WordWolf

....which means you should look here for more information, in the section on STFI/CES: http://www.greasespotcafe.com/ipb/forum/68-spirit-and-truth-fellowship-international/

He made it turn a profit, too. He charged people to enter the WOW program, provided no transportation, provided no support, and required them to find jobs and housing, tithe from their income, and spend days promoting his pfal class. Each student's tuition was a tidy profit for vpw, and any student who stayed meant more tithe money. [Edit: he provided no support to the WOWs- no housing, no job placement, etc although local twi'ers may have been tapped to help on their own time and out of their own pockets- but he "provided" the tapes for pfal, which was always a net profit for him.]

vpw used it surgically from the get-go. That's why 2 different Corps groups (the first, aka "Zero" Corps and another) were kicked out. The other group was permitted to humbly approach vpw and beg to be reinstated as a Corps class so long as they were willing to write out an oath of allegiance to vpw himself. (It's documented in "vp and me in wonderland.") vpw used it here and there down the years. Basically, anyone who ran the risk of causing him problems was kicked out, sent on a slow bus, and their home area was blanketed with a smear campaign so that, when they got home, nobody would believe anything they said. When 1988-1989 rolled around, lcm tried it on a grand scale, where anyone who wouldn't swear an oath of allegiance to lcm himself (as he agreed, a promise to "follow him BLINDLY") would be kicked out and nasty rumors spread around them. Since he was stupid enough to do it to so many people at once, the process wasn't anything nearly as successful as he hoped. Locals who'd worked with their local leaders and KNEW them would not accept the word of a virtual STRANGER who said they were "corrupt". twi's continued to use it as a measure, but until about 1993-1994 they kept it in reserve. They had to adjust to most of the people leaving in 1989-1990.

If I remember correctly (actually, I remember correctly, but if Casey Kasem REPORTED IT CORRECTLY), Sheena Easton released the song as "Morning Train (9 to 5)", then later changed the title to "9 to 5". When Dolly Parton's song came out, Easton changed it to "Morning Train." If he mis-reported it, please let me know.

You have to go back a bit further. As documented in the thread "the way:living in wonderland" (I bumped it up before to make it easier for you to find), in 1953, vpw read about BG Leonard and his classes. He found out that a class was currently IN PROGRESS, went there, and bulled his way in, demanding to be allowed to take the class in progress. Leonard permitted it. A few months later, vpw took his class again "as a grad" and brought a few twi people with him. A few months after THAT (still in 1953), vpw went to Leonard, and asked for permission to run Leonard's class locally one time for the benefit of the locals. Leonard permitted it. vpw ran a class, and sent Leonard a class photo for his scrapbook. When vpw ran that class, he told Leonard he was running Leonard's class one time only. He told the students "this is MY class on "Receiving The Holy Spirit Today" and made no mention of anyone else. He taught Leonard's material entirely- the students that came with him to Leonard's class, he automatically considered them grads of "his" class whether or not they sat through "his" class. vpw then continued to run Leonard's class and called it his own. Shortly after that, he completed taking apart JE Stiles' book on the Holy Spirit, and reconstructed it as the "white book" (Receiving the Holy Spirit Today.) It was Stiles book with some cosmetic changes in its first edition. As time passed, vpw took material from Bullinger, and added it to both the book and the class. What resulted was the Power for Abundant Living class- an amalgam of Leonard, Stiles and Bullinger. As more material was added (with a few other authors here and there with small additions), the one class became expanded eventually into three classes. Some of Leonard's stuff was in each level.

Few Lee Greemwood fans here today....

Of course, the "knockout blow" preceding the murder was Rainbow Man using HEALING on the SotS, which knocked them out. The obvious response to this being silly is that you can't look too closely at this sort of thing- which completely negates the entire production, since the entire thing is based on the claim that you CAN split hairs on this visually and make a production where every gesture has a specific meaning.

Correct! That's exchange is from "Dear Officer Krupke." Your turn.

Next movie. "Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease." "Hey! I got a social disease!"

"Metamucil. It helps you go to the toilet." "Volvos- they're boxy, but they're safe."

Somebody else who's seen "Crazy People"! That's a funny movie that's a lot smarter than it looks.

Don't think that "research means you search again" and "we search again what twi's already done" were new to the 1990s. People who left in 1989 were hearing that from corps grads into the 1990s. (Yes, I was hearing that-at least the second quote, not the first. Others heard the first.)

I've said it before, I'll say it again. lcm said he was unable to find anyplace in the Bible that said premarital sex was sin. lcm was unable to find accounts in the Bible that said premarital sex was sin for the same reason a thief is "unable" to find a policeman.

It was a little like with the "Corps Chalet", where the stated purpose had nothing to do with what the usage ended up being. With the "Corps Chalet", vpw promised it would be a place for visiting corps to stay. Once it was completed, vpw announced he was giving it to lcm and donna. With the Auditorium, supposedly, twi could draw real performers to show up to a farm in the middle of freaking NOWHERE and perform onstage. It ended up being for Sunday night teachings and whatever lcm wanted, starting with the musical. And that bs about others wanting lcm to play the lead.... The AOS short performance already had a male and a female lead. They'd worked together, and he was the right height and had rhythm. lcm just hinted around ad nauseum until someone uttered the words he wanted them to say "Why don't you play the lead?" then ran with it and had the nerve to suggest it was never his idea.

