CoolWaters

Not really, now that I think about it... But I'm very tired and I'm going to bed now. Who knows what the heII I'm gonna think about this whole thing tomorrow. I can and do change my mind as often as I please these days. So sue me. Really. My post-menopausal, insulin resistant, aching bones and joints, fat-a$$ed self is itching to get into a good brawl these days...

OK...if you say so...

I'm no attorney and I don't play at being one. All I know is what I read without any legal training or claim to any legal training or anything else that can be considered in any way anything but a sleepless housewife in a wheelchair late at night grasping for an understanding, via her "some college" education from public schools, of what she reads. Having quickly scanned the document linked above, it is clear that the court's findings here are based upon what TWIM admitted to freely and for the purpose of settlement. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not the same as the court finding anything except that TWIM admitted to such things. I dunno.

Awwwww Raf! Can't a girl have a fantasy life? (And one without the underdogs getting spanked?) :D--> Maybe all these little ministries and churches and organizations will get their heads together and fight via a united front. I mean, seriously, it offends me to no end that twi claims an ownership of the words that my very good friend Jesus used of himself. I'm glad twi is so proud of their ability to sicken people, too...because pride is one of the 7 that will do in twi in the end. See, TWI, sooner or later you're gonna run into the dude who originally coined the term "the way"... Then you're gonna get it, uh huh, uh huh!

Wow! That got through quick! Well, I sure hope others who will probably find themselves in court with twi will not fold like a house of cards. When I found The Way Ministries site and read that legal notice thingy, I figured they either knew what they were getting into...or knew something else. I sent them an email, too. I'm hoping that twi will get so wrapped up in their own legal ropes that they hang themselves...either by running the organization broke on legal cost or by screwing up because they're so confused...or both. Yeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!! What a day that would be! Maybe twi will grow a set of balls and go after people like Barbara Streisand (for "The Way We Were") and others who could and would stomp all over their sorry little hairless butts and twi will go home spanked and crying like any other snot-nosed spoiled little kid. (Gawd! I've got an attitude tonight, huh?)

So perty! I used to do puzzles with pics like these on them...1000 pieces often...loads of fun for days in the winter!

Dang! My reply here got grabbed by the filters for using P's last name or something. Sigh. It's a good one, imo! So hold your breath y'all! ;)--> :D-->

Very interesting little site... Just doing a Yahoo! search with the words "the way" in quotes just like you read them here, I found many groups, organizations, songs, books and movies with the words "the way" in them. Some of them have only the words "the way". Not all of them are religious. Red Hot Chili Peppers did a song titled "By the Way". One of Clay Aiken's singles is titled "The Way". Mariah Carey co-wrote and recorded a song titled "Lead The Way". Taoism has always been know to its fold as "the way". There is an organization called, "The Way Out Ministries" in CA that was formed to answer the needs of youth in LA and surrounding areas so they don't have to join gangs or do drugs etc. There is a "Preparing the Way, Incorporated" with radio and TV broadcasts and all the fun little doodads that go with a fully functional ministry. These are just the highlights from the first 80 search results of about 311,000,000 for "the way". Yet twi claims (in TWI v P Roberge) to own "incontestable federal registrations for marks comprising and containing the term THE WAY".... Personally, if Pat can make it through all of the legal stalling and pure BS that twi is throwing at him, and if he can hold up without being afraid or without letting other things prevent him from moving forward, I think the man's got a chance. Wouldn't it be wonderful for twi to have to answer to all of those 311,000,000 search results and explain to them why twi has ownership of the words "the way"...? As far as I know, settlement does not mean that the courts found a darned thing...settlement only means that the two parties came to terms outside of the courtroom and the court accepted those terms. I find this a worthy effort to fight back against twi's BS...so worthy, in fact, that I am emailing the links to the legal documents to every one of those search results with email addresses... So that they can all be informed of what a sniping, groping, control-hungry little cult twi really is!

Awesome, rascal. TYVM for sharing this. I'm soooooooo looking forward to next year!

You mean... People got together and actually encouraged one another to take care of themselves????? That just cannot be allowed to continue! Where's a twig leader when ya need one? --> Wow! Goosebumps! Oak, I'm gonna PT ya here in a second.

OM, Every single person I've read here who has acknowledged that they were "blessed" at all in twi also have given God the glory for those blessings...not twi...which is as it should be regardless of loyalty or non-loyalty to the organization. I read "I don't care if he was a plagiarist, molester, rapist, conman and overall fraud, HE TAUGHT ME THE WOOOORD... I got mine-who cares if YOU suffer?" and think of how vpw and many others treated people in twi. More often than not vpw and others in twi put forth an attitude of, "Look at what I've got. Look at what you don't have. What's wrong with you/your believing?" In fact, this attitude got to the point that, just before we left, twig leaders were asking for bank statements to "prove" one's level of believing. It's arrogant to say to folks, "I got mine." Why? The one body. Nobody can truly put forth that anything is "mine" while also putting forth a belief in the one body. The bible says that if one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. If you do not feel the suffering of others in the body... If you simply put forth that you got blessed while questioning why others didn't get blessed... Then, in effect, you are saying that it wasn't really important that everybody got blessed... Which means you are saying that there is no need of that part of the body... See?

