People stay or stayed because it became their whole frame of reference... We are pack animals we need and want to live with other humans and we prefer that they have similar interests to us.. similar activities.
People were effectively cut off from any or almost any outside influence. They had no way to tell if things were normal any more. Also the changes were gradual.
Also it is one thing to sit here and say oh all this was going on but really no one knew about everything
you knew your little picture of TWI.
I know for a fact because of how things were run when I left versus how they were run by the time it was 2000 versus how it is run now are very different situations.
There were things that were wrong form the beginning but no group or church is perfect.. so you recognize that and choose to stay.
You are deeply ingrained in it before you have enough pieces of the puzzle to see it is an issue.
People stay or stayed because it became their whole frame of reference...
SNIP
People were effectively cut off from any or almost any outside influence. They had no way to tell if things were normal any more.
Also it is one thing to sit here and say oh all this was going on but really no one knew about everything
you knew your little picture of TWI.
SNIP
This describes Fellow Laborers to a tee.
While it was a requirement of the program to have a "9-5" secular job, we were instructed to use those jobs as a vehicle to witness, use our breaks and lunch to sign people up for PLAF (The Wonder Class) and turn our leads over to local leadership for "undershepharding" purposes. If the job was such that it didn't allow for that, we were to find another job. Outside of that 8 hour time slot time in the outside world, every other moment of our lives was focused on the "program" from 5am until midnight, every day. All 50 of us lived in a block of 8 rented townhouses 30 minutes away from limb HQ. We were on the outskirts of town. There were no phones (except the very public phone at The Wayside Truck Stop) Almost any call being made was subject to long distance charges that none of us could afford. We didn't have T.V.s. There was no time to read periodicals. We were forbidden to date outside the program. It was hard to witness to people at work when you didn't even know what was on T.V. or happening in the outside world. Our existence was, indeed, isolated. We knew precious little of what was going on in other areas of TWI or anywhere else, for that matter. We really didn't have any way to know what "normal" was anymore.
and every time we were told to flip a switch, we did it because it wasn't so much more than we'd already suffered or given up or inflicted on others, including spouses, children, friends, and fellow twiggies.
Every person is responsible for their own actions...I believe that there's a mental "line of demarcation" where people decide whether to "follow orders" or take the independant action of thinking and acting on their own accord.
It took me 13 years to decide on my own that twi was bogus and it was time to move on. It took that long for me to gather the sufficient information to come to that decision. People will choose what they believe is the right thing...they may be right or they may be wrong...but the point is to DECIDE FOR YOURSELF.
Too many people delegate that decision to others..."I will do what the mog tells me to do" syndrome...and that was what Wierwille banked on to achieve his "kingdom". He was a conman and we were the conned.
Stayed too long?...if you were there for 5 minutes, it was 5 minutes too long.
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leafytwiglet
People stay or stayed because it became their whole frame of reference... We are pack animals we need and want to live with other humans and we prefer that they have similar interests to us.. similar activities.
People were effectively cut off from any or almost any outside influence. They had no way to tell if things were normal any more. Also the changes were gradual.
Also it is one thing to sit here and say oh all this was going on but really no one knew about everything
you knew your little picture of TWI.
I know for a fact because of how things were run when I left versus how they were run by the time it was 2000 versus how it is run now are very different situations.
There were things that were wrong form the beginning but no group or church is perfect.. so you recognize that and choose to stay.
You are deeply ingrained in it before you have enough pieces of the puzzle to see it is an issue.
Then it is difficult to extract your self.
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waysider
This describes Fellow Laborers to a tee.
While it was a requirement of the program to have a "9-5" secular job, we were instructed to use those jobs as a vehicle to witness, use our breaks and lunch to sign people up for PLAF (The Wonder Class) and turn our leads over to local leadership for "undershepharding" purposes. If the job was such that it didn't allow for that, we were to find another job. Outside of that 8 hour time slot time in the outside world, every other moment of our lives was focused on the "program" from 5am until midnight, every day. All 50 of us lived in a block of 8 rented townhouses 30 minutes away from limb HQ. We were on the outskirts of town. There were no phones (except the very public phone at The Wayside Truck Stop) Almost any call being made was subject to long distance charges that none of us could afford. We didn't have T.V.s. There was no time to read periodicals. We were forbidden to date outside the program. It was hard to witness to people at work when you didn't even know what was on T.V. or happening in the outside world. Our existence was, indeed, isolated. We knew precious little of what was going on in other areas of TWI or anywhere else, for that matter. We really didn't have any way to know what "normal" was anymore.
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pond
I thought they loved me.
I thought they wanted good things for me and my family.
I thought they loved god and jesus christ as much as I .
I thought they had special answers to my wondering mind about God .
that is why I stayed.
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potato
and every time we were told to flip a switch, we did it because it wasn't so much more than we'd already suffered or given up or inflicted on others, including spouses, children, friends, and fellow twiggies.
eventually you can be convinced that 2+2=5.
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waysider
Some of us did, Pond.
Some of did.
(Except for the part about having "special answers".)
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GrouchoMarxJr
Every person is responsible for their own actions...I believe that there's a mental "line of demarcation" where people decide whether to "follow orders" or take the independant action of thinking and acting on their own accord.
It took me 13 years to decide on my own that twi was bogus and it was time to move on. It took that long for me to gather the sufficient information to come to that decision. People will choose what they believe is the right thing...they may be right or they may be wrong...but the point is to DECIDE FOR YOURSELF.
Too many people delegate that decision to others..."I will do what the mog tells me to do" syndrome...and that was what Wierwille banked on to achieve his "kingdom". He was a conman and we were the conned.
Stayed too long?...if you were there for 5 minutes, it was 5 minutes too long.
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Nottawayfer
OMG! That is soooo true especially when you put a spiritual twist on it like TWI tried to do to with EVERYTHING!!
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