Thank you for sharing about Gladys, CARe. She was a treasure.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changed, Thanks for the link. "The Feast of Tabernacles" looks exceedingly familiar. I believe it was printed in 1951, I'm pretty sure that the JRS version was several years after that.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

This partial post is shared here with permission from the author. It was shared by a friend in the private Facebook group The Living Word Fellowship Survivor's Stories in 2018: "Then my husband, while doing research for a book on a little known literary movement, found this from a speech by George Herron in 1892: “To be a Christian according to Christ means, first and always, the
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changed and kBOY, thanks for re-posting and delving into Saw Enough's thoughts from September 18, 2018. I remember hearing about JRS' "trip to the future" very well. I wouldn't learn about the circumstances surrounding his "vision" until forty-six years later, or twenty-six years after Gary and Marilyn Hargrave discovered the truth...that he had been with a youn
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thaks kBOY. NancyB, I can't even imagine how awful that period of behing held against your will at Shiloh must have been. Couldn't that be considered illegal, as in kidnapping? More props to you for coming out with your sense of self intact. I have long wondered how many people over the years felt "trapped" in places like Shiloh. With workers having no savings, no transp
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Typer, Thank you for sharing your account of being injured at the sawmill. I have a hard time understanding the mentality that doesn't use basic safety precautions, especially after children (the Nisly boys) had suffered severe injuries. Thank goodness for Jody insisting that you be seen in Iowa City. Good grief! Does anyone know...was the sawmill transformed from a private bisiness to
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Typer, Thank you for sharing your account of being injured at the sawmill. I have a hard time understanding the mentality that doesn't use basic safety precautions, especially after children (the Nisly boys) had suffered severe injuries. Thank goodness for Jody insisting that you be seen in Iowa City. Good grief! I'm also glad that you survived the experience. Does anyone know...w
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Posted by: kBOY () Date: February 09, 2020 01:27PM C H A N G E D After putting in about 15 months in the dust, my only injuries were a chipped tooth and the loss off the tip of one of my fingers. Others were not so fortunate, including the loss of partial or total digits and almost the loss of an entire hand--which miraculously healed in an amazingly short period of time, considering the d
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Replacement parenting, designated relationships, submission...so much crazy, and so much damage that will never be acknowledged by the perpetrators. kBOY: One could also characterize it as the human version of a surveillance environment, where actions were closely monitored for the sake of the 'greater cause'. Perpetual 1984. : (
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quote Posted by: PowerTrip Date: January 28, 2020 01:49PM Should we write our own version of a letter to our young self and say all the dangers of being in a cult? About TLW specific? I would like to tell my young self to trust myself, not someone claiming to be an apostle to the Kingdom who heard directly from God. He and G&M used us all mercilessly. I doubt that it ever crossed their
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Posted by: changedagain () Date: January 25, 2020 12:02PM I never bought one of those. Did you get one? BTW, I would have bought a poster of Rick's horse, assuming it didn't cost more that $40. ***************** Yes changedagain, I bought the poster. Also a pair of those unfortunate purple cow tag earrings. ; )
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens Posted by: JesusJesusJesus () Date: January 24, 2020 08:55PM Look! A brand new "master plan" for the Shiloh property. *********************************** I wonder if they will make posters out of this master plan? Then we can all buy them and hang them on the wall.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I turned over all my financial info, just like Invisible did. I remember that later on, in the late nineties, there were group sessions with an attorney at CLW. Besides doing a class on Power of Attorney and signing and notarizing them right there, I distinctly remember being encouraged to make a will. And when we did, it would be a good idea to will at least 10% of our assets to TLWF. You couldn
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I remember what Invisible talked about. It was in the late eighties or very early nineties. : (
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

dbc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hello all. As an officially proclaimed "enemy of > the church" (thanks for label, JM)I continue to > read your posts with appreciation. I'm wondering > if anyone can comment on current events - is there > an effort underway to reconstitute the fellowship > of churches? Is anyone reaching o
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changedagain and FireWalker...on being agnostic. I appreciate your viewpoints very much. I haven't yet settled on a good label for my current beliefs, other than that I want to be a good human being who treats others with respect. That is far more than any apostles, lamps, or other sundry TLWF leaders did for us. Maybe if they could have tried just being good human beings, rather than God�
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

For FireWalker and others wishing to know more about The Move, here is the link to their space on the RR Forum: Another link that might prove interesting: Why does it matter to us? Because Bill Grier is the missing link between TLWF and The Move. That's all I will say for now, except that if someone invites you to go meet God in Delta Junction, Alaska, run the other way.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quote Posted by: FireWalker Date: January 16, 2020 09:17PM (3) Were your posts on this forum about insurance meant to also discourage people from seeking to assert their legal claims against tlwf? If not, what was the purpose? I am a former insurance coverage litigator and can say your reference to insurance coverage on page 1056 in this forum is generally correct, but missing a whole slew of
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

NancyB Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Onion, I found something relevant in Woodrow > Nicols writing on The Walk on page 57 which > validates what I think you have pointed out. > > QuoteWoodrow Nichols JRS The Walk > SUBMISSION: Is the accepting the control or > authority of another, being obedient > and compliant to those over you
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Viva la revolution!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quote Posted by: FCSLC Date: January 12, 2020 05:36PM 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-so
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks for that, kbyrne. This rings true about TLWF. On the "abusive tactics to prevent and punish dissent...", I remember so many special services when we were told that a person who had previously been in favor was now a " nephilim". It was scary. The obvious message was "don't get out of line or you're next!" So wrong.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Welcome, Banjo.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Posted by: changedagain () Date: January 10, 2020 08:58PM Onion wrote: I have always had that in my head when I comment on a nice day. TERRIBLE. Too bad John didn't have therapy because if he had gotten sober and got some help with his rotten conditioning, maybe we all wouldn't have been tormented with the haunting words of a man who was having morning-after guilts with his hangove
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Is it just me, or were all the women who were "Marilyn" to their Kingdom Facility/locsl church inherently antisocial, malicious, spiteful, overbearing women? I may have imagined the whole thing. Not sure...
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changedagain wrote: It couldn't have been easy belonging to a church that is praying for your death. Seems like it would be a joy killer. No doubt. That would definitely make me a bit grumpy.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Typer, I agree that Martha Stevens was a good and loving person. There was nothing wrong with her. Her husband had a roving eye and didn't feel that his ministry could survive a divorce. So what does any self-respecting Apostle to the Kingdom do? Tell people to pray for his wife to die, of course. Simple. Fortunately, it didn't work. JRS actually died sixteen years prior to Martha at th
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

So great to hear from you, Little Red Flag! Sometimes the sheer volume of bad advice and destructive directives (to put it mildly) from shepherds, DRs, and the like seems overwhelming. The drinking culture in most of the churches was out of control and wildly inappropriate. Communal homes--another awful idea meant to control--brought on terrible stress in many cases. I never quite understood how
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The churches that still allowed people to exercise a modicum of free will have been closed down one way or another. What seems to remain are a few churches which are entirely dedicated to slavishly follow Hargrave's random thought process. No room for individual thinking. No one needs to read the complaints. Move along. Nothing to see here. (Insert "Walk" buzzwords and dog whistles
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changedagain, maybe the over the top drinking and bars in churches were hallmarks of "Kingdom Facilities". It was very strange. Especially for a church. Although thinking back, even in the early days, sometimes the pastors drank a lot. JRS too. But not the congregants. And the pastors at least had the common sense to hide their habits.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families