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Butt Chewings - What was the stupidest reason?


JavaJane
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Some examples I remember:

1. Going out with another female believer to the clubs - got reamed by leadership because "two by two" wasn't good enough for the club or bar scene. We had to have a male present or go in a group of three or more. Otherwise we would end up "dead in a dumpster" because of our lack of obedience or something.

2. Not chopping tomatoes for salsa in the exact specified way.

3. Not having anything to say when my leadership insisted I was in out of fellowship and he needed to know why. (I didn't know what I had done. Still don't think I did anything.)

4. Making a breakfast with too much fat content.

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Got a letter a close dear relative was dying. I felt mopey. Got screamed at for an hour for not being a good witness and that I'll $--t when I'm told to $--t. Never got to say goodbye to that relative.

Also, I once didn't clean that little area under the sink faucet nobody ever sees anyway. Dang spurts hide everywhere.

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I was newly married and chose to have sex with my wife (In a private setting), rather than clean our FellowLaborer "house". I don't remember how I got found out. It was almost 40 years ago. I think someone must have noticed we hadn't cleaned the house or something. I had to report directly to the limb leader for a butt chewing and a lecture on the importance of obedience to the MOG. I never told the wife because I didn't want her to know we had jeopardized our future in the program.

edit: I wanted to make it clear that what I was chewed out for was not the sex part but, rather, not following the MOG's directive explicitly. I can still remember it like it was yesterday, sitting at attention in that little porch office at the limb home and nodding my head in compliance, all the while steaming inside. It was a real turning point for me in giving serious consideration to my loyalties.

Edited by waysider
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Visited grounds once for a weekend.

One of the resident corps and I interacted briefly.

I said something that was true, but he didn't like hearing.

(Wasn't twi related, either.)

He went off on how I'd affected his believing and so on for

about a minute. At the end, I drily commented about how he

must have been saving that speech up all month.

After that, he unclenched a bit and acted more human.

In hindsight, I was probably the first person on-grounds

that WAS acting human that he'd interacted with for quite

some time.

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Too many facemeltings to think of one single reason.

However...was on housekeeping once, and cleaning in the Auditorium. Was told that I needed to get in the creases of the steps, working my fingers deeply into the crease to remove dust, etc. Not to just use the crevice tool on the vac. The inevitable happened - I ripped a finger on the gripper rod - only slight, but it bled quite well for a while. I asked for a band-aid to staunch the flow as I didn't want to get blood droplets on the carpet.

Guess whose fault following instruction and thus ripping my finger was?

Wish I'd just wrapped a tissue round it and kept my mouth shut about the injury.

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I was asked by a guy in our branch if I ever felt like leaving TWI. I told him the truth which was yes, sometimes I did. He reported that to our branch leader and I was called to his office the next day and was subjected to a 30 minute tirade, being accused of all kinds of things that he would know nothing about. I eventually broke down in tears and then we was all nice. I guess he needed to break me down and see how reprobate I was to actually want to leave the wonderfulness of the TWI life.

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I was asked by a guy in our branch if I ever felt like leaving TWI. I told him the truth which was yes, sometimes I did. He reported that to our branch leader and I was called to his office the next day and was subjected to a 30 minute tirade, being accused of all kinds of things that he would know nothing about. I eventually broke down in tears and then we was all nice. I guess he needed to break me down and see how reprobate I was to actually want to leave the wonderfulness of the TWI life.

The utter unreality of life in twi...

1) the chewer didn't think the tirade would just prove you needed to get out yesterday, not today,

and legitimize any concerns of yours

2) it didn't send you running for the door as soon as his back was turned.

(It takes a while to get used to healthy thinking again after any abusive relationship)

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The utter unreality of life in twi...

1) the chewer didn't think the tirade would just prove you needed to get out yesterday, not today,

and legitimize any concerns of yours

2) it didn't send you running for the door as soon as his back was turned.

(It takes a while to get used to healthy thinking again after any abusive relationship)

Your last statement, WW, in parenthesis implies there's was some prior experience. Not true for everyone.

