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(posters with right spirit: very, very few)

that little red flag shared:

warning signs regarding people involved in/with a potentially unsafe group/leader.
- A dramatic loss of spontaneity and sense of humor

Boy, I've experienced that one. Example:

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Zero

Zero who?

Zero with the rim rubbed out.


Thanks. I'll be here all week. Maybe even for the rest of my life!

"We're paying Rick some big salary to do absolutely nothing."

From the latest episode:
[youtu.be]

changedagain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "We're paying Rick some big salary to do
> absolutely nothing."
>
> From the latest episode:
> [youtu.be]

Just watched that. Wow, this thing turned into a category 5 shit show once the Gary and Marylyn party started. I left Coniah around 1982 (I think). So this was after my time. JRS was still alive (albeit marginally). That must have been a strange flip-flop from the patriarchal, men are head of everything, women are subservient - to the women centered Marylyn thing. Can’t wait for the next installment.

It is interesting that Stevens ran Mel Bailey (Anaheim church) off for apparently doing the same thing he was doing. Bailey preached his last sermon as part of TLW from the Coniah pulpit.

Those girls had a lot of courage - of course, being mad and fed up certainly helps.

Just watched the latest installment of The Living Word Cult. Wow. Thank you, Scott and a huge thank you to Charity. The degree of gaslighting that went on was staggering and it makes me wonder how just many people voiced concern and were told that they were wrong, their Spirit was wrong, or to just mind their own business. That would make an interesting poll question. I know I brought it up on several occasions and the very clear message was that whatever Rick did was completely covered. It was a determining factor as to why I walked out, the hypocrisy and the messaging, girls turn it off, and men can do whatever they want to. Category 5 shit show doesn't even begin to describe it and even for many of the people that left that F'ed up thinking often followed them right out and continued to affect their relationships. I know it did with mine. The question Scott asked at the end was interesting, basically after all of that what do you believe now? For me, all religions are cults, nothing more than business ventures for the sole purpose of making money from a captive audience, and the more they are entrapped and enslaved the better. No, thank you, hard pass.

Lilith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The
> question Scott asked at the end was interesting,
> basically after all of that what do you believe
> now? For me, all religions are cults, nothing more
> than business ventures for the sole purpose of
> making money from a captive audience, and the more
> they are entrapped and enslaved the better. No,
> thank you, hard pass.

I have to say, I arrived at pretty much the same conclusion. These days, I take a look at my experience in TLW and compare to what I see in so-called “evangelical Christianity” with its political overtones etc., and see the same thing - a bunch of people being played.

If I were to involve myself in a church again, it would have to have some outward mission other than just amassing wealth for itself and its leadership. As they say, “white man fool Indian once, shame on white man - white man fool Indian twice, shame on Indian.”

I'll admit it, sometimes I get so angry at Russian aggression that I fantasize that Moscow is getting carpet-bombed with living word CDs. I suppose everyone has an instinct to take things too far, and I am not an exception.

note: if the moderator removes this comment, I will not make a fuss. I'll probably just throw my lunch against a kitchen wall, scream a few profanities, and then take a nap. No worries.

#RulingMySpirit

This latest video brought up so many strong feelings for me. Charity's candor and composure are powerful. She mentioned being young and being groomed by leaders. Being sexualized by them. How confusing it was. How you become confused and think that something is wrong with you. I've definitely felt those same feelings as a teen and a young woman in The Walk back in the sixties and seventies. A devastatingly brilliant interview.



[m.youtube.com]

Yes

Posts by 'cultfree' from August 2018:

Posted by: cultfree
Date: August 24, 2018 12:10PM

I feel nothing but outrage over the word on hierarchy. As Reveal so eloquently pointed out, hierarchy is the fabric of TLWF.

The part of it that really gets to me is that what Gary is doing here is basically acknowledging that up until now, the church has operated on a hierarchy. That hierarchy was put in place to directly benefit the people at the top, at the sacrifice of the common people.

Remember the words that used to come on "position thinking"? That was the leadership saying "Nope! No hierarchy here!". When people would come to them and complain "Hey, there is this strange double standard for the leadership, and this thing seems to be arranged around the benefit of the people at the top. That feels wrong". Those objections would be met with "Hey, that's not true. You're guilty of position thinking right now". They took the objections of well meaning people, and turned them back on them. Saying that the wrong they saw was all a result of something they were doing, not the leadership. To user a modern term: it's victim blaming.

And now we've come in to a "new day". Well what about the "old day"? Are you going to talk about that? I know a lot of the current word is about people being able to "speak up". Is that really what they want? Because there is a whole forum of people here "speaking up", and they act like it doesn't exist.

Regardless of whatever Gary Hargrave is saying in this word, he's still got to build a system that is beneficial to Rick Holbrook. Rick is like a zoo animal, he could never make it in the wild. His broken moral compass has been supported by TLWF for so long, that he has become dependent on it. No matter what, the system has to work to support Rick, and excuse all his missteps. No one in their right mind would speak up about the myriad of things Rick does that are messed up, because they know the cost. There is no "higher confirmation" with Rick. He's at the top, and you better be okay with what he does, or else. He doesn't even pretend to be a pastor looking after the people. That guy treats TLWF like his play thing, and the Rayen Resort is his pleasure island.


Posted by: cultfree
Date: August 24, 2018 03:28PM

People always had problems with Rick, but they knew they couldn't speak up about it, because he was Marilyn's son, and no one was going to dare criticize Marilyn's little boy.

Rick and Lorena were always an issue. I'd be willing to bet that everyone who was ever around them had a sort of icky feeling about them. Their relationship just didn't feel right; especially considering Rick's track record of infidelity, stealing his friend's wives, and other morally corrupt actions. Everyone felt icky about Rick and Lorena (even going way back to when she was in high school), and there is reason for that: because it was icky. It was a fucked up situation that we were all expected to simply ignore. His wife knew it, his parents knew it, and the entire congregation knew it. They tried to ship her off to Shiloh to deal with it, but soon enough she was back, wiggling her way in to a place of power that she always wanted. Talk about girls turn it off. All of this was protected by Gary, Marilyn, and the rest of the church leadership.

Finally, when people couldn't take it anymore, someone blew the whistle on it, and Gary and Marilyn couldn't ignore it any more. They had to address it. Of course they never actually said what had happened, they just barely acknowledged it, and we were all expected to move on. Not too long after, we discovered that Rick was back in charge, and we had to accept it. No acknowledgement of wrong doing, no repentance for subjecting us all to their lie for so long; things just went back to the way they always were.

I share this anecdote only because I feel like it has never been fully articulated publicly. It's a disgusting display of corruption, and I want it to be out there for people to understand.

Does anyone else have anything to add to this?