Garth... You know you asked them over so don't tell stories!!!!!!! LMAO!!!!!!!!!! ;)--> :P--> The next visit is gonna be from an dude in an ugly suit with a woman in an ugly suit... And they'll have flashing pens like those on MIB... So you'll forget everything that happened... Because resistance is futile. Hehehehe.

SC, You are in a space that can be the most exciting thing to happen in awhile...or can be the most frightening. It's really OK to let it all go and just question and consider different answers than what you thought were "right". God never ever ever EVER mandated that anybody be right about him...he just asked for some lovin' for him and for others. We were given our minds for a reason...and that reason isn't just so that our autonomic reflexes (breathing, pumping blood, etc.) can function. Have fun and remember that "accuracy" is in the mind of the beholder. :D-->

SelahV, It's good to read that you have some hope! Yay! As for my sig graphic... It's halloween season! :D--> I do graphics for folks. The way I learn and practice techniques is via my sigs. Since it's halloween season, I thought I'd do a spooky sig with something that "jumps out" at folks.

SelahV, This site helps me tremendously when I feel the things you describe. June Hunt is the very most compassionate and understanding person I have ever heard handle the scriptures! I came across her radio program (Hope in the Night) by accident and have been listening ever since. She knows suffering all too well. She also knows how God and Jesus work in our lives during times of suffering. You can listen to past radio programs right on your own computer, too. Also, she has sent me much material at no cost to me because I could not afford to buy them.

Pulling a Dr Phil here... Did you go into this to learn, or did you go into this to be right?

OM, You pose a legitimate question. Hopefully, I will answer you well enough for you to feel that I have given you a legitimate answer. :)--> There were some basic teachings of twi that led to the wrong god, imo. (I use the past tense here because I have no idea what twi is teaching now.) Let's look at some of these things, OK? First, believing=receiving. This was taught by twi as an absolute...that it worked regardless of anything else in life...and worked for saint and sinner alike. Nobody even thought for one moment to ask this one simple question that would debunk this theory: What about those who believe that it doesn't matter what one believes? See? Automatically the thought that believing=receiving is debunked by the bible itself in that even if someone truly believed that it doesn't matter what one believes, well, they're either going to heaven or to hell...regardless of their believing. The bible sets up absolutes that do not change because of someone's believing. Believing is not the absolute. Second, tithing. TWI used tithing as a protection racket: the more one tithed, the more blessings one would buy from god; the less one tithed, the less protection one would buy from god. Tithing is not even brought forward into the new testament. Instead, the new testament calls for one to be a living sacrifice, giving all of one's self, having no pluralities, having all things common. Tithing smacks the face of the new testament in that it allows people to give only part of themselves and be selfish with the rest. TWI isn't the only organization to get this one wrong, btw. Third, the manifestations. As twi taught the manifestations, they were limited and legalized and separated the gift from the giver. This robbed people of fully realizing the Christ within if they couldn't live up to twi's standards. It also robbed people of the opportunity to see god manifested in other ways. Fourth, the administrations. Dividing the bible and, therefore, god into segments prevented people from being able to grasp when god was working in their lives or other's lives. Many things that were "available" in the OT were disregarded and even considered "off". An excellent example of this is something I learned in my own life when it came to raising someone from the dead. TWI had no clue how to do this so they just said that the believing wasn't there if nobody got raised from the dead. The old testament gave us a perfect example of raising someone from the dead, but since it was "in the wrong administration", it wasn't taught. Another example is the "rod". TWI stole the very power out of people's hands when it taught that the rod was a thing used on people, particularly children, when they disobeyed! The OT is very clear about how to use the rod...and it ain't to beat on somebody with...but to be used to wield power. Moses comes to mind. Fifth, the one body. TWI skewed the understanding of this to the point that twi had many heads...none of them being Christ. There are more things twi taught erroneously, but my point is not to dissect everything twi taught, but to exemplify the need to toss out everything and start again. When the basics are so very wrong, the rest cannot be right. A little leaven, ya know. One last thing... When I dumped everything I ever knew and began seeking without a particular spin, I found Jesus and he taught me. It's a wonderful way to learn!

