Looking at the Corps teaching thread and the low value that most of you gave it, I'm wondering at what point did you start to have regrets about your decision to go into the Corps?
My very first day in-residence. My Candidate and Apprentice years were spent in blissful ignorance.
My very first day in-residence. My Candidate and Apprentice years were spent in blissful ignorance.
I didn't have regrets until about 4 or 5 years after graduation. I was gung-ho in-residence and felt good about surviving all the attrition. It was hard and I thought about quitting but I always attributed that to my own weakness and not the program itself. I felt I was some sort of Marine having made it through the training. It was later on that I felt self confident enough to be critical of the ministry. Craig Martindale helped me with this by removing himself from the pedestal I had him on. After 5 more years I had a whole list of deficiencies in the program and I felt compelled to fix it. I tried that for a couple more years until I realized it was impossible.
The Way Corps training is not at all about preparing people for ministry. If it was they would teach way more about the duties of a minister. I didn't learn until after the training how to comfort the bereaved, conduct a funeral, visit the sick, offer counsel and so on. The Way Corps are for the most part bi-vocational, and as such support themselves with secular work and volunteer their service to the ministry. The never taught the time management this requires, how to balance work, ministry, and family; how to serve and not burn out. They just heap it on and keep you going by goading you with guilt and obligation.
The Way Corps has one purpose and one purpose only - to produce men and women absolutely loyal to the Way International. Self motivation, critical thinking, ingenuity, creativity, compassion - things that will never be rewarded in the Way Corps. They want people willing to "change anything and everything about themselves for the privilege to serve." People who always choose the will of the ministry over their own will, even to their detriment. This is the Way Corps and this is one reason why the best people make the worst Way Corps and will eventually find their way out.
I had enough by Christmas of interim year. However, I thought it was my fault. It took about five more years before I realized it wasn't me but the program. Life goes on. :)
Looking at the Corps teaching thread and the low value that most of you gave it, I'm wondering at what point did you start to have regrets about your decision to go into the Corps?
I was regretting before I even started. I'd felt pressured into signing up but having given my word, wasn't going to back away from my word. Let your yes be yes, and all that stuff. Don't let yourself get tricked out by the devil.
Once I got in rez, I found that other things were expected of me...like that I would be discouraged from returning to the former kind of work that I did (where I had expected to be able to move the word in my specialist area), but that to consider doing that would be "returning to vomit." And I was expected to be ready to move anywhere, any time...
I knew this wasn't what I'd signed up for. I thought it was my own fault for not investigating enough before signing up. Later I realized it was part of their normal tactics of "moving the goalposts." In short, their "yes" wasn't "yes" but just an inducement.
Remember some of those *shocker* things that were taught or eluded to in the advanced class?
The Illuminati
The Thirteenth Tribe
None Dare Call It Conspiracy
Those Born of the Wrong Seed
Then, when the corps program begins.....the first three months, we are sitting thru foundational pfal sessions, reading the blue book, reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and other Dale Carnegie stuff, Christian Ediquette, etc. Plus, we were herded around like cattle.....
Supposedly, this was a comparable "spiritual marine corps training".....and with that vague essence, discipline was paramount. They instruct.....you listen. They command.....you do. They are in-charge......you obey.
Then, to find out years later that J0hn Ly*n was boinking several corps girls....and Pat had her side "friendships." Disgusting and pathetic. We sat in hours and hours of teachings everyday, and these 'leaders' were like a tag-team who popped in and out and did as hypocrisy does.
it wasn't until my practicum year - still reeling from the impact of hearing Passing of the Patriarch - amidst the turmoil within my head and it seemed like all the TWI world around me - that a crazy thought popped into my head "why not step back and look over this whole thing"......that was one small step for me....one giant step for the critical thinking process.
i bought the corps program hook, line, and sinker. it is a weird thing to say now - but in a strange twist of the plot i am glad Chri$ G33r read that paper - i heard him via a live hook-up at Rome City on a corps night......how fitting.....
awhile back i got in touch with someone i got into the ministry; our conversation wasn't that heated..... i kept bringing up the reasons why i left and he kept going on about how Chris' group [he followed them now] addressed those issues.......it was sad.....there but for a rash of thinking go i.