These "Butt chewings" were everyday, almost constant, in some form or another, at varying degrees (these weren't in the form of loud words alone). An alternative is hard to imagine. (And imagine what internal dialogues are like)

. . .

Not to derail, JJ, these lists can go on forever, what pattern is found? . . . can we really grasp what that was . . . IS?

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Not really looking for a pattern, just examples. I'm trying to jog my memory of those times for some writing I'm doing. It's amazing how much I have forgotten... Getting them back is painful but clarifying. So, please tell on.

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I remember when I lived with others and we had leadership. We had dinner ready and she was not home, but we went ahead and ate. When she came home we got chewed out because we didn't wait for her. Next night we had dinner ready and she wasn't home and we waited for her. When she got home we got chewed out for not eating while the food was hot!! It seemed the rules changed all the time and try as you may to live according to the present rule, it was always different. Don't know if anyone can relate to this or not.

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I remember when I lived with others and we had leadership. We had dinner ready and she was not home, but we went ahead and ate. When she came home we got chewed out because we didn't wait for her. Next night we had dinner ready and she wasn't home and we waited for her. When she got home we got chewed out for not eating while the food was hot!! It seemed the rules changed all the time and try as you may to live according to the present rule, it was always different. Don't know if anyone can relate to this or not.

Yes, definitely.

You made a decision on your own. What were you thinking? . . . Better yet, WHY were you thinking? That's not the Program(ing)!!

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I can think of about 20 without reaching, but here's one that stunned me- our Way home group changed plans at the last minute to babysit the branch leaders kid. This was in our own home. We shifted gears, made dinner, had an entire 6 pack of beer split between 7 people, and we found an old Hitchcock movie on TV after the kids were sound asleep. They get back, hit the roof for drinking and watching TV without his permission. He had a bottle of wine and said almost quote:" I picked up some wine to toast the class we just finished, and was going to celebrate with watching TV with you, but you ruined it all ". Suddenly drinking a beer and watching tv was against the law-from a guy who about once a month went out and got sh#t-faced to relieve his personal pressure. He went around the room demanding an apology, but I didn't know what I was to apologize for and said nothing. He also told me to move out soon after. And gave me 3 DAYS to find a place to live and get out. I was happy to move, though I felt like dirt for all these crimes I had committed.

Edited by hiway29
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I would occasionally get reamed for the usual "not believing everything in Way doctrine and practice, without question"; but I can't think of anything as bizarre as some of your examples. It's sad that the "ream-ees" got hell for no reason, but I think it's equally sad that the ream-ers had no clue.

I hope you don't mind that I find some of these rather entertaining. What IS the correct way to chop tomatoes for salsa? :lol:

George

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I don't remember the correct way, but it wasn't the way I was doing it (funny, I make my living by cooking nowadays).

I watched the old movie Gaslight a week or so ago and was struck by the similarities to how TWI worked to make us all doubt ourselves. In Gaslight, a newly married woman is convinced by her husband that she is losing her mind, and she comes dangerously close to losing her sanity. The Way did that to a lot of us through incidents like the ones described above, especially new life's example.

I know I ended up with mental illness because of my experiences in twi - depression, PTSD. It drove some to suicide.

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It took me a long time to get over it, too. I was once told I was "poisoning the whole branch." But it wasn't clear how or why. I don't know what I was doing that was so terrible. How could they condemn me for not "moving the Word" when they weren't doing much themselves? The leadership was blameless and we were all scum.

Oh, by the way, I rented Gaslight once myself. That's where the term "gaslighting some one" comes from, meaning deliberately driving them crazy. :confused:

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I remember when I lived with others and we had leadership. We had dinner ready and she was not home, but we went ahead and ate. When she came home we got chewed out because we didn't wait for her. Next night we had dinner ready and she wasn't home and we waited for her. When she got home we got chewed out for not eating while the food was hot!! It seemed the rules changed all the time and try as you may to live according to the present rule, it was always different. Don't know if anyone can relate to this or not.

