Belle

Again, I ask, "Who cares?" Does it matter if people are "born of the wrong seed" vs. just plain evil? What does it help to know if it's literal or not? I'm born again. I'm going to heaven and I can spot evil (most of the time) and I can make choices that keep me out of trouble. Beyond that I don't care if the anti-christ in the cube next to me is truly born again of the devil's spirit. All I need to know is to watch my back around him and to deal very carefully with him.

:D--> LOL, Chas! You've got it down perfectly! And God forbid you should decide to NOT be a wannabe!

THANKS SO MUCH, Y'ALL!!! I've enjoyed reading the threads you've directed me to and I found the one I was looking for! It's ex-way vs. nbw This topic can be found at: http://gscafe.com/groupee/forums?a=tpc&s=971605702&f=4996070212&m=8456094535 ]Archived Discussion://http://gscafe.com/groupee/forums?a=...ived Discussion://http://gscafe.com/groupee/forums?a=...ived Discussion My current beau knows that I'm recently divorced and out of a cult. He knows that I'm in therapy and we've talked about religion and church, etc., but I don't think he really gets how abusive the cult was and part of me thinks it doesn't really matter. I'm getting better every day, happier than I can remember being in a very long time and I feel so much more in control of my life and emotions. I didn't pay much attention to the thread when it was posted because I couldn't relate, but now I can and wanted to go back and re-read what people wrote. Thanks a bunch!

WN, our bc once said that you don't buy the car without test driving it first! Like it was mandatory to have sex before you got married to make sure you were compatible. They changed the tithing % and whether it was off the net or gross so often it's a wonder we didn't start questioning everything they taught. Agape changed from "love of God" to "love of God in the renewed mind" to "Love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation" to "love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation in the household" back to "love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation" and I think back to "love of God".

That's why we had to have 3 mints on the mandatory mint tray. :D--> For the completely absurd teaching we were about to receive.

Rascal, I can name way too many families who were counseled to ship their kids off - one to her "cop-out" parent because she was "out of control". Nevermind counselling the parents on how to watch their child and raise her - don't fix the problem; just ship it off for someone else to deal with. This child was raised in TWI and the parents were in TWI from the day the kid was born. Dontcha think the parent maintaining custody would have been trained in how to raise a child according to TWIt standards? I know of a person who was arrested for something stupid done nearly 20 years earlier and called the bc to help. The bc said he would take care of it. He took care of it all right...left this person in jail for DAYS! They would have stayed in jail if the roommate hadn't bucked orders and bailed the person out! Just left them in jail!! How loving is that??? Then the lcs didn't even acknowledge the situation happened when they saw this person again. Cold hearted b@stards! Wise counsel my foot!! sorry, this really gets me riled up if you can't tell

www.dictionary.com is my friend! I won't tell anyone how many times a day I have to use it. --> Do the offshoots have hq's? If so, do they have the same staff to member ratio? Think of how much they could add to their $40 million coffers if they didn't employ so many people. Heck, they might be able to afford to keep their promises to take care of people if they did that..... NAW....It'll never happen...

Heh heh heh, Song! :D--> Yes it does! WWJLA, thanks! I'm going to look under your name for those threads. I remember there was some really good information there. I'll be in touch! ;)--> WN! Thanks for your stories. Sounds wonderfully romantic! Hopefully I'll have a happy ending like yours! :)--> One thing I'm not compromising on this time is my family's approval of who I see. I really missed family gatherings, holidays and reunions while I was married and now that I'm back in the fold, so to speak, I realize how very important they are. No matter what I think of the person if they don't like my family or vice versa they are outta there!

I think we were trained and groomed to become OCD. I was a total slob and not entirely unhappy with myself :D--> but felt compelled to become rather OCD about neatness, cleanliness and such lest the devil spirits get ahold of my life. I'm not as anal anymore, but I do make the bed up most mornings. If I don't get to it I no longer beat myself up about it or worry about getting in trouble when I get home. One time I expressed my exasperation and stress with having to keep everything spotless and clean up to "hq standards" in our house. My spouse laughed and asked why it bothered me so much since I never did get things to THAT standard.... (I never did actually, but I didn't even get credit for what I did do, which was far beyond what I had done in the past.)

Right on, Oak! AND if they changed something, like they did after LCM left, they didn't always tell you. They reprinted the collaterals and made some changes to the wording, but wouldn't tell you what it was. They changed the agape teachings, but never told you they were changing them, they just quit saying "in the household" and taught it differently. It was a drastic change to the way LCM taught (doctrinal change, really) but they never admitted to it, just hoped no one would notice that it was a change, I guess. -->

OM, the church didn't change doctrine - the group changed how we were doing the small group meetings. I posted most of my disagreements on another thread here. I'll try to find it for you. Those are some of the things they agreed with me on.