Just wing that mutha!

We just discussed this here: "Why did vp choose lcm?" As to the objections, posters have commented that they heard from those who SUPPOSEDLY had a say in the process. First of all, the idea of just anyone being nominated was a token gesture meant to give the illusion of choice to the rank and file whom vpw intended to ignore anyway. (vpw knew how to play his audience like a harp from hell.) Second of all, there were lots of COMPETENT people to draw from in a talent pool. Walter C was the research head, which, for a supposed RESEARCH ministry, seems an obvious choice. Several of the previous Trunk Coordinators for the US and Regional Coordinators were perfectly capable of taking over- they had experience, twi training, and knew how to run things and handle people. So, names like Lynn, Finnegan, Dubovsky and Townsend were tossed around in addition to Cummins. vpw had one choice, and was just going to hold on to his decision until he wore everyone down, or just make the announcement by divine fiat. "What was everyone told? What did people think was the reason? Or what was the reason? I'll give you three for the price of one. All based on what posters here have said over the years. A) People were told, long before a choice was announced, that the search was on for the next President, and to consider nominating their best choices. As they were told, potentially any Advanced Class Grad was a candidate. (However, even if the process was serious, it's obvious it would have been an Advanced Class Grad who had been in no less than 5 years and more likely more, who had previously or currently did hold a position of Limb Coordinator or higher. At least, that's my opinion.) So, people were nominating various top twi people for the position. Except lcm, since nobody who was familiar with him thought he had the chops for the role- academic, presentation, etc. (Someone like Walter C would have been an obvious choice if it was all about research.) What I was personally told was that it was determined like in Acts 1, where the lot fell upon Matthias- a vote. Obviously, this was a dirty lie someone had passed down. In reality, the decision was up to vpw and ONLY up to him. Furthermore, a few people at the top gave all their suggestions to him face to face, and NONE of them were lcm. In short, people were told there was a process, but vpw had lcm selected long before he announced there WAS a process. The "process" was yet another vpw lie. What a surprise! Who'd suspect vpw would lie to everyone? B) What some people thought was the thinking behind lcm's selection.... People discussing it among themselves were thinking it was something along the lines of his Way Corps connections. lcm was a student in one of the early Corps (he's shown as a student in the photos included in "The Way:Living in Love", leading people on a run- which he was academically qualified to do because he was a jock in college, even though he "rode the bench" on the football team.) Shortly after he finished that, he was put briefly (IIRC) in charge of the WOW program, then was put in charge of the Corps overall. With various Corps "vets" being familiar with him, perhaps the thinking was he'd have their loyalty on that basis. This was all speculation, and was all faulty. Those who were familiar with lcm were not impressed with his demonstrated abilities. He wasn't even good at "running" the WOW program or the Corps. This shouldn't be a huge surprise, since vpw took a guy hot out of college and put him in charge of stuff and expected him to figure it all out. lcm was never a smart man nor a scholar. He had no training in "figure it out", either. So, he stumbled his way through his assignments. That's not really his fault- vpw put him in positions time after time where and when he was fundamentally unprepared, and did nothing to ameliorate that. There was never a "I will run this. I will show you how this works. Pay close attention" and then a few years later "Now it's your turn." So vpw sometimes corrected him AFTER THE FACT once lcm made a mistake. Anyway, that was the guesswork. Since twi has a proud tradition of keeping its people in the dark when it's not lying to them, and then announcing it's keeping them well-informed, guesswork was all the AVERAGE peon on the field had. That and misinformation. C) Someone in with vpw asked him right after lcm was announced-asked him why. vpw said that lcm never questioned him- when vpw said to do something, lcm would just do it. In other words, lcm had blind loyalty and a notable lack of thinking for himself. This, in vpw's eyes, made him the ideal choice to replace himself as President. Why? We can only speculate why from here, but obviously it served vpw and not twi. My guess is that he thought he'd be able to stay in charge whenever he wanted to, but pulling lcm's strings like a puppet. If so, that sure backfired. As soon as lcm had the big chair, he established that he expected the blind loyalty to go to HIM. He had blind loyalty to the captain of the ship, and now it was everyone else's turn to have that. (We even know that because he TOLD one poster here. They asked if he was calling on them to follow him BLINDLY, and he said that's what they already had been doing. lcm was always a clueless jerk once vpw got his hooks into him.) vpw eventually felt so neglected that he went to the other man who'd worshipped him blindly- chris geer- and constructed a list of complaints about how twi was SPIRITUALLY off ALL OF A SUDDEN and how it was all because they turned away from vpw and did things without him. (We weren't part of the discussions, but the main thrust was correct- vpw had also spoken briefly to Ralph D on the way to visiting chris, and that general concept was what was on his mind.) =========================== lcm himself pretty much knew he was on the ministry "fast track" long before he was announced. Go ahead and read his OWN account. It was in his book, "VP and Me." http://www.greasespo...-in-wonderland/ http://www.greasespo.../vp-and-me.html "