Looking at the Corps teaching thread and the low value that most of you gave it, I'm wondering at what point did you start to have regrets about your decision to go into the Corps?
Never had regrets about it, but certainly saw I needed to make a change of plan! For what it's worth, I actually enjoyed my entire time. Once I knew I wasn't staying, I ignored TWI leaders plans and did my own thing (of course working within the boundaries they enforced).
While I knew what I was signing up for, in regards to loyalty, commitment, etc.. That loyalty and commitment was to an honest ministry that I thought actually helped people. And going into the Corps I had no issues, as OldSkool put it, "blissful ignorance". This was even after spending a year at HQ!!
But after my apprentice year was up and in-rez I went.. I would say it took a month before I knew..
The first few days and weeks I was more trying to figure out what was expected, where things were at, getting used to a new schedule.. The usual. Then.. I hear LCM make this ridiculous statement during a Corps teaching, "I don't care how one has to finagle the pronouns[in scripture], such and such happened..". This event which LCM was so certain happened in scripture was doctrinally inconsequential. It's like picking at dung and trying to force one to accept it was green, who cares. But his callousness with scripture is what caught me off guard. And there was no way one could wrestle with the pronouns to get it to say what he wanted either. We met in our groups afterwards to go over the teaching. And everyone was upbeat, no one cared he made that statement and agreed with his deep "insight". But I just wanted to make sure I heard it right. So.. I got with my coordinators, and on up it went to the corps coord, who gently sat me down, didn't deny it (later was verified by tape), but instead told me how "loyal" they are to the man. Didn't care what he said, they trusted his life to him. And that statement.. Just ignore it, and trust da prez..
That was just the beginning. Just one of the first signs that all was not well in the camp.
Hubby was in the Corps and I like to think I was the reason for him regretting his decision! He left fairly early on...to marry me, but he also said...he had watched sweet people changing into hard and cold people....that was what really shook him. That was what started his exit from TWI...even though it was a few years in coming.... . and as indoctrinated as we were....we started to realize a "Christian" training program should not strip people of their basic humanity.
Not all people...but there were plenty of people who went into the corps with fairly tender hearts...and came out arrogant and just downright mean.
Not all people...but there were plenty of people who went into the corps with fairly tender hearts...and came out arrogant and just downright mean.
Yeah....without painting all corps with the same, broad brush, I tend to think that its that old 80-20 rule.
80%....changed dramatically and came out of corps program arrogant
20%....graduated from the corps with fairly tender hearts
80%....followed mog rules and never gave it much thinking
20%....were independent thinkers and expressed dissension
Just like that corps poem about heavy-handed leadership and the one who has "eyes that open and a mind that asks".......twi lost its way and became the "ivory tower."
I certainly know of many, wonderful corps who did their best to serve others with compassion and heart. After time, some just couldn't stomach twi's hypocrisy and left.
Wierwille's corps program was a failure......because of wierwille. He set it up to mimic a boot camp, not a christian learning center. And, if the offshoot groups follow in the wierwille doctrine, then they're just the blind leading the blind.
About a year or so after graduation when I tired of the idea of moving every three years for the REST OF MY LIfE and also having to be responsible for everything that happened around me and everything other people did because "YOU'RE CORPS!"
That sowed the seeds for me to leave seven years later, with much relief.
About a year or so after graduation when I tired of the idea of moving every three years for the REST OF MY LIfE and also having to be responsible for everything that happened around me and everything other people did because "YOU'RE CORPS!"
