Newsgroups: alt.fan.landmark
From: R.E.Ballard (Rex Ballard) 
Date: 1999/12/07
Subject: Re: mr ballard
In article <81nk7b$ch...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
  patrickdarcy  wrote:

Patrick,

I got cut short - I'll try to finish in this post.

Some snippets from the earlier post ( so you'll know it's me :-).

> do u worship God.....profoundly

Yes I worship God. I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, that he died on the cross to show his love for us, that his blood was sacrificed so that God could forgive my sins. I believe that God is a powerful force in my life and the lives of those around me. I believe that God had been taking care of me since I was born, that he has a plan for me, and that even when I'm not the most obedient servant, that he uses even that for his purpose. Each day, I usually greet the morning with one question - "what is your will for me today" and one request "give me the power to carry that out".

I believe that God uses my church, my 12 step programs, and Landmark Education to fulfill both the question and the prayer.

I also believe that God uses all of the people, places, and things in my life to his purpose, and then they no longer serve his purpose, he replaces them with those which will.

I'm a human being. I make mistakes. I'm not always true to my ideals. I'm not always the obedient servant. Sometimes I even try to take credit for what he has done.

> do u agree with the poster that once posted here and used the Lords Prayer, but changed the words and said them to werner

Nope.

Who posted it?

A happy graduate?

A Landmark Seminar Leader?

A Landmark Forum Leader?

or

A troll, trying to depict Landmark as a hot-bed of Idolitry.

For anyone not familiar with the term, a Troll is usually someone who poses as being for one thing, while representing it so badly that it is almost obvious that are actually trying to discredit the cause they pretend to represent.

I've been involved with Landmark Education since it was incorporated in 1991. Brian Regnier (sic), the most unassuming and humble staff member at Landmark paid for the company lock, stock, and barrel. He paid real cash, mortgaged the house and everything. Then he sold shares in the new company to the staff members, including the course leaders, center managers, and other leaders. Brian just became a Forum Leader about 2 years ago.

Since 1991, the leaders refer to Werner as a nice guy, who did some really great things, and he's still up to some pretty cools stuff, in other countries. They DON'T refer to him as any kind of Landmark Leader. He did get royalties for certain distinctions, and he has the right to use those distinctions in seminars he leads in other parts of the world.

> do u believe the statement "the truth believed is a lie"

It depends on the "truth" that you believe. To often, we believe that things are so, that aren't. Einstein himself stated that the best we could do is marvel at this "Watch" never really understanding it's design, and yet we believe that it really is the truth.

At one time, we believed that the sun and the planets rotated around the earth. We believed that the earth was flat. We believed that a woman who enjoyed sex was demonically possessed. We believed that she had to be tortured and then burned at the stake, usually because she was a witch.

In the 1950s we believed that Women were unstable and should just be given tranquilizers to get them through those child-rearing years. If they didn't take their pills we could give them electro-shock.

Here we are, at the dawn of the 3rd millinium, discovering that about 80% of what we considered to be "true" isn't. We've discovered medicine and common herbs that can cure a number of ailments. We've discovered that Jews, Arabs, and Christians can share the same planet, they can even share the same cities.

We've discovered that our parent's didn't get an "owner's manual" and that they just might have been the best parents they knew how to be.

We've discovered that we can create abundance without wiping out natural resources.

> do u believe that people making commitments to their programs is cool when at the same time some of them ditch all their previous commitments, including those to their families.

I suppose it depends on who is ditching which commitments. I have personally had to delegate my paternal responsibilities to the husband of my ex-wife. Sure, I could pretend that I'm still their "real" father, and that he's some irresponsible idiot that deserves no respect. The problem is that they need to be living with a man and a woman that they can love and respect. It isn't easy to trust them, and it's even harder to make semi-monthly child-support payments on-time, without playing games. But I do, and my kids live with two parents who are committed to them having great lives, they live in a 5 bedroom house (the extra bedroom is available to me for visits, but I'm allergic to their cats). The know that they are loved and supported by three parents who love them, and want them to be everything they can be.

Jesus was 30 when he started his ministry. Given that he had the respect of a Rabbi, he was probably a grandfather when he decided to start walking around the middle-east. Peter took his son, John-Mark (book of Mark), away from his mother to travel with him in his ministry.

Paul was often challenged as a rabbi because he didn't marry and he didn't have children (which was considered dishonorable among Rabbis of that time).

When the rich man asked "what must I do to enter the kingdom of heaven", Christ said "sell all you have and follow me". This meant giving up wife, children, home, property, and status.

There are Forum leaders who are married, and those who are divorced. It's not easy being married to someone who is on the road 3-4 weeks per month, who spends a few days with the family, and heads right back out for another 24-28 day marathon.

