Catcup

Radar-- you are correct. There is nothing in the Word that validates a "Watchman" telling lies. I do recall though, that if a watchman fell asleep, the practice was to set his clothes on fire. If that justice were to be applied to International Headquarters, the entire complex would be consumed in an instantaneous ball of flames. --Hey, cool off Linder, I'm NOT advocating illegal arson. Just saying if this were the Old Testament, God just might have incinerated the chair you're sitting in, that's all. Sort of like that old saw you guys used about executing homosexuals.... But as a matter of fact, though, there ARE consequences even in this "administration" for being a false witness. But Martindale and Wierwille both used to speak to The Way Corps in our private meetings, you know, up in the fireplace room, or at the campfire area... those times.... and tell us that "A wise man never tells all he knows..." and insinuated that at times in life there are times when a little distortion of the truth in the interest of protecting the "movement of the Word" was in order. Machiavellian, but that's to be expected from an organization that has always viewed it's goals as more important than the means. I would also like to remind those still in, who say, Wierwille is dead and Martindale is gone, that the very people they trained, who were absolutely devoted to and hung on every word their MOGs said, and were trained and dedicated to carry them out "verbatim," are the very ones in control today. So don't tell me things have changed. It's the same guard in control, and always will be. Funny thing, too, about those Ten Commandments. You know, we never did spend much time looking at those in TWI, because Jesus Christ "fulfilled the law." Yeah, right. I think the reason they didn't want to dwell on those scriptures is because too much looking at "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" and "thou shalt not commit adultery" just might cause too many of us to ask too many questions TWI didn't care to answer. But as far as the WayGB, I believe there is enough evidence already posted just on this thread to answer the question of whether they exist. I know around the time the depositions were about to occur for the Allen case, at least one of us received a phone call from Baker & Hostetler et al and had portions of her posts read back to her verbatim. So I will repeat, again, what I have always said. * Emphasize your own first-hand experiences with TWI. * Always tell the truth. * Never post anything you wouldn't want to see posted on a highway billboard with your name attached to it. * Never post anything you wouldn't want to have read back to you by opposing counsel in a court of law. * Always, always, tell the truth. And yeah, they've got everything several of us have ever posted, and keep watch, compare notes, to see if they can contradict our testimony with anything we say. Linder, and your group of henchmen in trenchcoats hold no fear for me. Come get me any time. Like they said, that file goes both ways. I have plenty of things I haven't even posted on here that I'd LOVE to have the chance to tell a judge.

The copyright issue is true. You cannot publish someone else's song without their permission, and there were a lot of people who for good reason, did not want their songs in that book.

The fools are the ones who stay in that organization, still allowing TWI to suck their lives away while knowing only part of the truth, closing their eyes to the death around them. They've checked into Hotel California.

"I would love to be proved wrong." So would I. God help me, so would I.