Abigail, my family home has always been the hang out place for all the friends of all of my family. My mom and dad are awesome hosts. When I got out of TWI my mom sent me this article by Erma Bombeck: I keep it on my fridge and it has really helped me "get over myself". Now my house is the hang out place for all the women in the neighborhood and most days I love it. I always love that they feel comfortable enough to come over anytime and they know it's okay to put their feet on the couch or prop them up on the coffee table. (That NEVER would have happened when I was married) We've even had a few neighborhood street parties in my garage over the past few months. It's a great neighborhood and it's great having friends and neighbors who aren't watching every move you make and waiting for you to screw up.

None of my habits listed above were ones I had before TWI. These are things my husband required of me. --> That's why it reminds me of "Sleeping With the Enemy". I accidentally dropped a spoon in with some forks the other day and almost had an anxiety attack. Now.....I do and always have had my spices organized in alphabetical order with all the labels facing out. :D--> I just think of some of the stupid things we did or had to do because of TWI or individuals we lived with and how those stupid requirements become odd habits. I purposely vacuum differently now, but I do still tend to drop the silverware in its "proper" place. I purposely don't line up the coffee pot, spoon and mug handle anymore, though (unless I have company).

OM, we all know that you were in a different TWIt experience than the rest of us. Your special experience has been noted. We're talking about the experiences the rest of us have had. I have challenged several things at the church I currently attend. In fact, I was disgusted with so much of the stuff taught in the "Purpose Driven Life" groups we were having that we quit using the tapes and did more of our own thing during our weekly meetings. We didn't quit just because of me, but rather, because, after hearing what I disagreed with in the teachings, they agreed with me!

Zshot, it might be your profile. I helped a co-worker re=write his and now he's getting a lot more reponses. If you want to, pt me and we can talk about what seems to work best. There are some others on here who have tried online dating, maybe they would like to join the pt and we can all swap advice and experiences.

I have started online dating and I'm having a great time :D--> , BUT I was trying to find the thread about dating from a while back. Does anyone recall that thread and some specific keywords that might help me find it? Thanks!

Did you acquire stupid habits while in TWI? I sometimes felt like Julia Roberts in "Sleeping With the Enemy". When I fixed coffee in the morning I had to make sure the handle to the coffee maker, the stir spoon and the handle on the coffee mug all faced the same way. When I loaded the dishwashwer all the spoons had to go into one slot, all the forks in another, etc. Don't ever think about mixing spoons & forks & knives in the same slot! Vaccuum so that you have those darn triangles in the carpet. Do you have any?

Y'all are hilarious! After the lightbulb incident is handled successfully at hq there will be an announcement on the next Sunday service and then the fellowships will be handed a step by step process for eliminating lightbulb burnout in their own homes. The TWIts will have to follow these steps in their own homes and report back that they have followed all the rules and procedures exactly as they were presented. They will then be required to write thank you notes to the BOT thanking them for keeping the light on in their lives.

Not only could you not question leadership, but you also weren't allowed to disagree with them. If they made a decision and you questioned it or said that you thought the other option was better they would scowl at you and very subtly talk about how immature you were in that category. Everything had to be exactly the way the local leadership wanted it. If the head honcho was coming to your place for a phone hook-up you had to have the right place for them to sit, the right drinks and you had to make sure someone was around to keep the annoying TWIts away from them.

That for some reason came from the leadership and teachings from hq on down. I remember my husband and I discussing why they even had songs to and about Jesus in the "Sing Along the Way" songbook after a particularly scathing teaching by Craig. They did a pretty good job of teaching us to hate Jesus in a way. Everything they did teach about Jesus was a back-handed compliment. The only time we read anything in the gospels was when it validated something Paul taught. Sure, we talked about Jesus at Christmas and at Easter, but it wasn't to give glory to him.

Cool! Looks like he's having a blast up yonder! Thanks for sharing the pics with us!!

JT, that and the fact that we weren't good enough to receive any of the promises from God. I'm with you in having never learned much of the actual promises. I still think some of those 900 are the same promise with different "qualifications" and hoops required to get them.

JT - from dictionary.com cor·re·late ( P ) Pronunciation Key (k?t, kr-) To put or bring into causal, complementary, parallel, or reciprocal relation. To establish or demonstrate as having a correlation: correlated drug abuse and crime. To have reciprocal or mutual relations; to be mutually related. v. intr. To be related by a correlation. adj. (-lt, -lt) Related by a correlation, especially having corresponding characteristics. Doctrine and worship correlate as theory and practice. --Tylor.

Jesus didn't have a headquarters and he never talked about needing or wanting their to be one. Their twisting and private interpretation of the scriptures doesn't cut it for me. They should have stuck with the twigs being self-governing and independent.

Wouldn't that just be 2 promises stated 37 times?