I have seen this so many times I have lost count. way corps are assigned a non-full time position on the field. Said way corps have professional careers and savings, etc. They spend time putting their resume out and all the while waiting for the right job offer they are hounded relentlessly by their leadership to "get a job - any job."
Of course my experience is that the corps folks keep up the job hunt, find an acceptable offer, and are congratulated for their faithfulness and believing by the same idiots endeavoring to pressure them into low paying, menial labor that they are way over qualified for. What's up with this practice? Anyone else deal with / witness this sort of harassment and double talk?
This was one of the many travesties of many of the very talented and educated followers of the day. I got involved with TWI while in college. I saw many way followers never realize the fruits of their hard work getting an education never really use their degree, at least not until leaving. I could never really understand why the "brass" would not want these people to aspire to professional success. This would have put much more "ABS" into the way coffers as well as given the ministry more legitimacy within the community.
I have seen this so many times I have lost count. way corps are assigned a non-full time position on the field. Said way corps have professional careers and savings, etc. They spend time putting their resume out and all the while waiting for the right job offer they are hounded relentlessly by their leadership to "get a job - any job."
Of course my experience is that the corps folks keep up the job hunt, find an acceptable offer, and are congratulated for their faithfulness and believing by the same idiots endeavoring to pressure them into low paying, menial labor that they are way over qualified for. What's up with this practice? Anyone else deal with / witness this sort of harassment and double talk?
Absolutely. I have taken minimum wage jobs during a job search because of this type of pressure. I also know plenty of people who are completely jerked around by this type of thing. "Come work for us, go back to 'secular work', oh, now come work for us again". It's all what is convenient for the flesh-trading BOD and what their extremely short-sighted BS attitudes are on what is best for the ministry.
Actually, I think early on I was told that placements were done with 2 things in mind: 1) What is best for the individual, and 2) What is best for the ministry. I remember when there was one of those "please speak up to us to make the ministry better" pushes commenting on this, how the individual and their needs were no longer being considered. So then we were told we were "complaining", and they changed the statement to 1) What is best for the ministry, and added the phrase "because what is best for the ministry WILL be what is best for the individual". This is kind of like Ruppenheimer's comment to you on how service would produce all the healing you need - ignore the medical advice. What a bunch of j@ck@sses.
In reality, they are just a bunch of selfish SOB's that are too d@mn lazy to actually care about their people, don't want to put forth minimal effort to know details about their lives to help them, and most decisions are made just because they are d@mn cheapskates and want to horde all that money at the farm rather than being honest and caring for their employees.
One other case in point. When people like get kicked out of a root location, they generally dictate to them that they will not pay for a move beyond 250 miles from the location. So you see people scattered around areas of Ohio, and in the past Kansas, Indiana, Colorado, all because of the cheap b@stard syndrome.
Guess what, clueless idiots on the BOD. You know how you like to harp on the law of believing? Well there's another law. What man sows, that he will also reap. And the future for your harvest is little to no leaders and correspondingly little to no people. Which really is what you want shown by your actions anyway. But that is all how it should be that your little podunc organization withers away and dies so your power to abuse people diminishes by the year.
This would have put much more "ABS" into the way coffers as well as given the ministry more legitimacy within the community.
I think they were/are more concerned with expanding the core base of people that ABS rather than focusing on increasing individual amounts. I'm not sure creating a veneer of legitimacy in the community was ever a high priority.
Apparently, there was a couple here - Joe and Paula - I think, their names escape me now.... They had great paying jobs and a custom built house with a full on sound room and wiring throughout the house expressly for the purpose of running classes. They gave all that up to move to NC into a tiny townhome they shared with someone else to go on staff full time. I wondered all the time if they kicked themselves for doing that. Now, I just pity them.
Reading all the replies has me thinking of the dog and pony show the board of dummies put on to give the impression they are so careful with their decisions. Reality check - thy don't care about anything except furthering the way international. So much damage done by them and certain way corps over the years, exerting control and influence over people's lives.