My conversation with a dear friend still inside TWI gave me a unique glimpse into the culture that has arisen in the organization since Martindale has left. He paints a picture of a two-tiered ministry that is growing increasingly polarized between those at HQ or in upper leadership positions and the folks in the basic fellowship unit. He says that the people in the "leaf" area (so to speak) of this "tree" hold Martindale in open contempt. My friend and others are regular lurkers at this site and seem to understand the culpability of the current leadership at HQ and not only have no respect for Rivenbark and her cronies, but I must admit he even poked fun at her. There seems to be an understanding that HQ is f****d up, but because they are far away from HQ in their insulated little fellowships, they feel they can run things as they please, preserve and teach the Word they know, and still enjoy the support and fellowship with a larger group of local believers. These people can also take advantage of a modicum of support from International Headquarters in teachings, classes, and events, etc. Although he did say those tapes from HQ are so booooooooooooooooring! My friend recently bought a house which relieved him of any leadership responsibilities. In other words, he can no longer run a fellowship. However, he is allowed to teach one from time to time, which he does enjoy. Hey, now look at that: He has the joy of teaching, but none of the responsibility or accountability of running a fellowship, and can still have his own home and build an investment. And, being busted back to no leadership responsibilities in effect puts him in nearly a "retired" status. Relieved of decades of high pressure Corps involvement and leadership responsibilities, he can "enjoy" the fellowship, and not have to go to endless boring leaders meetings. Nor does he have to take the heat for enforcing or protecting his people from stupid dictums from HQ. And he is thankfully exempt from having to attend events for which he is "disqualified" because he has a mortgage. So the fact of the matter is, he can pretty much do as he damn well pleases, snub his nose at the folks at HQ, have his home, and enjoy the fellowship and support of the believers. It seems like he's got the best of both worlds. Until you examine it closer. And you will see that this comes with a cost. When I asked him if he knew Rivenbark et al were complicit in covering up Martindale's evil acts against his brothers and sisters, how could he continue to financially support them, he simply said "I don't care." I really hope he didn't mean that. I really hope he simply hasn't allowed himself to deeply consider what evil he is supporting and is now mulling over the consequences of financial support of someone who would cover up illegal wrongdoing. Because if he and other believers consciously know they are supporting a woman whom the judges seem to indicate they believe is hiding something, if they know this woman for whom they seem to hold in contempt is involved in wrongdoing, and they don't care, what does that say about them? It says that they have sold out their conscience. And for what? So you can still hang out with the same group of "loving" folks who also have sold out their consciences? Where in God's Word does it say you should put up with evil at the highest level of ministry? You sit and say nothing and pay your wicked dime so that you can still hang out in a ministry that did untold evil to your brothers and sisters? My friend told me he knew that Martindale had his way with many women and made evil decisions that hurt hundreds of people, but if The Way came out and apologized it would open them up to a ton of lawsuits. So what, justice should not prevail? It's ok to know this ministry did evil to people you love and not hold them accountable to make restitution? It's ok to sit back and put up with evil in order for you to be comfortable in your little home, enjoy a few benefits, poke fun at the higher-ups at HQ for their stupid decisions that bring evil results to untold numbers of innocent people? It's easier to ignore the consequences of evil than to risk your comfortable status. Does ignoring the fact they hurt untold numbers of people help you sleep at night? Ignoring the fact that your abundant sharing supports an evil caball of wicked liars so that you can enjoy your "retirement" is the right thing to do? To know that evil is present and not remove either it or yourself is hypocrisy. You don't care? It seems you have either spoken presumptuously or you have sold your birthright for a mess of pottage.

Other stupid gift-giving: Every year at Corps Week the Corps were required to donate towards some pricey gift for the Wierwilles. One year I remember some very expensive Chinese Cloisonne. The Corps were also expected to give when a member of the Wierwille family married. One year at Corps week I remember a lengthy speech Dotsie gave regarding the search for sterling silver candelabra The Way Corps "gave" to one of the kids when they got married. Silver plate candelabra, which is pretty much standard anywhere you go, were not "good enough." They had to be sterling silver through and through. And speaking of weddings, the graduating Corps were expected to donate for gifts for The Way Corps couples in their corps who were getting married-- whether you knew any of them personally or not. They were also forced to give wedding showers as well. I felt really strange about that one. I was one of the people getting married, and a group of 4-5 women I really didn't know very well were expected to give me a "wedding shower" and fork over gifts they had to buy out of their already paltry allowance. I think I got a set of cheap towels from the Dollar Store or something like that. I'd rather they had kept their money. Because our Corps was already being forced to fork over for other things, like: *Wedding gifts for the couples getting married-- we ended up receiving as a gift from the Corps, a glass ashtray with our initial in it-- we don't even smoke. *Gifts for Dr. and Mrs. Wierwille *Gifts for the Corps Coordinator (Martindale) *Gift for the Way College-- I think our Corps bought the gates that were put up... at least that is what we were told. I never went back there ever again to see them. The gift giving was obscene for a long, long, time. We had to give for anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, and any other excuse that could be thought of. AND-- you could not use your abundant sharing for it... the gift money was "over and above," as usual.

