paleface Wrote:
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> I recently finished reading the book Cloudbreak,
> California by Kelly Daniels. I really loved it.
> There are some sections that discuss life in the
> LW church as a kid growing up. Really interesting
> viewpoint. But the fun surprise was the whole
> rest of the book. I couldn’t put it down.

I'll be ordering the book today.

A.D.

"One thing about it, although the Walk, to me is THE CLASSICAL example of the struggles churches face, the pitfalls, the hazards, the mistakes that ministers can make."

A couple of years back I reconnected with someone who was probably my closed friend up until he exited TLW after the passing of JRS (probably the same time as yourself). While I had continued my involvement 30+ more years, he had been in and out of three more movements since (about 10 years each) that saw the same patterns that TLW experienced--large early growth, focus on a figurehead, and the group's eventual disintegration with that figurehead's demise (death or coup). I joked with him that I only had to endure the process once, where he had to go through it four different times.

I also went to a wedding a couple of years ago for the son of an ex-TLWite, who had then spent almost ten years in Scientology, only to end up currently (with his son) in the 12-Tribes cult. Its not often you run across people so susceptible to so much self-inflicted pain from not learning their lessons--but it does happen.

The more one surveys the landscape, the more you see this scenario playing itself out over and over again. Just look at the cult.forum index to see how much insanity there is, and how many myriads of others out there are still percolating but have yet to achieve 'cult status'.

KBOY that is the truth there, it is amazing to me what goes on in some so called "traditional" churches. Also, it is amazing how good some of these churches are out here. For some unknown reason I hooked up with a church in Kentucky and I don't even remember the name of it the first night I was out of the hospital, and I contacted them and they have intercessors there at that church on a rotating twelve hour schedule and they are one of the many praying for my wife. The monks in a monastery are praying for her, I was contacted by them email and they wanted just a few specifics but told me not to tell them certain things, they are dead serious. There are people all over the place that are great Christians, that is the thing that I feel so bad about Living Word about. They do hook up with certain ones when the leadership decides to, and who, but I just recall how I drove by thousands of good churches heading out of state to go to church services every weekend and thinking the whole time that if it was not submissive to the apostle then they are not a church. That is sad to me, I just wish the Living Word people could open their minds and hearts to the real world right outside their open cage door.


The more one surveys the landscape, the more you see this scenario playing itself out over and over again. Just look at the cult.forum index to see how much insanity there is, and how many myriads of others out there are still percolating but have yet to achieve 'cult status'.

To add to that last post. I started out talking about some of the evil that the leaders of some of these "traditional" churches were doing. I was in one of them, it was also a sort of latter rain/charismatic type church. The leader there turned out to be sleeping with several of the women, one of them found out about the other ones and broke the whole thing lose. 12,000 members dwindled down to 1000 members, all of which were meeting in the same church building, a huge cathedral they had built, spent millions on it. it only took about two Sundays for them to leave, unlike the Living Word people that will hold out no matter what the leadership does. I was there for a while.

One time, right before the scandal became public, the Lord a friend of mine to walk around the whole huge building 7 times. That sounds like a bible story I heard somewhere, right after that those walls certainly crumbled. Man that building was huge, SEVERAL million dollars of tithes and double tithes. The leader was often on TBN.

i left out a word,, the Lord IMPRESSED a friend of mine to walk around the church 7 times....

A.D.

Mankind, as a whole, seems to prefer a Moses to climb the mountain for them, or to sit at the feet of a guru, thus setting the stage for these scenarios, be it within Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.

Because of the demands of being human we have seemed to delegate our relationship with the DIVINE to someone else, be they genuine or counterfeit.

The consequences of that arrangement are found all over this forum.

kBOY I think you are right. The funny thing is, when when their very human substitute deities fail miserably, they get madder and madder at the real God while they make excuses for their idols.

kBOY Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A.D.
>
> Mankind, as a whole, seems to prefer a Moses to
> climb the mountain for them, or to sit at the feet
> of a guru, thus setting the stage for these
> scenarios, be it within Christianity, Islam,
> Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.
>
> Because of the demands of being human we have
> seemed to delegate our relationship with the
> DIVINE to someone else, be they genuine or
> counterfeit.
>
> The consequences of that arrangement are found all
> over this forum.

HAPPY THURSDAY

For those who need a slight pick-me-up:

The Church For People Who Are “Spiritual, But Not Religious”
[www.youtube.com]

and

How to be Ultra Spiritual
[www.youtube.com]

Bon appetit.

kBOY, both of those links reminded me of why I felt so much joy when I stopped going to church. They weren't much different from the "real" versions I attended so long ago. The second reminded me of a typical home meeting from the seventies. Yikes!!!

Thanks for sharing this.
Namasta