When I first left HQ back out to the field, it took awhile (3 months) for me to find a job in my field. I was getting antsy, and I wanted to wait tables because my roommate, another wayfer who went to a different fellow$h!t, was doing it and making great money. My Nazi FC told me it would be best for me to do it because it would interfere with fellowship. Yet this person was giving me the worst time about getting a job. She wanted me to accept a job making less than I knew I could make.
My Nazi FC told me it would be best for me to do it because it would interfere with fellowship. Yet this person was giving me the worst time about getting a job. She wanted me to accept a job making less than I knew I could make.
I just can't figure out why they feel the need to harass people about getting a job. ABS being the obvious reason? Perhaps that's it. Who would abundantly share from their savings? It's already been shaken down once.
Many people could live from savings for sometime, or inheritance even.
I never got that people squandered their education for TWI. I never got how people gave up good paying jobs to join the w-corp and bragged about it. I never got it.
I never got that people squandered their education for TWI. I never got how people gave up good paying jobs to join the w-corp and bragged about it. I never got it.
The Way Corps program is the biggest reason TWI is a cult IMHO. It was like the WC was a secret club. If you weren't in it, you weren't special enough to know what the WC knew. I never understood that.
I knew one woman who divorced with two kids and gave up her parental rights to her husband so she could be WC. It was her dream. She even had a wonderful guy who really wanted to marry her before she went in the WC, and she dumped him because she wanted to be Corps and he didn't have that goal.
Now she can't get married without giving up her beloved Corps status.
I just want to ask:
WHY???????
It doesn't seem worth it at all. The WC was just a status in TWI. Don't get me wrong; I know this doesn't apply to every person who was WC. I know plenty of people who went in for the right reason. They had wonderful hearts to serve. But I also know many who came out bummed because they couldn't make the impact they wanted because they are stifled by top leader$h!t.
The Way Corps program is the biggest reason TWI is a cult IMHO. It was like the WC was a secret club. If you weren't in it, you weren't special enough to know what the WC knew. I never understood that.
I knew one woman who divorced with two kids and gave up her parental rights to her husband so she could be WC. It was her dream. She even had a wonderful guy who really wanted to marry her before she went in the WC, and she dumped him because she wanted to be Corps and he didn't have that goal.
Now she can't get married without giving up her beloved Corps status.
I just want to ask:
WHY???????
It doesn't seem worth it at all. The WC was just a status in TWI. Don't get me wrong; I know this doesn't apply to every person who was WC. I know plenty of people who went in for the right reason. They had wonderful hearts to serve. But I also know many who came out bummed because they couldn't make the impact they wanted because they are stifled by top leader$h!t.
I agree. Though many that spent years in the WC did not see things from this perspective while they were active WC. Almost all that stepped back and turned off their Way-Brain for a bit --- did. It's painfully clear that this was the stepping-stone to power within the Way. The road one must travel to even be considered "Spiritual". No man cometh to power within the Way, but by the WC. True, that was no guarantee that one would be given the keys to the liquor cabinet -- It was nearly a guarantee that one not on track to BE Corpse -- ACT Corpse -- and SPEW Corps would ever be of much value to the "Ministry" beyond the Horn of Plenty!
You are considered "on the right track" within the Way until it is determined that you do not want to GO Corpse (once you have ACHIEVED all the necessarry pre-reqs), you are a second class believer (unless you give fabulously, of course).
However, the elite Way-Brain has terminal problems in the compassion department -- and steers clear of the example Christ gave for us. Those in the WC who noticed this either left, were kicked out, or had a hot iron slammed through their temples, from one side to the other.
How about all the WC who gave up jobs/careers that they spent years developing to become "full time ministers" only to be dropped from active Corps status within a short time? Or even those who didn't get dropped had to start job hunting again when the "full time minister" experiment went bust.
It doesn't seem worth it at all. The WC was just a status in TWI. Don't get me wrong; I know this doesn't apply to every person who was WC. I know plenty of people who went in for the right reason. They had wonderful hearts to serve. But I also know many who came out bummed because they couldn't make the impact they wanted because they are stifled by top leader$h!t.
Started new thread to try and answer this question.