When I first went in the Corps I hated it, but I thought it was my own fault. It did get better for me by the time we graduated. Then we graduated and we went out on the field. Because I enjoy being tortured, I went WOW. Why? I don't know, perhaps I was mentally insane. After that I got married and started just being "Corps on the field". Soon we had a baby girl. Soon, I started realizing that everything was our fault. We used to joke that the motto of the Way Corps really was, "It's all my fault."
As time went on, it became very apparent that the leadership at HQ was clueless as to what it was like being on the field, nor did they really care. You were to be all about TWI even if it meant living in poverty. I became more and more dissatisfied as time went on. Then the POP paper was read in April of '86. In '89 LCM issued his edict to choose between him and Geer, which I thought was ridiculous. So I left TWI and became a Geer-ite. I left that fellowship after awhile because I saw very little difference. Then I didn't do anything at all. So I disassociated myself from the Corps and TWI proper in '89. But I kept the thinking for many years after. In spite of everything I thought VP was right on. I didn't believe the people who were saying they were involved sexually with vp. So my departure was gradual and over time. Then in 1995 my wife and I split and my life was in shambles. I decided TWI and its teachings were pretty much ineffective and useless. So I completely quit, began going to a real church which is where I am today and I love it...most of the time.
There was still one thing hanging out there and that was the things I kept hearing about Wierwille sexually taking advantage of young women. I didn't believe it at first, but I kept hearing it, some from people I knew. These women, though were not willing to discuss it very much, other than it happened. Who could blame them? I started wishing I could find someone who could be completely honest and detailed about her sexual encounters with Wierwille. How they happened and why they continued. A light bulb went off in my head and I started reading Greasespot which eventually led me to Kristin Skedell's book, Losing the Way. That's when I was able to completely write off TWI. That was in 2008. So you see, it took a long time, almost 20 years to get completely out of TWI and the Way Corps in my thinking.
Sorry for the long-winded answer, but it was a long progression for me.
Sorry for the long-winded answer, but it was a long progression for me.
I understand what you mean. It was close to the same story for me.
The last time I went to twig was in '85, '86.
I continued spreading the Saint Vic doctrine on my own. After all, I had the truth.
A few years alter, I ran into my old branch leader downtown. He told me he was no longer with the ministry. He said the Internal Revenue had cornered them about some goings on that blew executive minds in the ministry so bad, they not only paid the taxes for the current year, but the previous years also. That was the first I heard about Saint Vic's indiscresions.
My first thought was what can I do to save the word. Odd, isn't it how we thought we had the truth so much, we had to save it.
After awhile I figured that was God's department.
If someone came to me with a problem in their personal life I still gave the pat ministry answer. I continued pontificating twi's version of the bible.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago, after I read many posts on Waydale and GSC, that I realized the extent of the fool I was being.
He said the Internal Revenue had cornered them (TWI) about some goings on that blew executive minds in the ministry so bad, they not only paid the taxes for the current year, but the previous years also. That was the first I heard about Saint Vic's indiscresions. (italics mine)
SoCrates
Whoa, I never heard about that. I thought they won their case against the IRS.
Whoa, I never heard about that. I thought they won their case against the IRS.
Well, I don't know a whole lot about it myself, but this is what I've been able to piece together from a couple of sources:
My ex twig leader, about '85 or '86, said there was a legal battle brewing that we needed to pray over. Seems the ministry's religious non-profit status with the Internal Revenue being questioned.
That time I saw the branch leader, it would have been the late 80s to the early 90s, was the first I heard of how that legal battle panned out.
From what I could gather from the ex-branch leader, the Internal Revenue used both Saint Vic and Craigmeister's affairs as leverage to get the ministries taxes paid. And as the ex-branch leader put it, these are his words, "it blew their minds so bad, they not only paid this years tax but last years."