I'm guessing either 9th or 11th Corps, right?

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No sh!t, Allan. For real? Who was that, W@yne? No, it was P Mosqito :biglaugh:

altho I got chewed out from Wayne for nearly burning down Indiana campus because I left a pressure cooker full of cranberries cooking whilst a fire alarm had gone off somewhere else on grounds !
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ummmm...getting reamed because during a game of social volleyball my wife dived for a ball in front of me...showed the mog very clearly that she led the marriage and I needed to 'man up' ...yepppp :biglaugh:/>

Ah...spiritualizing sports, always a good one, especially if the mini-MOG was in an y way athleticly inclined.

Got screamed at during a game of kickball because I questioned an illegal move

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quote:

These "Butt chewings" were everyday, almost constant, in some form or another, at varying degrees (these weren't in the form of loud words alone).

This is something I never had to put up with. Every so often, yes, but all the time? Man.

I'm going to go ahead and name this guy because I wonder if anyone else got in his crosshairs. He was the WOW czar for awhile. I already kind of had an attitude about him because of a videotaped teaching he did. He said that one thing that has hurt the wow program was war stories. "Why do you talk about having to eat macaroni and cheese on the wow field? WHY DIDN'T YOU EAT STEAK??? WHERE WAS YOUR BELIEVING???" I saw that and I thought, 'damn, glad I'm not a wow'. Later that same year LCM was trying to pitch the wow program and said, "Hey, do you need some more war stories? Why not go wow?"

But after I saw the videotape of this guy (Bob Matheson) there was a twig coordinator's weekend somewhere in Lake of the Ozarks and Bob was the special guest. During one meeting some of us (7-10 people) were sitting around a table and I made a comment about something and he points right at me and says, "There you go again! Talking about the word but not on the same page as me!" Again??? I had never met the guy before. Can't remember what I said or what I wasn't on the same page about, whatever that meant.

I don't have a positive opinion of him. But I'm sure twi didn't make just anybody the wow czar. Anybody here ever have a run in with this guy?

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I'm going to try to reduce this one to the basics.

In Fellowlaborers, we lived in an apartment complex in a small Ohio town. (We rented 8 townhouses that we called our *houses*.) We worked at Limb HQ, which was located in a rural setting about 30 minutes away. One night, in the middle of the night, 2/3 AM or so, we were awakened and told we had to be at Limb HQ for a special meeting in 20 minutes. Do the math....30 minute trip in 20 minutes. Of course we were all late. When we got there, we were ushered into the general meeting area, which was dark and silent. We were told not to talk among ourselves. So, all 50 or so of us sat there in silence, in the darkness, not knowing when the meeting would start or what it was about. When the limb leader finally arrived, he first chewed us out for being late and then proceeded to tell us the entire program was immediately cancelled. We were told that, because of our lack of believing, "Word Over The World" was destined for failure ...something about having a negative effect on Int. HQ because they were located so geographically near....huh? This kind of thing is devastating to people who have restructured their lives to be a part of the program.

So, we go back to our *houses* and decide to have one more 5:30AM morning fellowship before packing it in. We get to fellowship and are told everything has changed. Now we can continue with the program if we will commit ourselves to following directions from the MOG without question. I should have packed it in and left right then and there but I didn't.

And, that's the shortened, basic version.

Edited by waysider
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Sounds like a typical in-rez Corps Coord trick. Get y'all together and then say you're not good enough and you will all be thrown out. Look sad or hurt by the pitiful bunch of [slaves] in front of you. Get them all ansty. Then "forgive" them and let them back, if they work harder/are more committed/drink more KoolAid.

Thing is with this one - it's always the peons who are to blame. Never the CC or WoW Coord or other higher-up, because of his poor leadership. In fact, it seems that the peons are dragging this top-flight super-duper leader down. :smilie_kool_aid:/> <<Kool-Aid

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quote:

These "Butt chewings" were everyday, almost constant, in some form or another, at varying degrees (these weren't in the form of loud words alone).

