brainfixed

the absolute lack of the way ministry in its ability to comprehend or teach anything about the bible has become very obvious to me since i began reading the baha'i writings because now i can hear the poetry, and now i can perceive the symbolism, and now i can understand how idiotic it was to pick apart "every jot and tittle" until the message had no meaning and the words carried weight only in their definitions. what a sorry, sad, dark path to spiritual death was laid and is still being laid by the way international. there's so much more to the message than the words themselves! and no matter how any one person interprets the words, it's still god's message and no one person will ever get it exactly right because nobody is god. what is god speaking into my heart when i am reading that particular part of his message? that's all i need to know right then and right there.

it'd be very interesting to know how this is progressing, and with all the mentioning of rico here, it'd be nice to see the RICO laws come into play with this one.

i think when you've got lots and lots and lots of people believing your lies then you've really got no other choice than to act like they're true, and then a deep fear sets in about being found out by all of those lots ad lots and lots of people so then the mind has to believe the lies to keep from giving yourself away. so i guess that what i'm saying is that he didn't support his lies all by himself.

whether or not someone is a christian or a buddisht or a baha'i or a sunni or a shiite or is jewish or a hindu or whatever religion they must practice the tenets of that religion in order to be accepted by others as a representative or authority of that religion. the world's largest religions all evolved from the same root and so when the bible says "by their fruit you will know them" those words impact a vast majority of people in this world, and even the religions that do not have the same root do have the same type of statement about living what you preach and teach or you are making a mockery of yourself by using the writings to serve your own vain imaginations. what this means to me is that if somebody says they are a christian (or any other religious follower) and then turns and rends you, they are in that moment acting as a swine, so i don't have to honor them as if they were living their religious beliefs at that moment, but i am instructed to not cast my pearls before them! something the baha'is practice is non-confession to one another, and that means that they don't go around telling everybody everything because they understand that human beings have weaknesses and that human beings will use information about others in their weak moments. baha'is do their best to practice that the only confessor is god and there is no god but god. this helps them to keep with the "no backbiting" instructions, and baha'is considered backbiting equivalent to murder, just like the bible does. but i'm saying all of this because you said "but at first i was too stupid to realize this". not stupid! you've probably never considered that a person's religious beliefs are only as good as the person is living in the moment. why would you? it wasn't taught like that in the way international. i never thought like that until i read the baha'i writings. even though it's as plain as the nose on my face all over the bible it was never obvious to me, and it isn't obvious to most religious practitioners because most religious practitioners use their religion as a way to sin without going to hell, so of course a "christian" can treat you like their emotional toilet and expect you to not only take it but shut up about it because, well, they are your "christian" brother or sister and you surely don't want to cause a schism in the body, do you? well, that's a bunch of balderdash. if they're not living their christian tenets in the moment, then they're not allowed to stand on the christian grace. it's real simple once the emotional blackmail is removed.

i had forgotten about this little altruistic platitude that gave the talking heads of the way international the illusion of some more spiritual power while leaving the holy spirit and jesus out of the picture again.

you've gotten a lot of good input from others and particularly the input that says that whoever wrote this was lashing out at you because they refuse to cope with what's within themselves. what was written to you is a conversation stopper and allows no room for frank discussion between two thinking people, but demands that you shut up and listen to them shred you. why would somebody want somebody else to shut up? because they don't want to hear what's being said. why would somebody want to shred somebody else? because their own mind is shredding themselves. misery loves company. if you've ever considered the person that wrote that a friend, i'd reconsider because no friend would talk to you that way, and if you've never really considered that person a friend but just someone to talk with, i'd also reconsider because they just told you they weren't going to let you talk with them, but that they were going to talk to you and you are going to be expected to shut up and take whatever they dish out.

that's the healthiest thing i've heard today! it will be my mantra of the day. thanks!

wasn't enough of that for me to focus on. what does this mean? i don't get that "all smudged away" stuff, but if you focus on remembering the kindness of the way international and the other stuff washes away, then why do you only hope that kindness is what's left when you meet the lord? seriously? you can filter through an insane cult and find kindness but you can only hope to find kindness with god? i think you've managed to sum up exactly what was and is wrong with the way international's point of view.

i'm forgetting the pain, the sorrow, the fear, the anger, the bitterness and all the stuff that was left in me after the people of the way international did their dirty deeds. the lessons i learned were by the hands of the always gracious god and i am learning to understand those lessons without associating them with a cult of insanity called the way international and give them their proper credit to the one god who is god.

