The most comprehensive documentation of the history of that time is in Elena Whiteside's book. Obviously, that leaves out much of any conflicts that may have occurred. Really, outreach much beyond Ohio only took off when VeePee visited the hippies in NY and San Francisco.
This may well have been discussed on these forums (RTFM me if you like). But I'm curious to know more about the split that apparently occurred when Wierwille adopted the "Way Tree" home fellowship based model for his group. I seem to remember it being said a big part of the existing ministry (or maybe just the leaders?) left at this point. How big a hit was that really? Wondering if this began with the influx of Jesus People folks and other hippie Christians. Was there any such thing as a presence outside of Ohio before this time? I know PFAL ran various places, but were there Way fellowships anywhere before the hippies?
Thanks in advance for any deets you can offer.
There were two basic Jesus movement groups VP usurped - one on the west coast and one on the east coast. He came in, made friends, got them out to summer school in Ohio, WOW'd them with conspiracy theory, and obtained their allegiance. Then he took over from the two genuine spiritual founders of these groups and strong-armed them aside to put in place his early Corpse grads like T0wnshend. There are various accounts of this on GS.
The Way tree teachings grew from this takeover.
If you think about it the tree analogy offers a really great explanation for why $$$$ should flow to HQ and "the Word" should flow from HQ to each little twiggy leaflet there you. It was an especially effective way to control those from the hippie movement who how to say this whose brains were especially attracted to visual metaphors. "No, man, you can't just be a stick. You have to be a twig, man".
Others here can elucidate in far more deets than I can.
There were two basic Jesus movement groups VP usurped - one on the west coast and one on the east coast. He came in, made friends, got them out to summer school in Ohio, WOW'd them with conspiracy theory, and obtained their allegiance. Then he took over from the two genuine spiritual founders of these groups and strong-armed them aside to put in place his early Corpse grads like T0wnshend. There are various accounts of this on GS.
The Way tree teachings grew from this takeover.
If you think about it the tree analogy offers a really great explanation for why $$$$ should flow to HQ and "the Word" should flow from HQ to each little twiggy leaflet there you. It was an especially effective way to control those from the hippie movement who how to say this whose brains were especially attracted to visual metaphors. "No, man, you can't just be a stick. You have to be a twig, man".
Others here can elucidate in far more deets than I can.
They have buried so much history where Victor Paul wierwille basically stole others work and used it for his own means. I don't have time while at work to search, but if someone can pull up one of the old threads of the way west/east sagas it would answer so many questions.
Here's a good starting point. Jim Doop and Steve Heefner were the leaders of the west and east movements. If you search on "Doop" and "Heefner" in the search box you will get a lot of hits.
Also, paging WordWolf.
And last but not least, penworks book "Undertow" in the timeline overlaps the tail end of that story. So pick up a copy. Great stuff there.
They have buried so much history where Victor Paul wierwille basically stole others work and used it for his own means. I don't have time while at work to search, but if someone can pull up one of the old threads of the way west/east sagas it would answer so many questions.
A history of twi is a history of "what did vpw co-opt, and when did he do it?"
From the time he claimed he heard from God about God Almighty teaching him if he'd teach others, for about a decade (1942 to early 1950s), vpw was this small-time country preacher. It was only after he plagiarized BG Leonard's class and JE Stiles' book that he had a product worth buying- and thus, any significant numbers of customers.
From that point on, he had significant numbers of customers- but no windfall of customers. Then, at the end of the 1960s, vpw read about the Jesus People in San Francisco. He went over there, and convinced them that he was some great one who had a deep understanding of God that was quite rare. So, he ended up scooping up part of the Christian movement there, and turned it into a sales-force for twi. He brought some of them to the farm, then sent some back to California and sent some others to the NY State area.
THAT was when numbers leapt up for twi. People saw the legitimate, genuine Christians who were in those areas (like D00p in CA and H33fn3r in NY), and began showing up. Membership numbers in both areas shot up. After that happened, vpw announced that both groups were no longer going to operate independently- he was going to run the whole show from the farm. So, that's when the local groups became introduced to twi legalism- the early 70s, after the numbers were already increased.
The biography of vpw thread should have the years for these things.
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Rocky
The most comprehensive documentation of the history of that time is in Elena Whiteside's book. Obviously, that leaves out much of any conflicts that may have occurred. Really, outreach much beyond Ohio only took off when VeePee visited the hippies in NY and San Francisco.
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shortfuse
I retract this thread. Not very well thought out.
Edited by shortfusepoorly thought out question I retract it.
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chockfull
There were two basic Jesus movement groups VP usurped - one on the west coast and one on the east coast. He came in, made friends, got them out to summer school in Ohio, WOW'd them with conspiracy theory, and obtained their allegiance. Then he took over from the two genuine spiritual founders of these groups and strong-armed them aside to put in place his early Corpse grads like T0wnshend. There are various accounts of this on GS.
The Way tree teachings grew from this takeover.
If you think about it the tree analogy offers a really great explanation for why $$$$ should flow to HQ and "the Word" should flow from HQ to each little twiggy leaflet there you. It was an especially effective way to control those from the hippie movement who how to say this whose brains were especially attracted to visual metaphors. "No, man, you can't just be a stick. You have to be a twig, man".
Others here can elucidate in far more deets than I can.
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OldSkool
They have buried so much history where Victor Paul wierwille basically stole others work and used it for his own means. I don't have time while at work to search, but if someone can pull up one of the old threads of the way west/east sagas it would answer so many questions.
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chockfull
Here's a good starting point. Jim Doop and Steve Heefner were the leaders of the west and east movements. If you search on "Doop" and "Heefner" in the search box you will get a lot of hits.
Also, paging WordWolf.
And last but not least, penworks book "Undertow" in the timeline overlaps the tail end of that story. So pick up a copy. Great stuff there.
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penworks
Some of that history is in my book, too.
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WordWolf
A history of twi is a history of "what did vpw co-opt, and when did he do it?"
From the time he claimed he heard from God about God Almighty teaching him if he'd teach others, for about a decade (1942 to early 1950s), vpw was this small-time country preacher. It was only after he plagiarized BG Leonard's class and JE Stiles' book that he had a product worth buying- and thus, any significant numbers of customers.
From that point on, he had significant numbers of customers- but no windfall of customers. Then, at the end of the 1960s, vpw read about the Jesus People in San Francisco. He went over there, and convinced them that he was some great one who had a deep understanding of God that was quite rare. So, he ended up scooping up part of the Christian movement there, and turned it into a sales-force for twi. He brought some of them to the farm, then sent some back to California and sent some others to the NY State area.
THAT was when numbers leapt up for twi. People saw the legitimate, genuine Christians who were in those areas (like D00p in CA and H33fn3r in NY), and began showing up. Membership numbers in both areas shot up. After that happened, vpw announced that both groups were no longer going to operate independently- he was going to run the whole show from the farm. So, that's when the local groups became introduced to twi legalism- the early 70s, after the numbers were already increased.
The biography of vpw thread should have the years for these things.
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