Yep I am one who left several years after 2000 rolled in. My husband was ready to leave after the lawsuits--but was scared to tell me. I was ready to leave 3 years later but I was scared to tell him. We finally faced our fears and talked to each other before, during and after the Advanced Class (not-so) Special in 2004. We were really hoping that things would start to be different than they had been. It was so lifeless and dead by then to be in twi.
Oh the weight and burden that was lifted off of our shoulders when we finally left!! We had no idea the oppression we had been under. It took leaving to almost immediately recognize how much life had been sucked out of us. Even more subtly, I had no idea that at some point leadership had become my lord. They told us what to study, how to take care of our people we coordinated and so much more. It was awesome to get re-acquainted with my REAL Lord--though sobering and accompanied by much repenting for many things I had not realized ever before.
I left in January 2000 for several reasons but the main one being that I was tired of being treated like I was 12 years old, when I was about to turn 30. I was sick of filling out a stupid form so I could visit my widowed mother in the next state. I hated the weekly/monthly schedules we had to turn in. I thought it was absolutely nuts I got called on the carpet - before the leadership in the entire region - because I went to my 10th year high school reunion by myself. (Even tho I'd turned in the paper work to attend, etc., well in advanced.)
I left because I saw how people scrambled to prepare for Y2K but then nothing happened - and anyone with a brain to think would have told you it was going to be a tiny bleep on the radar. It was a total non-event for third world countries - but yet TWI wanted to crow about saving the world from the adversary once again. Oh, gag.
Yep, I wasn't buying it anymore. Life is too short.
But the short version is that for years I had put aside any doubts about the doctrinal correctness in PFAL and had chalked up problems with people as isolated incidents. I had been inactive from late 1983 to 1990 and missed the uproar that followed Wierwille's death. The only side that I heard when I got back in during 1990 was Martindale's in the "Leader's" Tapes.
It was the lawsuit that opened the floodgates for me and got me seriously thinking. I saw the inconsistancies in the Trustees' stories and wondered why we should accept anything that Martindale said without thoroughly checking it out. I spent a year reviewing the Way of Abundance and Power class segment by segment, amassing a huge collection of obvious errors. I went to John Reynolds with my concerns, John referred me to Region Coordinator Tom Horrocks who Reynolds said would be worked the Word in preparation for teaching WayAP live in my city. Horrocks assured me that he didn't need to work The Word on this class: the Trustees had okayed it and that was enough for him. I began leaking insider information to GreaseSpot Cafe and was eventually caught by the WayGB. I was told that I was no longer welcome at Way functions because I "didn't believe that the Trustees were leading the ministry in the right direction".
They said "I didnt believe the trustees were leading the ministry in the right dirrection"
What direction were they leading?Straight to hell.
Good for you Oak!I know I lurked and read your posts,Finally in late 2000,I said that door to door was an old wineskin and would not go,immediatly it was a personal issue with the "household co-ordinators"
wife.Said i did not like her! When confronted on the phone,I was confronted with finances,I yelled it is
none of your business and hung up.Never to go back!
I know I haven't been around in a while, but I stopped in and saw this thread and I think I'm hooked on the old greasespot coffee again...
My husband and I left around the end of 2006. He had not been involved for that long, but I had been since a child... I think he saw things before I did, simply because he hadn't been raised to think twi was perfect. Took me longer than him to see it... and then it was because I got bored.
Bored with going to the same fellowship every week twice a week. And by this I don't mean I got tired of attending at the same place with the same people (even though the number of people kept getting smaller by the week)... Nope. I got bored of having the exact same fellowship every single time I went. The order of service never changed. The prayers were the same every time. The manifestations were the same every time... The teachings were read from cards, and sometimes people never even cracked a Bible - they just read from a VPW book or a Way Mag article. ***t! I can do that myself... A person with a second grade reading level could do that for themselves.
So, of course, I got so bored I started thinking. And questioning... and then when I got a chance to teach I went off the beaten path and taught about OTHER RESEARCH MATERIALS available ONLINE (gasp! shudder!!)
And then I got a talking to.... and went back to being bored in an effort to please God.
But I was still thinking... and looking at what had happened within twi with the lawsuits... and then I got tired of being controlled by people who were boring the crap out of me...
And I started talking to other people and finding out it wasn't just me and my dear husband who were thinking like this. No one talks about it publically, but a lot of people involved in twi are just hanging in there thinking it is going to get better when the Fox steps down and they get a new president... And a lot of them are just thankful they don't get reamed every five minutes by a LCM wannabe.
By that time, my husband (who was also bored out of his skull) decided it just wasn't worth his time anymore, so we faded into the background and disappeared.
