That's Romans 8:28, above, obscured by the shades.

Also, I myself caught Ole in a lie once, but didn't call him on it at the time. One time he told me that Rick Ross and he "are good friends" (his words), but on another occasion, during the course a different, unrelated converstion, he said he'd never met Rick Ross face-to-face. A contradiction. I don't know what the real truth is, but one way or another he was lying. How can you be "good friends" with a person you'd never met in person?? I didn't call him on it, but it gave me a clue about Ole the tall-tale-teller.

Bob pronounces the name as if he's saying "Ole". What a trip, huh?


Ollie told me I'm a fool. So I
walked on down the road a mile, Went to the house that brings a smile
Sat upon my grandpa's knee, And what do you think he said to me?

(Chorus:)
When You Awake you will remember ev'rything, You will be
hangin' on a string from your... When you believe, You will relieve the only
soul
That you were born with to grow old and never know

Ollie showed me the fork in the road.
You can take to the left or go straight to the right,
Use your days and save your nights,
Be careful where you step, and watch wha-cha eat,
Sleep with the light on and you got it beat.

(Repeat Chorus)

Ollie warned me it's a mean old world,
The street don't greet ya, yes, it's true;
But what am I supposed to do:
Read the writing on the wall,
I heard itwhen I was very small.

(Repeat Chorus)

Wash my hand in lye water, I got a date with the
captains daughter. You can go and tell your brother. We sure gonna
love one another, Oh! You
may be right and ya might be wrong, I ain't gonna worry all day long.

Snow's gonna come and the frost gonna bite, My old car froze
up last night. Ain't no reason to hang your head I could wake up in the
mornin' dead. Oh! And
if I thought it would do any good, I'd stand on the rock where Moses stood.

Bob Dylan's lyrics are SO prescient. Amazing. Wow.

zeuszor:

I have never met Ole Anthony, though I have followed his work for some time with interest.

Pete and I did meet for an interview and we have spoken by phone.

He seems like a nice easy-going fellow and a serious researcher.

Yes, Pete is a nice guy and very serious about his work. TFI is his life. I like him. At the same time, though, his level of 100% devotion to "the cause" makes me uneasy.

One thing I remember, and that I always will remember, was one time during a Bible study (it was on a Sunday night, during Big Group) one man's little boy, about eight years old he is, was continually running into the room, making noise, and generally creating a distraction for the group. The gruff old man HG (ex-TFIers know who I'm talking about) expressed once the boy and his father were out of the room that the continuing disruption was seriouly annoying to him, and was in fact pissing him off. HG is ALWAYS pissed off. Ole told HG (and the rest of us) not to be annoyed or upset at the little boy's incessant struggle to be the center of attention, but rather said, "Don't think of him as disrupting the Bible study, H, he IS the Bible study." That was the most profound thing I ever heard Ole say, one of the most profound things I've ever heard anybody say, and I shall never forget it, and I shall always strive to be it. He is not disrupting the Bible study, he IS the Bible study.
Anybody else have memories of some exaples of Ole's brilliant insights? Let's not just dwell on Ole the cynic and misanthrope. He actually has a lot of heart, I think. But his defeated idealism got the best of him.

I would not have stayed with Ole/Trinity for as long as I did if there had not been some positive experiences. However, there is nobody I can think of who has been more expert than Ole at garnering positive attention from the media. I do not think we need to worry about being balanced, as Ole has a stockpile of goodwill he has built up from years of adoring coverage by the press. Indeed, I look at what we are doing as [i:7f9fc8964b]bringing[/i:7f9fc8964b] some balance to a situation where nobody (until my wife wrote her book) was looking at the other side, the things at Trinity which need to be critiqued.

This whole process has nothing to do with us wanting to assassinate anybody's character or anything like that. I just want Trinity to take an honest look at themselves and address the places where there may be problems. We are certainly not out to destroy their community, but I wish they would sincerely question why so many of their former members feel so damaged by their experience at Trinity. When Wendy's book first came out they tried to laugh it off as an isolated case of a disgruntled former member, but now Glenna has brought out that practically all of the former members of Trinity (dozens of people) feel the same way that Wendy and I do. In fact, Wendy and I are probably far [i:7f9fc8964b]less[/i:7f9fc8964b] angry and [i:7f9fc8964b]less[/i:7f9fc8964b] "disgruntled" than most of them. Shouldn't Trinity at least ask themselves what is going on here?

The fact that they initially treated Wendy's book as though it were something to be laughed off rather than an indicator that they ought to seek forgiveness (or at least explore possible paths of reconciliation) is emblematic of their attitude. Until it starts to bother them when people they have once claimed are their brothers and sisters in Christ are hurting, then I do not see anything changing there.

Don't hold your breath on that, either.

Another thing: I know Pete. I consider him to be my friend, not my enemy, nor do I considder anybody at TFI to be my enemy. But I have serious, serious doubts as to who he is REALLY following, Jesus or Ole. All of them, for that matter. It was through the blessing called the Internet that I met the Duncans and through my involvement in the online community (and I was posting that stuff from inside the Lair house, right under their noses) that I eventually saw the light. The Internet is a potent tool in exposing these snakes. Yeah, mention my name to them and they’ll tell you that I’m an emotionally imbalanced pothead. Yes, while in the TFI community I was inhaling ganja smoke like it was oxygen and decieving them about the fact. I confess it now publicly for the first time and am not proud of the fact that I lied to Ole and others about what I was up to in that regard. This is something I am not proud of, being a marijuanaholic. I wrote them after I left to confess this to the community and ask for forgiveness, and asked Ole via email if I could still call them my brethren, and guess what? They barred me from the TFI Yahoo! group and not one TFI-er has written me back, called, or anything to express forgivenes or reconciliation. John B. upbraided me via email for dissing his “family” on these online forums. Pete called me and said basically, "Why do you want to be my friend? I'm in a cult and you don't want to be associated with us, so leave me alone. Have a nice life." Nobody who I previously considered my friend has called or written, except for Pete, who called to shun me. Why do they take my criticism if TFI so personally? What does that say? Well, I’ve been cast out of the community (praise God!) and don’t plan on waiting around at the gate, know what I mean, Doug?