Bramble

I get the impression that you think that everyone's time was actually as wonderbar as yours was, or if it wasn't it was because we were lacking somehow. Same old blame the victim stuff that ran like a thick red thread through TWI. You insult people and whine in the same post. Boy does that bring back memories of TWI leadership. You learned well, grasshoppa.

Hear Hear! And I will always be thankful hoe GSC unwound the binders from my brain so I could not only be physically free from TWI but also mentally free of them.

My facebook is a way to connect with friends and family. I have people on FB I went to grade school with, college roommates, former co-workers, some of my many many cousins. My sister, brother and I have our own little group which is much more intimate than FB at large and I am more up to date with them than I've ever been, In the past long distance was too expensive to chat daily. . If something pops up in my feed I think Is too extreme I just hide it. Facebook for me is plain fun and I want to keep it that way. I love knowing what my niece is up too, and keeping track of my friend who moved to UK and travels a lot. I haven't deleted anyone.

I would have married my husband sooner if we hadn't had all the 'Go Wow, Go Corps Go Here Go There stuff. He had a limb coordinator try to match make him with a single mom wow while we were long distance 'dating.' My area--there were no single Way guys my age! Finally we just got married, though we had to have a 'plan.' Ours was to run a twig and eventually go family corps(we never did Family Corps). Seems like most of our pre-marriage counseling was about The Word, Moving the Word--actually about the Way. And my Way wedding started with a big huge advertisement for The Way. Its so obvious now when we see the video.

We had about 4-6 sets of PFAL books between hubby and I--got new sets when we took the new Craig classes, plus had our originals. We sold them on ebay a couple of years after we left the Way. Used the money for something on the car. Tires? All the other stuff--Way mags, videos, tapes, pamphlets, etc I threw away when we moved west. Those tacky posters we used to have in our living room! Trashed. I think we might still have some music cassettes somewhere, but we no longer have a cassette player to listen to them on if we wanted to. But we did have a basement flood about five years ago and lost a bunch of boxed stuff, so those cassettes might have been in that mess.

Patriot, I am from Montana, have family there but live in WY now. Not Way like in belief in any way. Hubby and I are considering a move to the Kalispell area in a few years.

Gradually cut back on Way activities. If you are single it might be easy enough just to move/find a new job. Screen your calls--you don't have to talk to Way Big Wigs. You don't owe them explanations. Family is much harder, but you can insist on boundaries. None of this is easy but you will find it is not impossible. You deserve to have the right to choose. None of our family was in TWI so that gave us a soft place. We moved to be closer to them. Way doctrine will take time to go away. It could take years. Do rebellious things. Read books TWI wouldn't like, put an angel statue on your coffee table, let dust accumulate. Sooner or later you'll see all the fear mongering about devil spirits you've been drilled with has no power. That little angel statue has no dark power over your life. You can go to a trinitarian church and not burst into flame. I chose to quit speaking in tongues, since it was something I did when I was anxious. I did not see any huge change in quality of life going downhill after quitting all the perfect prayer. It remained life--good days, annoying days, bad days, fun days. And that first Christmas we did the whole tree, make ornaments, leave cookies for Santa thing and it was fun! When we finally left the Way--that was when I saw a huge increase in quality of life. Every day was brighter just because I wasn't subjected to all that dreck. And when you have bad times in life--everyone does-- being out of TWI means no one will reprove you for your believing etc etc.When the bad times come, it is ok to grieve, you don't have to put on the fellowship face. Find a hobby. Seriously. It will give you something to think about, goals, plans and you could start to make friends of the non instafriend variety., In TWI you didn't really have to make friends, but in real life you will have to, it is not instant. Pets are good, too.

My husband had a choking experience with a ghost of an old woman right when he first got involved with TWI. I had a 'vision' of my former Household fellowship's face morph into his face but with wolf characteristics, weird and scary, a few months before we left TWI. I think that was a warning, though don't know if it was my own subconscious or something else. He was wolf-like, in the merciless, predator scary sense.

It is also a fact that authors often use pen names because crazies can google them to their front door now days.

Interesting discussion! I won't add to it other than WW mention of reading Hamlet at different levels of maturity and 'book sleuthing' seems to be an important key...and I guess I don't see Jesus of the gospels as a teacher who tried to make anything 'easy' for the student. He would tell shocking stories and make people think and consider. I read the article too. I don't really care if someone believes in Evolution, or is anti abortion. I DO care if they try to make their doctrine the rule of the land , and I do find the current crop of Dominionist groups scary and think they are potentially dangerous, especially as they seem to be acceptable to the Evangelical church as a whole...just my opinion.

