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
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I am amazed at the government letting all these churches run businesses, such as the sawmill at Shiloh and all the rest of the "kingdom" businesses. All that tax exempt of course, and using slave, I mean volunteer labor. That's all over the place. I know of another church, not affiliated with the Walk, where the pastor had two fish restaurants, completely manned by volunteers from
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

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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You know it seems to me that it should not have taken half a century for the Living Word Fellowship to evolve into a typical charismatic church that it only takes normal people a few minutes to open up and to become functional. Below is a post from the old FactNet site from somebody that posted simply as "guest." This is what LIVING WORD needed to do to get normal according to this post
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

KbOY, You give me a lot of hope with your posts. I hope this is true, and I will hold onto that thought, because I am ready to leave all this behind me. I still have too much anger, and at the same time I have prayed for these people, even the dead ones. Now I am ready to leave this all behind me, with the thought of JOHN AND MARILYN quietly in their graves, I hope they planted them side by side,
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

AD- Let this be known among you...blah blah blah. Sometimes you really kill me, man. You are sounding just like the guys who are principally responsible for my decision to leave the Walk so long ago. Deep breaths, dude. BTW, that it would even occur to someone that being with a woman is synonymous with being defiled, troubles me. There is nothing defiling about being with a woman for pete'
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

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,
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

KBoy said: Since there are no programs at work to bring in new members, other than the exposure of the Valley school, the workforce and financial base of the fellowship will continue to atrophy. TLW is very literally a snake that has lost its head, but continues to show life. As life continues to drain out, so will its influence over people’s lives. There is light at the end of this tunnel.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

KBoy, you are dead right. I only hope that JRS was aware of how much he let his need to be worshiped destroy all of it, I hope he realized before he died, and when it was too late for him to do anything, as he had given all of his power over to Marilyn, I really hope he died with it all on his mind, that he, himself was the cause of the destruction of all that he had worked for. I don't hope
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

TLW has always been tightly stratified, as an organization as a whole, and within each specific area. I was in the LA area from ‘76-’82, apart from a stint at Shiloh. I spent time in South Gate, did a couple of tours in the Valley, was involved with the Blix House and Comm West, and even poked my nose in on occasion at the LW Building. JRS had his own entourage of loyal 1st generation, 2nd
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JezTheBelle--I left the walk probably before you were born, and had never heard some of the things from your last post, like the attitude of the third generation. Wow, wow. Also, I thought I was the only person that privately refers to Shiloh as a compound. But I never heard talk of "arms" before. What did you know or hear about "arms?" The thing about music goes way back.
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My family was formed because women in “The Walk” needed a “covering” in order to avoid the “battle” going on in the spiritual world. “Coverings” were always male, since they were the only “authority” over “demons” who attempted to distract and subvert the faithful on a continual basis. Above the male “covering” there were “The Elders” of the church. These were a council of “brothers” who interp
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hello, I have been reading this for the last few days. I have thought long and hard before I posted anything here. My parents started going to South Gate about 1965 or 66 I was about three years old, my brother was a baby. We were in "the Walk" until 1978. My parents had both grown up in the Assemby of God church, so they already had a walk with the Lord their whole life. I think wh
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CHANGED I was never close to Bob McClane by virtue of proximity issues, but he was assigned by JRS a Wednesday night Word-bringing gig while I was in the Valley from 77-78, where I totally fell in LOVE with the guy. Later, I did have the opportunity to visit him at the hospital in San Diego following his open-heart surgery, where he proudly displayed his giant ‘zipper-scared’ chest. In h
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I started not to say this, but I feel like letting off some steam. I think they better fill that Shiloh water tower with that holy water and hook up two fire hoses, and run them into John and Marilyn's graves and keep a constant flow going.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

One thing is for sure, people do receive what they ask for. In the Walk, people sought John's spirit. They did not seek God's Spirit. That's how it rolled around to the time when John died, the spiritual leaders of the thing were screaming from the pulpit, I quote! "I don't know this Jesus DUDE, but I do know John, and I demand that he come back!!!" Well, they dema
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I would like to know what happend to Craig Christian and Larry Hays, and Roy Carnie, I think Roy, or maybe he had a son since I knew him, but somebody named that just graduated from Shiloh university with a master's degree, that is what I saw on one of the Living Word websites anyway. Those pastors at knoxville by the way did not get divorced to marry any secretaries by the way, but i t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

