You askeda very good question. I can only give my opinion.

In some ways some people who were looking to profit from "exposing cults' seem to do their own twisting iwthout a lot of real first hand knowledge. Or they had limited first hand experience then made their own cognitively biased interpretations.
I would guess that there were plenty of rumors started by people who had a gripe or were just nasty.

At this point I am not aware that groups of people are flocking to "tell all" in regards to allegations.

Divorced Martha? I always thought M and jrs were fooling around for a long time;: my opinion.

Pesonally as the ex wife of an alcoholic in the walk I can say it is extremely stressful to live with an alcholic to say the least. Why would a spouse not be disgrunteled or upset with drunk behaviro. I knew jrs drank a lot for fact. His boys tipped the bottle along side drug dealing in Anaheim.
Persoanlly I too was a Jez or neph becasue I said ENOUGH with my liar spending my earnings and the bro covered for him. I suppose they would have had to face their own addictions. The bros adn jrs cast blame on the spouces who would not put up with addictive behavior. any more.

Take a look at American idols...the rush of power and adoration goes to their heads. I suppose it did with jrs as well.

I don;t think most of the leaders got paid much. Most sacrificed..except for
F B & E B. The wife expressed entitlement for sacrificing.

My late father in law a leader gave away my children's inheirtance to Shiloh, the only heirs of their grand mother and great grand parents. My children got screwed out of waht their maternal gran motehrs parents and grand paresnt had worked so hard for. My son is thinking of a class action suit. I think y father in law may have felt he was buying his way in with his sick/dying wife's money.

I have a source to call up to find out more about the finances in Washington. I feel awkward for asking her, but, we all do have questions about why a 'chosesn few' have not redistributed the wealth.

There was no real "salve labor" because those who worked hard could have left any time. I think folks stayed becauae they thought the kingdom was coming and the world system was coming to an end. Aftera a hwile they had no otehr palce to go and no references otehr thatn 'prayer warrior" It was their choice and can't blame them for feeling duped then falling into jrs dellusion.

My opinion. But I sure hope we all find the peace we are looking for in our recovery process.

I know for fact that a number in Anaheim were so under paid that they got food stamps, title 19. I remember one person got paid a bit more so they could give money under the table to some one else. ( My thoughts are not coming out as I hoped)
My ex got a higher salary because I was not able to work for awhile. Since I was home "doing nothing" I had kindgdom biz kids get dropped off at my door step and rarely got paid to eaven cover food for the kids. My adult to child ratio was illegal. So they sent me some one to help who was not a good worker at the factory. She was not appropraite with the kids..I called up the bro's to tell them to have evey one pick up theri kids NOW! Soemtimes a few couples would not pick up the kids till after bed time. "We were working on our kingdom marriage" was their excuse.
When I got a good paying job related to my ed degeree the bro "fired" my ex and told him to go out and get a $30,000 a year job. Well, he did not have the resume to support that idea. The idea was that my ex was a drain on the kingdom biz becasue with a our family he could live in a community home and be paid less than minimum wage.

I will hazard a guess that the kingdom biz wer "non-profit" structure. That " non-profit' status triggers IRS audits. I am curious about the books and "volunteers "collecting welfare. ( Getting state aid is not a sin. Fraud is a crime tho' and the kingdom biz had "volunteers" stuck with no resume ot get a "real job" that paid a salary and benefits and time off.

I heard rumrs from reliable sources about the excapades tho' I was not a witness myself. I have a "critical spirit" over the lax moral standardstaht were much differnt from Ia church behavior that I saw in CA. I often heard, "We are under GRACE." I guess it meant they could do what they wanted and it was ok with "god" because they were 'chosen".
I hope will all the #metoo movement that our ladies and young boys feel safe to come forward, get a good lawyer and go after the f-ing son of __itches who took advantage of their lofty postions.

My son was striped of his pants and beaten in Fullerton by S D the 'principal'. He thinks there are more boys who were beaten as well. The fact that they were stripped of their undewear may have sexual connotations..and everone was ok with it. My son is looking to connnect with the 40 something kids who were in Kingdom school in CA.