Maybe somebody else can verify this, as this is just what I heard.
i remember one of my really great friends (AND SPONSOR) -- even more than one now that i think about -- were so sad that when i came to visit i wasn't the same person they knew before i went in
it was not because i was so religious or strict or snooty -- it was because i had no joy
i remember one of my really great friends (AND SPONSOR) -- even more than one now that i think about -- were so sad that when i came to visit i wasn't the same person they knew before i went in
it was not because i was so religious or strict or snooty -- it was because i had no joy
If you don't mind my asking, was that right after graduation, or years later?
I didn't much want to go in the first place, but like a truly Christian, submissive little wife I kept my mouth shut and did as I was told. My reasons, except for one, were purely selfish. We lived in a small town in the South, owned a little home with sidewalks and shade trees, I worked part time and we were okay financially. I loved my life there, but convinced myself that Mr. Garden was hearing a higher calling, and didn't VPW teach that "God speaks to the husband; the husband speaks to the wife. The wife speaks to the husband, and the husband goes to God FOR BOTH OF THEM?"
The one good reason was that our son, 11 at the time, had raging ADHD and would not obey me and did exactly as he pleased, lied and stole. I didn't think being in the FWC would make this any better. I was right.
I think a lot of people who went in the WC gave up a lifestyle they loved to pursue a lifestyle they ultimately hated. Little did they know how they were being used. We were told how wonderful it would be for our son, and later he told us "it was like 'they' were the Nazis and we were the Jews." Poor kid. He said any kid who touched a wall got a beating. I was never told about it. He finally acted out so much (beating up kids, stealing Pop-Tarts, throwing eggs across Adam's Alley, etc. that we were tossed out with nowhere to go. So off to WA we went to learn from a great man and woman of God how to successfully raise our son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, only to find them twice the child of hell the FWC staff was.
However, God took care of us all through that whole 3 years plus. We came out better and stronger in the long run, not because of the FWC but in spite of it.
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OldSkool
My very first day in-residence. My Candidate and Apprentice years were spent in blissful ignorance.
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shortfuse
I didn't have regrets until about 4 or 5 years after graduation. I was gung-ho in-residence and felt good about surviving all the attrition. It was hard and I thought about quitting but I always attributed that to my own weakness and not the program itself. I felt I was some sort of Marine having made it through the training. It was later on that I felt self confident enough to be critical of the ministry. Craig Martindale helped me with this by removing himself from the pedestal I had him on. After 5 more years I had a whole list of deficiencies in the program and I felt compelled to fix it. I tried that for a couple more years until I realized it was impossible.
The Way Corps training is not at all about preparing people for ministry. If it was they would teach way more about the duties of a minister. I didn't learn until after the training how to comfort the bereaved, conduct a funeral, visit the sick, offer counsel and so on. The Way Corps are for the most part bi-vocational, and as such support themselves with secular work and volunteer their service to the ministry. The never taught the time management this requires, how to balance work, ministry, and family; how to serve and not burn out. They just heap it on and keep you going by goading you with guilt and obligation.
The Way Corps has one purpose and one purpose only - to produce men and women absolutely loyal to the Way International. Self motivation, critical thinking, ingenuity, creativity, compassion - things that will never be rewarded in the Way Corps. They want people willing to "change anything and everything about themselves for the privilege to serve." People who always choose the will of the ministry over their own will, even to their detriment. This is the Way Corps and this is one reason why the best people make the worst Way Corps and will eventually find their way out.
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skyrider
First Day....Concerned.
First Week...Perplexed.
First Corps Mtg.....Yawn.
First Month...Is this it?
Yet, I stayed....I wasn't a quitter. Perhaps, there was more.
Perhaps, next month......we'll get to more 'spiritual' stuff.
Perhaps, this discipline is just to weed out those who are weak?
Maybe, in the 2nd block semester....things will pick up speed?
When wierwille came to campus.....oooh, big whooptie-do, not!
Why all the fanfare?....Wierwille-this, wierwille-that....So?
Aren't we to be followers of the Lord.....and not of men?
When will the corps program kick into gear? This isn't it, is it?