I think they let us disappear simply because they thought we were trouble causers and that we were still hanging out with people who had left twi. Imagine that! We were remaining friends with those SINNERS.
Funny thing is... I didn't even realize until this year just how f***ed up my thinking had become while involved in twi. I was severely depressed... and the more I looked back on things that I had done and thought during that time period, the more disgusted with myself I became... I don't even recognize that person I was anymore. It seems almost like I was possessed (to use a twi term).
Things are better now. Been going to therapy to get over what is termed "spiritual abuse" by my therapist. But I won't go into that here... there's a lot of crap that happened to me and my family because of twi before I decided to get out, but strangely, that didn't figure in much to why I left. I think I was so busy trying to simply SURVIVE within the "Household of God" so that I didn't get kicked out into the wilderness where I would die like Ananias and Saphira that I didn't have time to really THINK until I got bored...
Makes total sense, Jane. Thanks for adding to the thread.
I think there are a lot of bored people still in. How can they not be. They just keep telling themselves "it is the accuracy of the Word, not the excitement." Wrong on both accounts!
Thanks for the "cuppa Joe, without the java jive." ; )
... there's a lot of crap that happened to me and my family because of twi before I decided to get out, but strangely, that didn't figure in much to why I left. I think I was so busy trying to simply SURVIVE within the "Household of God" so that I didn't get kicked out into the wilderness where I would die like Ananias and Saphira that I didn't have time to really THINK until I got bored...
if any of that makes sense...?
That is a very accurate description of what happens! Thanks for posting.
Makes total sense, Jane. Thanks for adding to the thread.
I think there are a lot of bored people still in. How can they not be. They just keep telling themselves "it is the accuracy of the Word, not the excitement." Wrong on both accounts!
Thanks for the "cuppa Joe, without the java jive." ; )
Yeah, I can definitely see the boredom aspect. It seems to me that people would just get bored with all this dry ideology of trying to understand something through human searching. I know I would. TWI calls itself a research and teaching ministry dedicated to finding the accuracy of the Bible. Research, accuracy, teaching...where is the relationship with God? Where is the mystery? Love is the greatest mystery of all and it is at the very heart of Christianity. It's incomprehensible, and to say that we can have some sort of special knowledge of God or to say that we're completely right and we have the full truth through our fallible human eyes is nothing but pride. Even though I believe Christianity is the truth that God's revealed to us, I think it's merely a reflection of a far greater truth that is beyond all comprehension, but at the same time is able to be experienced and felt. That is the excitement of Christianity! Knowing the unknowable but still realizing that you will never fully know; a continual searching and finding of the Truth that never gets old because it has no end.
I left in January 2000 for several reasons but the main one being that I was tired of being treated like I was 12 years old, when I was about to turn 30. I was sick of filling out a stupid form so I could visit my widowed mother in the next state. I hated the weekly/monthly schedules we had to turn in. I thought it was absolutely nuts I got called on the carpet - before the leadership in the entire region - because I went to my 10th year high school reunion by myself. (Even tho I'd turned in the paper work to attend, etc., well in advanced.)
I left because I saw how people scrambled to prepare for Y2K but then nothing happened - and anyone with a brain to think would have told you it was going to be a tiny bleep on the radar. It was a total non-event for third world countries - but yet TWI wanted to crow about saving the world from the adversary once again. Oh, gag.
Yep, I wasn't buying it anymore. Life is too short.
Short version - I was "allowed to leave" after getting caught sending research proving the fallacy of their "no debt" policy to someone at headquarters....well, that, and under suspicion of being an insurgent poster at WayDale and here at the Cafe.
I had grown weary of being oppressed and micro-managed in every aspect of my life. The lawsuits (and resulting demands to stay off the internet) gave me a reason to look, which is when I found WayDale and then the Cafe.
Looking back at your story and this topic of the boredom of the Way in the 21st century got me laughing (my wierd sense of humor popping up again.)
Is it me or were the late 90's and the post 2000 TWI days like being in the cult of Office Space?
"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and get me those ABS reports ASAP, and don't forget your monthly budget and weekly schedule as well, thanks. Oh and ah, Belle, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and work this weekend. We're moving and we need you help move some boxes to the new basement. Yeah, thanks, yer the best!"
"Yeah, uh, Lindy, how many pieces of flare (read TWI promo items, books, and posters) do you have up in you living room. We require you to have at least fifteen pieces of flare in your fellowship living room."