I wasn't Way Corps, but after my kids were born I thought about going back to teaching and was counseled that the public schools were really 'dark' and I'd be better off not going back to teaching...so now years later I am starting grad school, planning to go back to teaching. Most of the time I think I was so stupid to not us the degree I had.
The jobs I've had in the past decade have either been preschool or teaching related(I taught processes/training for a large retail business). But quite honestly--teacher's get raises and have much better benefits than I have in the retail or preschool business.
I went into the Corps right out of college. Maybe I was still afraid to face reality. Anyway, I came out of residence 26 years old without ever having to really support myself. I had been WOW twice, but that's a whole different ball of wax.
So I decided to get a "real job", and immediately I faced a dilemma. TWI was on the one hand supportive of my efforts. But companies that pay decent wages all seem to be of the opinion that you should actually come to work on a regular basis. The 9-5 Mon.-Fri. routine is often a pipe dream. Often they require extra things like meetings, weekends, training sessions and the like. TWI didn't really care what I chose to do for a living as long as I could run 3 fellowships a week, be at every Corps, Twig Coordinator, WOW Vet and Advanced Class Grad meeting plus run classes. Then, of course, you needed to attend all of Corps Week and the Rock of Ages. People that I knew that bucked the system were looked down on. If one chose job related activities over ministry activities they were told they were not putting God first and that they were living in fear.
People are asking "why?". From the Ministry's viewpoint, it was about control. The Corps were supposed to be the "sold out ones". From someone who was in the Corps, it was wanting to "be somebody". It was a need for recognition. Maybe a person never received that from their family growing up (just supposing) and they wanted TWI to be the encouraging parent they never had. These hidden pains of the heart are much more driving than even a job with a high salary. Sadly, there was no way TWI was ever going to deliver on what was promised.
It was this very issue that drove me out of TWI. The poop paper just gave me an open door. I never did get a decent job, though. I'm waaaay underemployed. I can't blame that on TWI any more than I can blame TWI for my decision to go Corps right after college.
The Way Corps program is the biggest reason TWI is a cult IMHO. It was like the WC was a secret club. If you weren't in it, you weren't special enough to know what the WC knew. I never understood that.
I knew one woman who divorced with two kids and gave up her parental rights to her husband so she could be WC. It was her dream. She even had a wonderful guy who really wanted to marry her before she went in the WC, and she dumped him because she wanted to be Corps and he didn't have that goal.
Now she can't get married without giving up her beloved Corps status.
I just want to ask:
WHY???????
It doesn't seem worth it at all. The WC was just a status in TWI. Don't get me wrong; I know this doesn't apply to every person who was WC. I know plenty of people who went in for the right reason. They had wonderful hearts to serve. But I also know many who came out bummed because they couldn't make the impact they wanted because they are stifled by top leader$h!t.
I've been thinking a little more about this today. To answer the question "why", I think one has to understand that part of this whole thing for some people is religious addiction. Some get such a good feeling from religious activity that they will sacrifice all including their family to maintain the source of their fix. Just like a pro athlete might throw away an entire career for a hit of crack cocaine, or an alcoholic will spend his money on liquor rather than pay the heat bill to keep his family warm, or a porn addict will visit a web site at work even though he's been warned by his company that he will be terminated if he is caught viewing pornography at work again. Addictions take on a life of their own and don't bend to reason. People abandon loved ones and sometimes jeopardize their own lives just to maintain their fix.
The Way Corps program is the biggest reason TWI is a cult IMHO. It was like the WC was a secret club. If you weren't in it, you weren't special enough to know what the WC knew. I never understood that.
I knew one woman who divorced with two kids and gave up her parental rights to her husband so she could be WC. It was her dream. She even had a wonderful guy who really wanted to marry her before she went in the WC, and she dumped him because she wanted to be Corps and he didn't have that goal.
Now she can't get married without giving up her beloved Corps status.
I just want to ask:
WHY???????
