Catcup

Martindale back at TWI? In some ways it would surprise me: After TWI and their insurance company had to fork over untold amounts of money in legal fees and had to make payouts to several litigants due to Mardindale's admitted sexual misbehavior, I would be surprised that they could find an insurance company who would carry them with that wolf even on the property, much less back in charge of the hen house. But in some ways it wouldn't surprise me at all: It would give TWI back their charismatic leader. It would give Craig the forum from which he could meekly explain that it simply was, after all, a one-time affair for which he is extremely sorry for how it terribly affected the ministry to which he was called and dedicated his life. He could give account of how repentant he has been and rehearse the sordid journey of his grievous errors, and what he has done to rehabilitate himself over the past five years, all the wonderful things God has taught him in the process, and how he now has his life back on track. The BOD could bring forward believers to whom Martindale was assigned to report who can verify everything he clalims. The BOD could get up and quote Corinthians about forgiving a person who is repentant for ill sexual behavior, so as not to allow him to be "swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." They could quote Acts and the church epistles about how the apostle Paul made terrible mistakes both before and after his conversion, and even might have had to teach in fellowships where there were family members of those whom he either persecuted or killed, and that those believers forgave Paul. There would be a teaching from the gospels on the Forgiving Father, and the entire body of wayfers would be encouraged to do the right thing and forgive Craig and welcome him back with open arms. Then they could all have a wonderful tender night-owl, hold hands, and sing KumBaYa. Wouldn't surprise me at all. But don't look for an admission of guilt from Martindale to those whom he actually raped and pillaged, then defamed while trying to cover up his deeds. Don't look for apologies to those whom he persecuted and defamed for challenging him for his corruption. This man is NOT sorry for these things, and he has NOT apologized for them, because HE HAS STILL REFUSED TO ADMIT THE TRUTH. DO look for him to defame all those who have exposed him here and in court as liars, and unforgiving, bitter former associates who have an axe to grind. Everything will be "better" for TWI if they have a charismatic leader once again. Everything will be "sweeter" and more "tender" because the wayfers are now understanding and forgiving according to what the Word tells them to do in light of the repentant behavior of their former leader. All would be well again. Until slowly, inch by inch, the perversion they have all continued to allow begins to carefully twist and squeeze the life out of them once again. They will continue to be drunk with the opiate of falsehoods, and are yet addicted to lies. Swallowing more of them would be no surprise.

Bob, as far as I know, the guy was successfully prosecuted and eventually marked and avoided for being a homosexual. However, there was never any apology from TWI to his wife, for not believing her. Nor was there any apology to the general body of believers for putting a full time pervert on full time salary with their abundant sharing (but then again, why mess up a perfect track record...). The incident with the cop is small potatoes from what I understand from his wife. There was much, more, and darker stuff there. Nor has there ever been any apology from Lxrry Pxnarello EVER to ANY person who was present at that famous meeting in Ohio where he publicly called this poor frightened woman and every other Corps who had been dropped, names I can't say here without being moderated. Thanks Ham & Krys. School is in session, but once in a blue moon I hope to come by and drop a few lines when I have something to say.