I think more groups than just TWI have hard hearts toward the poor, even in this economy. The darkside of the Prosperity doctrine--if one does not have health and wealth, they must be doing something wrong, a secret sin etc. In TWI they were slothful(even if they worked two jobs) or hitchhikers, the weak link that brought the whole household down. The view that the poor--even the recent poor who were working class or middle class just a few years ago-- are fraudulent and lazy seems pretty pervasive in some groups.

Hopefully now it will be harder for sexual predators to hide behind the priest mask. But it sure worked for a lot of them for awhile.

Javajane, a friend of mine now has children in grade school and she and her husband(older parents, long lapsed Catholics) returned to the Church a couple years ago. Their kids are in a catechism class, doing first communion etc. They are very modern birth control using catholics and I asked her how she got along with the more fanatic types and she said it never came up. She can do what she thinks is best and it's non of their business. So different than TWI, where people where so into each other's business and reported it up the line. Over the years I have dropped away from the harsh view of the Catholic church I developed in TWi...of the people I count as the best, most admirable people I ever knew, the huge majority were catholic or from a catholic background. That says something, though I am still pondering that...

We visited my family, and the contrast with their kindness and joy at seeing us and our kids really showed the dour, nasty way we were treated by our leadership. We also relaxed for the first time in a long time, then returned to the stress and tenseness of TWI life. Maybe look for ways to show kindness and delight in being with them, not trying to change them to fit a mold. help them relax. TWI talks a lot about hospitality--but what they mean by that is having a show place to show off in. It is all about the perfection of the hosts, not the pleasure of the guests.

Hobbies.

Not a statement, but the thrilled crowd who listened to Mike Martin(sad, once was a real person) sing 'Wash my feet In the Blood of the Wicked' --wicked being copouts. ADV Class 1998

I redid gsc as gsc take 2 since FB closed the original down. But ama joining Paw's!

Yay! Hope you are squirlling away lots of nummy nuts!

ROA was never like camping to me, but I grew up camping in Montana. I do have some fond ROA memories of meeting up with friends. The year we took our small children wasn't much fun, would have been better to stay home and play in the wading pool.I ahted having to look dressed up. SHeesh, real camping is not fancy dress. My family does a big Labor Day camp out,we don't make it every year but it is fun. Am not much into crowds though I do enjoy a good band.

At preschool we icecube paint--sprinkle dry kool-aid and rub with ice cubes. Fun.

We always make our own laundry soap in a 5 gallon tub. It works great and we with sensitive skin never get a rash! Super cheap, too.

Leadership was all about getting served. They rehashed some one elses teaching once a week and made sure it was in the 10 min time frame. They repeated the all important directives from above(BOT). In return they got their houses, lawns etc taken care of. Some had live in servants( limb staff etc) who fixed them meals and cleaned up after them, some had child care when ever they wanted--no scrambling for a sitter for them!. When they 'took a stand' it was usually to ream out some poor believer with a real need.

I think that visit to my family was a special blessing, too, 100%. It still amazes me about the timing, hubby and I were so beat up in our minds, so weary by that point. Even though we have experienced ups and downs in life since then, we have never again reached that ugly, discouraged-can't-ever-do-anything-right stage again. Even in bad times we have people who love and support us as much as they are able, and haven't experienced what TWI calls 'reproof', which is really abuse, in all these yrs since leaving. My brother's psychiatrist once told us that brother's quality of life is not bad considering the severity of his illness. He lives simply, doesn't hold a job, but he lived with and helped our parents as they aged, and now lives with my widowed sister and helps upkeep her country home. He is a generous fellow who likes to do things for others. Mental illness, even severe, does not equal evil as TWI insisted.

I think about that visit , especially this time of year, which was the time we visited. My dad never got healed, he died the following winter. My mom's disease progressed so she needed 24/7 care until her death, two years later. My older brother is still mentally ill...and none of them expected a miracle like we would have in TWI. There was no sense of condemnation for succumbing to copd or autoimmune illness, no one blamed my bro for being paranoid schizophrenic. Much of that visit was just enjoying the moment, sitting on the deck with dinner on the grill, small children kicking balls on the lawn, or riding around the neighborhood w/grandpa in the golf cart. A gentle, gracious time, with people TWI classified as natural man, not born again Roman Catholics, even devil possessed. And I desperately wanted that type of gentle graciousness in my life. The moment we arrived back in our home, TWI leaders were demanding things. Our area was having leadership go in detail over finances of people in debt(we owed medical bills), there was a branch meeting the day after we got back, be there etc. Nothing gentle, nothing gracious, already condemning us for our failings...it was a huge contrast. <br><br>After we left it did seem to me that something had gone wrong with TWI though for so long it was hard to pinpoint anything. GSC helped unravel the mess, bit by bit.<br>