It doesn't seem worth it at all. The WC was just a status in TWI. Don't get me wrong; I know this doesn't apply to every person who was WC. I know plenty of people who went in for the right reason. They had wonderful hearts to serve. But I also know many who came out bummed because they couldn't make the impact they wanted because they are stifled by top leader$h!t.
The Why??? actually is that it was the fulfillment of common human needs in a sense. You say the WC was "just a status". Of course most of us see that now. However, to us it was not. My motivation was I sought greater meaning to my life, and the idea of a life of "serving God", "being committed to God", "having a closer relationship with God" appealed to me. The whole title "Corps" and the parallelism to the Marine Corps is appealing. The few, the proud. Doing something that not everyone can do. In a way that type of marketing for a program plays upon the dreams of youth. Youth wants to change the world, youth wants to make a difference in life.
The fact that training spending half your time in menial labor and the other half "studying" current ministry materials and teaching really does nothing towards those things you thought it would is one thing. You end up more sold out to an organization's goals. And blinded towards that being what it is.
And everyone is stifled by the leadership. People advance in position by compliance. Compliance to tasks assigned that are something a normal person wouldn't do adds to this - like complying with burning someone, ostracizing people, etc.
The Why??? is that people are sold a bill of goods. They buy waterfront property in the Sahara desert. They are sold on the benefits, and in the process have leadership built up as demi-gods in front of their eyes. And they build for themselves lives that are a house of cards that will come crumbling down sometime.
But companies that pay decent wages all seem to be of the opinion that you should actually come to work on a regular basis. The 9-5 Mon.-Fri. routine is often a pipe dream. Often they require extra things like meetings, weekends, training sessions and the like.
Well said. "9-5" jobs are getting more rare these days, as are Monday - Friday gigs, especially in any kind of retail business. Yet TWI always seemed to assume that everybody worked those perfect days & hours and leaders were very put out when you couldn't make it to the evening & weekend fellowships and "events".
The Why??? actually is that it was the fulfillment of common human needs in a sense. You say the WC was "just a status". Of course most of us see that now. However, to us it was not. My motivation was I sought greater meaning to my life, and the idea of a life of "serving God", "being committed to God", "having a closer relationship with God" appealed to me. The whole title "Corps" and the parallelism to the Marine Corps is appealing. The few, the proud. Doing something that not everyone can do. In a way that type of marketing for a program plays upon the dreams of youth. Youth wants to change the world, youth wants to make a difference in life.
The fact that training spending half your time in menial labor and the other half "studying" current ministry materials and teaching really does nothing towards those things you thought it would is one thing. You end up more sold out to an organization's goals. And blinded towards that being what it is.
And everyone is stifled by the leadership. People advance in position by compliance. Compliance to tasks assigned that are something a normal person wouldn't do adds to this - like complying with burning someone, ostracizing people, etc.
The Why??? is that people are sold a bill of goods. They buy waterfront property in the Sahara desert. They are sold on the benefits, and in the process have leadership built up as demi-gods in front of their eyes. And they build for themselves lives that are a house of cards that will come crumbling down sometime.
I feel I need to clarify this question wasn't meant for every person who ever went in to the WC. It's directed toward the woman who gave up her parental rights to do it. I can't imagine a mother thinking that is OK. That's over-the-top craziness IMHO.
I feel I need to clarify this question wasn't meant for every person who ever went in to the WC. It's directed toward the woman who gave up her parental rights to do it. I can't imagine a mother thinking that is OK. That's over-the-top craziness IMHO.
A LOT of people drug their children into the system or had children in the system and that created a host of problems for the child. Given the two alternatives, I'd say the mother might have (inadvertently) acted in the best interest of the children (in the long run).
I was told to put TWI first over my children at the twig level of involvement. I can't imagine the pressure having children in WC put on those parents. There was little mercy for the unplanned pregnancies and I know of at least one woman who got pregnant in WC after 10 infertile years and at near starvation weight, and her husband had the audacity to suggest she abort. I suggested to her that her pregnancy was nothing short of a miracle given the circumstances and that it be viewed that way and not as an inconvenience. She felt awful that she had "let" this happen. Really?
We were told to let nothing get in our way of serving God.