Once upon a time, in the autumn of 1995... We had a woman show up at our fellowship who had fled her husband with nothing but the clothes on her back. She had been marked and avoided for leaving her husband, who had been arrested in another state. These are Way Corps folks, too, btw. You see, he (the Corps fellow) had been thrown in jayull because he had solicited an undercover cop. He (Corps guy) solicited HIM (undercover MALE cop) in the bathroom of a bar. The Corps person wanted to PAY the male cop to let HIM (yes, the Way Corps Full-time minister) perform felatio on HIM (the cop). Hope you followed all that. Yes, this is for real. So, he was promptly busted and tossed in the pokey. He calls his wife with his one phone call. She finally puts two and two and two and several thousand more two's together that she had been ignoring for years, and multiplies out that her husband truly is a bisexual and she needs to get the heck out of the marriage. She calls her immediate Way Corps overseer, tells him what is going on. So instead of coming to her aid, the overseer, yeah, you get it, goes straight to the pokey, hears the sob story from the pervert behind bars that he was FRAMED and believes him. Believes not the wife, but the idiot who was stupid enough to solicit a cop in a bathroom in a bar, and paid him for the privilege of sucking the cops er, um...nightstck. Meanwhile, other TWI-lites call the wife and blame her for the situation. Blame HER. Before she knows it, The BC and LC claim that her hubby was set up, that the cops are wrong, and refuse to believe the wife's backlog of red flags she now plainly sees. They tell her that the cop tried to frame her husband, that the cop is lying. They tell her, "whenever there is a discrepancy between a believer and an unbeliever, you always, ALWAYS take the side of the believer!" Long story short, she ended up fleeing the state with nothing but the clothes on her back, and showing up on my doorstep for help. We let her in the fellowship, try to support her and help her out, and within three weeks, she is sitting in a meeting called by Lxrry Pxnxrellx listening to him call her a scumbucket not worthy of being able to draw breath in the State of Ohio and she should leave the state because she and others like her were contaminating the "buffer zone" and literally making Craig Martindale physically ill. Let's all sing... "What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought..."

I think I would ask them "What on earth are you so afraid of?"

At this point, probably so! ;)-->

So I wonder who they have moved into the Wierwille's ancestral homestead? I'm sure they wasted no time doing it just as soon as she was packed off to the nursing home. That place belongs in principle to the Wierwille children, regardless of what TWI has written on a piece of paper.

ROTFLMAO Research Geek resembles that remark! :D--> Heeheeheeheehee!!!!! But mistaken for Craig? LOLOLOL Craig is... --a little taller. --probably in better physical shape since he is a personal trainer. --though balding, would NOT have wildly unkempt hair... Geek is... --cuddlier --more approachable --would NOT be wearing Bruno Mali shoes and Armani suits...

In holding the gun to our heads, they got us to hold the gun to yours, on their behalf.

CFF is Christian Family Fellowship.

They not only stole our lives, but the honor of many people who were actually willing to sacrifice and lay their lives down in order to serve the body of believers. They made our sacrifice a sham. They turned our life's dream into a nightmare. They stole our dignity and exploited our youth, our strength, our idealism, and our loyalty,in order to line their own pockets. And they turned us into people who rather than fed the flock, and bound the wounds, and led them to safety as were our original intentions, to those who actually confounded, wounded, and scattered them.

I did what I did because I had been taught for decades, and believed with all my heart, that in order to be in good standing with God, and in the "household," that obedience to leadership was crucial. I was taught Romans 13:1&2 by my fellowship coordinator before I was even allowed to run a household fellowship. It was the foundation for how my W.O.W. family was taught in W.O.W. training that it was to function. I was drilled on that verse of scripture by my limb leader in preparation for going into The Way Corps. It is the foundational verse for any kind of leadership within The Way International. I still can recite it by heart: Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Our first week in The Way Corps, we were taught that "A polite request is a command," when coming from our leadership, especially VPW. We were also told by Craig Martindale, that as soon as we retemorized Philemon 21, we were each to come to him personally and to actually whisper it in his ear: "Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou will also do more than I say." We were taught that when we were told to "jump," we were not only not to ask how high, but to jump higher than anyone else. Martindale made it clear with Philemon 21, that The Way Corps were to not only obey, but to go the extra mile in that obedience. Then Del Duncan was brought in especially for a special teaching to The 6th Way Corps, done in the Chapel at Emporia. It was titled "Blind Obedience." In this teaching, it was abundantly clear that no matter what our "senses" mind told us, we were obligated as God's most holy servants to obey without question "The Word of God" and the instruction from our elders. We were told that as a doulos, our lives were particularly now NOT our own. We were "bought with a price" and had obligations above and beyond "regular" believers, and the consequences for breaking our vows was "unthinkable." Pair those teachings, and the heartfelt belief in those teachings, the threat of emotional, financial, spiritual, and physical harm and destruction if you abandon your "calling" and the "household," and you have the recipe for denying your conscience as a liar and an enemy of God for telling you that what you are experiencing and being told to do is wrong. We were systematically taught to destroy any sense of self. See my editorial The Destruction of Self, for exactly how this is accomplished by The Way International in its teachings.