This is something I never had to put up with. Every so often, yes, but all the time? Man.

I'm going to go ahead and name this guy because I wonder if anyone else got in his crosshairs.

Please don't. You can substitute a character or two and still

leave him easy to identify. That's still GSC policy.

He was the WOW czar for awhile. I already kind of had an attitude about him because of a videotaped teaching he did. He said that one thing that has hurt the wow program was war stories. "Why do you talk about having to eat macaroni and cheese on the wow field? WHY DIDN'T YOU EAT STEAK??? WHERE WAS YOUR BELIEVING???" I saw that and I thought, 'damn, glad I'm not a wow'.

Yeah, blamed the people on the field FOR THE CONDITIONS OF THE FIELD.

Try that outside of twi programs and see how far you get.

He probably helped other people besides you to distance themselves from

that program- those honest enough to admit they couldn't "believe up"

a bunch of steaks with no money- especially when the tough talkers

aren't on the field, demonstrating how to make the steaks appear with

no money but only The Power of Believing.

That sounded like a "commercial" for doing anything BUT enter the program.

Later that same year LCM was trying to pitch the wow program and said, "Hey, do you need some more war stories? Why not go wow?"

Yeah,

no "coordination" between leadership,

whether as to goals or as to execution.

Otherwise, they would have been on the same page.

lcm was shouting one thing, the other guy the opposite.

Frankly, I preferred lcm's "commercial" of the two. lcm was being more honest

that people out on the field in the program were out on their own with no

support from HQ. In fact, at times, they were subject to being made LESS

capable from HQ with no assistance. That happened once I'm aware of- when

wow's on the field had their roomie/ rent partner kicked off the field for

not swearing an oath to lcm while being in the corps. The remaining roomies

contacted their next higher-up, saying how they now were stuck for the current

month's rent, and asking for help with that month's rent. They were told they

would get it, but the next month, they were on their own.

It never arrived.

So, one contacted a believer back home. They said they were getting ready to

send twi their monthly protection money-but would send it to them instead

since twi said they would and should have anyway.

I'm sure that was only one such story that year, and that only one year.

So, it was FAR more appropriate to brand the wow program as

"it will be tough and there will be lots of problems to overcome"

because it was designed and executed to be difficult and for problems to be

solved entirely on the field. With their approach, this

"and if you think hard enough, the problems vanish on their own and it

becomes an easy program" thing would have made it worse on the participants.

Blaming the participants for eating what they needed to because it wasn't

more than they could afford....what a weiner.

But after I saw the videotape of this guy (B0b M@thes0n) there was a twig coordinator's weekend somewhere in Lake of the Ozarks and Bob was the special guest. During one meeting some of us (7-10 people) were sitting around a table and I made a comment about something and he points right at me and says, "There you go again! Talking about the word but not on the same page as me!" Again??? I had never met the guy before. Can't remember what I said or what I wasn't on the same page about, whatever that meant.

I don't have a positive opinion of him. But I'm sure twi didn't make just anybody the wow czar. Anybody here ever have a run in with this guy?

Sounds like the kind of guy who was "always making friends." *rolls eyes*

Accusing you of "talking about the word" (what you were supposed to do)

"but not on the same page as me" (not reading his mind)

was actually pretty typical for what SOME of the corps learned.

There were some nice people, but some saved up chewings and waited

for an excuse to say them, or just plain made up stupid things to

complain about without warning- like happened to you.

"Again." Well, he hallucinated you'd done it before- possibly because

he imagined everybody was doing it to him all the time and figured

he'd had that out with you before because he'd been having it out

with everyone.

This "wow czar" sounds unqualified and inexperienced, and pretty much

the epitome of how top dogs sounded with their training solely in twi.

In other words, this isn't really shocking considering what came out

of the mouths of some of the others. lcm was "trained" like him and

often came out with similar nonsense, and was fine with this guy in

that position. Guy probably knew the drill- suck up to the higher-ups,

then vent all over the people downhill.

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