I feel I need to clarify this question wasn't meant for every person who ever went in to the WC. It's directed toward the woman who gave up her parental rights to do it. I can't imagine a mother thinking that is OK. That's over-the-top craziness IMHO.
I absolutely agree that it's "over the top craziness" and a normal mother would never even consider this sort of behavior. This particular woman has a very serious problem. IF TWI was really a compassionate organization, they would be all over this themselves. The fact they are even allowing this to happen speaks volumes. But as far as the woman is concerned, there is something deep within crying out that's even cancelling out her maternal instinct to nurture her children. The situation is tragic enough, but what's also tragic is that her involvement with TWI will not resolve anything for her. In fact, it will make it worse. It's not going to give her what she's really looking for. I fear she'll end up worse off unless she wakes up.
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Calflor
This was one of the many travesties of many of the very talented and educated followers of the day. I got involved with TWI while in college. I saw many way followers never realize the fruits of their hard work getting an education never really use their degree, at least not until leaving. I could never really understand why the "brass" would not want these people to aspire to professional success. This would have put much more "ABS" into the way coffers as well as given the ministry more legitimacy within the community.
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chockfull
Absolutely. I have taken minimum wage jobs during a job search because of this type of pressure. I also know plenty of people who are completely jerked around by this type of thing. "Come work for us, go back to 'secular work', oh, now come work for us again". It's all what is convenient for the flesh-trading BOD and what their extremely short-sighted BS attitudes are on what is best for the ministry.
Actually, I think early on I was told that placements were done with 2 things in mind: 1) What is best for the individual, and 2) What is best for the ministry. I remember when there was one of those "please speak up to us to make the ministry better" pushes commenting on this, how the individual and their needs were no longer being considered. So then we were told we were "complaining", and they changed the statement to 1) What is best for the ministry, and added the phrase "because what is best for the ministry WILL be what is best for the individual". This is kind of like Ruppenheimer's comment to you on how service would produce all the healing you need - ignore the medical advice. What a bunch of j@ck@sses.
In reality, they are just a bunch of selfish SOB's that are too d@mn lazy to actually care about their people, don't want to put forth minimal effort to know details about their lives to help them, and most decisions are made just because they are d@mn cheapskates and want to horde all that money at the farm rather than being honest and caring for their employees.
One other case in point. When people like get kicked out of a root location, they generally dictate to them that they will not pay for a move beyond 250 miles from the location. So you see people scattered around areas of Ohio, and in the past Kansas, Indiana, Colorado, all because of the cheap b@stard syndrome.
Guess what, clueless idiots on the BOD. You know how you like to harp on the law of believing? Well there's another law. What man sows, that he will also reap. And the future for your harvest is little to no leaders and correspondingly little to no people. Which really is what you want shown by your actions anyway. But that is all how it should be that your little podunc organization withers away and dies so your power to abuse people diminishes by the year.
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waysider
I think they were/are more concerned with expanding the core base of people that ABS rather than focusing on increasing individual amounts. I'm not sure creating a veneer of legitimacy in the community was ever a high priority.
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Belle
Apparently, there was a couple here - Joe and Paula - I think, their names escape me now.... They had great paying jobs and a custom built house with a full on sound room and wiring throughout the house expressly for the purpose of running classes. They gave all that up to move to NC into a tiny townhome they shared with someone else to go on staff full time. I wondered all the time if they kicked themselves for doing that. Now, I just pity them.
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OldSkool
Reading all the replies has me thinking of the dog and pony show the board of dummies put on to give the impression they are so careful with their decisions. Reality check - thy don't care about anything except furthering the way international. So much damage done by them and certain way corps over the years, exerting control and influence over people's lives.
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Nottawayfer
When I first left HQ back out to the field, it took awhile (3 months) for me to find a job in my field. I was getting antsy, and I wanted to wait tables because my roommate, another wayfer who went to a different fellow$h!t, was doing it and making great money. My Nazi FC told me it would be best for me to do it because it would interfere with fellowship. Yet this person was giving me the worst time about getting a job. She wanted me to accept a job making less than I knew I could make.