TWI is well-versed in how to manipulate people and hold them captive, using any and all of the techniques jkboehme describes. TWI pried into the private details of our family’s health and finances and used intimidation techniques to try to manipulate and control not only us, but others in their own best interests. During Rock of Ages in August of 1995, I fell in an unmarked uncovered trench and broke my left ankle on grounds of The Way International. I was detained for several hours in their “Third Aid” office, until they actually located someone from my home fellowship who would accompany me to the hospital. However, if they would have just given me a ride on a cushman to my car, I could have driven myself to the hospital hours earlier, because my driving foot was not affected. But because my injury happened on their grounds, in an uncovered and unmarked trench in an area they KNEW would be traveled that week by thousands of people, they wanted to control my access to health care: who gave it, and when. I had to sit there for several hours just waiting for one of their doctors to show up, who I knew would not be able to do anything other than to suggest an X-ray, which TWI was not capable of doing in their trailer. They refused to allow me to leave or give me a ride to my car so I could drive myself to the local hospital. When I finally did get to the hospital, the break in my ankle was misdiagnosed as a sprain. Later on in the Cleveland area, when my ankle was not healing, whenever I went to Corps meetings the leadership kept staring at the ankle brace I had to wear. Mxrk Wxllace and Chxryl Wxtson got together and suggested that my ankle was not healing because I “needed to lose weight,” and Wxtson suggested I go on a “rice diet” and use her stationary bicycle to exercise. I knew first of all that a total carbohydrate diet for three weeks was not in the best interest of my health, and I told them I was already following a diet prescribed by my doctor. Needless to say, this was not well-received. They then insisted I take the bicycle and use it to rehabilitate my ankle, and exercise to lose weight. I told them I didn’t want it. You should have been there to feel the room freeze over. I later relented because of all the pressure to obey my leadership. They brought the bike over to my house, and when I tried to use it, my ankle hurt. I continued trying to use the bike for a couple of weeks, but my ankle was getting worse and not getting better with it, so I stopped using it and asked them to come and get the bike. Later during the confrontation that excised us from The Way Corps, Cxnnie Pxanarello proclaimed that my ankle was not healing because my husband didn’t love me enough. Months later when I finally went to an orthopaedic doctor who discovered the misdiagnosis and that my ankle was actually broken, I also found out from him that using the bicycle actually made the break worse, splintering the broken bones in my ankle. After an entire year of treatment at The Cleveland Clinic, I finally had to undergo microsurgery. The surgeon spent several hours picking out shards of bone from my ankle, until he could no longer risk any more time with me under anesthesia. It took several years to heal this ankle. I still have bone fragments in my ankle to this day. Brxd Thxrpe, who worked for The Way at that time, had agreed that The Way would pay the medical bills on the ankle since it happened on their property. They paid the bills directly to The Cleveland Clinic. However, after I left TWI, I got a collection notice from the hospital because TWI stopped paying the hospital after they “marked and avoided” me. When I called TWI to find out why they had stopped paying the bills, instead of answering the question, Brxd Thxrpe tried to change the focus of the conversation by insinuating my credit must be pretty bad since they turned me over to a collection agency. He refused to own up to The Way International’s agreement to pay the bill. TWI refused to pay the remainder of this bill until I threatened them with legal action. I later found out that they had strung me along until the statute of limitations on their responsibility expired in the state of Ohio. In order to get them to pay the bill, I had to sign a legal document stating that I would not hold The Way International or any of their