Should I leave now? Should I leave at Christmas?
More relationships build. Some variety. Some fun.
With lower expectations....okay, I can endure this.
Heck, it's only two years inresidence....no big deal.
Looking back.....I now see why I fought the indoctrination all along!!
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Rocky
I had enough by Christmas of interim year. However, I thought it was my fault. It took about five more years before I realized it wasn't me but the program. Life goes on. :)
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Twinky
I was regretting before I even started. I'd felt pressured into signing up but having given my word, wasn't going to back away from my word. Let your yes be yes, and all that stuff. Don't let yourself get tricked out by the devil.
Once I got in rez, I found that other things were expected of me...like that I would be discouraged from returning to the former kind of work that I did (where I had expected to be able to move the word in my specialist area), but that to consider doing that would be "returning to vomit." And I was expected to be ready to move anywhere, any time...
I knew this wasn't what I'd signed up for. I thought it was my own fault for not investigating enough before signing up. Later I realized it was part of their normal tactics of "moving the goalposts." In short, their "yes" wasn't "yes" but just an inducement.
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waysider
Change a couple words, omit a certain name, and that could be me, describing my FLO experience.
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skyrider
Remember some of those *shocker* things that were taught or eluded to in the advanced class?
The Illuminati
The Thirteenth Tribe
None Dare Call It Conspiracy
Those Born of the Wrong Seed
Then, when the corps program begins.....the first three months, we are sitting thru foundational pfal sessions, reading the blue book, reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and other Dale Carnegie stuff, Christian Ediquette, etc. Plus, we were herded around like cattle.....
Supposedly, this was a comparable "spiritual marine corps training".....and with that vague essence, discipline was paramount. They instruct.....you listen. They command.....you do. They are in-charge......you obey.
Then, to find out years later that J0hn Ly*n was boinking several corps girls....and Pat had her side "friendships." Disgusting and pathetic. We sat in hours and hours of teachings everyday, and these 'leaders' were like a tag-team who popped in and out and did as hypocrisy does.
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T-Bone
it wasn't until my practicum year - still reeling from the impact of hearing Passing of the Patriarch - amidst the turmoil within my head and it seemed like all the TWI world around me - that a crazy thought popped into my head "why not step back and look over this whole thing"......that was one small step for me....one giant step for the critical thinking process.
i bought the corps program hook, line, and sinker. it is a weird thing to say now - but in a strange twist of the plot i am glad Chri$ G33r read that paper - i heard him via a live hook-up at Rome City on a corps night......how fitting.....
awhile back i got in touch with someone i got into the ministry; our conversation wasn't that heated..... i kept bringing up the reasons why i left and he kept going on about how Chris' group [he followed them now] addressed those issues.......it was sad.....there but for a rash of thinking go i.
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So_crates
Change a couple words, retain the name and you have my WOW experience.
Well, at least the ministry is consistant. It just about consistant us all to death.
SoCrates
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TrustAndObey
Never had regrets about it, but certainly saw I needed to make a change of plan! For what it's worth, I actually enjoyed my entire time. Once I knew I wasn't staying, I ignored TWI leaders plans and did my own thing (of course working within the boundaries they enforced).
While I knew what I was signing up for, in regards to loyalty, commitment, etc.. That loyalty and commitment was to an honest ministry that I thought actually helped people. And going into the Corps I had no issues, as OldSkool put it, "blissful ignorance". This was even after spending a year at HQ!!
But after my apprentice year was up and in-rez I went.. I would say it took a month before I knew..
