Junior Corps Surviver

I think about this all the time. We were paying for the right to work on a farm. They said th corps was patterned after The Marine Corps. Do people pay to join The Marines? Nooo, They get paid because they are in a training program to be the elite of the elite. We paid for that. It's crazy.

It may or may not be prudish... for adults.

Thanks for taking the time to offer this insight. I have been dealing with trauma one incident at a time for decades. Every time I think I have nothing left to think about... As far as TWI being nicer, I have heard this. My first thought is always the foundation upon which it is laid. The foolish man built his house upon the sand.

You know, it might not seem like abuse. But being forced to shower with grown men at The Rock is f'ing crazy. I was a little boy. WTF

I've been thinking about this post since I made it. I kind of put this experience away when it happened. That's gotta be some sort of trauma response because there was nothing I could do and none of the adults on cam[us said anything about it. The only thing I heard was "Poor her. Her believing wasn't there". So instead of being mad, we were embarrassed. I can tell you, if that happened to my wife or children today, I wouldn't brush it off. Sometimes sharing a story is liberating. In this case it gave me the anger I should have had in the first place. I spent all weekend ....ed off. 30 plus years later.

In a different thread, I talked about a situation I had with a sub parent in Rome City. It reminded me of another sub parent story that really upset me and to this day I fail to see the logic that TWI used in this situation. My mother was from The Bronx. She had zero camping our “outdoor life” experience. She was also chubby and not in great shape. While she was on LEAD, someone told her to go back to base camp to retrieve something. She told the LEAD coordinator that she didn’t know how to get back to base camp. She was told to take a left at the Gambel Oak. She had no idea what that meant and was yelled at when she said so. Someone told her to “Ask God”. She was afraid to reply so she went on her way and proceeded to walk off the side of a mountain and she broke her back. To this day she has trouble walking. This should have been a lawsuit as her life was never the same after this. She limps and has a lot of pain and was not allowed to see a doctor. As a result, her spine healed incorrectly and vertebrae are permanently fused together. That’s bad enough but it gets worse. She was driven back to Rome City and was “reproved” for failing LEAD and was told she might not graduate. When she got back to Rome City, she was bed bound but was placed in a remote room far away from her actual bed. They basically stashed her in an attic. I had no idea that she had fallen, no clue that she had hurt herself and no one told me she was back. I was living life thinking she was in Colorado on LEAD and my sub parent was in on the charade. She was home for a week before someone let it slip that she was home. I still have no idea why someone thought it would be a good idea to literally hide my mother from me. When I asked leadership about it, I was told that she had a failure in her believing that opened her up to the adversary and that he caused her to fall. They said they didn't want her to see me until she was "ready". It turned out she had been asking for me the whole time. I cannot believe I stayed after this, but I was a child and so I did.

I "lost my virginity" at age 11. AGE ELEVEN. To a 19 year woman who was in the Corps. She was my "sub parent" while my mother was on light bearers. This woman was not at all mature or "ready" to be in a "leadership" training like The Way Corps. Not sure who thought she was a good idea. This sort of abuse would be clearly tragic if I were a woman. As a boy, I told a few adults and got a pat on my back "ATTABOY" but mostly no one believed me. An 11 year old is not ready for the responsibility of sex and the ensuing humiliation of me thinking she was now my girlfriend only to have her laugh at me, threaten me and tell me how bad I was in bed. I also spent a few years in my teens being sexually aggressive in an effort to get back to the promise land. It took years of therapy for me to learn healthy attitudes about sex. Recently, I found her on Facebook and sent her a friend request. She is nearly 60 now. First she blocked me. Then she unblocked me and sent a very long apology that was vague as far as admitting her crimes. I don't think she wanted me to have actual evidence. But what she did say is that what she did to me she had done to her and that she didn't know any better and that she was haunted by it. I told her I forgave her then blocked her. I never want to see her face again.

Wait so I wasn't one of 4,000 WOWs for the 40th anniversary?