ministers responsible for the permanent damage to my ankle. So YOU decide who is responsible. I won’t say. While my husband and I still ran a home fellowship in Parma Ohio, under the direction of Mxrk Wxllace, we were asked to conduct more and more intrusive inquisitions into the private lives of the people in our fellowship. We were told to ask to look at the personal finances of each person in the fellowship and ensure that they were not in any debt. We were encouraged to get them to show us their actual budgets and checkbooks. People with “divided” marriages were to be encouraged to leave “unbelieving” spouses. Nosing this far into another person’s private matters made me very uncomfortable, but I was determined to follow orders from my leadership. Personal family decisions of each fellowship member came under closer and closer scrutiny. Followers were encouraged to curtail and even cut off relationships with family members who were against The Way International in order to maintain good standing within the group. Followers were continually warned that outside the good graces of the “household,” nothing awaited but physical, financial, and spiritual devastation. One man in our fellowship, XXXX XXXXXX, had an autistic stepdaughter whose grandmother (his mother-in-law) adamantly opposed their involvement in the group. The girl’s mother (XXXX’s wife) had died just a couple of years earlier, and her death had been attributed to her disobedience of Way leadership. The Way International not only held XXXX’s wife responsible for her own death, but also XXXX and his entire fellowship, for not confronting her. Her crime? Owning a collection of ceramic angel figurines. After her death, XXXX and his entire fellowship were “marked and avoided” for their sins of not confronting her on her figurine collection, and thereby allowing her death. When we moved into the area and found out about them, there was a change in state leadership, and we asked that they be allowed back into the fellowship. They all were, and they all attended fellowship in our home. We did our best to try to get their hearts healed up after dealing with that death, and being ostracized. XXXX had been directed by the previous state leader to throw away anything and everything in his house related to his wife. We were badgered to go to XXXX’s house to make sure he had “obeyed.” I did not feel comfortable inserting myself into XXXX’s private life, and after several months, I went over to his house for a visit. I found XXXX had packed up most of her belongings, but had not thrown them all out. My husband and I were directed to confront XXXX on completing the instruction of getting rid of his deceased wife’s belongings, which were looked at as spiritually contaminated because of her disobedience. We went over to his house, visibly saw the items packed into boxes, and suggested again to XXXX that he get rid of them. But I didn’t want to push him on it, since he said he was still working on it. As a widower, raising his 12 year old autistic stepdaughter alone, XXXX enlisted the help of his mother-in-law in caring for his stepdaughter during the hours after school and before he got home from work. This arrangement was intolerable according to Mxrk Wxllace. One day, XXXX had put his small dog out in the yard on a leash. This dog had been his deceased wife’s favorite pet, and he had not yet “gotten rid” of her dog, nor had he yet thrown out his wife’s favorite chair. While the dog was in the yard, it was viciously attacked by two roaming rottweilers and eaten, and literally nothing was left of the poor animal but the empty bloody collar and leash. XXXX was heartbroken. When I informed Wxllace of what had occurred, he was livid, blaming the incident on XXXX’s continued disobedience and dependence upon allowing an “unbeliever” to care for his stepdaughter, and insisted we confront Jack about this arrangement. When I asked Mxrk what I should tell XXXX if he refused to make other arrangements for his daughter’s care, Mxrk shouted, “YOU tell him I SAID, Who next in your family do you want to die?” During the “confrontation” with XXXX, we told him that Mxrk wanted him to make other arrangements for his step-daughter’s care, and to not allow his mother-in-law access to his step-daughter anymore. XXXX was extremely upset. He felt it was wrong