Aspsusa,
You probably won’t see this, but I can’t quite agree with you about the consumer hysteria being a natural outgrowth of rural life.

Advent is a time of preparation and expectancy here too; we do all the baking, cleaning etc. and shopping, but in the traditional churches it isn’t Christmas until Christmas Eve. Advent has its own colors and music, and is meant to encourage self-examination, meditation and spiritual discipline.

I suspect that the liturgical calendar was discarded in Protestant countries because it was too Papist. The Puritans refused to observe Christmas at all, and outlawed it when they could; when Christmas came back into popular use it became increasingly secular as the US became urbanized culture. Many Protestant churches observe Advent now, but there is large gap between rural customs and the present consumerist culture.

Exactly!!!

Any new religion worth is mental hand-cuffs knows you co-opt the other religion’s major holidays. Not to be controversial, but it is no accident that Christians put their major holiday in late December. At the time of Christianity’s ascension, the other major religions of the day (mostly pagan) had huge celebrations for the Winter Solstice, which falls on December 21 or 22. It is also no accident that the miracle of Christ’s rebirth at Easter happens at the same time that all of the competing religion’s rite of spring festivals were happening.

We used to have some really incredible bands and parties back in the early 80s at Flag – real blow outs, with public and staff mingling together and getting seriously down. No obscene regging, no getting hassled. One New Year’s party the Edgar Winters Band played. I was a teenager at the time and It kind of blew my mind when they lit it up with the song Frankenstein. I remember hearing they paid them 25k. Either Edgar or Johnny was a scio back then, can’t remember which one.

Sally, I found that I didn’t need to post the bio story to be included on the WWP list and did it differently with links. I could post that short bio 40 years story here if anyone is interested. I’ve sent to some relatives and friends.
The secret one is taking some time as I’m being careful, of course, even tho it’s no big thing, in the scheme of things. But I’m still living with it.

Through the Door: http://alley.ethercat.com/cgi-bin/door/door.cgi?311

Former Church of Scientology members who have spoken out – Why We Protest Wiki
If not work – look here under Featured content for above .. Why We Protest Wiki
Wilberta Findlay

(my message below was meant to be a follow-up to this, ehrm, anonymous belly-aching 🙂 )

But, I agree that I cannot avoid someone THAT easily hurt. I refer you to Marty’s classic “Noise” of 2009 from which we quote “Every time I express an opinion critical of the critical ones, they start throwing rotten vegetables and fruit with as much ferocity as Miscavige used to punch on Rinder for counseling a bit of reason. ”

Way to go, Marty!

I already have written the secret story and it was a great healing for me to write it up, but the fat lady hasn’t sang yet. Plus it is a minor thing in the whole Scn picture, except for me personally. Everything takes so long when doing it oneself, but am working on. I have it in a safe place for the future. Thanks Sunny3

Hi there Tommy:) I just looked at the the DVD label and the video is from Christmas time in 1989. If you were in the dining room then with the people singing the Christmas carols I might have you on the video.

This is some high stakes poker going on in these cases. The church is throwing everything they can at Rath and Rind to destroy them. If they spent $30MM to fight the McPherson case, how much will the spend to destroy these guys? All that Rath and Rind have to fight back is specific inside knowledge. (and maybe a contingency lawyer?) It is no surprise that they are judiciously parsing this out in ways that inflicts the most harm on DM.

If Rathbun and Rinder get enough traction with this case, the church will be forced to settle. With these guys, they will only do it when their back is 100% against the wall and they are out of options. That or the public relations beat down just gets too much. But what the church really, really, really wants is a full win and to discredit these guys. Gonna be hard. You can bet they are pulling out all the stops.

Once they run out of options, if they stay true to their MO, (alla Debbie Cook, David Mayo and many others) the church will lay 10 to 20 million on the table, and then try to force a full on gag order on Rath and Rind in the bargain. That would be sad. Debbie had a chance to do some good. She was extremely well respected – they sure got her to shut up didn’t they?

No, he got a kiss and a blow, too. But that was later. 😉
Oh, and a bottle of scotch whiskey [imported from Scotland]; plus a half a dozen Egyptian cotton shirts, and a one-way ticket to the “Freewinds” from Miscavige, himself, behind the curtains.