One moment, you're a freewheelin' hippie, playing guitar in the park and singing songs about Jesus, jabbering away in the tongues of some ancient civilization from a spiritual world beyond. Next thing you know, you're a briefcase toting, deadline conscious, party line quoting corporate crusader for God, obsessing over sales quotas and taking scant time to look after your own well-being.
You look in the mirror one day with a sense of bewilderment and think to yourself, 'What the hell happened here and how and when did it happen?"
Well, maybe some version of the same thing happens to plumbers and doctors and taxi drivers and cowboy trick riders in the rodeo. I don't know. I just know it happened to me.
One moment, you're a freewheelin' hippie, playing guitar in the park and singing songs about Jesus...
Yeah, and then......the next generation, little-kid moneyhands SEES the backrooms of meetings, briefcases and all and STILL goes in eyes wide open. Desiring to be fast-tracked to leadership.
Fast-forward ten years [1982]......and what do you see? Obedience up and down the line. Twig teachings are refried beans from the way magazine....oftentimes, read at twig with examples of how it blessed one's life. Nearly all questions, at least publically, have ceased.
Sure, maybe you are ready to speak out and confront a situation, but you stand a good chance of being black-listed. Do you have proof? Are there any witnesses? Will they, in turn, speak as well....or will they cower under pressure? And, what about your spouse? How will affect her?
In this *totalitarian* rule there was no middle ground. Few dissenters ever were heard in the open. Words were measured even among "friends" and certainly to leadership. Some times, even casual conversation was challenged as "off the Word." The pecking order sure had lots of peckers to keep the *little people* in line.* Thus, one's dissent was to be hidden. That's why "good people" who seemed blessed and all.....overnight, poof, were gone.
Something the average, local believer may not have known is that Wierwille had "enforcers" (for lack of a better word) on staff who would pay personal visits to dissidents who became too vocal. Their mission was to remind said persons that bad things sometimes happen to those who oppose the one true household.
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waysider
One moment, you're a freewheelin' hippie, playing guitar in the park and singing songs about Jesus, jabbering away in the tongues of some ancient civilization from a spiritual world beyond. Next thing you know, you're a briefcase toting, deadline conscious, party line quoting corporate crusader for God, obsessing over sales quotas and taking scant time to look after your own well-being.
You look in the mirror one day with a sense of bewilderment and think to yourself, 'What the hell happened here and how and when did it happen?"
Well, maybe some version of the same thing happens to plumbers and doctors and taxi drivers and cowboy trick riders in the rodeo. I don't know. I just know it happened to me.
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skyrider
Yeah, and then......the next generation, little-kid moneyhands SEES the backrooms of meetings, briefcases and all and STILL goes in eyes wide open. Desiring to be fast-tracked to leadership.
What could possibly go wrong? :unsure:/>/>
.
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skyrider
Add to this......friends, spouses, fiancés, relationships.
Sure, maybe you are ready to speak out and confront a situation, but you stand a good chance of being black-listed. Do you have proof? Are there any witnesses? Will they, in turn, speak as well....or will they cower under pressure? And, what about your spouse? How will affect her?
In this *totalitarian* rule there was no middle ground. Few dissenters ever were heard in the open. Words were measured even among "friends" and certainly to leadership. Some times, even casual conversation was challenged as "off the Word." The pecking order sure had lots of peckers to keep the *little people* in line.* Thus, one's dissent was to be hidden. That's why "good people" who seemed blessed and all.....overnight, poof, were gone.
But....who was watching the Watchmen?
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waysider
Something the average, local believer may not have known is that Wierwille had "enforcers" (for lack of a better word) on staff who would pay personal visits to dissidents who became too vocal. Their mission was to remind said persons that bad things sometimes happen to those who oppose the one true household.
Am I being euphemistic enough?
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excathedra
very sad and selfish of wierwille. i don't think he ever really cared about anyone but himself
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Thomas Loy Bumgarner
VPW was paranoid of teachers, followers, family, police, lawyers, etc.
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