Belle

WOO HOO!!! GO PRINCESS!!!! How does she like the French Horn now that she has one to play around on?

Actually, it sounds right up my alley! I wonder if it'll still be an option when I retire! Snopes Says it's True

Pipes, I know exactly how you feel. Only the distaste and disgust my ex felt wasn't just at the name "Jesus" alone, but actually grew to encompass Jesus himself. :( Since my ex is still involved, I wonder if he still feels that way. My ex and I did ask about all the Just Plain Jesus songs in the songbook and were they going to be taken out. They just looked at us like :huh: "whatchewtalkinboutwillis?" Whenever we lead meetings we would avoid all those songs - "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest Name I Know".... all of 'em. When we had to sing em...

I remember listening to craiggers rant on and on about the names of the days of the week and the months of the year all being named after gods and devil spirits around the time they started enforcing all these renamed holidays. I asked my ex if we were going to have to change what we called those too. Can you imagine being in the workplace, leaving on a Friday (Mosesday) and saying to your co-workers, "See you on Jobday (Monday)!" I'm sure if craig thought he could get away with it he would have tried it.

"Where'd you miss it?" - when something happens to a person that's 'not best' - e.g. they got sick, broken an arm, had a car crash.... anything.... first question isn't, "Are you okay?" or "What can I do to help?" it's "Where'd you miss it?" If something came up in our marriage, my ex would sit down and tell me we needed to look back through to see where we missed it.... Well, we "missed it" by giving 20% of our effen income to them instead of paying our bills. We missed it because, well, we're around germs all day, every day and it's only a matter of time before someone catches a cold or has allergy problems... BUT, if leadership had something bad happen, they were "standing in the gap" for us egg-sucking believers who don't deserve to breathe the same air as our illustrious leadership. Even today if I get sick or something happens that could be considered something "bad", I stop and think about whether I did anything wrong to deserve that. Couldn't just be that sh1t happens, could it? Not according to TWIt brains.

Aren't words to be interpreted in light of their Biblical usage? Meaning according to what the word meant THEN, not what it means today? vee pee was violating his own rules of interpretation with idios and he did verly clearly imply that idios meant we were idiots if we tried to interpret the Bible ourselves. Epiluo is the word used for "letting loose" and that is also taught so incorrectly it's laughable. What's worse is I pointed it out to them and they continue to teach it wrongly. Oakspear came up with a great explanation for epiluo that TWI would be wise to consider teaching, but that would give the reader some kind of freedom to think and power over their own research and thoughts.... we can't have that now, can we?

Maybe if they would provide money for meetings their folks wouldn't have to have bake sales and car washes. Hard to get excited about having a meeting in a park outside in Florida in the middle of the summer where it's 100 degrees with 57% humidity because we have to find FREE places to have meetings. No Sh1t Sherlock! After helping set up for one of those gloriously HOT meetings (and I don't mean HOT teaching or HOT Bible or HOT fellowship) - I was near the point of heat stroke - had quit sweating and was about to get sick or pass out right there in the middle of the meeting. Just praying I didn't get called on to manifest - cause it wouldn't have been tongues with interpretation coming out of my mouth. They didn't want us to have any money or any comforts - it was like they wanted us to have a poverty mentality despite all the teachings about abundance.

Ya know, Hope, it never occurred to me that they (offshoots and TWI) have a totally different definition of "profitable" than the rest of us do. Theirs is always (all without exception) about money - ours isn't. Amazing what one begins to see when the kool-aid starts to leave the body...

You also ask really good questions, Paw. :) I've always admired and enjoyed Chas's posts and was tickled pink to see that now I was going to get to hear her story in one chunk and have her voice to go with that saucy personality I had come to know at the cafe.

I LOVE it when Rascal shares her stories!!! I can never get enough of them and you're right, Paw, the way she tells them is priceless - you feel like you're right there with her - especially she starts freaking out about germs.... LOTS of stories in the Germ Warfare in Rascal's life. I'm soooo glad that you didn't feel like it had to be "perfect" to share with us, Paw! It's awesome just the way it is!

The west coast is indeed beautiful! Half of my mama's family moved out to California during the Gold Rush and stayed. Mama used to always say to Daddy that if she ever left him, he could come find her in San Diego. The SF, LA, SD areas and whatnot are way too busy for me - too cramped and, like Orlando, those areas are too transient for my taste. Now, Seattle, WA..... I could be persuaded to give up my dreams of moving back to the south if I thought I could make a decent living wage in the suburban Seattle area. Holy Ka-Shmoly that place is beautiful!!! The weather is perfect!! (and yes, I do love the rain as much as the sunny days) The people we met seemed to all be very kind. There's an atmosphere of acceptance despite differences from what I could tell - it could just be the places my brother & his girlfriend took us, but those are probably places I would frequent anyway if I lived there. There was even this one curmudgeon (who turned out to not really be one) who gave us an awesome tour and history lesson on Seattle. Just fascinating! Yeah, I think I could make a home on the west coast with no problem. I'd still miss my soul food, but seafood would probably be better and easier to get. I'd still have to go home for my Mama'nem fixes though.

Happiest of Birthdays, Kittencup!!! I hope it's AWESOME!!!

