Even with all the exposure of lies and misdeeds about Gary Hargrave, Hargrave Ministries, Rick Holbrook, TLW and TLWF, there are still so many untold stories and I find myself being surprised that I am still surprised when things come out from what people went thru in the dangerous, mind-control cult especially under Gary Hargrave and Marilyn.

I heard this weekend from a former walk member who left the fellowship roughly 20 years ago after suffering under the demands of the Hargraves for too long. The marriage broke up in the process with one spouse not able to leave the cult.

Of the various scenarios discussed, it was interesting to hear just how rampant the financial planning was in encouraging people to take actions that were harmful to the individuals but completely helpful to the leadership in their avid quest for higher and higher levels of a luxurious life.

Telling people to buy land or homes at inflated prices and then to sell it to the church (or Hargrave Ministries) at a deeply deflated price, was very common. The way it worked in Hawaii was for the very deflated purchase price to be passed on to Gary Hargrave personally after the church spent millions remodeling the homes.

People who earned substantial income were told that because they had been so blessed by God, they should live on 10% and give 90% to the church in a reverse tithing mechanism.

If any spouse wasn't immediately amenable to the schemes, that spouse was told to leave infant children with the other spouse and go away somewhere to get their spirit right and learning submission.

These things sound outrageous now, but when you are embedded deeply in the culture of the walk cult, disagreeing, disobeying, hesitating, were all grounds for harsh discipline if not expulsion, and you could lose your children or your marriage in the blink of an eye. Many people did.

Thanks Reep!

I name that sermon John Miller preached at Whitestone on January 20, 2019, “The Crying Game” with his psychotic weeping and love bombing attempts. Their language is easily decoded when you peel back the onion layers. It will also reek just like onions and the eyes will cry from the burn of the bullshyt. Their method of recruitment has always been linked to California. That’s where my mom was recruited in the 70’s. The attraction for Alaska is the pipeline dividends (PDFs), paid yearly and primarily tithed to the cult, along with more worked for their businesses and rent paid for their rental homes. It’s a continuous circle where the $ ends up back in the hands of the upper echelon. Recruit out of Cali and brainwash to a new compound in Alaska. I say buyer beware.

There will be those that will flock to Alaska for the "free" money and to satisfy the craving to be or remain relevant. Peel back the layers and it reeks, yes it does and it is not surprising in the least the ones that are attracted to it.

This is good. A post from November of 2018:

Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Posted by: Lilith
Date: November 10, 2018 06:33AM

Oh NEO, please, you are completely discounting mind control and brainwashing. In the 70’s you had a huge influx of young impressionable people looking for something, wanting to part of something bigger than themselves, looking for meaning. They were conditioned to do the will of whatever by getting whipped up (I refer to the wackadoodle intercession), exhausting service schedules and the need for external validation. Stop victim blaming. There were dozens of techniques that were used by those in power to get and keep that control a few being turning your back on your “non walk” family, nuggets of recognition and my personal favorite the service starts at 8 and the rock star shows up 2 to 3 hours later, that’s a great one, at that point people will believe anything especially if they have been screaming, moaning and babbling for hours. I won’t even go into the suppression of education and independent thinking. I could name on one hand people that could resist that and you don’t want to meet any of them in a dark alley. It’s brain wiring and early childhood conditioning that allows them to resist. Some of us were raised to question everything in a time when children were seen and not heard and to do as they were told, that was rare at that time. If you are here telling everyone that they did it to themselves then you are either still in it or one of the perpetrators. And yes, you state the correct scripture but if you tell the same lie over and over doubling down and fear monger along the way you can convince people of anything by preying on their fears, even the preferred political views fed into it, fear everything “other”. The living word was like Lucy with the football, you were accepted but it could be snatched away at any minute.

Changed, thanks for re-posting the above by Lilith. It shows a lot of insight.

Quote

Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Posted by: Lilith
Date: November 10, 2018 06:33AM

"Some of us were raised to question everything in a time when children were seen and not heard and to do as they were told, that was rare at that time. If you are here telling everyone that they did it to themselves then you are either still in it or one of the perpetrators."

One of my parents taught me to question and to be proud of my thinking and reasoning abilities, and to speak up for myself. The other once spanked me because my voice could be heard from outdoors. She said that, "I had a voice that carried a country mile." She is also the one who got involved in the Walk. I understand that she was exposing her own conditionings much more than she was exposing a problem in me. But that type of thinking is decidedly unhelpful to victims. :(



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2019 12:36AM by Reepicheep.

Thx Reep

"Sit Down, Shut Up and Listen." Wasn't that an adage that Marilyn used often? It could also have been the title of innumerable "living words." :)
Anyway, thank god the religious hierarchy has finally been dismantled (by the one who was at the top of the authority chain), and whatever organizational structure follows next will recognize that each believer is equal before the Creator. Or not.

An excerpt from a post by fromsouthchicago (Marilyn's cousin) in October of 2018:

Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Posted by: fromsouthchicago
Date: October 31, 2018 11:24AM

Re: Larry Bobo's post,

If you examine cults and cult leaders, you'll often times notice that cult leaders have a tendency to co-mingle their personal and organizational funds. In other words ... they're not all that careful and concerned about the law and the IRS when it comes to them using church property and money for personal gain.

I suspect that TLWF is the same when it comes to this. In fact family stories suggest that Marilyn was constantly self-dealing when it came to TLWF funds and property. I was told that you all were paying and paying for her life of luxury and ability to do as she pleased.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2019 11:49PM by changedagain.

Thanks Changed. It's good to know that while many of us believed what we were told to believe, the greed and double-dealing was transparent to others.

When JRS was in his divorce litigation, some of the guys got him hooked up to Marvin Mitchelson as his attorney. What. A. Nightmare.

Through the help of one of the girls/women who had been significant in helping with word work and worked for a law firm, he then got connected to the lawyer that actually was a savior to the church assets that were being sought under the guise that all church property was really JRS' personal property. Working with the lawyer and with help from my friend, I was able to head that off at the pass. Only now I realize I only helped preserve church assets so Gary Hargrave and Marilyn could take it for their own personal benefit. More information on that comes in almost daily.

JRS' family law attorney was amazing. All family law attorneys see a lot of nastiness and greed. He commented on the greed he witnessed in JRS' case with a final remark he made to a good friend of mine naming Marilyn as the worst gold-digger of the bunch. How true.