My first year in residence is when the first soaking began for giftgiving that I can remember. Corps were given a monthly $30 allowance for personal items such as toothpaste, shampoo, stamps, etc. and gifts. When Christmas rolled around, my branch coordinator came up and soaked me for money for gifts to be given to: VP Wierwille Dotsie Wierwille Craig Martindale (and don't forget your branch leader) I remember telling him that if I gave to all those people, I would have NOTHING to buy gifts for my parents. He told me that's why in Anderson Library basement there were decoupage materials. Yeah. For Christmas, my folks got an old piece of paneling with a scripture plastered to the backside. VP, Dotsie, and Craig got really pricey gifts "from The Way Corps." I should have given the money to my parents, and gone down to Anderson Basement and decoupaged a piece of paneling for Craig and VP that said "KI$$ MY @$$" But, oh, no, my "Father in the Word" and beloved "Corps Coordinator" came first!

When I considered not only my ABS cost which was anywhere from 15% to 25% depending on the year, but the costs of: * Required classes and events for every believer * Required classes and events for every Corps person * Way Corps sponsorship for ourselves and those we sponsored * Required leaders meetings: region, state, and local * Telephone expenses, especially for Corps Nights * Hotel and event costs * Refreshments bought for said meetings and classes * Required (yes) gifts for leadership * Stamps, envelopes, and expected cards * Gasoline costs * Auto repair expense for majority mileage spent on ministry events * Required Sunday night teaching tapes * Required Way Magazine subscription * Expected bookstore purchases of new materials * Miscellaneous expenses incurred shuttling people around and visiting people I figure I lived on about 10-15% of my actual income, and the rest went to TWI and related expenses doing work expected of me as Way Corps. For me that ends up to be hundreds of thousands lost over nearly 25 years.

Reading into this scripture anything about abortion per se is exactly that: reading in to it. Because it strictly is defined in the context of an accident that occurs as two men strive. The scripture has to do with an act that causes a woman to lose a pregnancy. That act is seen by God (it's His Word and commandment, right?) to be offensive. If you want to equate the stated incident of causing a miscarriage with causing an abortion, in your own interpretation, and then compare the fine levied with the one levied against a murderer, sure, you could say that it is not on the same fine level as murder. But you have to weigh this carefully. If you are going to use scriptures regarding murder to justify your position, you need to see how they are used and apply the logic fully. God makes a difference between intentionally taking a person's life and unintentionally taking a person's life. Unintentionally causing the death of another person is not viewed the same as murder. Intentionally causing the death of another is more serious. Now if you are going to use this verse about two men striving and causing the unintentional death of a fetus, are you then now going to equate unintentionally taking the life of a fetus with intentionally taking the life of a fetus? The logic doesn't seem to carry over in that favor. With God, intent seems to be an issue, and not just in this matter. God seems to indicate that the act of unintentionally causing the death of a fetus is worthy of at least a fine. And if God indicates that this unintentional act is a punishable offense, why would we believe that somehow intentionally causing the death of a fetus would be any less an offense? Regardless, the act nonetheless is a punishable offense.

Ya know what most people miss about this scripture? The fact that there is a fine. A fine means that the described action was an offense and was wrong. An OFFENSE and WRONG!

The one on the top looks exactly like Mrs. Wierwille's handwriting.... I have received several things from her over the years... always written exactly like that.

Yup, that's what happens when you take a metaphor too far. Typical Martindale twist on someone else's work.

