Leadership Tapes I & II / Galatians Tapes

[TheHighWay]

Okay, I've dug out my notes on these sessions.

Based on the dates, locations, and my vague memories Craig first started sharing this stuff with the 17th corps the night before their graduation. By the time corps week came along he'd decided there was enough important stuff in that one sharing that he simply played the recording of it for the rest of the corps, calling it the Galatians tapes. Then, as the year progressed, he decided to play the tapes for the folks on the field (calling them the Leadership Tapes) and eventually he added more info and they ran Leadership Tapes II the following spring on the field. At some point (I forget if it was for LTI or LTII) they made listening to them mandatory for all Advanced Class grads or you were considered disloyal and rebellious and booted from twi.

Basically what these tapes are about is Craig explaining to his own satisfaction what happened during the FOG years. He said he thought that the only way to heal from the CG experience was to examine it closely and he used two word studies to back that up -- tarasso and luo. He said that any believer could get all scrambled up (tarasso) and make bad decisions and that the way to combat that is to rebuild the Word in your thinking step by step so you are strong enough not to get tricked next time. He spoke about the fruit of the spirit superceding the law, and to "Let your LOVE abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment" (Phil).

He then went on to say that you can tell who is causing division by their actions and its outcomes (works) and that the way to defeat the works of the devil is to dismantle them piece by piece (luo) by teaching the Word (which exposes the devil's works) and by not compramising or hiding from the truth. He then spent a great deal of time going through Job, equating the miserable comforters to CG and the others. And, as others have mentioned he goes into a lengthy list of devil spirits that Chris Geer "must" have been operating in order to pull off such a deception on the BOT and the Believers, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The truly sad thing is that many of the things he said about CG and company could very easily be used to describe HIM and his following of mini-mogs! --- I marvel that I couldn't see that at the time. I was such a stooge!

And, much like the last time I sat through WAP, he would teach something accurately straight out of the Bible but anyone who had been involved with twi long knew that it wasn't what was being practiced!! For instance:

"To destroy his works, we help people. We cannot afford to be selfish." and "If your intent in reproof is to make someone feel bad or to show how much smarter you are than everyone else in the room, you are out of alignment and harmony." ---- HAH! Anyone who sat through a reproof session in the 1900s knows this was EXACTLY the attitude of a lot of the leadership at the time, and if they didn't act this way Craig castigated them in front of everyone during corps night, parading out all their faults and foibles for all to jeer over.

I swear, reading back over my notes it was hard to make sense of them now... first because there were big gaps where I just listened (or fought to stay awake) and didn't write much down, and second because it's all such BS!!

So VERY glad I'm out!!

[Bramble]

We heard these tapes twice, once in 90 with 'leadership'( we ran a small town twig) and once in the limb city on an Advanced class weekend.

Being in a small town, we were out of the loop. The corps who left in our area--and we only knew a few, none lived in our town--were jerks, and we had no reason to flee with them. We had a nice little twig of families from small towns in the area, hardworking decent people without tons of money. Hubby and I were the only ones that had ever been wow or attended the Rock regularly, and we quit doing the rock when the babies showed up. We wanted to keep our fellowship together, which we did through the fog years until 93/94 when we lost our co-ord status due to debt and mortgage.

Neither of us had read Passing of the Patriarch and we heard conflicting views about it. Never heard of the adultry paper until we found GSC. So we were naive, to say the least. We stayed due to personalities, really. The local corps who were jerks left, a couple a great corps folks we knew stayed in--we followed.

The freaky deeky devil spirit stuff in the tapes wasn't all that different from tales we heard over the years from believers who dealt with 'devil spirits'.

We wanted to believe that the ministy was a true movement of God. We really latched onto the luo and terraso teachings because they made so much sense to our mind frames at the time. We were going to save the Word for our children. Yup.

[TheHighWay]

We heard these tapes twice, once in 90 with 'leadership'( we ran a small town twig) and once in the limb city on an Advanced class weekend.

Now that you mention it, I think my second set of notes from the field were from an Advanced Class Weekend. I had forgotten they started doing those locally.

The freaky deeky devil spirit stuff in the tapes wasn't all that different from tales we heard over the years from believers who dealt with 'devil spirits'.

We wanted to believe that the ministy was a true movement of God. We really latched onto the luo and terraso teachings because they made so much sense to our mind frames at the time.

Agreed. It all seemed normal and even "good" to me at the time.

[ChasUFarley]

I do not take that as a contradiction or disrespect, it's just more information. Usually "the present truth" is just the spin on the past truth. So what I was told I completely accept as being wrong information, after all it is TWI we are talking about.

Thanks for the update,

Seth

Thanks for understanding - I've had people jump down my throat lately for much less.

[ChasUFarley]

Neither of us had read Passing of the Patriarch and we heard conflicting views about it. Never heard of the adultry paper until we found GSC. So we were naive, to say the least. We stayed due to personalities, really. The local corps who were jerks left, a couple a great corps folks we knew stayed in--we followed.

The freaky deeky devil spirit stuff in the tapes wasn't all that different from tales we heard over the years from believers who dealt with 'devil spirits'.

We wanted to believe that the ministy was a true movement of God. We really latched onto the luo and terraso teachings because they made so much sense to our mind frames at the time. We were going to save the Word for our children. Yup.

I think your situation was similar to many other people's situation. If you weren't WC and privy to the POP news and rumors that were flying around, then you had no real basis (facts) for forming an opinion. You knew something was wrong but didn't know who/what to believe any more.

For example, I remember hearing a few rumors while I was at my first ROA in 1989, but nothing more than people standing in little groups, whispering to each other or asking where so-and-so was that year to find out they'd left the ministry. From a newbie's perspective (and a teenager, at the time) I didn't think much of it and it didn't phase me.

Incidentally, I joined a local church here in my area a few years back and there was somewhat of a leadership upheaval going on with people leaving, whispering rumors, etc. - I got the hell out there as quickly as I could. No thanks - I'm not going thru that again!

I think for those of us who weren't "leadership", the tapes were the best information we had to go by at the time and many formed their decision on whether to go or stay based on the teachings and information from the tapes.

I also remember LCM mentioning a lot more than CG as leadership with "problems" - I think he called them "cop-outs" - and named a laundry list of people who had left. He painted them with a broad paint brush of being possessed with familiar spirits or other "devilish" things. I don't think the words "marked and avoid" were used for that be we were told not to associate or believe them - does anyone remember that???

[Oakspear]

I also remember LCM mentioning a lot more than CG as leadership with "problems" - I think he called them "cop-outs" - and named a laundry list of people who had left.

This was so long ago and with no notes, but I don't remember that. In fact I do remember wondering just who the heck had left and who we should be avoiding.