A.D. Bob Raba was from the D.C. church, played football for various NFL teams, and ended up marrying one of Dan Statton’s daughters. He rose to such prominence in the late 80’s/early 90’s that he was actually the head over Shiloh for a period of time. He was and is such a sweet guy that they probably felt he took whatever ‘edge’ Shiloh had left, and had transformed it into a more LOVING envi
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Apparently, many important developments in TLW history took place between the sheets.
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The best part of WAKING UP is to be able to make light of it all . . .
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A.D. By the summer of ‘79, the demographics at Shiloh had stratified into so many departments (Kingdom School included), that cliques were an unavoidable result. Because everyone’s work was so ‘important’, there were always justifiable excuses to avoid going to any service, short of the pursuit of sheer enjoyment, which was only allowed when the schedule permitted. Thus, service-skipping was
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A.D. I made an earlier reference to the raise that the sawmill workers received in early ‘79 (from $80/month to $80/week), along with the comment that the influx of new cash financed more trips to Iowa City for barhopping. This started a trend during the summer of ‘79, coinciding with the Victory Siege (not to be confused with the original Siege, which was primarily the winter of ‘77-’78).
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A.D. We regulars at the sawmill took our job in stride. Even though it was indirectly associated with Shiloh, as an ‘off-campus’ revenue source, we shared a camaraderie that had a cohesion that was not always as evident in other departments that had a revolving infusion of visitor labor. As part of the core crew, we all slept in the same room, often went out together, and kind of viewed ours
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CHANGEDAGAIN: How we loved to separate out and condemn. Obviously, the stench of your injury was symbolic of something in your spirit. They were just obliged to let nature take her course, which usually ends in death. Happy to hear you did have a meeting with God in disguise, but sad to hear you went home empty-handed, although not empty-hearted.
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A.D. Interesting that you would bring up APCO at the sawmill. During both summers of ‘78 & ‘79, when there was always a large influx of folks visiting from outlying churches, they would occasionally assign the sawmill as a work-duty to various visitors including ministries. We at the mill would always get a chuckle over it, sensing that when some ‘top-dog’ was sent our way, it was either
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Being a proud alumni of the sawmill, and one who left with all my fingers, this is fertile ground for much discussion. The entire facility was an OSHA nightmare waiting to implode. So numerous were the opportunities for partial dismemberment, that one hardly knows where to begin. My only claim to fame was losing a fingertip that I absent-mindedly sent into the 36” blade of the cant-saw while
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A.D. You have correctly identified the culture of fear that permeates the entire fellowship, going all the way back to unHoly Jim Canyon. That foundation can be traced back to the formation of Israel as the ‘chosen’ people, who were repeated instructed to separate themselves out from all others in order to not risk being unduly influenced by the mixed multitude. UnHoly Jim Canyon, along wi
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The initial stampede occurred shortly after his passing. A subsequent one may still yet occur. TLW has never been too concerned about the ones that got away, only those still inside the gate.
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PALEFACE: You bring up an unfortunate point regarding the culture of TLW when you stated, ‘Too bad those resources couldn’t have been spent on someone in real need.’ Expendable worker-ants have been a paradigm in every culture and religion built on a stratified hierarchy from time immemorial. One would have thought that ‘LOVE GOD/LOVE your Brother’ might have begun to deconstruct that mind
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As I recall, it afforded more trips into Iowa City bar-hopping.
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A.D. My entire Shiloh gig (‘78-’79) was done at the sawmill. Everybody, to my knowledge (350-450 people at any given time), who lived and worked at Shiloh, made $80/mo plus room and board. Somewhere in early ‘79, the state came in and required the sawmill to pay it’s workers minimum wage ($2.00/hr.), so all of a sudden, the sawmill workers were ‘bank’--we made $80/week, when everyone else
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FCSLC: LOVE requires no theology. CHANGEDAGAIN: The chapter and verse for that quote is found only in the TLW edition. PALEFACE: Big fan of those enemas, except they would always stain the entry & exit point.