"the rod and the staff do comfort me." neither were ever supposed to be used for hitting the sheep at any time, but both were to be used as guidance and protection against predators. something i am learning as a baha'i is how very differently the western mind perceives things so simple as a rod and a staff, and how that different perception has served to turn god's guidance and protection into a theological topic of discussion that often ends up defending abuse (not saying that's what's happening here because you do say you don't condone hitting a child), intolerance of differences and hatred of thinking for ourselves. even in the baha'i faith these things have to be constantly weighed and looked at as we reach for the understanding that there is one god who is god, but as a baha'i it is a simpler thing to do because the translations are not in the hands of governments or ruling class priests or councils with something to gain so we get one translation and a better understanding. it's been like reading the rest of the story that was left out for one reason or another.

i think they put sherry on the show because she will say and do just about anything like when she had that one guy do curls lifting her body weight? sherry is the real comic relief of the show and a great counter balance to joy and whoopie but she does get set up to come off a little bit betty boopish sometimes and i think this was one of those times, and even elisabeth (that's supposed to be her such a good friend) plays her off as a betty boop character every now and then, so i think that's what happened this time, too. but for a talk show i liked them so much better than anything else out there until the talk came along with leah remini, sarah gilbert, julie chen, sharon osbourne, and holly robinson peete because these girls treat the whole thing like it's one big slumber party and even though it gets goofy sometimes it's slumber party goofy, but i tend to watch the view for my "hard core" interests and the talk for my "girlfriend" interests, so i guess i could be considered well balanced. and i can hear some people i know snorting with laughter if they read that last piece. lol

even with the best therapy i ever had i couldn't forget and things were always in the back of my mind, but now i am beginning to forget to think about the way international and the horror of it all and my life is a new life. Allah-u-Abha.

it has taken a whole lot of therapy for me not to run to my car in tears and curl up in the fetal position when i see somebody "spank" a child, but that's just me and i don't understand the need for any adult to ever hit a child and nobody has ever been able to explain it to me successfully so i don't even try to discuss it, but i'm just saying. yah, i had to breathe, breathe, breathe for the opening scenes, but i knew jojo wasn't going to put up with it one second longer! i was right, too. :)

which is why i like how oprah was shown about forgiveness, because even god can't change the past, and that includes me and my past. i used to rank on myself real bad for fighting so much with my family and it seemed like i was always itching for a fight and it seemed like maybe i was the abuser and maybe everybody was right about me having devil spirit problems or something, but then my current therapist explained to me that if i was defending myself or reacting to the insanity then that wasn't the same as being an abuser and it certainly wasn't the same as having devil spirits or anything like that at all, but that it was survival. i just had to learn that i was really and truly out of the situations and didn't have to live like that any longer. that was hard!

there it was in all of its horridness, a father chasing his children up the stairs with a wooden spoon in his hand, a wooden spoon he had just pulled from his back pocket. he also used hot sauce in the mouth, the belt, screaming and "spanking" that was not "just a smack on the behind". jojo went off on the man and taught him the difference between discipline and abuse and then taught him better options. i feel a little bit vindicated that jojo killed that wooden spoon on international television.

i have taken to the way oprah winfrey was taught about forgiveness. "forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been anything different than what it was."

here's how it went down for me about that bit of information: i never knew this, but this sure does explain a whole lot! no wondering why there were groups of pedophiles that ran children's fellowships! and no wondering they did it without fear of anything being done about it! and no wondering why those of us who went to the authorities were hounded and hunted down and "prophesied" over about death to us and our children for being "unbelieving believers"! i never ever understood why supposedly ordained "ministers" could hear report after report of pedophilia running rampant and do nothing but call the children liars and "seed boys", but this information makes it perfectly clear now, and it explains why i heard the "let seeing eyes be blinded" prayer so much. even though i want to break down and weep, i also see more clearly how we were literally trapped and how any reports to the authorities got dropped, because our world was literally poisonous to anything and anybody that got even close, because now i am sure that all the adults were covering up for each other.

i think that ship sailed long before that last post. and the congregation all said "amen".

calling good evil: using the brain god gave you to call a pile of dung a pile of dung.