The fact that they were openly pro choice (in my day at least) would get them kicked out of any Christian Nationalist movement.

These days they don't justify anything. "that was a long time ago. It's OK now". I usually say "The foundation of TWI is rotten. You can pain the walls all you want. "

We left not only because he had to write this but because he was fired for it. It made no sense. It made me turn my back on TTW after 15 years. That's how stupidly they handled it.

This was the catalyst to us finally deciding to leave. I was young but I remember thinking "I didn't know we needed this research paper? That's kinda crazy. How is this not the most obvious thing in the world?"

Perhaps you are unfamiliar with trauma, PTSD or the sting of being ripped off. I was about to agree with you until you leaned on the cult trope of "crying about decades old offenses". These offenses include rape, sir. They include taking my teenage friends for abortions financed by a handful of money dipped from a free bucket of cash called "tithes". Perhaps giving your entire childhood to a movement that turned out to be a fraud run by grifters and perverts, stings a little. "Crying" isn.t weakness. It is a basic human emotions. If you don't cry while you're recovering from a literal attack on everything you are and everything you have, then you're the one with the problem. And by the way, I don't see anyone "crying" in the replies to your post. I see people who learned the hard way and are trying to warn you that these offenses, not all of which are "decades" old, hurt people. People still haven't recovered. Some people died, MAN. Do you have any idea the number of people who have died as a direct result of trauma from this cult? I have friends who died in accidents and were blamed for not being holy enough. It's gross. There is also no rule that says if you're "crying" about the way's literal crimes, that means that we aren't walking with Jesus. That is a fallacy. Both things can be true. You can walk with Jesus and be wise to The Way's bullcrap. And when we meet a person who says they went to HQ and everyone was so nice, we want you to know that trusting in this group will deceive you and you might not even know it's happening. If you want to stick your hand on the burner to see if fire is really hot, go ahead. You've been warned. But don't pretend that we are all crying. We were trying to warn you.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand and the rains came down and the floods came up... Glad they were nice to you. They are a poorly researched, mean spirited cult who worshipped a man and paid the price. They turned a blind eye to assaults of all kinds, theft, adultery, abuse of children and they separated families. This went on for decades, heck half a century plus. But I am glad they were nice to you.

The burgers were good. That's because Doc came up with the idea for McDonald's. The showers were traumatizing for teenagers. Completely ridiculous.

I used Myth of The 6 million as a source for a history paper in middle school. I still feel shame. At the time ,I acted like I knew some secret truth and was so proud of myself.

Did they do "don't stop speaking"? You wouldn't need to sue but a cease and desist would be fun.

They don't own that music. Just saying. That's a Takit record.

I did but his offer derailed me for two years. I was foolish for listening to him.

Oh the promises he made me. car, salary, staff, house. Foolishly it prevented me from going to college. I had an involuntary "gap year".

I haven't seen one in years. It's funny now but at the time when LCM said I would have one someday after I am ordained, I thought that sounded like a sweet deal.

There was a room in AV stacked with betamax machines at HQ. I could use one now so I can watch Athlete of The Spirit. LOL

"What are we going to do with 200 Chevy Citations and 5,000 betamaxc machines?"

He came to dinner in my wow vet home in Boston. he showed up in a sedan driven by someone else. I was 11 years old. i remember asking "where's the motorcycle?" and VPW told me "it's parked". I remember thinking "no crap it's parked. i didn't think it was floating in the sky". Later that night I was reproved by my twig leader for being out of line. I was a kid. i just wanted to see the motorcycle. This happened to me a few times where I got chewed out for being a kid. So while hd did visit our twig, there was no bike and we also had to give him all of our money. The ABS wasn't "enough" so the twig leader made the 4 adults in the wow vet home cough up their pay checks. They were so blessed lol

Dr. Angela Priester is a clinical psychologist who apparently sees no red flags in TWI, which to me makes her a living red flag.