> can u give me your opinion of this statement "I'm very clear about lies, lies persist and truth doesnt." this was from old werener himself

Gossip is a conversation that seems to persist in spite of itself. People like to hear bad things about other people, because it makes them feel superior, validated, and secure. The person being gossiped about must have done something worthwhile to merit recognition. Who cares if Joe Jones of Limon Colorado got a divorce. But when the President of the United States gives in to a no-holds-barred come-on used by a previous ex-lover, it's national news. When he doesn't come right out with explicit details of what he touched, where he touched it, and why he touched it - it's grounds for impeachment.

Truth is not very interesting. How many FBI agents and federal prosecutors does at take to make someone waive their rights to an attourney? Nobody cares! How many times has the court issued a bug order based on illegally obtained evidence - nobody cares! How many times did Clinton decline the offer - nobody cares! How many times did Clinton chose alternatives to direct sexual contact? Nobody cares. But when he used a CIGAR - and lied about it, EVERYBODY CARES.

> werner was a bigamist. do u have any problem with this

At what point was Werner legally married to two women at the same time? Again, I've never met Werner, I saw him on the ABC interview, and I've known some people who knew him. He helped many people help many people. Some of his closest friends and family wanted to "cash in" on that new celebrity status.

I've been engaged in activities that have impacted millions of people and has generated billions of dollars for the people and corporations who followed my suggestions. I avoided the "celebrity" status because I knew I could help more people by letting others be the figureheads.

> what do u think went wrong with "i take responsibility for ending starvation within twenty years" while his organization collected millions of dollars and sent just a few to the hungry. this was another of wereners quotes. would u comment

Citibank issues millions of $500 "micro-loans" to mostly single mothers, mostly widowed by war and famine, to purchase capital such as sewing machines or other equipment, along with used computers and radio transmitters shared by people in the village. They make clothing and sell it via the Internet.

The Micro-loan progam was initiated by people within the Hunger Project. Making the Internet available to the poor was inspired by people from the Hunger Project. The Emerging Markets news-wire which covers economic investments opportunities developing in third world countries was inspired by the Hungerr Project.

Sure, they could have raised $2 billion, bought some rat-infested rice, and doled it out to people who were dying of bad water, bad food, diseases, and lack of heat. They might have extended the lives of a few million people for a few more days.

Perhapse they could have taught them how to fish and farm - in Ethiopia? In the sahara desert? What crops to you grow in the Sahara?

The Hunger Project focused on creating the infrastructure that has shifted the economic priorities from national economies to a global economy. In the United States and Europe, we have too much food, to much land. We pay farmers NOT to grow food, because there aren't enough people willing and able to pay a competitive price.

Meanwhile, in Africa, India, South America, and Asia, there are people who are willing to work, willing to put into the stream of life, but can't find markets for the jewelry, glass-work, clothing, and other objects they are capable of making, including drugs and medicines that grow in rain forests. When you are starving to death, there isn't much interest in buying jewelry and manufactured goods.

What the Hunger Project did was connect bankers, investors, exporters and importers from developed countries to third world countries where selling a hand woven scarf for $20 will feed someone for a year. A pair of hand-painted shoes for $150 will feed a family for a year. And the micro-loan makes it possible to make and sell 20 dresses per months at $30-40/dress.

And suddenly, you have people who have money, who are willing to pay a fair price for food.

And heat, a furnace that can be fed by a few grains of wheat or corn that will heat a large tent for the night can be created for $50 an invention virtually ignored by North-America keeps children alive in a place where trees have been picked clean for a radius of 20-100 miles.

It's probably true that they spend about 1/2 of the money they make from the fund-raising events they sponsor - on more fund-raising events. But even there, there are bankers, lawyers, doctors, and stock-brokers who are often so inspired by the successes achieved up to that point, that they see the Hungry not as a "charity" on which some limited excess must be discarded, but rather as an "investment" in which not only do the hungry get fed, but the invester gets a modest return on his investment.

In many cases, the "seed" projects have the "problem" of being too successful. Projects expected to lose money start making money instead. Since the Hunger Project itself is a non-profit organization, they can't pay dividends, and they eventually have to bring in private enterprise to take their place. The proceeds are redirected to other projects.

By-products of the hunger project are that infant mortality has improved, with fewer children dying of starvation. Fewer women are having children they cannot support. There are eye-banks in third world countries and people who were blind are rehabilitated by a relatively simple procedure at the rate of several hundred each day.

There is more free-enterprise, even in socialist and communist countries, because they see a possibility of improving distribution through free-enterprise.

There are more ways of producing fresh water from polluted water, sea water, and alkali water that would otherwise be unfit for human consumption.

Fewer people are dying of insect spread diseases such as maleria and yellow fever through simple and inexpensive insect control.

Fewer people are dying of vitamin deficiencies. Even the most basic diets can easily be supplemented with inexpensive vitamins.