you and your "we" can only apply to you yourself because you don't know at all why or what or how come anybody else "believed" the way international hogwash. over and over again in the pages here at greasespot cafe are people writing about how they had that "little feeling" about something they couldn't quite put their finger on so they questioned "leadership", and how did that go for them? yah, they were degraded and mocked and ridiculed and accused of everything from having a "devil spirt" to being gay to being "seed boys" and much of the written testimony here on these pages is that if a person kept asking questions then "leadership" called in their spouses or children or parents or bosses or whoever else was in the questioning person's life at the time and slandered that person until people got fired or found themselves having to choose between that "little feeling" and their loved ones. and all of this after lengthy periods of endoctrination to self doubt. and what about the kids that had no choice about any of it and were raised without knowing much else in this world? it is obvious that you don't even believe most of what the way international taught you or you wouldn't ask this question because the way international taught that "believers" in the way international would have "perfectly renewed mind" when they got up after that long sleep in the dirt, so what do you think anybody with "perfectly renewed mind" would think? oh yah i keep forgetting that you think that people that don't think like you now won't think like you then because we have already lost our "perfectly renewed mind" because our seed was corruptible and we lost it when we spit out the teachings of the way international, but since you still worship that "word" according to that "mog" then your seed is still "incorruptible" and the rest of us are going to get our "faces melted at the bema", and you're probably going to be one of them doing the "face melting". but wait a minute, your question says "demand that god let you die the 2nd death with the unbelievers?" so maybe you think some of us are going to get up with "perfectly renewed mind". i just can't keep up with your logic here because it's so much like being on that wheel people put in hamster cages, except that it spirals instead of just going around and around.

i just read your words to a friend of mine and after this last line he said "ya think?", and yes i do think nowadays after many years of not thinking but just living in a "bubble" trying to sort it all out all by myself, when my "bubble" broke and i finally saw the world and all that is in it then i knew i had to get checked out. if i hadn't gone and got the help i needed (i was "in-patient" for a total of 6 months and "out-patient" for a total of 2 1/2 years) i'd be like a rabid animal just running scared all the time and "biting" anybody that threatened my world. the way international's "word" made me so far worse than i would have been otherwise and it took "the world" to undo the damage. i'm very thankful "the world" was still there for me.

calling good evil: 1) giving to others in need, and particularly giving to any charitable organization. 2) using your brain to think clearly 3) providing a stable, consistent home for your family 4) furthering your formal education 5) maintaining your career 6) staying in contact and keeping a good relationship with your "earthly" family calling evil good: 1) the "if they're old enough to bleed, they're old enough to breed" mentality 2) the "all the women in the kingdom belong to the king" mentality 3) using grace as "a season of the flesh" 4) the "lock box" 5) the practice of demanding abortions so the woman could "better serve god" 6) the practice of hiding pedophiles

the very fact that i have a functioning brain. the way international used this evil tactic you're using to shut up anybody that saw the sin inherent in the way international, and because by the time anybody was deep enough into the way international to see the inherent sin, that means they were also deep enough into the mindset to accept "who are you to judge me?" as a valid way to "think no evil" and all that other pure evil thinking that "calls evil good and good evil".

you wrote this just like you wrote the other things. so you can't get a point unless it's put bluntly so ok i'll put it bluntly. i would not allow any children around you and i would warn anybody i knew about the things you have written here. forgiveness and balance are fine and dandy, but what this "johniam" writes about does fall under that "thinketh in your heart" umbrella and i'm not one that's going to put wool on fur because that's what the way international did that allowed what happened to women and children to not only go unpunished but proliferated under the same irrational, illogical and ungodly justifications written by this person.

remember you wrote this. really? doesn't the bible say that if you think a thing you've done the thing? how it is so convenient to jump from "the word of god" to the laws of man as needed to justify what is normally unjustifiable. that's good someone said it! this what you write here is very disturbing after what you wrote about about consent and then about having sexual desire for children as young as 12. what 12 year old does "everybody" notice as "sexy"? what 12 year old is "sexy because of how they think. Because of what they understand about themselves, their social/cultural environment."???? ok, you write that "young children aren't old enough to have that understanding yet.", and you write that "they can be cute or pretty, but not sexy.", and you write that "a pedophile sees a flash of the adult the child will become, pauses it, enlarges it, fantasizes about it, and acts on the fantasy.". you wrote these things after writing "It's criminal if you actively pursue sexual relations, but it's not perverted to simply desire someone who is old enough to either cause conception (male) or get pregnant (female)." again i have to ask what about what the bible says about if you think a thing then you've done the thing? how old was his daughter that he "taught" about sex? really? that's a fine and very blurred line you're walking. but you did excuse it in all the stuff you wrote previously. yeah i've heard this before in this context and it went something like this "just be a good girl and renew your mind because you want to get to heaven don't you?" you hide very disturbing things in the middle of judgemental and condemning and self-excusing platitudes that you obviously don't even believe but hope are real or otherwise you're in for a rude awakening. you have very successfully put a finger on what's so "off-putting in the way you discuss sexual issues." (to borrow someone else's words.) just yuck and yuck and yuck.