to not allow a grandmother access to her only grandchild, the only living family she had left. We talked about it for some time, rehearsing the history of his “disobedience” and the “consequences,” for example, his wife’s death and the death of her dog. Bringing this to his mind brought tears to XXXX’s eyes. When he insisted that he could not in good conscience cut his mother-in-law off from her only other living blood relative, I told him what Mxrk Wxllace had instructed me to say to him. XXXX put his head in his hands, and sobbed out loud, shaking. The decision was ripping his heart out. And it tore me up to do it. I left it up to XXXX what to do. But I determined in myself, seeing how unreasonable Mxrk’s demands were, and how much pressure was being applied, that I was never going to do this anyone again. I decided to adopt a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with regard to XXXX’s decision. I decided I was not going to be a part of pressuring people to this degree anymore. Some time after that incident, in August or September of 1996, Mxrk Wxllace met with my husband and I at our house to formally remove our home fellowship from us. He asked us to put our daughter in her bedroom while he “confronted” us. During a one-way shouting confrontation, Wxllace loudly declared: If we did not “get a passion for the truth,” that my husband would “die a lonely old man,” that I would be “hobbled for life,” and that my daughter would be “a stark raving lunatic!” This, Wxllace shouted well within earshot of my young 9 year old daughter who was just on the other side of the wall from where Wxllace was sitting, and she heard every single word. He scared her to death. For months after taking away our home fellowship, Wxllace did everything he could to encourage me to leave my husband, because of his lack of “a passion for the truth.” Wxllace even told me lies about my husband in order to try to drive a wedge between us. After several more months of having to attend Wxllace’s home fellowship, where the hypocrisy and treachery was constantly in our faces, and his wife Jxsephine interfered with my authority over my own child, I decided I had attended my last fellowship. On the way home from fellowship I told my daughter we were never going back. However, Mxrk Wxllace had so frightened my daughter regarding the consequences of leaving TWI, that when I told her we were never going to another fellowship, she became terror-struck because she was convinced her dad was going to die, that something awful was going to happen to me, and that she would go crazy, because that is what Mxrk guaranteed would happen to us. Although I had already made the decision I was not going back to another Way fellowship, when Wxllace found out I had made the decision, he demanded we meet with him and several other Way Corps from the area. I suppose it ticked him off that I left instead of being tossed out. Curiously, even after deciding to leave, I still felt heavily obligated to go to this meeting. I think this indicates the amount of power TWI still holds over people even after they try to leave. Mxrk sequestered our daughter in another room, and began a “confrontation” again, the primary issue being our daughter’s medication (which he, Pxnarello, and Jan Gexrge had pressured us to discontinue), and our lack of “a passion for the truth.” We were warned of the consequences of our actions, and that we were being put on “probation” for six months (even though I had already told them I had decided to LEAVE), and ordered us to have no contact with anyone from The Way, neither friends nor family. Although we were never allowed to have contact with anyone within The Way, they apparently could contact us whenever they damn well pleased. On my husband’s birthday after we left TWI, he got a birthday card from his brother who is still in, berating him for being disobedient to God, and telling us that we would never even have had a child had it not been for The Way. Even AFTER leaving TWI, we were STILL being harassed. We spent a good deal of time after leaving TWI, waiting for “the other shoe to drop,” awaiting the cataclysmic tragedies that we were promised would befall us. It took a lot of healing to realize that the gun they held to our heads was nothing but vapor. But it still did a hell of a lot of damage.

