Reepicheep wrote: “Well, Gary can call survivors "dead weight" and say "good riddance" all he wants. To me it's just another mind game. And I bet he misses the tithes and offerings." ------------------- Well put, your evaluation expresses my feelings exactly.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Reepicheep: You Tube video: Charity speaking at 1:03:00 to 1:03:35. All the dropouts of the collapsed church are “Dead Weight,” and can be cut out so the true remnant can go forward. Not surprising to me. Thanks.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I watched the You Tube video and had a trifle reaction to the “dead weight” accusation. For me, it’s clear that certain deceivers are not changing their MO. Not surprised ---- “dead weight” is another charged, cringeworthy and ridiculous sentiment belonging to the ongoing list of hustle terms headed by the all-time scam phrase, “divinely appointed.”
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The exhilarating sense of individual independence and agency was never taught to the congregants of TLWF. Unlike natural people who “love and appreciate” their universal right to do as they please, TLWF congregants were basically denied and even warned against that life-giving teaching. Happy Independence Day to all.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The moderator wrote: Democracy has never been a hallmark of church governance, neither in the Old nor in the New Testament." ------------------------- I suspect it’s not a hallmark of “The Kingdom” that TLWF envisioned either. In my fears, TLWF’s “every knee will bow” agenda intended a worldwide “lord over” stripping away all freedoms such as ‘separate & equal station,’ individ
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Google “De rerum natura” or “On the Nature of Things” and look at the article by Wikipedia --- down several lines under the heading, “Background” you will find the following: “To the Greek philosopher Epicurus, the unhappiness and degradation of humans arose largely from the dread which they entertained of the power of the deities, from terror of their wrath. This wrath was supposed to be di
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Blowout: --------- Good post. It has been suggested that humans evolved to the point of asking, “Why,” inadvertently creating their own psychological pain as well as an openness for cons. Sometimes I envy my dog because she doesn’t appear to be bogged down in “The Big Questions.” Thanks to all the posters on this forum, every single viewpoint is medicine for the pain.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Trolling. Even more significant than the unsurpassed, hidden for the ages just for us …… “Kingdom Silver Mine?”
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thank you, Cloudwatcher and hopeandlove: Your recent posts concerning JM are soooooooooo liberating.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Good posts ------ You know; being assimilated into a collective and existing as an individual no more, isn’t that much fun inasmuch as it’s novel at first, but quickly turns into a bummer kingdom.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s god entitle them ------------ I don’t recall these words in any of TLWF’s manuals, sermons or This Weeks. Too much “jeopardy” for leadership inasmuch as the ordinary people might get rebellious inklings involving “self-sovereignty” and thereby declare independence from manageme
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Sitting on a rock surrounded by sagebrush in The Great Salt Lake Desert imparts cleaner energy than any laying on of hands. That’s been my experience since escaping TLWF circus.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Herman Maxwell inappropriately grabbed my future wife’s breast while inviting her to visit him and a little group he had started somewhere in the Midwest. She was seventeen or just turned eighteen (1974 - 1975) and Herman was maybe in his sixties? We did mention the episode to an overseeing ministry, but nothing ever came of it. My wife also mentioned it to Ann Maxwell who said Herman had earl
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Euphoria of it all: This happened to me early on while just getting into the Walk, 1970 - 1973: While walking on the beach in the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park in Kauai, Hawaii with a group of ‘Walkies’ headed by the commissioned pastor for that island (D.P.), a teenaged girl not in the Walk came up to us selling puka shell necklaces. While making her pitch she was moving and dipping
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

changedagain: Amen to your last post. Well said.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

changedagain wrote: “but the warnings/threats to the people to stay obedient is as intense as ever.” ------------- The warnings and threats are what we hated the most. It drove my wife and I to search for a different God. We needed a whole new paradigm. Earthly peace became more important than being qualified for some futuristic heaven.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Very interesting: The author writes in www.apologeticsindex.org: “However, I am convinced, based on more than three decades of studying NRMs through participant-observation and through interviews with both members and ex-members, that these movements have unleashed social and psychological forces of truly awesome power. These forces have wreaked havoc in many lives—in both adults and in child
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

GSchaeff wrote in part on June 01, 2018 11:05PM: Sometime in the 90's I developed a habit of reciting "to be a Christian" to myself at night until I had it down like a devotional. I still lie in bed telling myself going at this life alone, without the covering of a Shepherd, is "vain-striving, defeated ambition, and misdirected effort.” There is so much even in "to
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Woke up this morning feeling fine. And best of all, there is no pressure to attend church, read the Bible, think about God, or wonder with much anxiousness if I’m still in good favor with my ‘divinely appointed designated shepherd’ who, indeed, vacillated between love and hate subject to his moody, paranoid personality. Agreed: "The hardest day of freedom is better than the best day ins
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

NancyB wrote: “It wa hard for me to "step out of owrd perfect will". The hard truth is after my "walk with God" was no longer personal but directed there was nothing spiritual aat all. It was all abusive” --------------- Wow. That is a “cult busting” statement extraordinaire. ----- A DIRECTED LIFE IS NOT A SPIRITUAL LIFE ----- There is a nuts & bolts truth
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

We also lost Becky Bailey, wife of the late Leland Bailey, a few weeks ago. They were friends from the Grand Junction, Colorado area.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

BenTHare. Touchy subject. Thank you. ‘To Be a Christian’ is the first thing I burned. As the smoke rose in the air, ‘Operation Liberation’ from JRS’s understanding/viewpoint commenced. As the smoke rose in the air, I said to myself and the smoke, “I’m not drawn to this trap anymore.” John 6:44.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

kBOY, k-Boy, kilboy, kilroy --- Razor’s Edge moment.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

rond. Put me in the category of “scientist/philosopher/searcher.” That might help explain why I use quotes from any source. Bruised reeds: TLW atmosphere was so detrimental that even a possible subscriber to “The Great Spirit (Wakan Tanka among the Sioux and Gitchi Manitou in Algonquian -- Native American cultures)” would commit suicide. Go figure. Bruised Reeds Unite. I like it.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

lily rose. I overheard a pastor’s wife telling her lead-shepherd husband, “Let’s give them this particular ‘Word from God’ just to see how they react.” Seriously, it was on the level of playing games and laying trips on people. And to think there were suicides due to some of this stuff. Chaps one’s hide, doesn’t it?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

changedagain: Heart Circumcision: Have they since translated like Enoch? They deserve to be translated according to TLWF principles, or is that still not enough? Former designated shepherd would likely say, “Still not enough”. SouthGate wrote: “I say do what you want.” If only you had been my designated shepherd back in the day!!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Maybe G-man could give a message about forgetting Submission, he could go on a roll.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

kBOY wrote: “Unfortunately for many, there are avid followers of their faith, and then there are rabid ones.” ------------ One of my closest friends here in Salt Lake City is a devout Mormon. He is very knowledgeable, well read, and well versed. He openly boasts about winning debates and converting people. He wins because that is what he has practiced and done all his life. Our friendsh
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks to all. Peace and clarity to everyone who posts on this forum!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

slandjt wrote: “We needed protection from John Miller (and others) when they callously directed our lives to suit them, destroyed families and marriages, and then had the nerve to say they were speaking from God. ------------- Matthew 27:51 --- “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.” Imagine being at this ev
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families