Current Events 2020 and Undertow

Recently, I found some bits of writing I did seven years ago about two phenomena twisted together during my former life in a cult. Today, fifty (50) years after I jumped into The Way International, these two issues are popping up in the news every day. It’s 2020! They seem more relevant than ever!

BTW, I love this “featured photo” of a sculpture that well depicts that double-twist, i.e. the two major, woven-together themes that appear in Undertow’s extra long subtitle: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International.

My double-twisted experience

Undertow is the story about how I was recruited into and escaped from a fundamentalist cult. That won’t mean much unless I try and explain what I mean by the double-barreled term—fundamentalist cult. To clarify, let me first define the two words separately and then sum up.

What is fundamentalism?

The Way exhibited many traits of Fundamentalist Christianity. Four major traits were and still are:

1. Belief in inerrancy of the Bible. This is a belief, common among Christian Fundamentalists, that the Bible is entirely without error, not only in theology and ethics but also in history, geography, and science. A less strict view of the Bible, held by many Evangelicals, is that the Bible is simply inspired by God.
2. Hostility to modern theology and to the methods, results and implications of a modern critical study of the Bible. Modern theology includes studying the history of the texts that comprise Scripture.
3. Militant piety. This is an assurance that those who do not share their views on “The Word” are unbelievers. The Way used Scripture to identify who the “real” believers and unbelievers were.
4. Belief in Creationism. This is the doctrine that the universe was created only a few thousand years ago, rather than the billions claimed by modern science, and that God created man and woman and all the species outright, rather than by a process of evolution.

* My sources for this list are these scholars’ works: Stephen Prothero, Karen Armstrong, Earnest Sandeen, James Barr, and Bart Ehrman.¹

What is a cult?

The meaning of the term “cult” mostly depends on who is using the word. For my purposes, I’ve chosen one of the best descriptions I can find that applies to The Way. It is one of the more commonly quoted definitions of “cult” articulated at an International Cultic Studies Association/UCLA Wingspread Conference on Cultism in 1985:

A group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g. isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it, etc.), designed to advance the goals of the group’s leaders, to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community. (Louis Jolyon West & Michael D. Langone. 1986, pp. 119-120) ²

In my view, The Way was a fundamentalist cult primarily because Victor Paul Wierwille used the belief in the inerrancy of the Scriptures as the non-negotiable foundation of his Bible teachings. Then he created a cultic organization to manipulate followers into obeying and promoting his teachings. And to be loyal to him.

A few reasons to be concerned about fundamentalist groups 

Some groups:

1. Fear and attack other religions, i.e. Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism
2. Reject critical or historical study of Scriptures
3. Fear, condemn, and block advances in medicine, i.e. stem cell research
4. Seek and gain political power; support faith-based legislation; block civil and gay rights
5. Fight the teaching of Evolution in schools; keep the public ignorant of science
6. Perpetrate violence, i.e. the bombing of abortion clinics. Incite violence by burning sacred books of other religions
7. Propagate hate speech especially against Jews, Muslims, gays, atheists, other Christians.

As you read my story

Keep in mind that my experience with The Way is not representative of every Way follower’s. Different levels of responsibility and years of involvement, among other factors, affected Way followers’ experiences and depth of commitment. You might say I hit the limit in both aspects.

I was involved for seventeen years. I was a graduate of The Way’s leadership program called The Way Corps, and perhaps more significantly, I was a member of The Way’s Biblical Research Department. Consequently, I was held to the highest level of commitment.

To escape this organization while at its headquarters in Ohio, as well as break out of fundamentalism, was no small matter. I hope my story may prevent others from repeating what I did. I did not look before I lept.

P.S. The Way International is still in business today. It has also spawned many off-shoot groups run by former Way leaders who recycle much of Wierwille’s work, which they don’t seem to mind was, to one degree or another, plagiarized from other fundamentalist authors, like Rev. E. W. Bullinger, Rev. J. E. Stiles, and Rev. B. G. Leonard. Just sayin …

Notes

1. Fundamentalism traits:
   1. Stephen Prothero. Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t. Harper One. 2007.
   2. Karen Armstrong. The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism. Ballantine Books. 2000.
   3. Bart D Ehrman. Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them).       Harper One. 2009.
   4. James Barr. Fundamentalism. Westminster Press. 1977, 1978.
   5. Ernest R. Sandeen. The Roots of Fundamentalism. The University of Chicago. 1970.

2. Cult definition: http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/essay_cult.htm

Thanks for reading!

Your writer on the wing,

Charlene

Share this…

email

Facebook

Linkedin

Twitter

Print