In some ways, you were probably blessed to be part of a much smaller group, far away from the Valley churches or the San Diego faction, and Shiloh. I still wonder at the meaning of it all. Since leaving the Walk, I have not found another group to attach myself to. I guess I never want to risk having a repeat of any of that whole circus. I have come to terms with the past, and see only the p
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I’ve been quietly following this forum, as well as a predecessor, for about seven years. When I first found the previous forum, there was no official Living Word presence on the Web. Google would not even reveal the location of Shiloh. Now, Living Word has a series of Web sites dedicated to JRS and the Living Word, and advertises itself as a mainstream, legitimate church. I originally found th
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

LILY ROSE: In response to your request for a ‘guestimate’ of the fellowship population, it must be remembered that those numbers reflect the three specific categories I mentioned in a previous post: 1) diehard hierarchy, 2) faithful little-people, and, 3) fence-sitters. With that in mind, probably the best-case scenario would be during any of the feasts. The worst-case scenario would be a
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

What Larry Bobo said about a Shiloh pastor being interviewed and saying he could not recall praying for John’s resurrection was an example of LWF authority just reshaping their narratives for their own convenience. Every civilization develops its narratives – its creation stories, genealogies, stories of battles won and how they came to be. Churches are no different. Martin Luther, Joseph S
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I was a little further out from LA in Des Moines in the 70's, so it took a couple of years longer for the death prayers to reach us. I did spend a lot of time at Shiloh, so I was not completely isolated. I remember telling someone at Shiloh that we were praying for a free Bob and a dead Martha in Des Moines too, and I was welcomed into the intercession. Another fond memory was my first
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

NotElisah – Thanks for posting. It’s always great to have fresh input. There are definitely wonderful and loving people in TLWF who all of us miss. However, there is also a dark side in the leadership that wants to remain hidden. Turning on the lights is not only helpful to those who have been spiritually abused and are trying to sort things out, but also gives a heads up to those who are sti
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Oh, by the way, I do know there were other black people in Living Word besides the Cottons, I meant that at the time I didn't know of any other besides the Cottons and the one family in the South, because I had been to Shiloh with the santuary pretty full and the whole place was white. Not that this is all that important to me, but if John wanted to make accusations about the South, he shoul
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Well, I said it before and I'll say it again, this next phase of the walk should really be something. I have got to tell you that I expect anything, I already said that there are no police or anybody involved that I know of, it could be that Marilyn isn't dead, (I know, I know, not another Elvis/Michale Jackon/Jim Morrisn et.is not dead thang) no, hear me out. What if they have their by
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Judging from the answer that I got from somebody in the fellowhship, I do not believe there either will be no funeral, and if there is, there will certainly be no viewing of the body, and there will be no autopsy, there will be no county coroner involved,, UNLESS SOMEBODY REPORTS IT) just a closed coffin burried at Shiloh, next to another grave. BTW, was there a viewing when JRS died, a coroner
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AD, in answer to your question, I don't know the date of the funeral. I'm sure she will be buried in Shiloh so maybe there will be an announcement in the Kalona news.
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Lily Rose I take what you said as good advice. I have thought about it some and I think that sometimes when considering people, how they think, why they do what they do, it's not simple as math, sometimes one and one does not equal two, people do some strange things and sometimes the reason is not obvious at all. That is when people tend to speculate, and I know that I am guilty of that at t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Another good post from the "Shiloh Kalona Iowa cult strand on FactNet is number 301. I don't think I will ever be able to ever fully decide if the ministry of JRS was for the most part good, or for the most part bad. I guess the thing to do is to take what I see to be good, and discard what I consider bad. I think that is the only way to relate to anybody about anything, the reason
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Lily Rose said: AD you might want to read one of the strand posts on Fact Net by Mike Sthuler AKA Mischa. Mike seemed to me to be a guy with common sense and he also was a private investigator and he seemed to think that the brothers were influencing JRS during the time you mentioned. You can find the post under the Fact Net Shiloh Kalona Iowa Cult strand on page 19. =======================
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families