Oakspear

Going back to TWI = sticking your head into old wineskins, then sticking the wineskin encased head into a hole in the ground to hide from reality

Okay...the Masons (free or otherwise) are a front for the Illuminati who are a front for pagans who are a front for guys in fezes and clown suits who drive antique cars to raise money for children's hospitals who are a front for saaaaatan...did I get it right?

def: Isn't one of the central tenets of Christianity that humans are incapable of doing it themselves? That's why universalism is plausible and consistant with Christ's sacrifice. Whether it actually lines up with the bible is another question.

How's your Uncle Richie?

Result vary JL.

No further information is given refarding corps graduation numbers in Karl's book (that I could find)

fromThe Cult That Snapped by Karl Kahler, p 107: 1st Corps 1972 - 9 graduated 2nd Corps 1973 - 19 3rd Corps 1974 - 25 4th Corps 1975 - 68 5th Corps 1977 - 70 6th Corps 1978 - 275 7th Corps 1979 - 279 8th Corps 1980 - 207 9th Corps 1981 - Not released 10th Corps 1982 - 299 11th Corps 1983 - 326 12th Corps 1984 - not released 13th Corps 1985 - not released 14th Corps 1986 - 296 15th Corps 1987 - 360+ (including Family Corps) 16th Corps 1988 - 201

Can I use non-religious platitudes?

Then what is being discussed in I Thessalonians 4 when "the dead in Christ shall rise"...and those that area live and remain meet the lord on the air?

Sudo: The seismographs picked it up all right, the operators just didn't have a pre-set communications plan in place to warn the governments about the quake and the possible tsunami to follow.

Or perhaps it magnifies it, depends on your point of view. What would be bigger, a sacrifice that covered all(without exception ;)-->) because it's cleansing power was so far reaching, or one that only covered those who accepted it because they were in the right place at the right time, were in the right culture, had the right parents or who got witnessed to by the right missionaries? Not saying that's what I believe, just that it's as valid as the statement quoted above.

I'm still waiting for an apology :D--> Hey, I'm in the phone book!

Our local "leadership" would pick on whoever they thought was weaker or less loyal at any given time, and with us it switched back & forth. I remember when, a year or two before I finally left, my ex-wife stopped attending fellowships for a few months. The fellowship coordinator took me aside and made all kinds of dire predictions about how she would die alone, without her kids around her, because she had rejected "The Word". I was stunned, not only because of what he was saying about her, but because I knew that he had to have said the same things to her about me. What was ironic was that she was one of the most loyal people to TWI that you'd ever run into, she'd do anything for "the ministry that taught her The Word". She was staying away from fellowship because of me! Our problems had gotten so bad that she felt hypocritical attending fellowship with me and pretending everything was alright, and felt that the local leaders were deceived for accepting me and even letting me teach. After a while she started attending with me again and everything was fine with "leadership". When I finally was booted out it was final proof that she was "unequally yoked" with me, and that the "spiritual darkness" that I was bringing into our home must go.

As much as I try to stay away from TWI music, the TWI song leading came in handy last week when I led a group of fellow employees in Christmas carols!

I could never memorize those bible verses either. My memory is more associative than photographic. Things that I learn are associated with other things in a kind of chain. I was good with concepts, and could usually tell you where a verse could be found based on the subject matter, but I could never keep the word-for-word in my head for very long.

Belle makes a great point in another thread: While some of you got out of TWI with your marriages intact, how many of us literally couldn't talk to our spouses about our misgivings, about our doubts, about the things that we thought were wrong?When doubting "the ministry that taught you the Word" was equivalent to rejecting God, what "sold out" man or woman would want to hear that their spouse was an "unbeliever"? How much subtle and not-so-subtle undermining of marriages went on in TWI?