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OldSkool
I just can't figure out why they feel the need to harass people about getting a job. ABS being the obvious reason? Perhaps that's it. Who would abundantly share from their savings? It's already been shaken down once.
Many people could live from savings for sometime, or inheritance even.
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Bolshevik
. . . workin' at the carwash blues . . .
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Tzaia
I never got that people squandered their education for TWI. I never got how people gave up good paying jobs to join the w-corp and bragged about it. I never got it.
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Bolshevik
You know why they bragged about it.
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Nottawayfer
The Way Corps program is the biggest reason TWI is a cult IMHO. It was like the WC was a secret club. If you weren't in it, you weren't special enough to know what the WC knew. I never understood that.
I knew one woman who divorced with two kids and gave up her parental rights to her husband so she could be WC. It was her dream. She even had a wonderful guy who really wanted to marry her before she went in the WC, and she dumped him because she wanted to be Corps and he didn't have that goal.
Now she can't get married without giving up her beloved Corps status.
I just want to ask:
WHY???????
It doesn't seem worth it at all. The WC was just a status in TWI. Don't get me wrong; I know this doesn't apply to every person who was WC. I know plenty of people who went in for the right reason. They had wonderful hearts to serve. But I also know many who came out bummed because they couldn't make the impact they wanted because they are stifled by top leader$h!t.
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Gen-2
I agree. Though many that spent years in the WC did not see things from this perspective while they were active WC. Almost all that stepped back and turned off their Way-Brain for a bit --- did. It's painfully clear that this was the stepping-stone to power within the Way. The road one must travel to even be considered "Spiritual". No man cometh to power within the Way, but by the WC. True, that was no guarantee that one would be given the keys to the liquor cabinet -- It was nearly a guarantee that one not on track to BE Corpse -- ACT Corpse -- and SPEW Corps would ever be of much value to the "Ministry" beyond the Horn of Plenty!
You are considered "on the right track" within the Way until it is determined that you do not want to GO Corpse (once you have ACHIEVED all the necessarry pre-reqs), you are a second class believer (unless you give fabulously, of course).
However, the elite Way-Brain has terminal problems in the compassion department -- and steers clear of the example Christ gave for us. Those in the WC who noticed this either left, were kicked out, or had a hot iron slammed through their temples, from one side to the other.
It's a lifetime commitment,... dont'cha know?
(took forever for me to type this)
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Oakspear
How about all the WC who gave up jobs/careers that they spent years developing to become "full time ministers" only to be dropped from active Corps status within a short time? Or even those who didn't get dropped had to start job hunting again when the "full time minister" experiment went bust.
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OldSkool
Started new thread to try and answer this question.
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Bramble
I wasn't Way Corps, but after my kids were born I thought about going back to teaching and was counseled that the public schools were really 'dark' and I'd be better off not going back to teaching...so now years later I am starting grad school, planning to go back to teaching. Most of the time I think I was so stupid to not us the degree I had.
The jobs I've had in the past decade have either been preschool or teaching related(I taught processes/training for a large retail business). But quite honestly--teacher's get raises and have much better benefits than I have in the retail or preschool business.
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Broken Arrow
I went into the Corps right out of college. Maybe I was still afraid to face reality. Anyway, I came out of residence 26 years old without ever having to really support myself. I had been WOW twice, but that's a whole different ball of wax.
So I decided to get a "real job", and immediately I faced a dilemma. TWI was on the one hand supportive of my efforts. But companies that pay decent wages all seem to be of the opinion that you should actually come to work on a regular basis. The 9-5 Mon.-Fri. routine is often a pipe dream. Often they require extra things like meetings, weekends, training sessions and the like. TWI didn't really care what I chose to do for a living as long as I could run 3 fellowships a week, be at every Corps, Twig Coordinator, WOW Vet and Advanced Class Grad meeting plus run classes. Then, of course, you needed to attend all of Corps Week and the Rock of Ages. People that I knew that bucked the system were looked down on. If one chose job related activities over ministry activities they were told they were not putting God first and that they were living in fear.
