Raf

Let's put it to the test: The name of the show is "Scream Queens" Who is the actress we're talking about (without looking it up)?

By "reasonably" you mean "probably the first one that comes to mind, though she is not the first or the last... but probably the best known." Right?

Hey folks. We never quite reached our goal last year. I just put in another $100, and though we're not in "official" fundraising campaign time, I still hope we can string a few more donations together to help Pawtucket out. Or not. Your call. Thanks.

Hi Stephen. I'm a moderator on this site now (Modcat5) so sometimes a lot of time passes before I sign on as Raf. Sorry about that. So, here's the quick bio: Nov. 1988: I graduate PFAL. Sometime in 1989: Graduated Intermediate. Spring/Summer 1989: Left the Way along with most of NY State. Summer 1991: Met the first Mrs. Me Fall 1992: Married the first Mrs. Me. 1992-1996: Ran a fellowship in the Bronx. 1993-1999: Worked at a major metropolitan newspaper in NYC famous for having a globe in its lobby, as seen in the 1978 movie Superman. 1997: Split from the first Mrs. Me. 1999: Moved to Florida for another newspaper job. 2000: Met the second Mrs. Me. 2006: Started dating the second Mrs. Me. 2007: Married the second Mrs. Me. 2009: First son born. 2011: Second son born. 2012: After years of struggling with various questions of faith, I realize my worldview makes more sense without a god than with one. 2019: Won a (shared) Pulitzer for coverage of the aftermath of a local tragedy in South Florida. 2021: Mrs. Me and I begin fostering kids.

My official involvement in TWI was brief. My emotional involvement is another story. I was introduced to The Way in late December 1986. It took a lot of persuading, but I finally sat through the class nearly two years later. By then I had sat through dozens of hours of teaching tapes and Way music was part of my regular diet. I even taught a couple of times: Before I took the class! I was not abused in or by The Way. No one hurt me. No one stole my girlfriend or wife. I parted with my money voluntarily. i left because I was loyal to those who were fired en masse in the spring of 1989. Leaving The Way did not affect my worship life one whit. I was of the belief that we who were cast aside were the ones who were truly most loyal to the Word as taught to us by Dr. Wierwille. In the decade that followed, I got married and became a fellowship coordinator at our offshoot in the Bronx. I got divorced and had a crisis of conscience. I tried hard to stay true to Biblical principles no matter who taught them, and to reject non-Biblical principles (again, no matter who taught them). I ceased being loyal to any particular group, defending and challenging various offshoots at various times. I also began attending mainstream churches after I moved to Florida. After my divorce, I discovered this online community of former Way believers. In my naiveté, I guess I must have come off as quite arrogant and inflexible. Honestly, I was not emotionally prepared for the realization that people had such a wide variety of experiences. I think I grew with this site, both in my understanding and in my flexibility, at least when it comes to doctrine. Today I am not a Way believer. I am not a believer in any supernatural religion. I am a humanist: I believe it is incumbent on man to identify and seek to solve the problems we create, so that our progeny can live in a future worth living for. I can work with anyone who has the same belief, whether that belief is driven by an underlying belief similar to mine or by the belief that a Higher Power demands it of us. So be it. I am writing this (and opening this thread) because I wanted to articulate a simple truth: The "members" of this web community are not an ideological monolith. The only thing we have in common appears to be that we sat through some version of a class that The Way called "foundational." Some of us experienced more. Some of us, far less. We are not all here because we were hurt, though some of us were. We are not all here because we are bitter, though some of us are. We are not all here because we hate God or the Word. Some of us love both with all our hearts. Others would no sooner hate God than Godzilla, for all their ability to demonstrate their existence. We are in various states of personal recovery. Honestly, I'm here out of habit. I've been done with this stuff for years. But now and then I am called upon to explain some of the things I wrote when I was young, idealistic, and enthusiastic about my faith. What about the Blue Book review and Actual Errors? The Blue Book Review (look it up) is a sincere effort by a sincere Christian to weed out truth from error in the works of VPW. Actual Errors, while limited in scope and purpose, was apparently QUITE influential despite itself. It was, at its heart, a defense of the class and the collaterals: A defense against an effort to exalt them above the Word we purported to believe. It was never intended to be an attack on PFAL. It was intended to be a recognition of the obvious: That PFAL was not perfect. That discussion died out years and years ago. But not and then it comes back up, and my name is attached to it. So now and then I remind people what it was all about. From the horse's mouth, as it were. Anyway, back to this thread: There is no single "why I left the way" experience. There is no single "why I'm still out" experience. We are individuals. We are here to give a reason for where we are today. Just ask us.