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(I was unable to access the forum on Sunday, hence, this late Thanksgiving post.) This last day of Thanksgiving and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except me with my mouse. I apologize in advance to any who may take offense at what follows. The development for which I am most THANKFUL is not just being delivered from TLW, but from the clutches of Christianity al
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A term for which I was blissfully unaware (Xtianity) along with its apparent ‘definition’ from Illogicopedia (for entertainment purposes only): Xtianity is also known as American Evangelical Christianity. Most of America's current political leaders are Xtians. They currently control the executive, legislative and judicial branches of federal political institutions in the US. The major
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Continuing on through the Thanksgiving weekend . . . We had the occasion, as many of us do, to spend time with the relatives during the holidays. I had the great fortune to become involved in a conversation with one of my nephews and his girlfriend, who had just returned from an impromptu camping trip to the Angeles National Forest. This segwayed into a conversation regarding all things camp
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We referred to ourselves as 'slackers'--those responsible for holding up the Kingdom.
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Continuing with the Thanksgiving theme . . . For those unfamiliar with the schedule at Shiloh from ‘78-’79 (during my tour), it was, to the best of my recollection, as follows: MON-SAT 6:00-7:00am - Breakfast 7:00-8:00am - Service 8:00-12:00pm - Work 12:00-12:15pm - Service 12:15-1:00pm - Lunch 1:00-5:00pm - Work 5:
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Since we are celebrating Thanksgiving weekend, I just ran across a bit of TLW-related trivia that I was THANKFUL to have experienced while in the fellowship. In the later half of the 70’s, while stationed in the Valley, I was involved with what some may remember as the Outlining project, where we undertook the daunting task of trying to transfer into outline form, major portions of TLW literat
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A.D. As pointed out earlier, the vision has become so blurry, and the liquid refreshment so diluted, that it's hard for anyone to really get lathered up about anything. More and more, people are just living their lives, having and enjoying their kids, going to college--being fairly ‘normal’. There are of course exceptions, as there always are, but they are becoming more marginalized
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A.D. While all of the ‘recommendations’ of the Guest at FactNet certainly hold merit, he/she seems to be referencing a time period shortly after the G&M transition, when ideological and power consolidation were in full swing. As you referenced yourself in your trip to L.A., those ‘my way or the highway’ meetings were just the beginning of something that took many years to eventually unf
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PGXGUY: It looks like we have a common heritage are far as pallets go. With regards to JRS’ library, what seemed ‘occult’ 50 years ago is now mainstream ‘new age’, and probably a lot of what he had may now even be seen as backward and primitive by comparison. The world has come a long way from a myopic, dualistic, unbalanced view of the DIVINE. GOD=LOVE=TRUTH
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JRS was not too happy about it, and had it taken down the same day, much to the consternation of the rabid youth (2nd generation).
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A.D. Actually, TLW has in many ways over the last 25 years attempted to ‘normalize’ itself with the community at large (Christmas truck, Valley school, Shiloh fireworks, Marilyn Farms, Shiloh U., etc.) which will ultimately contribute to de-emphasizing it as a personality-cult. That, along with a liturgy that has become so diluted that it barely poses a threat even to an innocent passerby,
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We who have thankfully left are hopefully grazing on greener pastures. It has required some distance in order to gain much needed perspective. There is every reason to be encouraged for those who continue to languish in the fellowship. With the transition of its primary figurehead, who was for the little people, no more than an appendage of its primary ‘word bringer’ (and who apparently anno
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PALEFACE: As both of us know, the grass is greener. For those still lost in the labyrinth, they are unable to see the grass at all. Perhaps from a higher perspective, we can provide some direction to assist them out of the maze once and for all. The train departs in ten minutes . . .
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ChangedAgain: When the entire focus of Heaven (but not necessarily the earth) was on one man to bring forth the Kingdom, it left a lot of room for questionable behavior, especially in light of protecting their ‘pure atmosphere’. Since no Kingdom bothered to show up during the JRS era, the vision was so downgraded that ‘corrective measures’ were then justified to solely protect the integrity
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A.D. The very nature of the concentric rings of power, and their attendant insularity and isolation, almost guaranteed that neither JRS then, nor Marilyn most recent, had any clue of the degree of devastation reeked in so many lives on their watch, either directly or indirectly. It's a byproduct of feeling too important to even be bothered to know. The little people have always been e
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