People are asking "why?". From the Ministry's viewpoint, it was about control. The Corps were supposed to be the "sold out ones". From someone who was in the Corps, it was wanting to "be somebody". It was a need for recognition. Maybe a person never received that from their family growing up (just supposing) and they wanted TWI to be the encouraging parent they never had. These hidden pains of the heart are much more driving than even a job with a high salary. Sadly, there was no way TWI was ever going to deliver on what was promised.
It was this very issue that drove me out of TWI. The poop paper just gave me an open door. I never did get a decent job, though. I'm waaaay underemployed. I can't blame that on TWI any more than I can blame TWI for my decision to go Corps right after college.
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Broken Arrow
I've been thinking a little more about this today. To answer the question "why", I think one has to understand that part of this whole thing for some people is religious addiction. Some get such a good feeling from religious activity that they will sacrifice all including their family to maintain the source of their fix. Just like a pro athlete might throw away an entire career for a hit of crack cocaine, or an alcoholic will spend his money on liquor rather than pay the heat bill to keep his family warm, or a porn addict will visit a web site at work even though he's been warned by his company that he will be terminated if he is caught viewing pornography at work again. Addictions take on a life of their own and don't bend to reason. People abandon loved ones and sometimes jeopardize their own lives just to maintain their fix.
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chockfull
The Why??? actually is that it was the fulfillment of common human needs in a sense. You say the WC was "just a status". Of course most of us see that now. However, to us it was not. My motivation was I sought greater meaning to my life, and the idea of a life of "serving God", "being committed to God", "having a closer relationship with God" appealed to me. The whole title "Corps" and the parallelism to the Marine Corps is appealing. The few, the proud. Doing something that not everyone can do. In a way that type of marketing for a program plays upon the dreams of youth. Youth wants to change the world, youth wants to make a difference in life.
The fact that training spending half your time in menial labor and the other half "studying" current ministry materials and teaching really does nothing towards those things you thought it would is one thing. You end up more sold out to an organization's goals. And blinded towards that being what it is.
And everyone is stifled by the leadership. People advance in position by compliance. Compliance to tasks assigned that are something a normal person wouldn't do adds to this - like complying with burning someone, ostracizing people, etc.
The Why??? is that people are sold a bill of goods. They buy waterfront property in the Sahara desert. They are sold on the benefits, and in the process have leadership built up as demi-gods in front of their eyes. And they build for themselves lives that are a house of cards that will come crumbling down sometime.
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Oakspear
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Nottawayfer
I feel I need to clarify this question wasn't meant for every person who ever went in to the WC. It's directed toward the woman who gave up her parental rights to do it. I can't imagine a mother thinking that is OK. That's over-the-top craziness IMHO.
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Tzaia
A LOT of people drug their children into the system or had children in the system and that created a host of problems for the child. Given the two alternatives, I'd say the mother might have (inadvertently) acted in the best interest of the children (in the long run).
I was told to put TWI first over my children at the twig level of involvement. I can't imagine the pressure having children in WC put on those parents. There was little mercy for the unplanned pregnancies and I know of at least one woman who got pregnant in WC after 10 infertile years and at near starvation weight, and her husband had the audacity to suggest she abort. I suggested to her that her pregnancy was nothing short of a miracle given the circumstances and that it be viewed that way and not as an inconvenience. She felt awful that she had "let" this happen. Really?
We were told to let nothing get in our way of serving God.
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JavaJane
I said it before, and I will say it again:
CHILD SACRIFICE to the god called The Way International.
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Broken Arrow
I absolutely agree that it's "over the top craziness" and a normal mother would never even consider this sort of behavior. This particular woman has a very serious problem. IF TWI was really a compassionate organization, they would be all over this themselves. The fact they are even allowing this to happen speaks volumes. But as far as the woman is concerned, there is something deep within crying out that's even cancelling out her maternal instinct to nurture her children. The situation is tragic enough, but what's also tragic is that her involvement with TWI will not resolve anything for her. In fact, it will make it worse. It's not going to give her what she's really looking for. I fear she'll end up worse off unless she wakes up.
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