Evan, I hope you and yours got out of the way. Looks like she's headed straight for 'Nawlins.

LOL Raf!

Sorry, double post

Thank you, Satori. It's hard enough to bury your mother. But if people you barely even know, or total strangers, use the occasion to further their own personal agenda at the expense of your feelings, how much harder does this day have to be???!!! Please think about what you are suggesting, Oakspear! Several weeks ago when Sara and I talked about the imminent passing of her mother, even then her heart was breaking and tears were welling up in her eyes already. Give this family a break. Let them bury their mother in peace, and don't dare suggest using that terrible day to make your own personal statement. You can make those statements here. Or maybe at TWI on another day. But don't you dare even suggest turning that painful, terrible day into a circus for her children just be cause you or a few other people want to make your point with The Way International. At the very least, that suggestion is thoughtless. At the most, it is heartless. Come on. I believe you're a better person than that.

Like I said, I do not doubt that during Project Paperclip, our government conducted experiments that used and abused people, and some very weird and strange things came out of that project. Where I have doubts is that VPW had any connection with them. Yes, he was German, but his ethnic heritage alone does not convict him. His family had already been in the United States for years. I have not seen any proof yet that he or any of his relatives were members of Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party, or any organizations within the United States at that time that were affiliated in any way with the Nazi Party. VPW did though, disseminate information and publications among The Way Corps that the holocaust was either staged or not as severe as it is claimed to be. He is also rumored to have made the statement that in World War II, the United States was on the wrong side. While those things are definitely alarming, they do not in and of themselves mean that VP had access to the information in Project Paperclip or was part of it. Wierwille didn't need a specific "blueprint" or manual from P.P. regarding how to use mind control on large groups of people. Simple sociopathic propensities blended with the wide variety of psychological, sociological, and financial needs presented within a large population of people can make for a toxic potion of the symbiotic relationships that TWI produced. Or Hitler for that matter. Or David Koresh. Or Jim Jones. Take your pick. All it takes is a sociopath who combines his need for worship and elevation, to exploit the variety of psychological, financial, or other needs that anyone would find within a cross section of society. Add the timing of current political and social movements, and voila! Hitler did have a plan. He tailored his plan to feed his own grandiose ego while exploiting the needs and desires of a nation which had been financially devastated and psychologically embarassed by the Treaty of Versailles. VPW also had a plan. He had a product he believed in, and to sell in order to give him what he wanted out of life. During a huge social upheaval in the sixties, he used the timing and his product to exploit the youth and idealism of a generation looking for truth and purpose, in order to further his personal goals/greed/excesses. Organizations like the CIA take note of how these movements occur, and try to duplicate the results under a controlled environment, containing the outcomes in order to maintain covert operations. As a subset to VPWs plan was him yielding to the temptation to take advantage of young women under his care. This kind of temptation is common in student/teacher, patient/doctor, client/counselor, and layperson/pastor relationships, and this is why in those professional relationships, it is never an "affair" if the person with the most power crosses the line. That's rape. It always has been, and it always will be. These abuses happen in school lockerrooms, doctors offices, psychiatrists couches, and pastors parsonages, in addition to VPW's motorcoach. It just doesn't constitute a connection with Project Paperclip, IMO. And yes, I believe all of these people who participated in the exploitation and ruin of countless lives, will be judged and found wanting. It is my fervent hope and desire that I, and all survivors of such abuse, get to witness their judgment.

I highly doubt TWI would allow non-TWI visitors to Mrs. W's gravesite. If the memorial service is in St. Mary's and conducted by the family, TWI cannot control that. But they WILL control who they allow at the graveside service when she is buried next to her husband. I would be surprised if they allow anyone but next of kin and certain selected TWI officials.

I see you made an edit. Not that it is "politically correct." You simply don't insult the intelligence of your readers with the omitted statement now. Thank you.