I was one of those people who believed I was actually called to serve God's people in The Way Corps. Even before I came to TWI, I felt I wanted to return to God the goodness He had shown me in my salvation and serve Him forever in gratitude. I found after a while, though, that there were limits to how much I could serve within the confines of TWI and TWC. And over the years, the "confines" became more and more confining, until service in that organization was not possible at all. My purpose on WD and GS has always been and always will be, to expose the evils of TWI by sharing my first hand experience and setting the record straight where I can. If that helps anyone make a decision about whether or not to become involved or stay involved in TWI, then I feel I have done my job. I am thankful for the opportunity to come here and do that, and to connect with people I cared about within that organization and meet new folks I never knew there. We help each other piece together the events of our lives and I believe that is profitable. And as Hope said, you don't have to explain yourself. That's worth a bundle right there. But I don't limit myself to serving God within just this website or within any organization these days. I help where I find myself next to someone who needs it.

Sorry, have to correct this. Maybe it was a different issue you say happened at ADV cl 79. But in a different Adv Cl special, Martindale used some of our research regarding the scripture in the gospels where Jesus says that you could "say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea" and if you didn't doubt in your heart, it would happen. Jesus was not talking about the fact you could do that to a literal mountain. Mountains in that particular scripture were a metaphor for the imposing power of the adversary. This metaphor regarding mountains is repeated elsewhere in the scripture, enough to establish a pattern. There are other scriptures where waters or the sea can also contain the same metaphor. However, it does not mean that every place the bible mentions mountains or seas that the metaphor is present. It means that in some it is, enough to be considered depending upon context. Martindale at that Adv cl special never said mountains were the adversary or in daily life represented the adversary. He said in that particular scripture it was a metaphor. Shows what can happen if you take it too far in application. Just because Martindale is a dog, does it make you hate Fido? You understand. I knew you would.

Oh, yeah, I have to tell you about one particular couple who believe I am probably the harshest, most unfeeling Way Corps person on the face of the earth, because I refused to allow them to have a fellowship. This couple in Northwest Indiana knew one of our fellowships in our area had grown so large that it had outgrown the livingroom of the fellowship coordinator and we were considering who was the best candidate to take the new fellowship. We were considering one particular fellow who was a recent PFAL grad. Although he had only taken the class a month or so previously, he was quite mature and confident. And out of all the possible candidates, he was the only one who most closely met the criteria in I and II Timothy of what a leader ought to be. I got a curious call from one of our fellowship coordinators that a particular woman was calling up all the FC's and actually lobbying for their support in her effort to be the new FC. Then we got a call from this couple.... I should say, though, we actually got a call from the wife, who was the one making all the phone calls. She told me she wanted the fellowship, and felt she and her husband should have it, because she "had been in the Word much longer." She had been a PFAL and Intermediate class grad for oh, lets say at least 4 or 5 years, and her husband maybe a year or two less than that. But I wasn't going to base my decision on time spent "in the Word" alone. When I told her that it was out of the question and I told her specifically why, she was irate and demanded a meeting. So we met. And from the books of I and II Timothy I illustrated plainly what disqualified them from leading a fellowship at that time. While her husband sat silently throughout the meeting, his wife interrupted repeatedly and argued adamantly why she should be trusted with the lives of about 10-12 people, even after I showed her from I & II Timothy exactly why she was disqualified, and proved it with incidents of the pattern of her behavior over the last several years I had known her. The woman was not satisfied with my explanation. After about a three hour meeting, she stormed out of my house. She called up every person in the branch and told them how wicked I was. She called up the Limb Coordinator and told him how mean and horrible I was and demanded he meet with her and make her the FC of this new group of 10-12 people. The LC agreed to meet with her, but only with me present. So, the LC takes the time out of his busy schedule to come up to Munster and meet with this woman and myself. She in the mean time has called up every person in the branch and defamed me and my husband for not allowing them to have the new fellowship, and lied about what we actually told her. The LC patiently listened to her side of the story, which took about 2 hours to tell. I patiently listened while biting my lips while she lied through her teeth about what occurred in the previous meeting and discussions we had about why she was disqualified. I sat on my hands and clenched my jaw and kept my mouth shut while I listened to the most vile vitriolic venom pour from this womans mouth in lies about my husband and myself. Then when I was allowed to speak, she constantly interrupted me, but I proved again from the written Word of God exactly why this woman was disqualified. The LC agreed. This woman was incensed and caused such a disturbance among the entire branch by calling up every single person and defaming not only me and my husband, but the LC for not allowing her to be responsible for the spiritual lives of about a dozen people. She eventually caused such a disturbance, that the LC had to come down and do a special meeting to address problems that arose in the branch that this woman had caused because I wouldn't let her be a FC. He said to the branch that in all his years in The Way International, he had never heard such vicious false accusations against another person. Eventually, yes, she had to be marked and avoided. Why, you ask, should I consider giving a fellowship to what appeared to be a neophite compared to a woman who had been "in the Word" for 4-5 years? Four little words: "Not given to wine..." She was a rip roaring drunk. Over the several years that I had known this woman, she had called me up at various times in the middle of the night so drunk she was incoherent. And the next day, would not even remember she had called. And many other times in the middle of the day, the same issues would arise, time and again, despite repeated counseling. The woman was a true alcoholic, but refused to admit it, refused to moderate her drinking or her destructive behavior. Many times I had counseled with her when she came to me with issues regarding her drinking and the way in which it complicated her marriage and life. Suffice it to say, I was not going to put the lives of 12 innocent individuals in the hands of an irresponsible person who had no control over her own life, whose personal life was a pit of iniquity. And for that, I am sure in her mind, I am still one of those @$$hole Way Corps who blew into town with no regard for the "peons" and wanted to "lord it over God's people" and disregard the advice of "old timer" grads from the area who "knew it all." So, yes, there are two sides to those coins...