The first few days and weeks I was more trying to figure out what was expected, where things were at, getting used to a new schedule.. The usual. Then.. I hear LCM make this ridiculous statement during a Corps teaching, "I don't care how one has to finagle the pronouns[in scripture], such and such happened..". This event which LCM was so certain happened in scripture was doctrinally inconsequential. It's like picking at dung and trying to force one to accept it was green, who cares. But his callousness with scripture is what caught me off guard. And there was no way one could wrestle with the pronouns to get it to say what he wanted either. We met in our groups afterwards to go over the teaching. And everyone was upbeat, no one cared he made that statement and agreed with his deep "insight". But I just wanted to make sure I heard it right. So.. I got with my coordinators, and on up it went to the corps coord, who gently sat me down, didn't deny it (later was verified by tape), but instead told me how "loyal" they are to the man. Didn't care what he said, they trusted his life to him. And that statement.. Just ignore it, and trust da prez..
That was just the beginning. Just one of the first signs that all was not well in the camp.
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geisha779
Hubby was in the Corps and I like to think I was the reason for him regretting his decision! He left fairly early on...to marry me, but he also said...he had watched sweet people changing into hard and cold people....that was what really shook him. That was what started his exit from TWI...even though it was a few years in coming.... . and as indoctrinated as we were....we started to realize a "Christian" training program should not strip people of their basic humanity.
Not all people...but there were plenty of people who went into the corps with fairly tender hearts...and came out arrogant and just downright mean.
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skyrider
Yeah....without painting all corps with the same, broad brush, I tend to think that its that old 80-20 rule.
80%....changed dramatically and came out of corps program arrogant
20%....graduated from the corps with fairly tender hearts
80%....followed mog rules and never gave it much thinking
20%....were independent thinkers and expressed dissension
Just like that corps poem about heavy-handed leadership and the one who has "eyes that open and a mind that asks".......twi lost its way and became the "ivory tower."
I certainly know of many, wonderful corps who did their best to serve others with compassion and heart. After time, some just couldn't stomach twi's hypocrisy and left.
Wierwille's corps program was a failure......because of wierwille. He set it up to mimic a boot camp, not a christian learning center. And, if the offshoot groups follow in the wierwille doctrine, then they're just the blind leading the blind.
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chockfull
way too far into it.
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outandabout
About a year or so after graduation when I tired of the idea of moving every three years for the REST OF MY LIfE and also having to be responsible for everything that happened around me and everything other people did because "YOU'RE CORPS!"
That sowed the seeds for me to leave seven years later, with much relief.
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skyrider
Hey, you're corps.......IT'S YOUR FAULT.
And, that's how twi remains "blameless."
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TrustAndObey
Only, don't stop and think about that one too long..
Rosie and LCM were "Corps" too... IT"S THEIR FAULT.. Oh wait, I thought about it.. The first mistake of ......
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Broken Arrow
When I first went in the Corps I hated it, but I thought it was my own fault. It did get better for me by the time we graduated. Then we graduated and we went out on the field. Because I enjoy being tortured, I went WOW. Why? I don't know, perhaps I was mentally insane. After that I got married and started just being "Corps on the field". Soon we had a baby girl. Soon, I started realizing that everything was our fault. We used to joke that the motto of the Way Corps really was, "It's all my fault."
As time went on, it became very apparent that the leadership at HQ was clueless as to what it was like being on the field, nor did they really care. You were to be all about TWI even if it meant living in poverty. I became more and more dissatisfied as time went on. Then the POP paper was read in April of '86. In '89 LCM issued his edict to choose between him and Geer, which I thought was ridiculous. So I left TWI and became a Geer-ite. I left that fellowship after awhile because I saw very little difference. Then I didn't do anything at all. So I disassociated myself from the Corps and TWI proper in '89. But I kept the thinking for many years after. In spite of everything I thought VP was right on. I didn't believe the people who were saying they were involved sexually with vp. So my departure was gradual and over time. Then in 1995 my wife and I split and my life was in shambles. I decided TWI and its teachings were pretty much ineffective and useless. So I completely quit, began going to a real church which is where I am today and I love it...most of the time.