Oooh, did this just become a Mike thread? Sign me up! Just kidding. To each his own.

Ah, Japan. The nation with the highest vaccination rate, where everyone wears masks. Imagine that.

Free post. Signed, Raf.

That is a powerful analogy, STL. An instruction book that needs instruction books to interpret its instructions isn't much of an instruction book at all, is it? I would only answer that the "Word of God" is the instruction manual, that it is not complicated, and that it is not the Bible. If I were a believer, that is.

I was laughing because I just used the movies that you had already referred to in a previous clue. Gene autrey. I am crying.

Henry Church Jack McCall Reggie Hammond Chandler Jarrell

Not Gene Autry. This guy's movies are far more famous than his characters' names. I'm also fairly confident not one of these characters is a cowboy.

Evan Danielson Charlie Hinton Trey Sellars Kit Ramsay Thomas Jefferson Johnson

Lies about India, then blames politics. Pathetic.

Dude gets his facts prom demonstrated liars and calls other people "shallow." Why did you lie about India, Allan?

Typical b.s. You know who DOESN'T get to fact check the fact checkers? The people busted lying about kids and Covid. The people busted lying about India. People busted lying about Italy's death count and the role of comorbidities.

He played: James Early Jim Evans Randy Watson

Thank you, Waysider, for correcting the misinformation that gets spread in the name of open-mindedness. You know, just because people are feeding on bad Intel doesn't mean "the jury is out." Spreading that LIE endangers lives.

A playful dig about an older white guy's inability to recall a major movie centered on a Black main character and cast could have come off as funny or accusatory. So I chose not to go there. I did say in one of the clues we were overlooking a major theme, followed by "It matters." Too subtle?

I would take crap that doesn't work over science that does any day of the week, and if you don't agree with me you're in a cult! Honestly.

And yeah, I would say Denzel Washington's performance as Malcolm X was more iconic than whoever he played in Training Day. Not saying he did a bad job. I think an argument can be made that if Washington had won for Malcolm X 10 years earlier, Will Smith would have won the award for his performance in Ali.

Yea, keep doing that face palm thing there, buddy. I was gonna play the race card on this one, but decided that would do more harm than good. :) Denzel lost to Al Pacino Hooah! Spike Lee and the movie were not. even. nominated. James Baldwin wrote a draft of the screenplay, based on the Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley, author of Roots. It's Malcolm X, not Malcolm Part 10. You don't need to watch the first nine. Dave Chapelle parodies the "hoodwinked, bamboozled, Plymouth Rock" speech, substituting Sherwood Forest, in Robin Hood, Men in Tights. Had I said ANYTHING about this being Black-centric, you'd have guessed it in 4.2 seconds. But Baldwin was known as a pre-eminent voice in Black America. I thought his name would be clue enough. Intersect it with Mecca being important to Muslims, and you have Black Muslims. If you didn't guess Malcolm X from THAT, you're playing the wrong game. Name that Tune from the Title is a few threads down. Denzel Washington, snubbed for Malcolm X, lost to Al Pacino but went on to win Best Actor for Training Day. Al Pacino, snubbed for Godfather II, lost to Art Carney, but went on to win Best Actor for Scent of a Woman. Spike Lee really did suggest kids skip school to watch his movie. It was self serving advice, but not bad advice, to be honest.

Hey, speaking of the whole country of India, did you see the one where the whole country of India said "hey, stop using Ivermectin to treat COVID: It doesn't work. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Task Force on Covid-19 have dropped the use of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drugs from their revised guidelines for the treatment of the infection. The decision was taken after experts found that these drugs have little to no effect on Covid-related mortality or clinical recovery of the patient. Studies also found there was no clarity on mortality benefit, no effect on length of hospital stay and recovery in case of Ivermectin. Recommending that Ivermectin be dropped from the clinical guidance, experts cited 13 systematic reviews of which “7/13 showed mortality benefit, 4/13 no mortality benefit, 2/13 inconclusive/unclear.” https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/why-hcq-ivermectin-dropped-india-covid-treatment-protocol-1857306-2021-09-26 https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/2021/09/25/india-de-approves-hydroxycholoquine-and-ivermectin

More on the guy who wrote a good chunk of the screenplay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin

The majority of the movie takes place in the USA. Mecca is just a place visited by the main character, as required. It is NOT a sequel. You do not need to watch parts I-IX to understand what's going on.