LAMPSHMAMP:
What are you really saying? (Just kidding.)
There seems to be that annoying adage with regards to trying the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I think we know how well that works.
Just to tie this theme into my previous post about a former colleague who sampled not one, but four different flavors of Christian movements over four different decades, I will share one more example.
I was invited a couple of years ago to the wedding of the son of a former TLW member who I had known since the 70’s. The son getting married had been raised in the church, but had since left. Instead, both had found their way into the 12 Tribes movement, one which makes TLW look like cult-LITE.
These guys (12 Tribes) can put on an impressive show, with a wedding that takes 8 hours, and includes all members in ‘uniform’, with multiple sessions of singing, dancing, theater enactments, and a very unapologetic in-your-face indoctrination of what they believe, and where failing to believe it will land you. (Fill in the blanks.)
All that said, spending the entire day at their ‘facility/farm’ in out in the boonies gave me a lot of time to talk with the father of the groom. He had put in 25+ years in TLW, and had now signed up for something doubly-extreme. The big surprise came when he informed me that between those two defining epochs was nearly a decade spent high up in the Scientology insanity, to which my jaw figuratively dropped. This guy is such a sweetheart, and seemed so happy in his current state, that I was unable to do no more than smile and respond with a “Wow!”
What seems like someone being stuck in an old day, or old patterns, will manifest in a variety of ways. Some make attempts with similar themes, like the former, where others attempt widely diverse approaches, like the latter. They are the same song with different verses.
I still fellowship with expats who look back kindly at certain periods of TLW history, even though TLW has not been kind to them. We see what we want to see, remember what we want to remember, and that becomes our ‘reality’. Sometimes we have to circle the mountain many times before we realize we’re not really going anywhere.
What are you really saying? (Just kidding.)
There seems to be that annoying adage with regards to trying the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I think we know how well that works.
Just to tie this theme into my previous post about a former colleague who sampled not one, but four different flavors of Christian movements over four different decades, I will share one more example.
I was invited a couple of years ago to the wedding of the son of a former TLW member who I had known since the 70’s. The son getting married had been raised in the church, but had since left. Instead, both had found their way into the 12 Tribes movement, one which makes TLW look like cult-LITE.
These guys (12 Tribes) can put on an impressive show, with a wedding that takes 8 hours, and includes all members in ‘uniform’, with multiple sessions of singing, dancing, theater enactments, and a very unapologetic in-your-face indoctrination of what they believe, and where failing to believe it will land you. (Fill in the blanks.)
All that said, spending the entire day at their ‘facility/farm’ in out in the boonies gave me a lot of time to talk with the father of the groom. He had put in 25+ years in TLW, and had now signed up for something doubly-extreme. The big surprise came when he informed me that between those two defining epochs was nearly a decade spent high up in the Scientology insanity, to which my jaw figuratively dropped. This guy is such a sweetheart, and seemed so happy in his current state, that I was unable to do no more than smile and respond with a “Wow!”
What seems like someone being stuck in an old day, or old patterns, will manifest in a variety of ways. Some make attempts with similar themes, like the former, where others attempt widely diverse approaches, like the latter. They are the same song with different verses.
I still fellowship with expats who look back kindly at certain periods of TLW history, even though TLW has not been kind to them. We see what we want to see, remember what we want to remember, and that becomes our ‘reality’. Sometimes we have to circle the mountain many times before we realize we’re not really going anywhere.