I didn't go into TWC to learn to be an *******. I went because I wanted to learn how to better serve.... and I mean SERVE the body of believers, not help myself to them. My dream was eventually to go to HQ and serve. I believed that surely the most humble servants of God's people would be those at HQ. However, once I got there, I found the reverse to be true. The following is what I believe happened to WC who were assigned to HQ. They fell into these categories... if you fell "in between the cracks" of these categories, excuse me please. But this is what I found from my own personal experience of 1982-1983 on staff: Those who had the propensity to become asskissing corporate clones, did so fairly quickly, and played that game quite well. Those who became discouraged at what they found, but quickly subordinated that feeling and adjusted to blending in and "getting along" to keep their jobs. Those whose department heads protected them from ills elsewhere at HQ, and these employees did their jobs with joy in their hearts and a degree of freedom within their own departments. But were discouraged to see the disparity between departments and figured the politics going on were something they would have to just live with. Those who were outraged at what they found, rebelled at ungodly restrictions and practices they discovered and actively resisted conditions within their departments and/or confronted people of rank. Unfortunately, the last category of folk never lasted very long at HQ. They were driven off or left of their own volition after discovering they could not "fix" what was wrong. Sunesis and I were in that category. When Walter Cummins let me know that Emogene Allen was trying to get me fired, I personally in a placements meeting simultaneously confronted Donna Martindale, Emogene Allen, and Bill Winegarner. Donna didn't know what hit her, Emogene Allen was hopping mad, but I nailed her on every issue, and I shut Bill Winegarner up as well. I even took on Don Wierwille for a decision he made that years later he agreed I was right on and apologized to me for. The other three have yet to apologize. But at that point my husband and I agreed there was something fundamentally wrong at HQ and that it would be spiritually wrong to work there under the conditions that were offerred to us, so we left after ROA 83. I believe in order to "get along" at HQ and at higher levels, you had to compromise or kill something inside yourself to do it. Those who refused to compromise were run off and defamed. To go far or survive in the organization you had to either have 1) Enough clout you could run things the way you wanted within the confines of your own area or 2) You had to compromise your principles. But to paint all Way Corps with the same brush is shallow and unjust to people who actually committed their lives to do nothing but serve you the bread of life at their own expense and sacrificed their lives trying to do so and save the ministry they thought God had called them to.

