters with "allowing" men to abuse them - or at least holds them partially responsible for the devastating things they've had to endure. It's also disgusting to me that someone puts vpw up on some pedestal when he didn't utter one word that was from his own work or study. The man plagarized, copied and imitated real men of God. His whole ministry was founded on lies and deception. He used the trust and love people had for him to ruin lives just so he could get a little pleasure. God did not excuse Eli's sons and I think anyone who excuses vpw and craig should face the same punishments God doles out to them. Besides that he's not man enough to simply apologize when he's hurt many people and been told about it.

Amazing! I'm so sorry for what you and your family have been through and glad that you are now tasting the sweet freedom of life outside the oppressing walls of TWI. This is just one more example of why this group is so destructive and needs to be shut down. They will have to answer to God for what they do, allow and "wink at".

Just saying that you won't/can't be at a meeting, no matter how small, without offering a long-winded explanation about how you would really be blessed to be there and why, specifically, you won't be there. Worse than that, just not showing up.

They probably can't sing "Little Tin Soldier" anymore....they are athletes of the spirit, not soldiers. War terminology is and old wineskin.