Been in so much self pity that we couldn't go!!!!!! Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Such a beautiful Fall this year, too....!!!!!!!! So MORE PICS PLEASE!!!!! :D--> We're starting to get ready for next year now... And thinking to have some sort of shindig/bon voyage thingy here to kick off a convoy for those coming through this way... Something... Ya know?

SelahV, How ya doin'? Sure hope this thread gets longer via some posts by you...OK? :D--> Abigail's other part, Manof1000Somethings ;)--> , says in his signature, "The lessons repeat themselves until learned." That's the closest thing to bottom line truth of life that I've ever heard. Not that we are being chastised and forced into learning hard lessons... But that we keep repeating the same old things until we've learned how to not repeat them... And there are some things we just don't have enough time to learn in one lifetime... Is god there listening and helping? I dunno for sure. I do know for sure that there comes a moment in every single trial and tribulation when we go "Ahhhhh! That's why I had to go through that situation." Then we never go through it again as a trial or tribulation. It's kinda freaky sometimes, but this has been a constant in everything I've learned about my life and the lives of others. Be kewl to yourself... Ya know?

George, One part of the movie that itched at the back of my mind was a scene where the main character was urged to travel back in her mind and remember herself doing something very well and then bring that energy and that ability to the here and now. Later on the movie goes even further and states that in our minds there is no past or future...our minds only perceive the here and now...and what we think about is, to our minds, real and happening now. On a literal and hard core look at the idea, it's "true". But without the concept of linear time, people tend to go insane. Much like anything else, this movie pulls out snippets of information and lets one believe that those snippets can stand on their own...and there is no other picture and no big picture. That's dangerous thinking... Ya know?

Song... I know this is a conversation between you and rascal... But I'm gonna butt in here a second... And say... Yessiree Bub! I'd love to meet face-to-face with OM... Or anybody else here at the GSC for that matter... 'Specially you... Tee hee... ;)--> :D-->

How very sad. I know a man who says the exact same thing...even says it from the pulpit sometimes...after about 2 decades of being away from twi. It used to bother me to no end for him to be so arrogant. Then it was revealed to me that this statement is not arrogant...it's needy. I can't imagine how it must feel inside of his head to look at the now-grown child he and R*ss T*acy baptized (yep, in a private little ceremony at the college wow home) as a newborn...to see this same child now struggling with life because of what was done to her in twi...to see this child's child struggling because her mother is struggling... What must it feel like in his head to see the generational problems caused by twi...and still cling to twi... How must it feel to him to harbor in his heart such blatant lack of godly caring and love and compassion as to preach the very same doctrines and commandments of men who have been proven to be nothing more than lying abusers... I feel so sad for him... I've known him since I was 16yo... He wasn't like this when I knew him... Had he been, I would have never stayed in twi... He used to know how to genuinely love people... Now he lives in what he calls a "bubble"... Nobody can reach him... He can reach nobody... But that's where he feels safest after all of his years with twi... In a bubble of denial ignoring the damage he and others in twi have, will and still inflict in people's lives. So what kind of a splash did I make when I left twi? I gave the DA my deposition of the child abuse...physical, mental, spiritual and sexual...going on in the branch leader's and a twig leader's homes. It wasn't soon enough, it wasn't just enough, but it was enough to start the ball rolling to break up a pedophile ring operating under the guise of "children's fellowship".

I went to see the movie because someone called me and told me how life-changing it was for so many people. In all honesty, there have been some things from the movie that have stuck in my head and have been working for me. I didn't expect this at all...in fact, was pretty sure I'd forget most of the information in a week or so. The friend who went with me to see the movie has made some life-changing choices since seeing the movie. Not just because of the movie, but the movie was the catalyst. The idea of how easily controlled some out-of-control habits can be is simply amazing to me.

Oh...one more thing... If a church is growing in size, then it is also growing in tithes and offerings...usually. The idea that a church needs to sell something (like schooling for children) to grow is kinda odd...and sounds my alarms, too. Seriously, if a church is doing what it is supposed to be doing spiritually, then what's all the need to be so money-oriented as to deny the learning of children who cannot afford the price?

Abi, I had to do some learnin' before I could feel OK about a response! So I looked up "reform synogogue" on Yahoo! and found some links. This link is the one I found to be the most helpful in giving me an idea of what "reform" means in the world of Judaism. A sentence on the above-linked page says, From your description of your experience, I cannot see that inclusion is part of that particular group's standards. The page goes on to talk about the absolute equality of women. Maybe the group you are involved with doesn't understand women's needs? Particularly the needs of single mothers? I dunno, Abi. I am just shocked as all get out that you were dismissed with a price tag and no other options. That's not a twi leftover feeling for me. That's a feeling I learned from going to churches all of my life (twi years excluded)...and from having a granddaughter that has attended religious schools.