I think, speaking as a questioning boomer, that TWI appealed to me because it questioned things. TWI seemed to question the "establishment" of traditional Christianity. And TWI got us busy asking some of the same questions. And while we were busy questioning others, we were being taken by them. I thought I could trust them, because they seemed to be searchers themselves. TWI packaged itself as a "research" ministry with ethical principles. That's what attracted me, anyway. However, once I was ensconced in the institution and got to HQ, I discovered the ethics there were actually corrupt. I for one believed at that time that the ministry could be saved and tried to do it. Ended up in loads of trouble, then left HQ and prayed for a change. After POP I thought the change might occur. Husband and I did our best to try to help LCM get the ministry on the right track. Unfortunately, LCM was not repentant, and the effort was doomed from the outset. Spent several decades and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into trying to fix an irrepairable institution we thought had been dedicated to the accuracy of "the Word". Big mistake.

When I went WOW in 73, it was the first year there were "families" instead of couples. We had two girls and two boys in my family, and the boys had a separate apartment from us because well, in Greenville South Carolina, girls didn't live with boys they weren't married to. About two weeks into the year, the family coordinator left (a whole other story) and that left me as the only girl. The Wow Rover lived with me instead. I had a good job and the Rover and I rented a nice furnished duplex together, but she was only home a week or so out of the month. We kept finances separate as well back then, except we shared the phone bill because I was the only one who could afford a phone. We also ate meals together in the evening at my place and shared cooking duties. But I made sure there was plenty of lunchmeat and tuna salad in the fridge for the guys to make lunches with. My two WOW brothers had a very hard time staying employed that year and for half the year rented an unfurnished house and slept on the floor in sleeping bags!!! My landlady who lived next door was a little strange, and used to spy on us through the keyholes on doors that led to her side of the duplex. When my parents came to visit me over the Christmas break, they were barely out of the car and my landlady came out to greet them and my Mom told me later she claimed the Rover and I "had men over at all hours of the night!" --Which by the way Mom laughed at because she knew it was totally false. Then after we moved to Columbia mid-year, I got a weird call from the guy in charge of the state. Apparently my batty landlady accused us of stealing the mattresses off the bed, the lamps, the couch from the livingroom, and all the carpets off the floors. How we supposedly jammed all that into my little '64 Malibu and my WOW brother's little sports car, I don't know. She said she knew we took them because we needed them and she knew that because the boys didn't have any furniture at the house they used to live at. The only way she could have known they had no furniture was to go over there and actually peek in the windows! Nobody knew that but us. Someone from HQ eventually talked to the landlord's son who confirmed the furniture was actually still in her house, and that yes, his mother was a little off her rocker! In Columbia, the guys ended up with a really nice furnished apartment, which was a relief to them. My WOW Rover felt sorry for them having it so hard in the previous town, so instead of sharing my rent, she kicked in for their rent but still slept at my place a week out of the month. But the guys still had as much of a problem staying employed in that town as the previous one and could not afford a phone. They had a key to my apartment so they could use the phone, and one of the guys racked up several hundred dollars in long distance phone calls to his girlfriend in the previous city, and still owes me. The guys never did contribute much as far as grocery money was concerned, but I made enough money to feed us quite well. The guys just seemd to have a really hard time getting part time jobs in construction. I had no problems at all getting a job as a seamstress in Greenville, which was a big textile center. And in Columbia, I worked at an ice cream and sandwich shop around the corner from the State House, so got lots of moneyed people who left hefty tips. Plus.....FREE FOOD!

What the academic community and what The Way International considers as true research, has always been and always will be vastly different.