There was still one thing hanging out there and that was the things I kept hearing about Wierwille sexually taking advantage of young women. I didn't believe it at first, but I kept hearing it, some from people I knew. These women, though were not willing to discuss it very much, other than it happened. Who could blame them? I started wishing I could find someone who could be completely honest and detailed about her sexual encounters with Wierwille. How they happened and why they continued. A light bulb went off in my head and I started reading Greasespot which eventually led me to Kristin Skedell's book, Losing the Way. That's when I was able to completely write off TWI. That was in 2008. So you see, it took a long time, almost 20 years to get completely out of TWI and the Way Corps in my thinking.
Sorry for the long-winded answer, but it was a long progression for me.
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So_crates
I understand what you mean. It was close to the same story for me.
The last time I went to twig was in '85, '86.
I continued spreading the Saint Vic doctrine on my own. After all, I had the truth.
A few years alter, I ran into my old branch leader downtown. He told me he was no longer with the ministry. He said the Internal Revenue had cornered them about some goings on that blew executive minds in the ministry so bad, they not only paid the taxes for the current year, but the previous years also. That was the first I heard about Saint Vic's indiscresions.
My first thought was what can I do to save the word. Odd, isn't it how we thought we had the truth so much, we had to save it.
After awhile I figured that was God's department.
If someone came to me with a problem in their personal life I still gave the pat ministry answer. I continued pontificating twi's version of the bible.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago, after I read many posts on Waydale and GSC, that I realized the extent of the fool I was being.
SoCrates
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Broken Arrow
Whoa, I never heard about that. I thought they won their case against the IRS.
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So_crates
Well, I don't know a whole lot about it myself, but this is what I've been able to piece together from a couple of sources:
My ex twig leader, about '85 or '86, said there was a legal battle brewing that we needed to pray over. Seems the ministry's religious non-profit status with the Internal Revenue being questioned.
That time I saw the branch leader, it would have been the late 80s to the early 90s, was the first I heard of how that legal battle panned out.
From what I could gather from the ex-branch leader, the Internal Revenue used both Saint Vic and Craigmeister's affairs as leverage to get the ministries taxes paid. And as the ex-branch leader put it, these are his words, "it blew their minds so bad, they not only paid this years tax but last years."
Maybe somebody else can verify this, as this is just what I heard.
SoCrates
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excathedra
i love you jim
i remember one of my really great friends (AND SPONSOR) -- even more than one now that i think about -- were so sad that when i came to visit i wasn't the same person they knew before i went in
it was not because i was so religious or strict or snooty -- it was because i had no joy
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Broken Arrow
If you don't mind my asking, was that right after graduation, or years later?
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excathedra
my interim year
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Watered Garden
I didn't much want to go in the first place, but like a truly Christian, submissive little wife I kept my mouth shut and did as I was told. My reasons, except for one, were purely selfish. We lived in a small town in the South, owned a little home with sidewalks and shade trees, I worked part time and we were okay financially. I loved my life there, but convinced myself that Mr. Garden was hearing a higher calling, and didn't VPW teach that "God speaks to the husband; the husband speaks to the wife. The wife speaks to the husband, and the husband goes to God FOR BOTH OF THEM?"
The one good reason was that our son, 11 at the time, had raging ADHD and would not obey me and did exactly as he pleased, lied and stole. I didn't think being in the FWC would make this any better. I was right.
I think a lot of people who went in the WC gave up a lifestyle they loved to pursue a lifestyle they ultimately hated. Little did they know how they were being used. We were told how wonderful it would be for our son, and later he told us "it was like 'they' were the Nazis and we were the Jews." Poor kid. He said any kid who touched a wall got a beating. I was never told about it. He finally acted out so much (beating up kids, stealing Pop-Tarts, throwing eggs across Adam's Alley, etc. that we were tossed out with nowhere to go. So off to WA we went to learn from a great man and woman of God how to successfully raise our son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, only to find them twice the child of hell the FWC staff was.
However, God took care of us all through that whole 3 years plus. We came out better and stronger in the long run, not because of the FWC but in spite of it.
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