Rocky

If only...

Did you see smoke coming out of their ears? :confused:/>

I understand you are also new to Facebook overall. It takes some effort to establish your identity in that social network. That's not for wayferish reasons. In order for people to trust you, they have to know you're really who you say you are. There has been an epidemic of people establishing fake/duplicate FB profiles to steal people's identities. To play devil's advocate for a moment, for the people who, in that group, to feel safe spilling their guts, they probably become less than comfortable when someone shows up or tries to show up and won't identify themselves. I'm not in that group, so I don't know anything more specific than that broad general concept. And I'm not friends with the Howard who moderates the group.

Ohio. Don't know if he's living there now, but I visited him in Dayton in the late 1990s.

Howard W*lker is the administrator, if you know him.

It's a secret group. That's even more private than "closed." You're supposed to use your real name on Facebook. But if you join that group, what you post to it can only be read by those in the group. Search engines can't find that information. I only know about it because for a time I was a member (it's been a couple of years). I got tired of the politics of people like Ralph G and Jeff W***ace. JW and some others still thought/think TWI is the greatest thing since sliced bread. From what others have told me about recent history in the group, it took going through quite a bit of turbulence to emerge from the heavy handed "only say nice things about TWI" BS originally imposed by the founder of the group. That founder had also started the WC Ning website that stirred things up here at GSC in 2008/2009. I still don't have a desire to rejoin the group, but as I understand it, several women have been relieved that they've had the opportunity to share their own real life experiences with wierwille and/or martindale.

It's a secret group. That means it isn't subject to search engines cataloging the posts. The only way you can become a member is if you are invited. You can be invited by any member, but might have to be approved by Walker. I'm not a member but have several who are.

"You can't out give God" was just the schtick of a con man squeezing all the money he could from hard working believers. Kit, indeed from a spiritual perspective, there may be some good in it for those not looking for material abundance.

Why would any of you want to be someone other than who you are now?

Consider that The Hunt was not aiming to bust TWI. There will be plenty of time and media coverage on his background once Barnard is apprehended.

A wonderful idea.

Why does ANYONE care what Raf believes? Why does anyone care what johniam believes? Bottom line, Raf came to change his beliefs and shared what that means to him and how he reasoned it out. Nobody else's beliefs are jeopardized by a person doing that, are they?

Did you leave it in the bathroom?

I think Oakspear's comment (#35 on this thread) hit the nail on the head. Christians or any other religion that claims "to know" for certainty anything is only peddling BS.

You made several good and important points. Sobriety intact. That's good to know. Hearing about PD may cause some to grasp that Robin was facing a stressful time in his life and knew his future would be difficult. but suicide is not a rational decision people make (almost always, I figure). For someone so gregarious and seemingly open, so much of him was quiet and withdrawn. He had to have impressive skills at keeping his pain hidden. I'm not so sure that was a good thing. I, too, appreciate the info newlife posted. The news stunned me as it did millions of people all over the world. He touched hundreds of millions of people with the healing balm of laughter. Besides that, he was such a warm and kind man. All humanity lost a part if its heart when Robin died. And it was and is a tremendous loss for American culture. I also feel for his family. For them, this tragic, trying time is no doubt more stressful because of the media attention. But because he touched so many lives, "we" needed to know how this all could have happened.

It is amazing that there exists such clandestine, insidious psychological manipulation that members of the group couldn't detect it or cause the perpetrator to be called to account. There are records suggesting some tried but got pushed out of RRF. They weren't a match for the sociopathic Mr. Barnard.

Barnard will be John Walsh's target on The Hunt on CNN this coming Sunday (Aug 24). Click the link for a 30-second preview on YouTube.

Preach it, Brother Groucho!

Here's a link to a for the episode.And given that there was a VB siting the other day, I'd say it could be very soon that they have him in custody.

And you get to decide what to believe, what to do, where to live, who you're friends will be. Lot's a good things. :eusa_clap:/>

I agree completely.

THE main takeaway from the PLAF class was that the ONLY way to know the will of God was to listen to (glorify, worship, etc.) Wierwille. It took decades to figure that out, because the secret of their (his) success is (was) the secrecy of their (his) tactics.

Yes, it was cancer.

Controlling the flow of information is a long-known, longstanding group (small and large) manipulation strategy. See 935 Lies, a book written by investigative journalist Charles Lewis, recently publiished and available on amazon.com We recognize it looking back on twi, but it was by no means unique to our cult.

Someone who spent a lot of time with Wierwille back in the day recently described to me even worse. W was much more cruel than simply using a spoon on dogs. More like kicking them hard enough to send them flying. I found that incident, as relayed to me, highly plausible based on my observations of Wierwille's cruel narcissism toward his followers.