Shell-- TWI's guilt trips that caused death? It would be interesting to track down all the people who committed suicide because they could not face life outside God's household and being cut off from His fellowship which is what they taught being marked & avoided was all about. It would be interesting in finding out how many women could not live with what happened to them after being sexually used and abused. I remember very early after I got into TWI (around 72-73), JL talking about an incident that happened in which a girl committed suicide in VP's "Clubhouse." Made me wonder why anyone who knew "the greatness of the Word" and the love of the ministry would ever do anything like that. Now I wonder what actually happened to the poor woman in this clubhouse that she could no longer live with herself. There also used to be (maybe there still is-- haven't seen it in a while) an article on this site regarding the events surrounding a suicide that occurred after LCM took another man's wife to bed. He was publicly defamed and driven to suicide. I think that counts. There are probably countless people who if they did not die, suffered physical consequences of not taking their medicine, or tossing away needed appliances trying to "act on their believing." I personally know of one girl who when she went WOW, threw out her hearing aid to "act on her believing." A few weeks later they sent her home because she could not get a job or communicate with anyone in her family because she could not hear!

Way of Redundance and Power rehashed stuff from previous years, but also had work in it from W*yn* Cl***, my husband, and myself, albeit what we submitted had certainly been distorted. Craig had this habit of taking bits and pieces of what was given him, and taking it off on tangents. A lot of what he taught was his own ramblings and perversions and bastardizations of things other people had submitted to him.

My husband and I were specifically demanded to stop doing research in about 1996 or so. We were told to stop doing it at all, even for personal study. The only thing we were allowed to study were the books and collaterals of TWI that P*n*r*ll* set for the entire state. He had a filing system in a box that held a folder for each day of the week with a different TWI syllabus in it that you were to study on that day and they carried it with them everywhere. I remember people bearing it before them at HQ like it was the Ark of the Covenant or something as they left the OSC building....seriously. As for any research now, you know it can't be going on for real. On their web site if you look under research, it shows photo of a couple of people sitting or standing at a conference table with impressive looking bookshelves behind them. However what is lacking is the names and/or credentials of the people who supposedly submit this so-called "research." Ya know why? They can't do it because they have NO ONE in that organization who has studied biblical languages at and/or graduated from a respectable accredited University with a degree in biblical studies and languages who can properly parse a pronoun. If they DID, you KNOW they would have the information out there. They sit on Aramaic work done by qualified people who are no longer around. Neither their own people can effectively use those works, because they don't understand and can't read and translate the script, nor can the outside relgious community buy the works because TWI will only sell them to "the household." They had lots of well-qualified individuals with bachelors degrees, masters degrees, and PhDs in the languages, but RAN THEM OFF when these people had the integrity to NOT rubber-stamp bad work. People like Dr. D*n McCon*ughy, Br*ce M*hone, and others who attended the University of Chicago and The Lutheran School of Theology under the world's foremost Aramaic Scholar, Dr. Arthur Voobus. People like B*b W*ssu*g, myself, and others sat at his feet. My husband studied biblical greek under Professor Wilmot at University of Chicago. There were many many others (for instance Orange Cat et al), that TWI could have utilized to do true and honest research, yet time and again, because we would not bend, were dismissed, harassed, defamed, and run off. TWI could have had a treasure trove of help, but rejected it. Hell, I even sat through Mel Gibson's passion and did not need the subtitles even after years of not even looking at the language. Just think of what the likes of these other folks could have done for TWI if only The Way International had had the guts to allow them to do honest research. They can't DO genuine research because they have nobody qualified to do it. All they permit anyone to do is rehash what has already been done and God forbid you should contradict established doctrine. That's not RESEARCH and it's not HONEST.

