Rocky

WOW! It must have taken a LOT of guts to get to where you are at this point in your recovery. You certainly described a PTSD-inducing environment. I'm very proud of you and hope you're able to get supportive professional counseling. Your self-awareness and ability to reflect on your life experience is very commendable. FWIW, several of the books of the late M. Scott Peck helped me tremendously, beginning in the early 1990s, to learn to reflect and re-evaluate. Just this evening, I read an excerpt from a writing by Plato in an Erich Fromm book. Perhaps many of us who did not grow up in TWI can relate to it and maybe you can too.

For the record, politics is off limits at GSC. But I understand how you feel about the labels. Btw, there's a discussion on the Doctrinal forum here about whether a believer can lose his/her salvation. My position is that the notion is so absurd that picking apart bible verses to figure out if it's true or not is a complete waste of one's time (life). I believe you are correct in labeling Finnigan's offshoot as more cultish. The entire idea (of losing salvation) if believed can logically ONLY lead a person to bondage to abusive religious cults.

He's just a ramblin' guy. But THIS is my friend Ramblin Dan. With his rendition of Ain't nobody's bidness if I do! It's possible some of you might know him.

By far, you're not alone in feeling like you ramble. So far, I don't think anyone else would characterize your posts as such. So, no need to be shy.

Hi BecomingMe, Rest assured, it DOES get better. Some of us old timers still hang out here even though we're doing fine these days.

Fear can be a powerful motivating force. But as soon as the scales fall off of the prisoners' eyes, FREEDOM is within sight. I'm reminded of Erich Fromm's book, On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying "NO" to Power

Or in a pyramid scheme... why do you think Amway was so attractive to people in TWItville? "In recent decades, pyramid schemes have become an insidious, pervasive and corrupting influence in the marketplace and community, causing financial and social harm on a global scale." Since 1980 a new form of sales and marketing, called multi-level marketing or network marketing, has spread worldwide and spawned an explosion of pyramid sales schemes involving tens of millions of consumers. The line between legal forms of network marketing and fraudulent pyramid programs is a point of controversy, confusion and inquiry in many countries. Pyramid Scheme Alert will provide much needed information to consumers and other interested parties to reduce the number of illegal and de facto pyramid schemes and victims-and to minimize the severity of effects on individuals and communities.

Yes, it was Katrina. "Devastated" is a dramatic understatement. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Chockful's original post for this thread hit the nail squarely on the head and drove that nail home in one powerful swing of the hammer. The elitism and pomposity that dogma generated in Wierwille's cult comes very close to actually being the root of all evil. But frankly, I believe it's not much of a logical leap to suggest that it was Vic's love of money and adulation that "inspired" that dogma.

Not just once. It's a recurring theme to identify the spiritual abuse of cults like TWI.

Secrecy and denial were the primary coping mechanisms employed by the TWIt cult. "Mistakes were made, but not by me"

IIRC, this is not the first time McCulloch's name has come up on GSC about this very situation. Or maybe it was a discussion on FB.

Good points. Oh and let's not forget Gallegher's new doctrine to ensure bondage to church leaders... My point actually had been not that they needed to continue off on hubris-like course of thinking they were coming up with the latest and greatest revelation from God since the First Century, but rather becoming humble and recognizing that they actually don't need to be pioneers in order to walk on the path of God's will.

What will you be doing to broaden your understanding of cult behaviors and tactics in the meantime?

Tell me, what does that prove? "Apparently" appears to mean you don't really know. What DO you know about that?

I wonder if they're going to expand their learning horizons beyond what they've become fossilized in with TWI dogma.

To understand beyond the surface intent may require you to learn key concepts outside the realm of TWIness. I would ask them AND ask you to consider how on God's green Earth they could do anything different from what they've practiced for 40 and 50 years if they can't give thought to any knowledge (teaching) from any source other than the cult they've become fossilized in already.

http://www.greasespotcafe.com/ipb/topic/24457-revival-and-restoration/

It's almost as if they already had LSD back in those days.

Hi George, Did you get the memo? This thread is about whether vp cited his sources (i.e. plagiarism).

An intriguing reflection on American history (going back 500 years) puts interesting perspective on that point. Fantasyland. “A provocative new study of America’s cultural history . . . -- Newsday

I guess you and I were the only ones who got the memo. Oh well.

For perspective, I would simply ask how any of the discussion of dispensations/administrations and such has anything to do with the thread title/subject? This seems to now belong in the doctrinal forum.

Of course, I've heard that too. I tend to think that some of us who grew up in various cultures and subcultures that were intolerant to homosexual individuals may not be closet gays themselves... but those of us who did live through macho cultures and religious cultures like twi have had the opportunity to grow out of that intolerance. I might be reasonable to figure that those who have left those intolerant cultures but remain intolerant themselves MIGHT have some of those tendencies. Some time in the 1990s, I started recognizing the humanity in persons who were attracted to persons of the same sex. Now I have plenty of gay friends.