Junior Corps Surviver

The amount of adulatory that was going on is mind numbing. I have spoken to many friend's who's parents were involved in it. But what I saw first hand in residence was our teen slumber parties. Games of truth or dare that went too far. Which teens will do if they're unsupervised but that's the problem. We WERE supervised.

I am told by folks who are “in” that they have "not taken an anti vaxx stance". They’ve always been..., uh, pro choice. Your abundant sharing paid for some of those choices.

Former Jr. Corps member Steven Perez of Family Corps 9 shared a photo album of his recent visit to the Indiana Campus in Rome City. Good stuff both photos and captions. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=dtension&set=a.10161220720074418

I always felt like it was high pressure sales with quotas. Even in the 70's. Our hearts might have been in the right place but we would be in "trouble", especially as a WOW (twice) if we weren't constantly running classes. Hence the homeless, addicts and others who were there for the food and kisses. But that was my experience.

Ah. by 88 I was gone. The revelation must have changed.

480 adults? That is unbelievable. Imagine thinking that this is the only real/best? I mean, come on. It's so good and accurate that it's a secret? lol I am also surprised, but shouldn't be, that they peaked at 48,000. I was once told that the rock of A had 100,000 people. It's a trip to continue to find out that your childhood was even more of a lie than I thought. Thanks for the reply.

I mean like really witness. We went door to door all the time. We stopped people in parking lots, supermarket and malls. We went to churches and tried to convert people. We left flyers on cars and bulletin boards. This was a touch way to grow up like when you knock on the door of a school mate or a teacher. Awkward. Between that and taking furniture from the trash, growling up way was a real damper on school/social life. Nothing like branding the new kid as the town weirdo. I have been wondering if they still recruit this hard anymore. We were aggressive, argumentative and could be quite rude. We also invited the town's addicts and drunks into our homes and would be surprised when the horn of plenty grew legs or when my wow sisters would get assaulted. Lots to process here. Sorry if I am rambling.

Did it even exist on VHS? I have a beta copy but am not parting with it. God told me Beta is the way to go ;)

We had to drop whatever we were doing and stand and clap when they walked in the room. That alone is insane. Stop eating, quit doing your home work, stop sitting...Craig is here YAY!

Another re boot? Seems there's one every few years. Meet the new cult, same as the old cult.

LOL yes I did mean adulterous. Autocorrect strikes again. I was out WOW when I walked into a certain Reverend fooling round with a 19 year old woman. I told my friend and he had seen them too. The Rev's wife was upstairs and Rev was in his office with his secretary, a new PFAL grad, "working on a teaching". I then found out from the child of this leader that this had been going on for a while. I sat on that information for a while. A few weeks later, that leader took the teen fellowship out for ice cream "his treat". He had me go to his office and grab some of the ABS to pay for the ice cream. I was taken aback when he told me to "grab a few hundred dollars". There were like 5 of us. We didn't need that much money for ice cream. When I went to get the money, the horn of plenty was not where he said it would be so I looked around and opened his desk and found marijuana and polaroid's of the secretary, nude. After taking us out, he made a stop at Radio Shack and used the money to buy a car stereo. I couldn't deal with it anymore. Shortly after LCM came to the region for a meeting and my friend and I asked if we could speak to him. He said "yes". We told him what I just told you and he said "who the F do you think you are? You think God doesn't tell me what's going on? You think I don't know my calling? I don't see a 'reverend' in front of your name you fat little f***ot." He was an inch from my face screaming at the top of his lungs. I was terrified. Then he told my mother, who gave me a beating and told her we are lucky he is letting us stay in the corps. I was 16. That was the beginning of the end for me. That summer was the Passing of a Patriarch. That was my last Rock. My mother was mad at me for months because I quit going to twig. Then was the truth started to trickle out she came around and we volunteered to DFAC. She herself was a victim of sexual assault by VPW, yet she thought I was making it up. How's that for brainwashed?

Exactly what I started to figure out when I decided to leave. "wait a minute...we are paying to work AND getting reproved by very angry leaders who cheat on their wives. WHAT THE..." You should have been there when a friend and I went to Craig to let him know we had "discovered" an adulatory and theft problem among some leaders. I thought he was going to punch me.

Allan you are right about how much pressure she was under. We almost didn't go and that was being framed as a spiritual failure on her part and I was even spoken to about not having believing "big enough" to carry the weight my mother carries to take care of me. I really believed that if we didn't make it, I would have been to blame. I was proud of her but I was also relieved. I was afraid that I was screwing things up for her, which of course is ridiculous. I was 11. The only thing that bothers me at this point is the run around I got about it. If God wanted her to steal my money, why was she hiding it? I know exactly why. One lie causes another and she was lying about having spiritual partners and "earning" the money on her own and "coming up with it". It's funny (not haha) that she knew she was lying about getting into a Christian college. Twinky, you're right about the fees. Not only did we grow our own food, not only was the property paid for, but we were required to work for free. She paid money for the privilege of working her rear end off on a farm.