The silly demands, boredom, and monotony eventual drive us to go mid-evil (read "full sharing") on a fax machine or the telephone during a phone hookup. "What? You want me to stand and clap even though we're not actually in the same state, let alone the same room, as this guy? I want to do the lame Singing Ladies gesture dancing here in your living room, cause I'm imagining that I'm on the stage with them RIGHT NOW! I got your ABS reports right here! Phone hookup THIS!" (dramatization)
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penguin
Yep I am one who left several years after 2000 rolled in. My husband was ready to leave after the lawsuits--but was scared to tell me. I was ready to leave 3 years later but I was scared to tell him. We finally faced our fears and talked to each other before, during and after the Advanced Class (not-so) Special in 2004. We were really hoping that things would start to be different than they had been. It was so lifeless and dead by then to be in twi.
Oh the weight and burden that was lifted off of our shoulders when we finally left!! We had no idea the oppression we had been under. It took leaving to almost immediately recognize how much life had been sucked out of us. Even more subtly, I had no idea that at some point leadership had become my lord. They told us what to study, how to take care of our people we coordinated and so much more. It was awesome to get re-acquainted with my REAL Lord--though sobering and accompanied by much repenting for many things I had not realized ever before.
Life is awesome now. I have joy again!
Blessings!
Penguin
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ChasUFarley
I left in January 2000 for several reasons but the main one being that I was tired of being treated like I was 12 years old, when I was about to turn 30. I was sick of filling out a stupid form so I could visit my widowed mother in the next state. I hated the weekly/monthly schedules we had to turn in. I thought it was absolutely nuts I got called on the carpet - before the leadership in the entire region - because I went to my 10th year high school reunion by myself. (Even tho I'd turned in the paper work to attend, etc., well in advanced.)
I left because I saw how people scrambled to prepare for Y2K but then nothing happened - and anyone with a brain to think would have told you it was going to be a tiny bleep on the radar. It was a total non-event for third world countries - but yet TWI wanted to crow about saving the world from the adversary once again. Oh, gag.
Yep, I wasn't buying it anymore. Life is too short.
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anotherDan
I hope more of your "new-agers" will share. Penguin, your post was delightful. So happy for you!
thanks, Lindy, for starting it
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Oakspear
Well, the long story is here:
http://www.greasespotcafe.com/ipb/index.ph...ic=838&st=0
But the short version is that for years I had put aside any doubts about the doctrinal correctness in PFAL and had chalked up problems with people as isolated incidents. I had been inactive from late 1983 to 1990 and missed the uproar that followed Wierwille's death. The only side that I heard when I got back in during 1990 was Martindale's in the "Leader's" Tapes.
It was the lawsuit that opened the floodgates for me and got me seriously thinking. I saw the inconsistancies in the Trustees' stories and wondered why we should accept anything that Martindale said without thoroughly checking it out. I spent a year reviewing the Way of Abundance and Power class segment by segment, amassing a huge collection of obvious errors. I went to John Reynolds with my concerns, John referred me to Region Coordinator Tom Horrocks who Reynolds said would be worked the Word in preparation for teaching WayAP live in my city. Horrocks assured me that he didn't need to work The Word on this class: the Trustees had okayed it and that was enough for him. I began leaking insider information to GreaseSpot Cafe and was eventually caught by the WayGB. I was told that I was no longer welcome at Way functions because I "didn't believe that the Trustees were leading the ministry in the right direction".
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frank123lol
They said "I didnt believe the trustees were leading the ministry in the right dirrection"
What direction were they leading?Straight to hell.
Good for you Oak!I know I lurked and read your posts,Finally in late 2000,I said that door to door was an old wineskin and would not go,immediatly it was a personal issue with the "household co-ordinators"
wife.Said i did not like her! When confronted on the phone,I was confronted with finances,I yelled it is
none of your business and hung up.Never to go back!
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JavaJane
I know I haven't been around in a while, but I stopped in and saw this thread and I think I'm hooked on the old greasespot coffee again...
My husband and I left around the end of 2006. He had not been involved for that long, but I had been since a child... I think he saw things before I did, simply because he hadn't been raised to think twi was perfect. Took me longer than him to see it... and then it was because I got bored.
Bored with going to the same fellowship every week twice a week. And by this I don't mean I got tired of attending at the same place with the same people (even though the number of people kept getting smaller by the week)... Nope. I got bored of having the exact same fellowship every single time I went. The order of service never changed. The prayers were the same every time. The manifestations were the same every time... The teachings were read from cards, and sometimes people never even cracked a Bible - they just read from a VPW book or a Way Mag article. ***t! I can do that myself... A person with a second grade reading level could do that for themselves.
So, of course, I got so bored I started thinking. And questioning... and then when I got a chance to teach I went off the beaten path and taught about OTHER RESEARCH MATERIALS available ONLINE (gasp! shudder!!)
And then I got a talking to.... and went back to being bored in an effort to please God.
But I was still thinking... and looking at what had happened within twi with the lawsuits... and then I got tired of being controlled by people who were boring the crap out of me...