His supposed dying words were to complain about martindale! vpw groomed lcm for over a decade to replace him, finding him to be his loyal drone, never challenging him, etc. vpw made lcm the twi president over the objections of almost everyone. lcm got the big chair and now felt safe to passive-aggressively ignore vpw and encourage others to do so, since now HE had the big chair. (Some didn't need encouragement- rosa-lie for years had been telling others to tell vpw she wasn't in.) vpw, the center of attention, was suddenly last weeks' news, his 15 minutes up at last. He didn't like the direction things were going, AND he was being ignored, so he went off to his OTHER drone, cg, the other man who never challenged what vpw said or did. Naturally, he was able to get the adulation and hero-worship he was suddenly missing. His actual discussions were almost irrelevant.

What makes you think that any of their accusations of others were TRUTHFUL accusations and had any merit whatsoever? In twi, there's the reason given, and there's the true reason, and rarely do they meet. The truth is NOT welcome at "The Way."

Isaiah 5:20 20Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Leave it to twi to label all the healthy, good people "evil", and to cheerfully embrace the twisted, evil folks with both hands!

The "vp amd me in Wonderland" thread discussed this a little. Also, vpw claimed George Mueller "influenced" him on a number of occasions. However, vpw never in any way imitated Mueller, which would have been the result if Mueller actually influenced him. George Mueller's greatly respected in some Christian circles, and with good reason. In twi, there were 2 things of his that I'd heard about. Outside of twi but in college, I read that Mueller kept a diary with 2 dates- listing the date he began praying for something, and the date he saw that prayer fulfilled, so he had a record of prayers answered. As for the two things I'd heard in twi about him, here they are. http://www.puritanfellowship.com/2008/02/two-amazing-accounts-of-george-mueller.html "I live in the spirit of prayer; I pray as I walk, when I lie down, and when I rise. And the answers are always coming. Tens of thousands of times my prayers have been answered. When once I am persuaded a thing is right, I go on praying for it until the end comes." "The great fault of the children of God is that they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything of God's glory, they should pray until they get it." ======================================= http://www.christianadoption.com/faithful/georgemueller.htm "The Muellers' set off for the United States in August 1877 aboard the Sardian…Off Newfoundland the weather turned cold and the ship's progress was seriously retarded by fog. The captain had been on the bridge for 24 hours when something happened which was to revolutionize his life. George Mueller appeared on the bridge. "Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon." "It is impossible," said the captain. "Very well, " said Mueller, "if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way--I have never broken an engagement for 52 years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray." The Captain wondered which lunatic asylum Mueller had come from. "Mr. Mueller," he said, "do you know how dense this fog is?" "No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God." Mueller then knelt down and prayed. When he had finished the captain was about to pray, but Mueller put his hand on his shoulder, and told him: "First, you do not believe He will and second, I believe He HAS, and there is NO NEED whatever for you to pray about it." The captain looked at Mueller in amazement. "Captain," he continued, I have known my Lord for 52 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone." The captain walked across to the door and opened it. The fog had lifted. It was the captain himself, who later told the story of this incident, and who was subsequently described by a well known evangelist as "one of the most devoted men I ever knew." ======================== For the curious, it was Billy Graham, as legit as 20th century evangelists ever got, who met that captain and said he was so devoted. Meeting and interacting with George Mueller transformed his life.

I'm familiar with maybe 1/2 the movies they ever made, and I'm quite confident this is not a Marx Brothers movie.

vpw could designate anyone anything he wanted- that didn't mean they knew, or would take it seriously if they knew. I once got some information for a friend. Some of it arrived by mail and was addressed to me, and it was from an insurance company about insuring an event. Under my name, for some reason, they'd added "insurance coordinator" before the name of the friend's organization. My friend said, "Well, congratulations-you're now our insurance coordinator." Flatly, I replied "I can't tell you what this means to me", which obviously meant I don't have the words to express how little it meant. Anyway, they gave me that title, but it carried no force- we didn't take it seriously. So, vpw can decide to call someone "India coordinator", but be met with mild amusement at best, if he ever told them. (We know the guy acted as if he either didn't know, or didn't take it seriously- he did his work and ignored what the title would mean.) ============================== vpw went to India, hooked up with Williams, rode Williams' coattails all over India, accepted honors based on being Williams' associate (like the key to the city), and reported based on complaints of Williams when he returned. Compared side-by-side, vpw was a rank amateur compared to Williams, and the idea of Williams working FOR vpw is silly. I'm sure Williams wouldn't have taken the idea seriously, any more than Billy Graham or Oral Roberts would have taken seriously this unknown guy suggesting "a collaboration of equals" when they were household names and he was very much an unknown. vpw had a consistent history of lying, using the work of others and putting his own name on it, and wildly exaggerating his own accomplishments.

"You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, GodD*it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' "

That's them.

Is this from "Animal House"?