Isolation.....and lives derailed

[waysider]

A 'twi trained' believer as opposed to a 'trinity trained' believer, which is what churches crank out.

John, have you ever investigated trinitarian doctrine, explored it's Biblical roots or historic foundations outside of Way and/or offshoot materials? Reading JCNG does not make you any more of an authority on the subject than reading the Sunday funnies would make you an authority on journalism.

[Thomas Loy Bumgarner]

and neither does Lynn/Grasser/Schoenheit's book One God and One Lord. btw, the "Our Father" became normal among all Christians between 70 and 100 AD.

[excathedra]

i am very sad that i missed many family parties, christenings, those kind of things

my family is and always was awesome

my mom took "the class" because i asked her to

my sisters and she came to "America Awakes" when it came to Jersey

my brother (and my "adopted" lol brother -- dear family friend) came to Emporia when they were hitching around the country

i had so much support from them because they love me, but i did not get to share in a lot of the loving family times, damn it

--

our family is catholic -- they go to church on sunday and nobody bothers them

some of them have nicer pastors than others, etc.

i'm not a catholic

for christmas, i gave them all a copy of yellow book "Jesus Christ Is Not God" and they never held it against me :)

[Raf]

John, have you ever investigated trinitarian doctrine, explored it's Biblical roots or historic foundations outside of Way and/or offshoot materials? Reading JCNG does not make you any more of an authority on the subject than reading the Sunday funnies would make you an authority on journalism.

Actually...

[johniam]

I was mad at the STL post-dispatch when they removed Mallard Fillmore from the funnies. Mallard is a duck who make social commentary with illustrations and leans to the right. He makes fun of Obama and liberals. He said he got an email from an outraged reader who said the funnies are supposed to have lighthearted hijinx for children; not his slanted social commentary. He came back with 'so is the evening news, but you don't see that stopping them'. I don't even read the funnies anymore.

[shazdancer]

I actually agree with johniam in part (don't faint, John ;) ). If you were in a Twig back in Wierwille's day, you were pretty much left alone. Even WOW Ambassadors and Fellow Laborers weren't controlled much at first. But the closer you got to the MOG, the more cult-like it became. At first, there were only a few Corps grads or clergy running things, so their impact on Joe Believer was minimal. Too many people, too few dictators. But as more and more "leaders" moved out from root locales, they brought with them what they thought was the right way to run things, which was to emulate the micromanaging MOG.

[waysider]

"Fellow Laborers weren't controlled much at first"

...................................

I think that is relative to the state you were in. I graduated from the Ohio program. (FLO #4/1975-1977) It was highly controlled. Our azzes belonged to The Way from 5AM until the lights went out at Midnight.

[smarter]

Perhaps you meant to say, "I ASSUME" that Robert Schuller's Chrystal Cathedral has security.

But I would ask whether you exercised any level of diligence to verify whether or to what extent your assumption had any validity.

You could always call them and ask.

Chrystal Cathedral

I have been to the Crystal Cathedral, although not when services were being held. The doors to the cathedral itself were locked at that time, but the out buildings containing the giftshop, bathrooms, etc were open. I didn't see any overt security personnel.

[waysider]

I've been there, as well, and didn't notice any security. Did I mention it was in 1959?

edit: I was mistaken. It was The Glass Church I was thinking of.

Edited November 5, 2012 by waysider

[Raf]

Isolation is a powerful weapon for a cult. Blaming the people we isolated ourselves from misses the point.

[JA47646]

yup, we were trained to become very isolated - our only friends were to be fellow Wayfers. It may have not been openly stated at first (I was in from 73 to 87) but later it became very obvious that only fellow wayfers could "understand" us - you know, that unequally yoked kind of thing. So I spent all of my young adult life moving every year, living with only wayfers, subordinating my family (who were very supportive of me although not of the Way)and for heavens sake never accepting any type of church - how would they know The Word of God!!! I was young (17) when i "took the class" and fully bought into the Way (although thank God I never went into the corps) and when it fell apart in 86 I felt totally alone and lost.

It took me almost 25 years to join a church again and still longer to let people close to me again. By the grace of God and reading a lot of psychology books and working with a Christian therapist and being loved in a truly wonderful church I am starting to let people close to me again.

As for the trinity, it doesn't really matter when it comes down to it. What matters is the love and full acceptance of fellow Christians and God's love and full acceptance (even though we are all messes when it comes down to it!) of us just as we are. Galatians 5:1 - it is for freedom Christ hath set us free! (And Christ ain't absent either!) I feel for all those wayfers still at HQ - they have allowed themselves to be put under the yoke of bondage and I hope they someday will let themselves go free.

I have no illusions though. If my current church turns away from the wonderful place it is now, I will turn away and find some place better. I'm not getting stuck for another 14 years + again!