And I started talking to other people and finding out it wasn't just me and my dear husband who were thinking like this. No one talks about it publically, but a lot of people involved in twi are just hanging in there thinking it is going to get better when the Fox steps down and they get a new president... And a lot of them are just thankful they don't get reamed every five minutes by a LCM wannabe.
By that time, my husband (who was also bored out of his skull) decided it just wasn't worth his time anymore, so we faded into the background and disappeared.
I think they let us disappear simply because they thought we were trouble causers and that we were still hanging out with people who had left twi. Imagine that! We were remaining friends with those SINNERS.
Funny thing is... I didn't even realize until this year just how f***ed up my thinking had become while involved in twi. I was severely depressed... and the more I looked back on things that I had done and thought during that time period, the more disgusted with myself I became... I don't even recognize that person I was anymore. It seems almost like I was possessed (to use a twi term).
Things are better now. Been going to therapy to get over what is termed "spiritual abuse" by my therapist. But I won't go into that here... there's a lot of crap that happened to me and my family because of twi before I decided to get out, but strangely, that didn't figure in much to why I left. I think I was so busy trying to simply SURVIVE within the "Household of God" so that I didn't get kicked out into the wilderness where I would die like Ananias and Saphira that I didn't have time to really THINK until I got bored...
if any of that makes sense...?
Nice to be back,
JavaJane
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lindyhopper
Makes total sense, Jane. Thanks for adding to the thread.
I think there are a lot of bored people still in. How can they not be. They just keep telling themselves "it is the accuracy of the Word, not the excitement." Wrong on both accounts!
Thanks for the "cuppa Joe, without the java jive." ; )
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TheHighWay
That is a very accurate description of what happens! Thanks for posting.
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Brushstroke
Yeah, I can definitely see the boredom aspect. It seems to me that people would just get bored with all this dry ideology of trying to understand something through human searching. I know I would. TWI calls itself a research and teaching ministry dedicated to finding the accuracy of the Bible. Research, accuracy, teaching...where is the relationship with God? Where is the mystery? Love is the greatest mystery of all and it is at the very heart of Christianity. It's incomprehensible, and to say that we can have some sort of special knowledge of God or to say that we're completely right and we have the full truth through our fallible human eyes is nothing but pride. Even though I believe Christianity is the truth that God's revealed to us, I think it's merely a reflection of a far greater truth that is beyond all comprehension, but at the same time is able to be experienced and felt. That is the excitement of Christianity! Knowing the unknowable but still realizing that you will never fully know; a continual searching and finding of the Truth that never gets old because it has no end.
But I'm rambling. I'll shut up now.
~Phil
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TheHighWay
But it was a good ramble...
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brideofjc
Yup! A very serious case of FREIK-CONTROL-ITIS
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Belle
JJ, I think the boredom led a lot of folks to looking around and starting to wonder what the heck they were doing. :)
The long version of my story is here and here.
Short version - I was "allowed to leave" after getting caught sending research proving the fallacy of their "no debt" policy to someone at headquarters....well, that, and under suspicion of being an insurgent poster at WayDale and here at the Cafe.
I had grown weary of being oppressed and micro-managed in every aspect of my life. The lawsuits (and resulting demands to stay off the internet) gave me a reason to look, which is when I found WayDale and then the Cafe.
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frank123lol
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likeaneagle
I left in 2000 because I decided not to go back:)
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lindyhopper
Hi Belle!
Looking back at your story and this topic of the boredom of the Way in the 21st century got me laughing (my wierd sense of humor popping up again.)
Is it me or were the late 90's and the post 2000 TWI days like being in the cult of Office Space?
"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and get me those ABS reports ASAP, and don't forget your monthly budget and weekly schedule as well, thanks. Oh and ah, Belle, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and work this weekend. We're moving and we need you help move some boxes to the new basement. Yeah, thanks, yer the best!"
"Yeah, uh, Lindy, how many pieces of flare (read TWI promo items, books, and posters) do you have up in you living room. We require you to have at least fifteen pieces of flare in your fellowship living room."
The silly demands, boredom, and monotony eventual drive us to go mid-evil (read "full sharing") on a fax machine or the telephone during a phone hookup. "What? You want me to stand and clap even though we're not actually in the same state, let alone the same room, as this guy? I want to do the lame Singing Ladies gesture dancing here in your living room, cause I'm imagining that I'm on the stage with them RIGHT NOW! I got your ABS reports right here! Phone hookup THIS!" (dramatization)
LOL, oh boy did we really put up with this sh!t?
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frank123lol
Yes,The standing up for some guy in nana land was a little much!!Heavy on the sarcasm
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