Well, Geo, if you ever do have to come back let me know and I'll make sure my kinfolks take right good care of you. Southern culture and pride is definitely something unique unto itself. I meet all kinds of obnoxiously rude New Yorker, Peurto Ricans and "New Ricans" who brag about where they're from, but after a few minutes, you realize that they are just pulling your leg cause otherwise why would they be living here now? Besides that, the things they brag about really have nothing to do with the area and the culture, but more about "union power" and the price of wages - never mind that the price of things is also extremely high... I think Texans have the same kind of pride but consider themselves very different and separate from the rest of "The South". They have pride in their history, their local heroes, their hospitality, ethics, food, charity and sense of belonging and like everyone from Texas is part of one huge family - just like we do in our south. I terribly miss the "true south"! Florida is NOT the south. I also miss the change of seasons and football season is my absolute favorite! (We call it football season, not "fall" among SEC fans) I also miss good southern cooking and the quirky nature and culture of the south. Hopefully I'll get to move back that way some day. Being a true MSU fan, Sudo, I do still mutter "Go to hell Ole Miss" under my breath after every benediction. before anyone gets their panties in a wad, please note that I did not say ALL New Yorkers; I did not say ALL Puerto Ricans and I did not say ALL New Ricans.....

I dunno if having a new class is enough to help TWI recover from all their sins. That much time is a huge commitment and most people aren't going to arrange their schedule for something that long and demanding on their time. The churches I've looked at have a class that's and introduction to their church and faith but it meets conveniently on Sunday mornings for about an hour and is only a four to six week class depending on the church. The rest of the classes they offer are extremely optional and there is no obligation, no invitation, no tracking or otherwise feeling of requirement on the part of the individual. Groups like Landmark have week-end long retreats that last from Friday night through late Sunday afternoons and it's a full immersion with very little sleep for that time, but one week-end or one week of nights isn't too much to ask, but 13 three hour sessions?? Quite unrealistic these days, imo. No matter how good the class is - and we already know it ain't all that.

A great lesson in that for all of us.

I downloaded Firefox with absolutely no problems and have loved it ever since! The main reason I like it is because I frequently have multiple websites open at the same time. Instead of having a bunch of icons at the bottom of my screen, with Firefox I have only the one Firefox icon and open multiple tabs instead. It makes it so much easier to surf the web, imo. Especially at work where I have tons of other applications open as well. Also, all the other things Paw mentioned. :) Since I'm not always too good at explaining things, here's a screen shot of my Firefox screen with six different websites open. Apparently I don't have Paint on this computer, so I pasted it into a Word doc.

All I can say is NOBODY wants to be around me when I don't get at least 8 hours of sleep. Anything less than that and, well, let's just say it ain't purty. :ph34r: That's an absolutely ridiculous schedule and so friggin tight that it would be impossible to follow that schedule to a "t" even if one wanted to for some reason. Where's the commute time? What about time to actually prepare what you're going to eat for lunch and then clean it up - cause I'm sure dishes left in the sink attracts devil spirits. 30 minutes to eat and get dressed? No way! Especially not when they are all sharing a bathroom. And what are they doing after 9pm? You better not call my house or knock on my door after 9pm unless you want a ride to the emergency room - cause if you do.... you'll need a ride to the emergency room. Just one more sample of how TWI doesn't really care about taking care of people. People are to be used and things are to be loved? That's the TWI motto, isn't it?

I can't add much at all to what everyone has already said, but reading the documents section of GSpot and reading two books especially, "The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse" by two folks I can't remember and "Releasing the Bonds: Enabling People to Think for Themselves" by Steve Hassan are awesome books to help get over guilt, lingering oppression and anger. If your library doesn't have copies, ask them to get them through interlibrary loan - it's still free, they just "borrow" the book from a library somewhere in the US who does have it. Professional help is extremely helpful, especially with a therapist who is familiar with high demand, controlling groups - not just "cults" or churches - a lot of MLM groups operate the same way, believe it or not. My therapist is awesome and perfect for me - I gave him those two books the first time I met him and he has learned a lot from me about these groups and how they operate. He has a theology degree from UC Berkely and his parents founded the local Unitarian Universalist Church in the area here, so he has a lot of background on a lot of different belief systems so he can talk to me about spiritual matters without getting lost. This was and has been very important to me - he has also been very instrumental in pointing me in the right direction when I get a burr in my saddle to learn about some other religion or belief system. Of course, posting here is priceless because we get to learn from others who have "been there" or are going through the same things. It's like nothing else to be able to talk to folks who really do know where you're coming from. :) And time.....the ever elusive, "it gets better with time"..... it really does, though.

Lifted, I did not realize I did that!! :o I'm going right now to wash my mouth out with soap!

Yeppers! That's how my V-gn friends pronounce it too, so that's how I say it.

I LOVE Halloween but don't do much in the way of decorations. I do put a pumpkin in the window, though. I'll dress up, put Vixen's Halloween bandana on her and we'll pass out candy to the kiddos who come by. Usually they say, "Hi, Vixen" before they say "trick or treat" There are a lot of children on my street and in the surrounding neighborhoods so we always get a bunch of visitors. I just love it!! Especially the little ones who are so excited. It's just a great night for me since I don't have any kids of my own.

Man, Chas, I never even heard of a luwak till today. :blink: Can't say I'm gonna put that at the top of my "to do" list....but it is very interesting. Shellon, yes, I put it on the grounds. I put the grounds in the filter first, then add the vanilla on top and just a small pinch of salt. Sometimes I add a sprinkle or two of cinnamon, too. We use the Saigon Cinnamon at work and that's what I use at home too, but I'm a snob that way. Just plain ole normal cinnamon works just as well.

Lovely post, Roy. Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us! I'm so terribly sorry that you had to experience so much pain and very thankful that you feel healed from those days. God is so good to us!

Hey, I've killed more threads than anyone else here at GSpot, if you count my alternative personalities too. I have a reputation to live up to, ya know?

Geo, I add a dash of really good Vanilla (not cheap imitation crap) and a pinch of kosher salt to mine and it is THE BEST regardless of how cheap it is. :) Maybe if you try that it'll taste as good as it smells? They always ask me to prepare the grounds in the office because I seem to have found the balance. I don't mind cause then it means I don't have to go get the water and I'm lazy that way.