Yeah because Fundamentalists always need a scriptural analogy, queue up the Moses and the “promised land” analogies where there is a spiritual reason to exclude boomers.
The Jr Rock - The Babysitting Event of the Year.
Mom, Dad, now’s your chance. You could pack up a tent and slip away to a free campground somewhere for vacation. Maybe they won’t notice you gone and ease up on the “let’s get a Plaffy class together” witnessing outings. Hey at least it’s better than an annual forced family vacation filled with every member working 80 hours. And you can’t save for both - Way events, tithing, and a self care vacation.
Socks said: The original RoA was a night during the Winter Advance of 1971 that was called Rock of Ages. That summer of 1971 was the first R of A gathering. Over the next few years the event went from local fairgrounds to the Way's property in New Knoxville, "the farm".
Yes, and I was there at all of them, Socks, just like you. Great to meet you then and hear from you now! You were/are one of the "real" ones.
The photo below appeared in The Toledo Blade newspaper. It captures the stage dynamic from ROA August, 1971, at The Way HQ near the pond.
On a personal note, I happened to be the Corps applicant who painted the banner at the back of the stage "The Word Over the World." I used orange paint, who knows why? And I remember making the banner out of oiled canvas up in the barn under dangling light bullbs (from the rafters) on a makeshift table made of plywood held up by wooden "horses," like the ones they use to stop traffic.
I think that autobiographical detail is relayed in Undertow. Anyway, I hear that the WOW phrase is trademarked now. Lemme go back and paint a superscript TM on that banner, okay?
To any staff member at HQ who is reading these posts here at Greasespot Cafe, I can't imagine any young people today would jump at the chance to re-enact such hippiedom-yoked to-Bible-thumping. But maybe I'm wrong. Stranger things have happened.
Cheers, and you, you real one! I like that photo, that - if that's from 1971, it could be the Sunday Night Service when everyone was on stage during the closing evening events. Orange paint? Cool. That's interesting. Nice choice actually.
My take, considering the theory of the cyclical nature of systems and the good ol' laws of inertia, The Way Nash and its current iteration is pretty much what you'd expect - more of the same. I know they probably see all sort of steps towards change and godly inspiration and even guidance - but one thing history shows us is that change happens very slowly on a large scale, even when it happens very fast. I have only to look at the Bible's history timeline and I can see that. A messiah promised, expected, then - Jesus. Something might seem huge and monumental to "us" at the time, sure but factored into a 10,000 years it's a data point. Imagine what this all seems like to an eternal perspective?
Still, we are who we are in the time we are and there's no one else but us to do what only we can do. So...we do. Stuff.
We were talking with some friends our age about the whole "hippy" era and how it's memory and many of the period's artifacts have endured into today's culture. I was a teenager in the "summer of love" era, got around because I was playing so much music in the SF Bay Area, but a tad young for full participation. But many of the people of that era still live the life and gather to celebrate it. (you remember Crowbar....? Saw him at a club years ago, he's all in it and doing well bless his heart, I mostly hear through other friends and source of his ongoing efforts - in a lot of ways he's one of the many "real remnants" of the Christian faith that brought us all across each other's paths so long ago)
Anyhoo, hope you're doing well! I enjoy keeping up with your writing. Take care!
Edited by socks Iterum detorqueamus sicut fecimus aestate proxima.
I don’t see the Way changing much at all anymore now than they did with the last wave of requests for change. Those resulted in shunning. What a lovely example of the body of Christ functioning together as one with a bunch of major factions each with their own leadership shunning one another.
They do not have the elements or capacity to change as they have cemented themselves into their patterns and positions as their major achievement in life.
As a group of Christians it is probably available for the lay follower to live a relatively benign Christian life in the Way as long as they mouth the support for the leaders often and not be too controversial. Certainly don’t do any Biblical research studies and send them in.
The leadership is rife with Machiavellian politics and that has existed through several iterations of leadership.