It's hard to accept that reality. But you're right. Those of us who grew up in TWI, we didn't join. We were dragged along and then left when we got older, so it's really hard to see how this could even happen. It's hard to let go, it's hard to know how to handle this, who to be mad at, if anyone. But I saw plenty of terrible abuses, thefts and lies in TWI so why am I surprised? I know this, TWI didn't care where that money came from as long as the pyramid scheme kept the money rolling in and the vulnerable people were there for them to take advantage of.

Hi. It's been a long while. Sometimes talking about The Way can be helpful and sometimes it just makes me remember bad things. I am dropping by to get this off of my chest. I just found out that my mother paid for her Corps experience with money that was supposed to be in an account for me for when I turn 21. I was 21 years ago but never got a real answer as to where that money was. Imagine waiting for 10 years for the day you get this pay out for that time you were almost killed in a car accident and then it just isn't there and no one can tell you anything about it. As I remember, the corps bill was paid for by "spiritual partners" who pledged to send money every month. Or at least those spiritual partners were able to help with day to day expenses like toothpaste and clothes. I clearly remember my mother having a hard time getting her money together and that we almost never went into residence in Rome City. She was told to pray about it and to believe. Well, glory be, she got the money together. I was so proud of her, now almost 40 years later I find that she paid for everything with the settlement money, which according to the settlement, was not allowed. My relationship with my mouther is not good and this isn't going to help. She dodged this issue for year and would actually get mad when I brought it up. Now my God Mother has told me the truth and I am angry at The Way and my mom all over again. We left TWI in the late 80's and I still have to process it.

Thanks guys. I am having a heck of a time doing this on my mac. I have a PC at work, might try it there.

Greasespot used to have audio of a thing that Donna M-Dale said about my friend Naomi’s death. She died in a famous plane crash that killed Democratic Party Chairman Ron Brown. Does anyone have this audio? It’s not on the site anymore.

My Jr. Corps brother DTension posted these on Facebook. Thought I’d share. They’re pretty funny.

I guess I wouldn’t use the word “cult” if it were a positive thing. But I hear you.

I distinctly remember our WOW Home being reproved for not having enough students. We basically had to fill a quota or risk being “off the word”. My house was regularly full of people you would never want in your home. At the root of Christianity that should be OK as a pure heart should want to help anyone who needs help. But we had people coming over that you would never want near your kids. I was especially upset by the class we ran that featured people from the local (and I am quoting as a matter of fact) the “reatarded adult home”. I mean, where do you draw the line? These people couldn’t read, they could not stop talking and could not stop disrupting the class. Of course they couldn’t. They all had Down Syndrome. It was great to want to help them but we took their money for the class and to me that was wrong. I went WOW three times. In those three years we had maybe 3 people who stuck with TWI, took all the classes and became full time believers (out of hundreds of people who took PFAL) Of course we had a 100% session SIT rate. ;) The worst part is we believed it.

It’s crossed my mind that if I were that twisted, which I am not because I am not a psychopath, I have all the tools, experience and knowledge to start my own cult. How easy it would be to do that rather than get a job. It wouldn’t be hard to find the local lonesome people who need a purpose in life and who have jobs so they can give me 15% of their income. I went WOW three times, I am good at that. No disrespect to the lonesome people but that’s who we sold the class to the fastest. That’s who came for the kisses and free coffee cake. I can’t imagine, as a father today, allowing active drug addicts, homeless people and someone I met at the laundry mat into my house where my kids are living their lives. The whole thing is so weird. But anyway, yes let’s start a cult. I can help you.

A few years ago a friend of Brian M’hands told us that he and his family were planning something of a coup. Years later , here it is apparently. I don’t think they wanted to go the splitter route. They wanted to revive and restore as far back as 4 years ago. That’s the exact term they used. Wow.

That’s a blast from the past. I remember Michael Fort.

LCM, basically. He ended ROA over it, as if any of what he said was happening was new.

One year at Teen Summer School VPW saw a group of us teen boys and he drove his cushman (sp?) over. He taught us the time honored lesson that way believer girls are for marrying and the non believer girls are for sex. He actually said that non believers deserved “the 4 F’s”. We all thought he was so cool. But looking back, it’s horrifying. But I have been reading about this stud for years. No need to re hash. It helps me a little to say it out loud and I know I’m not breaking any new ground. I just thought that this topic and the idea of the 90’s somehow being when things got sexual is absurd.