Corporations have found markets for products of the Rain Forests (quarena), Siberian Alps (gensing), and other herbal remedies that can be harvested without burning away dense vegetation.

Many of these companies don't even know that these ventures are byproducts of the Hunger Project. What they see is the opportunity to expand markets, create new markets, and achieve unprecedented growth without inflation. In reality, some countries like India are actually beginning to have to deal with managed growth.

> here's another one > "there are only two things in the world--nothing and semantics"

I'm not sure you have that quote right. I've heard it said "there are two things, nothing and Language".

In a public newsgroup it's a bit delicate to discuss this. It's like saying "Athony Perkins is his own mother" to someone who is about to see "Psycho" for the first time. :-)

Put another way, there is "what happens", "knife cuts skin", and there is the language which gives it meaning. "Doctor makes incision" is a different language than "hood stabs police officer". But what if the guy in the leather jacket is a doctor, and the only knife available is a switch-blade, and the police officer needs an emergency tracheotomy(sic). Just seconds after the incision is made, the blood is flowing, and you, his partner, come around the corner.

How you language that situation could have an impact on your partner's life. If you shoot the doctor, your partner dies. If you find out exactly "what's so", your partner lives.

Things happen. We given them meaning. It's 9 P.M. and the kids aren't home, they must be doing drugs. Or maybe they got so caught up on the internet, that they forgot what time it was.

> do u believe this last statemnt

I have beliefs, values and ideals that I try to live up to. I once considered them "a bunch of stupid rules", today, they are guidelines for a life worth living. There is a law of cause and effect, what I can shift is my relationships toward those laws which, when followed lead to a good effect".

Thou shalt not kill -
  - except in war?
  - except capital punishment?
  - except abortion?
  - except starving a population you have the resources to feed?
  - except when suffering from diseases you could delay or cure if
           they had the resources to pay for them?
  - except when the extra cost of safety equipment and proceedures
           exceeds the reduction of insurance?
  - except when the cost of replacing exploding gas tanks exceeds the
           cost of out-of-court settlements?
  - except when the people you wish to kill are rounding up civilians
           and killing them?
  - except when their jewish, muslim, hindu, or bhuddist.

He said "Jesus Christ"
  - The gospel music revival is ready to start.
  - He's going to get the big belt, with the studs.

> i have read your lengthly post. > i feel really sorry for u

I didn't get this from landmark, I got it from an ex-drug-addict who was trying to save my life, when I really needed a kick in the pants. "You find sympathy in the dictionary between sh*t and syphillus". Some things happened in my life. They are things I'd rather not repeat. This doesn't mean that they are actually bad. Because I lived the experience of "drug addict", I can now reach and alter the lives of drug addicts and alcoholics very effectively, more effectively than if I was to put on the priest's collar or a preacher's robe.

When God sent his son to earth, he didn't need a great king to rule from a golden throne in a huge castle. He didn't need a great warrior who could conquer the Roman Legions. He didn't need a great orator who could inspire the masses to riots. He didn't even need a great preacher who could vindicate the righteous.

When God sent his son to earth, he needed someone who could lead fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots, and have them share the same room. He needed someone who could eat with hookers and pimps and all of the other "provisioners" at the Tax Collector's dinner table, and show them God's love for them. He needed to heal lepers, make the blind see, and make crippled beggars walk. And He had to do this without worrying about what "good people would think".

In fact, Jesus had to speak against the Pharasees and the Sadducees, the high priests of the sanhedren, an even against the King, the Roman Governer, and Ceasar himself. When Pilot offered to step in and prevent the crucifixion, it was Jesus who reminded Pilot of how totally powerless he was to stop what Jesus knew was about to happen.

Finally, God needed someone who was willing to be flogged, dragged through town in disgrace, and crucified. By the time he died, Jesus wasn't exactly the town hero among the "respectable crowd". And just to keep him in his place, they had to put Roman AND Jewish guards around the grave.

And yet, Jesus appeared to his followers only 3 days after the crucifixion. They could have said "we're halloucenating", or "we're crazy", or "it's a demon come to haunt us", or "it's just the spirit of Jesus come to comfort us". But as Christians, you and I believe that he conquered death and paved the way to salvation and eternal life.

To someone who is Jewish, he has a different interpretation. More important, he has a different context. His liturature and history are filled with the stories of persecution of Jews by Christians. Ironically, the Jews honor the teachings of Jesus in their own liturature, they live their lives consistant with these teachings.

Put another way, they walk the walk, but don't talk the talk. And they see many Christians as those who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.

My cousins died. I can blame God, or I can learn to reach out to those who can't hear the "traditional" message because of all of the "trigger language".

Rex Ballard - Open Source Advocate, Internet
I/T Architect, MIS Director
http://www.open4success.com
Linux - 55 million and growing at 2%/week!

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