At the end of World War II, from the sinking Nazi ship of state to the ports of Bari and Genoa in Italy and elsewhere, unknown numbers of Nazi war criminals ran for their lives and escaped along ratlines, avoiding prosecution at the Nuremburg Trials. These men emigrated across the globe, but a high concentration of these war criminals ended up in South America by means of the extensive assistance of the Roman Catholic Church. Some of them were (and are) sheltered by and used in middle eastern countries (Notably Syria) to fuel anti-Semitism. Some attempted to blend in to the populace in the United States and elsewhere, to lead quiet unobtrusive lives. After World War II, Nazi intelligentsia were recruited by both sides of the Cold War to benefit from their knowledge of science and technology, and to conduct espionage for both the United States and the Soviet Union, with the rescued Nazis laughingly pitting one against the other toward their own interests. In the United States, some of these war criminals were placed in our nuclear weapons research programs. Some of them work(ed) in NASA. And some of them were used in a top-secret program conducted by the CIA, called Project Paperclip. Until recently, the documents relating to this project were highly classified. Project Paperclip did experiment with drugs, mind control, and other techniques in order to facilitate espionage during the Cold War. Declassified documents can reveal some of the content of the program, but if you want to investigate Project Paperclip yourself, I highly suggest you use primary source documents for your research and not rely on the plethora of internet sites which can be of questionable sources. A copy of a declassified document can be obtained through the Library of Congress. You will see a scanned copy of the documents themselves, along with the proper date and classification stamps right on the document. Beware of second hand accounts. While doing an honors program research project on this subject a couple of years ago, I read several second hand accounts, one of which purported to have been presented at Indiana University. That note gives just slightly enough information to attempt to lend the account some credibility, without enough information to verify its authenticity. I say that because The Way International also gave presentations at Indiana University. However, it was in a rented room at the Student Union. My interest would however, be piqued if in fact it turned out that this presentation was at a Symposium sponsored by Indiana University and attended by researchers, faculty, and students. Which, if the presentation had in fact been sponsored by such a prestigious University, they would have been proud to say so. They didn't. While some pretty strange and atrocious things did come out of Project Paperclip and our government conducted experiments that I personally feel used and abused people, I highly doubt that the CIA was interested in a Podunk preacher from Ohio, when they had highly skilled and trained Nazi war criminals to work with in order to carry out their experiments--Which were, by the way, conducted in highly controlled environments, so as to keep their activities covert. While there definitely was mental and sexual abuse in The Way International, behavioral and mind control techniques were used, and there admittedly was drug use among some of the people involved, it does not necessarily follow that The Way International and Victor Paul Wierwille were part of Project Paperclip. In fact I believe that is a stretch. And to believe that Victor Paul Wierwille had special knowledge of this covert operation, which was totally under wraps in the tightest secrecy until after he was long dead, is also a stretch. There are cults and even established churches all over the United States and the world, which employ abusive practices and behaviors against their followers. How many of them are pawns of the CIA? Say, all of them?

Have you ever thought you just might be assuming too much there? Sounds peculiarly like a certain Scientologist who recently went off the deep end on the Today Show... Also, maybe a typo on your part, but project Paperclip was instituted after WWII, not WWI. Sorry, but these two things happen to be my double major, so forgive me if I'm picky. Conspiracy theories though, are not. I do recall a certain German-American cult leader from Ohio, who subscribed to many conspiracy theories and propounded them to his followers, in order to keep them in fear and control them, though.

She indeed was. She was isolated, and very much alone, especially after her family was marked and avoided. Knowing how much her image meant to people who were on the fence, TWI wanted to keep her around as a prize. That is, at least until she became too old and too ill for them to want to deal with her. Sara once told me that her mother was "a prisoner in her own home." Mrs. W. was always gracious to me and to my family. I pray for her in her last days that she is peaceful, not in pain, and thankfully finally surrounded by those she loves. --And those who truly love her.

I would hope that if Sara does open the memorial service to EVERYONE, that EVERYONE who comes will be well-behaved. I am sure most people will be, but through experience I have found that there are a few folks who have no clue as to decency. I may be sticking my neck out here, but I feel like I have got to say this. Once at a CFF reunion when Sara and I were talking, someone who didn't even know her, came up and began an inquisition regarding her mother and details that were none of his business, and I nearly knocked the fella flat afterwards, because it was extremely hurtful to her besides being inappropriate. I just don't want to have to take anyone else out behind the barn. A memorial service is to celebrate the life of the deceased, and is a time to support the family who is left behind. If you go, please be respectful of the time and occasion, and of the feelings of the family. There is a time and a place for every purpose under heaven. I simply ask that you be respectful of the family at this particularly sensitive moment. It will NOT be a time to bug Sara or JP regarding TWI issues. If they bring it up in conversation, fine. But let it be their choice.

Plenty of folks right here are nice enough, even after many years of TWI involvement. I think it is a testimony to the resiliency of the human spirit... Although some do need to learn to play a little nicer in the sandbox...

I was saved during Vacation Bible School at Washington Avenue Baptist Church when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Brother Clayman was the Pastor of the church, and led me to Jesus. My boyfriend's mother led me into speaking in tongues in her home the summer before I was introduced to The Way International in 1972. TWI cannot take credit for either event.