Wordwolf-- Yes, I remember Gmir. There were a handful of young intelligent men and women who actually were trained in biblical languages at accredited universities, who truly believed they could work as a team to do actual biblical research of a high quality and were excited about the prospect of this journal. One by one we were disappointed, and dreams were dashed, as we discovered we had been hoodwinked, that the organization was not interested in genuine research, only people with credentials that VP lacked who could rubber-stamp whatever was shoved across their desks. Those of us who felt we could stick around and change the organization and fight to correct the problems, found it was an impossible task. Any "research team" they might think they have now, have no real credentials or credibility. They have been steam cleaned and pressed into little bureaucrats with limited knowledge and no autonomy to do true research.

When I talked to my still-in brother in law about how dishonestly we had been handled by the P*n*r*ll*s, he proudly pointed out that they no longer are in The Way Ministry. But what I want to know is: How come M*rK and J*sePh*ne W*ll*ce are still allowed to be in TWI and serve as REGION COORDINATORS? These are people who do NOT have good communication between themselves concerning apparently very important ministry business. J*seph*ne obviously has no sense of taking personal responsibility for her own actions, nor does she understand the boundaries involving parental instruction. She also has no ability to judge ethics with regards to whom she allows to teach in her fellowship or ability to comprehend inequities and hypocrisy when it's right under her nose. But then again, I am told that most people are not offended by the smell of their own fecal matter. M*rk W*ll*ce desperately did everything he could from 1995 to 1997 to get me to leave my husband, to whom I had been married for several decades, for no other concrete reason than "he does not have a passion for the truth." This is a man who insisted I threaten a believer with "Who do you want next in your family to die!" when the poor widowed man wanted to continue to allow his stepdaughter to see her unbelieving grandmother. This is a man who screamed at the top of his lungs, loud enough for my little daughter to hear, that if we left The Way Ministry, my husband would die, I would be crippled, and my daughter would go insane. These are people who will lie through their teeth and threaten people with DEATH to accomplish their goals, and don't care how many lives they destroy in the process. But I suppose to succeed at being a region coordinator for The Way International, Machiavelian traits are a high priority. These are people The Way International is proud to say represent them and their interests to that region. They are proud to use your abundant sharing and their magazine to support people who lie,gutstrip, and destroy innocent families in order to look good to their superiors. You innies that still pay a cursed dime to that organization, are you outraged that your abundant sharing supports these people? You should be.

I have to tell you another part of this inquisition meeting to illustrate the back door politicking and underhanded schemes and lies that occur when people in TWI want to get rid of someone, and they can't find a legitimate reason. Before the inquisition began, after the teaching and during a break, I was in the dining room looking out the window when I overheard a conversation on the basement stairs behind me. It was M*rK W*ll*ce and L*rr* P*n*r*ll*, discussing my husband and myself. M*rk said, "The Nessles have to go." And L*rry said, "I'll back you up on whatever you say." Then as soon as the break was over and all the Corps were assembled for the inquisition, L*rr* opened the meeting by saying that they had not yet determined our status and that "Nothing is a foregone conclusion." I knew immediately I was dealing with a basket of snakes. What big f***ing liars they are. These people, M*r* and J*s*ph*ne W*ll*ce, the P*n*r*ll*s, and the W*ts*ns, who could not stand us, and were jealous of and intimidated by my husband and I, could not find any genuine flaw and legitimate reason to dismiss us from The Way Corps, so they came up with anything they could to do it, and this is what they came up with. ***L*rr* was insulted that my husband answered questions other Way Corps came up and asked him about biblical astronomy, instead of telling them to ask L*rry? ***They thought that in a public event run by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, we should have had prayer, manifestations, and introduced guests, even though my husband was an invited guest speaker to an event The Way International did neither sponsor nor control? ***My ankle didn't heal because my husband doesn't love me enough? ***My ankle didn't heal because I wasn't following Ch*r*l's rice diet? ***They didn't like my daughter's dress because my husband bought it at K Mart? Oh, yeah, and... ***My husband didn't "have a passion for the truth." Uh, yeah, that's why.