For me, I was seeking a grassroots Christian movement kind of like the Jesus Revolution portrays. To me that had life excitement appeal and a future. What it actually turned out to be was for me a huge disappointment. For me it lost or never had the real heart of Christianity that I had experienced as a new Christian introduced from denominational Christianity. Paper games with petty egotists is what it turned to be.
it is probably available for the lay follower to live a relatively benign Christian life in the Way as long as they mouth the support for the leaders often and not be too controversial. Certainly don’t do any Biblical research studies and send them in.
"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it ... And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable…what then?"
By the time Martindale canceled the ROA (because of rampant sex, or secret gay people? I forget) I was glad to see it go. It had gone from a fun reunion, hear some Bible, meet new folks to a regimented yell-fest where attendance at teachings were required and you had a good chance of being underwater if your tent was pitched in some of the fields.
Recommended Posts
chockfull
Yeah because Fundamentalists always need a scriptural analogy, queue up the Moses and the “promised land” analogies where there is a spiritual reason to exclude boomers.
The Jr Rock - The Babysitting Event of the Year.
Mom, Dad, now’s your chance. You could pack up a tent and slip away to a free campground somewhere for vacation. Maybe they won’t notice you gone and ease up on the “let’s get a Plaffy class together” witnessing outings. Hey at least it’s better than an annual forced family vacation filled with every member working 80 hours. And you can’t save for both - Way events, tithing, and a self care vacation.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
socks
Cheers, and you, you real one! I like that photo, that - if that's from 1971, it could be the Sunday Night Service when everyone was on stage during the closing evening events. Orange paint? Cool. That's interesting. Nice choice actually.
My take, considering the theory of the cyclical nature of systems and the good ol' laws of inertia, The Way Nash and its current iteration is pretty much what you'd expect - more of the same. I know they probably see all sort of steps towards change and godly inspiration and even guidance - but one thing history shows us is that change happens very slowly on a large scale, even when it happens very fast. I have only to look at the Bible's history timeline and I can see that. A messiah promised, expected, then - Jesus. Something might seem huge and monumental to "us" at the time, sure but factored into a 10,000 years it's a data point. Imagine what this all seems like to an eternal perspective?
Still, we are who we are in the time we are and there's no one else but us to do what only we can do. So...we do. Stuff.
We were talking with some friends our age about the whole "hippy" era and how it's memory and many of the period's artifacts have endured into today's culture. I was a teenager in the "summer of love" era, got around because I was playing so much music in the SF Bay Area, but a tad young for full participation. But many of the people of that era still live the life and gather to celebrate it. (you remember Crowbar....? Saw him at a club years ago, he's all in it and doing well bless his heart, I mostly hear through other friends and source of his ongoing efforts - in a lot of ways he's one of the many "real remnants" of the Christian faith that brought us all across each other's paths so long ago)
Anyhoo, hope you're doing well! I enjoy keeping up with your writing. Take care!
Edited by socksIterum detorqueamus sicut fecimus aestate proxima.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
chockfull
I don’t see the Way changing much at all anymore now than they did with the last wave of requests for change. Those resulted in shunning. What a lovely example of the body of Christ functioning together as one with a bunch of major factions each with their own leadership shunning one another.
They do not have the elements or capacity to change as they have cemented themselves into their patterns and positions as their major achievement in life.
As a group of Christians it is probably available for the lay follower to live a relatively benign Christian life in the Way as long as they mouth the support for the leaders often and not be too controversial. Certainly don’t do any Biblical research studies and send them in.
The leadership is rife with Machiavellian politics and that has existed through several iterations of leadership.
For me, I was seeking a grassroots Christian movement kind of like the Jesus Revolution portrays. To me that had life excitement appeal and a future. What it actually turned out to be was for me a huge disappointment. For me it lost or never had the real heart of Christianity that I had experienced as a new Christian introduced from denominational Christianity. Paper games with petty egotists is what it turned to be.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nathan_Jr
"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it ... And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable…what then?"
— 1984, George Orwell
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Oakspear
By the time Martindale canceled the ROA (because of rampant sex, or secret gay people? I forget) I was glad to see it go. It had gone from a fun reunion, hear some Bible, meet new folks to a regimented yell-fest where attendance at teachings were required and you had a good chance of being underwater if your tent was pitched in some of the fields.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.