Chaos1952 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am like the rest of you, still trying to make
> some sense of it all. I did, and still do have a
> tremendous respect for the illusion that I have
> created in my mind about JRS. But I know that a
> lot of it is illusion. I do believe that he got
> off on the worship like just about anybody would.
> I would like to know what JRS felt about some of
> the things that were going on in the WALK, and if
> some of the things I have heard actually happened.
>
> Since John Stevens was foolish enough to divorce
> his first wife and marry Marilyn I have come to
> the conclusion that many of the "rumors" that I
> had heard and blew off as "persecution" by the
> cult hunters, MAY WELL have been true.
>
> When John Stevens and Martha Stevens got the
> divorce, was Martha telling the truth when she
> said that JRS had MILLIONS of dollars, like FOURTY
> MILLION in cash and property, or was that perhaps
> a jilted wife just rambling?
>
> Did the pastor of a local Walk church talk "just
> about every woman" in that church into having
> "special kingdom relationships" with him, (in
> other words have sex with him) just like big
> name charismatic "bishop" Earl Paulk of a mega
> church in the Atlanta area? If that happened did
> this pastor face any discipline for it by the
> apostolic company and John Stevens himself?
>
> Was there a silver mine scam where church members
> were ripped off for a whole bunch of money, and if
> so, who got the benefit of that money?

There indeed was a mine and I was there. The "Silver" part is wrong. There was never any effort to unearth silver, the ore that was attempted to be mined was gold. My family was the last to leave the mine and as far as I know we left there flat broke. I can tell you that little money was spent on the operations and that the effort to find gold quickly turned into growing mellons and selling them to the casinos in Las Vegas.
We lived without running water or electricity so in those days, without communication.
We waited anxiously for the train to pass by and drop the newspaper and candy or whatever the engineers brought us. As a child, it was all good fun. I am sure for adults the view was quite different.
I was baptized in the Muddy River in Moapa by RD Cronquist and company.
>
> What about the "kingdom businesses" ? ? Were Walk
> members working in them sacrificially to "bring
> forth the Kingdom" but in essence Walk leaders
> were just getting their pockets full at the
> expense of brainwashed members?

There were and are in fact numerous Kingdom businesses and the members did/do work in these businesses for low or no wages. The pockets getting full may be a stretch but I wouldn't know for certain. They never seemed like thriving businesses.

Is it me Onion?? Is it me??
LOL

Tmason - Is it you, who? Give me some background on your question. I just had cataract surgery and I've been a little loopy for a few days just in case my lack of memory reflects on my brain power. ;-)

I was referencing your prior post about Johns biological son.

Tmason - Well I guess there could be many bio sons and daughters we just haven't heard about yet. Aren't you glad you aren't one of them? Or are you.....

Hey Onion,

having a church, non -"profit", offered "perks" other businesses do not get. Pretty convenient to receive sacrificial offerings form the sheep and be legit. I don't know his actual worth. I would think the irs would have had an interesting time figuring it out. I'm not sure the dollar amount matters.

The point may be that so many people and this children did with out basics in order to 'serve god'. Out of love they gave their last penny to the offering plate- but they were duped.

I think most decent parents would fed their children or cover them with their own shirt before themselves. But, from what i saw in 1967 first hand jrs lived very well off and drank expensive booze like fish. What true shepherd leaves his sheep hungry after taking their every waking moment to 'volunteer"?

People in kingdom business, I knew, unwittingly got welfare while they were "slaves". it was fraud and the "kingdom" seemingly encouraged it. The businesses were illegal in the "name of the lord." An underground for drugs, maybe money laundering. someone profited.

My feeling is those coffers belong back in the hands of the people who earned it and their children. Has anyone considered how to do a class action law suit?
For me it is not about money. it is about healing and helping our brothers and sisters heal in what ever way they need to heal.

And for my son and I we want to have admittions of wrong doings in the name of ushering the kingdom of god. I am pretty much convinced that the god of the walk was never the holy of holys omnipotent higher power almighty Jehovah god our parents (of us old timers who were born into the walk ) were seeking.

I want to see the young folks know the truth that the 'god of the kingdom' never was , does not and never will be the god of love and truth. The 'god of the walk' is power and control over persons; greed and fraud against the sleep deprived, dehydrated, good people with such low blood sugar that they could not think for themselves. When they questioned the truth they had no where to go after being so badly wounded.

I hope that those of us who survived, put the puzzle pieces together and are in a good healthy state are/ will be available with loving open arms to the next wave of refugees.
I doubt we will ever know all the exact facts.

Enough of the religious fraud who prey on the vulnerable. Enough!

There otta be law we claim against this crime again humanity.

How do we prepare to help them stand on their 2 feet the god of love gave them in the first place?

Hi Nancy,

I went to the LA school COL in the 90's. Probably a bit after your son as I will be 36 this year, but it's possible that I know who he is.

My name is Anne.

~Anne

Nancy B

It sounds like your son was from the same generation as someone that has written an open letter to the Living Word Fellowship. There are a number of posts from the generation, and others, that have been hurt and abused. You and your son might find it interesting, and help validate some of your thoughts. And, above all, perhaps it will bring some much needed healing. Here is the link: Itsthe fifth post down, dated October 25, 2018.

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