Back when I was but an acorn, Christmas was a fun, family time. The house was decorated, inside and out, and we always had a decorated Christmas tree. I don't recall much of what we did on Xmas Eve, but we always got up early to tear into our presents, and then off to church. In those days all but one or two of our clan lived nearby, so it wasn't too difficult to get together for the a big meal on Christmas Day. During my TWI days we celebrated in varying ways. The Way didn't usually schedule anything, although we would get together with people from our fellowship from time to time. One year we decorated the tree and one of the kids asked where the star was, so I put a picture of Bob Dylan on top. For several years a different "star" went on top of the tree. We tried to do different fun things on Christmas & Christmas Eve. One year we rented a bunch of movies and stayed up all night watching, with a break to do our paper routes. Another year we rented a hotel room where they had a pool and had a pool party pot luck. 2001 was horrible, however. I was recently (6 weeks) separated, my kids didn't want to see me and I had no friends. Even though the store was closed I went in to work, got on the computer, and hung out in the Grease Spot chat room :D--> I don't remember for sure who was there, but there was a few folks to talk to. Abigail & I had goten to be friends, so we talked on the phone. Other than that it was a miserable day at my old hovel :(--> 2002 was slightly better. I was still at the hovel, still alone, but I decided to cook a nice dinner for myself. I had a bottle of Jack Daniels and a couple of quarts of egg nog and found out that they went well together. I attended midnight mass in a decidedly jolly mood. I went out the next day and watched "The Two Towers" at the local theater. 2003 was as reikilady described it, and much better than previous years. 2004 was great. A family dinner with reiklady and her daughter. Even though there were only three of us, we had cooked a variety of foods, so we were all pretty full while opening gifts and had plenty of leftovers for Saturday.

DaddyHoundog's wife posts using his handle

Thw wquita ransprti amb pytiliac!

Yeah WW, you do see quite a difference in style between the Blue Book and CSBP on one hand and JCING, JCOPS & JCOP on the other hand. Maybe he just took some creative writing classes

Is there any answer to the question that WON'T be an oversimplification? (Including what I just wrote :D-->)

How much of the bloated staff situation is due to TWI still owning the original Wierwille farm? I imagine that they could still administratively run a small organization like TWI has become out of small to medium suite of offices. How much office space does it take to run a magazine? How many people does it take to oversee the Way Corps? Train the Way Corps? Is much of the labor and space and expense due to keeping several sections of former farmland mowed and neat looking?

Thanks for all the good wishes :P--> Comparing notes about what "leadership" had said and done in certain situations was enlightening...for all of us. A side note about the meeting. My son Ben, as it turns out, has learned to enjoy many of the same local bands as I do. We have gone to some of the same bars, just never at the same time. After the initial hugging and such, B remarked how much he liked the band that was playing, a pair of brothers who had toured worldwide and moved to Lincoln to semi-retire. When they finished the set one of the musicians came over to sit at my table and retrieve the beer that I was "guarding" for him. My son's eyes got real wide and he said "You KNOW these guys?" Hmmm...maybe some new candidates for the Weenie Roast

Yeah, Hank's rear has been featured here before, but we can always use more rear-kissing! It reminds me of the commercial for some cable alternative, Dish Network maybe, where the two salesmen for the advertised product act just like door-to-door witnessers

Some of you know that in the aftermath of my divorce and virtually simultaneous ejection from TWI my family was left in a shambles. I have six children, but for various reasons had regular contact with only one of them, who is in the Navy in Japan. It surely isn't my idea to be estranged from my children like this. One of my sons, C, and his girlfriend ran into me and reikilady at a restaurant about a month ago. Everything seemed cordial, so we exchanged addresses and phone numbers, and all four of us had dinner together the other night. Things went great and we'll be seeing each other again. But here's the big news: My oldest son B and I have not seen each other for over three years. He actually left TWI shortly before I did, but due to much manipulation and interference by TWI leaders our realtiuonship was severly damaged. Our last meeting resulted in a fistfight. His last meeting with T, who is in the Navy, ended the same way. Monday night T, who is home on leave, and I went out to open stage at the local pub and were joined by C. To everybody's great surprise (except C, who I suspect set it all up) B showed up as well. The first couple of seconds were tense, but nobody hit anybody else, and there was forgiveness and hugs (and beer and shots) all around. C left to get some sleep, since he had to work, but the rest of us stayed until closing time and went out for breakfast afterward. We talked a lot about how our lives were going, and all recognized how we let interfering @#$%&^'s from TWI screw us up. This, my fellow Grease Spots, has been the best Yuletide in a long time.