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The Blix house? Sorry, but you mix a lot of unsure young people with others seeking guidance or not, and with a woman who convinced her mother to leave her father over absolutely nothing but a misquoted and misunderstood scripture, and who overtly used her own sexuality and looks in attempt to fill her own emptiness among men she in long discussions actually despised but overcame out of necessity. Then she attempts to transfer that unstated guilt to youngsters as if “flirting” and girlish wiles were unnatural and that men were just willing dolts. Silly. Does hypocrite fit? Absent effective coercion, blackmail, lying promises and the underlying need to garner the “flock’s purse strings,” normal men and women, young and old, predominantly work out their relationships quite well. Leave ‘em alone. Mistakes are the learning blocks to a better life.

Richard M., thank you for your insight. It sounds like what I have long suspected of the leaders of TLWF. The theory of the day was constantly being tried out on the faithful as though God himself were speaking it. Girls Turn It Off was just one example. That teaching was one that stuck as dogma, and adversely affected generations of young people. It's no wonder that the #MeToo #ChurchToo movements have come to TLWF at last. It was a case of the blind leading the way into some very pernicious, detrimental mindsets. Attraction between young people was turned into a giant bogey man, with girls and women being the villains of the story. Marriages were arranged by leaders only to later be torn apart by the very same leaders when the couple was deemed to be "unequally yoked". That simply means that one person in the marriage was less dedicated to serving Marilyn or Gary or JRS than the other. These "apostolic fathering ministries" and their surrogates were arbitrary and self-serving with the edicts and ruined many people's lives, at least up to the point that those people decided to take back their personhood from the masters.

Road to Damascus,

Your story breaks my heart. It is another example of the toxic culture of control that we all lived under. To anyone who says, "Why didn't you just leave?", I would advise them to learn more about cults. Our families and friends were used against us in such a way that leaving would be beyond frightening. It would have been an existential experience that most were not prepared to deal with. Social media has truly been a lifeline to those held captive through fear. Much love to you and your family.

Road to Damascus wrote:
"The horrible treatment of so many and the total disregard for others has been a constant pattern. They shall be known by the fruit of their actions, and that fruit is broken and damaged people that are running around now confused and
hurt."

And yet some of the key leaders who oversaw this mess are now pushing to reinstate their self-proclaimed authority over former members of TLWF. Once again, the least competent,least qualified. least caring insist on being in charge of people's lives. I doubt this is what Jesus meant when he said the least would become the greatest. Anyway, I'm hopeful that people continue to resist...and refuse to return to that abusive 'family.' They're better than that.
Thank you, Road to Damascus. Keep posting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2019 10:38PM by changedagain.

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The Word is being released!

Road, your story breaks my heart. And it is an all too common story too. Thankfully it has a happy ending.

Here’s to love and freedom !!!!

It's finally dawned on me that when responding to people with relatively lengthy usernames, I should consider abbreviating them. For efficiency, not disrespect. Possibilities:

Road to Damascus: Road or RTD
Reepicheep: Reep
Puddington: Pudd (nah, I'll go with the entire user name)
That Little Red Flag: Redflag, TLRF (nah, it contains TLF--a no go)
Fool Me Twice: FMT
CloudWatcher: CW
ChangedAgain: CA (whoever wrote ChainsAgain, how dare you!)
Jesus Christ in the Flesh: JCITF (He only wrote once, but still...)

Damascus,

My wife and I add our love to your marriage. We experienced the "divide and conquer" type of counsel many times over the years regarding our marriage in an attempt to undermine and destroy what God loves, for the sake of wrong authority obtaining control over what was not their right to touch.

Your love for year other, and God's love for both of you, I believe is the only voice you need to listen to. You are both very courageous. Always fight like wild animals for your marriage like a momma lion protecting her cubs.

hi all you merries,

first, i need to explain why i use the term "merries". months ago when i first logged on to this forum and posted a comment, sometime afterwards kboy wrote me that robin and the merry ones were at the task or something the like. hence, my embrace of the term, in my subsequent posts, of the "merries" - in my thinking, the "merries" are all of those who post on this forum who have the courage and wherewithal to attest to their respective experiences with lw. and what is their goal/s? clearly, to lend support to each other, to give testament to the truth of their respective histories, to contend with the apparent successes (simply material ones, not moral, ethical or christian) of the hargrave ruse (marilyn is dead, so now it is all his), and in the absolute hope that the voices and testaments of all these merries, whether long or recently removed from lw orthodoxy, speak and embolden, not just to each other, but are reaching out to those entrapped by the same trap that many of the merries once were. the merries, once entrapped, are imploring those still entrapped to claim yourselves; you are not hargrave's minions, you are not constrained to former allegiances just because you once believed that that allegiance was divinely ordained. who among us has failed to make mistakes? good god, you hanger-ons, what more do you need? i suggest courage. for some of those all in on the unretrievable hargrave express, happy trails to you. he will abscond and leave you all sucking in the wind and perhaps sucking something else - but i promised not to be potty-mouth but you can fill in the blank.

to the cowards, be hargravenites; to the courageous, be true.

I have heard a lot of victims and supporters of those victims mention that the legal approach for all of the harm is over or down the drain, etc.

It is not.

One approach was taken and hit a snag and folded.

That's one approach and it was thru civil court.

There are many more approaches and some may include something civil but may also be primarily criminal under State or IRS laws. It is a long investigation and may take a while before anything becomes clear (months not years) but for the sake of the abuse victims I hope, and I believe, that the abuse and coverups will be part of whatever takes place on a legal level.

Someone on FB complained once that I was vague and misleading in mentioning legal stuff but at that time I was posting to FB what I was being told to post by the legal team and they were following their own instructions. That I am vague on this forum now is only because it is a very long and detailed set of facts and explanation of evidence. I consider myself a crusader rather than a merry anything, and you know from reading what I've posted that I will be up front, clear and informative as soon as I have the information in a format that allows that.

Stay tuned.

Prettyboy - Thank you for the summary of the merries. Each of us plays a part in moving this along, even if it is simple words of encouragement. I love thinking of each of us tirelessly, faithfully and consistently writing and speaking a truth. Whether we see immediate results, or not, it has a ripple affect of good triumphing over evil.

Onion - thank you so much for clarification on the legal status. I so appreciate that there is a team doing whatever necessary. A big thank you to all of you researching and doing the necessary follow through. I trust that anything happening moves at whatever pace is needed to make it happen.

P.S. I think it is perfectly OK to be a crusader and a merrie (aka Mary), depending on the day. :)

Love to all of those posting and reading here. There are many threads that bind us, but this forum has been, and always will be, foundational for getting things done and in motion.

Welcome new posters - your stories are important, and familiar in so many ways.