Undertow, my memoir, is coming soon!
Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International.™
Special Offer: If you subscribe to my blog, you’ll get the announcement about when you can buy a signed copy of Undertow and get it BEFORE Christmas.
There will be a PayPal button on my website in early November for ordering.
→ If you are not a subscriber to this blog, use the Subscribe to Updates box and sign up here.
The Special Offer will begin in early November and will last thirty (30) days.
Sorry, no overseas orders can be filled.
After the Special Offer, you can buy Undertow from online vendors like Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, et al. and in some brick and mortar stores.
Advanced praise for Undertow…
~ Karl Kahler, author of The Cult That Snapped: A Journey Into The Way International
“A tenderly written, intensely personal narrative about being swallowed alive by a cult. Charlene Edge’s encounters with the abusive Victor Paul Wierwille and her firsthand observation of how The Way’s Research Department twisted the Scriptures are enlightening and chilling.”
~ Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy For God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Most All) of It Back and New York Times best-selling author of Keeping Faith
“In Undertow Charlene Edge has written a brilliant and engrossing warning to the future by dissecting the past. There are really two books here: one is on a cult called The Way (one of the largest fundamentalist cults in America with about 40,000 followers). The second book is an examination of the dynamic of all personality, religious, and political cults … What she exposes to bright liberating daylight is just how our political and religious worlds actually function based on the mesmerizing enticement of belonging to an “in”-group. … ”
Feel free to forward this blog post to anyone who might be interested in Undertow.
Photo gallery: featured photos from previous blog posts about writing Undertow. Click one to start slideshow.
Ciao for now,
Your writer on the wing!
pat
Congratulations – you are on your way I see. Can’t wait for what’s ahead in November……..will surely enjoy reading your creation, glad to know the author.
I have enjoyed your blogs and traveling with you. Thanks for sharing.
Love
Pat
Charlene L. Edge
Thank you so much, Pat. It’s a joy to share my story with you!
Elizabeth Maupin
Charlene, I’m looking forward to placing our order — and, even more, to reading the book!
Charlene L. Edge
Hi Betsey,
I’m thrilled this baby is nearly born and I can have her meet you!
Naomi Durkin
I’m anticipating your memoir with such excitement, Charlene. I feel that the years of personal experience, research and preparation that have gone into your book will make it irresistable reading — not only for those of us who spent many years of our lives personally involved with The Way International, but for those who have no knowledge of closed religious groups and cults at all. I sense that your book is going to impact many for good, and what a gift to leave for future generations — as a timely educational source that will not only inform, but also serve as a positive “warning” of just how subtley deceptive authoritative powers can be when the pure-hearted idealism of youth meets the less-than-pure-hearted motivations of that authoritative power! Kudos to you for giving the reader a bird’s eye perspective of years of your life that will help them make sense of so many years of their own.
Charlene L. Edge
Dear Naomi,
It’s my pleasure to bring this story out. Your comments are lovely and reflect my intentions with writing the book … that it can contribute to the conversation on this topic and shed some light for people.
Cheers,
Charlene
Nancy Johnson Frierson
Even your blog’s are healing for me. Great anticipation for your book. So blessed to have found your blog.
Charlene L. Edge
Oh Nancy, you are so sweet. I’ll be looking forward to your response to the book’s material!
Stanley Reahard
Congratulations on your upcoming launch. To all intents and purposes we left the Way in 1984 with the final irrevocable break coming in 1986. The most painful thing about it was, as we tried to sound the alarm, we basically lost every friend we’d made as adults–not to mention being cast as evil personified. We’ve reconnected in the past few years with some of them through reaching out via FB. We recently had a couple of friends visit who we dearly love, but they wanted to dredge up the garbage from TWI and I found revisiting some of that to be so depressing. Thirty years down the road, I hate to go back there even for a “visit” but I appreciate what you are doing and will try to get through it.
One of the things that Bo keeps saying is “I refuse to curse the life God gave me…” Certainly some good came out of the experience–finding each other comes to mind, the wonderful children and grandchildren we have, not to mention a love of Jesus which resonates through my life each and every day.
I am so glad we left when we did and started our quest for the greater Christian world. There is just so much richness and diversity out there if we are willing to look for Him and allow ourselves to go there. God is so much bigger than the box TWI tried to put Him into.
My darling niece, Irene Smith told me a cute story the other day. It was a Sunday and she was praying about which church she should go to that morning when the Lord spoke to her, “Just choose one. I’ll be at all of them!” I just love that. He’ll be at all of them. Stop looking for perfection in a church and look for Him–he’ll be there.
Blessings girl–I know it has been a monumental endeavor and I do hope it helps a lot of folks who are still struggling with the abuses they suffered. If it keeps even one person from getting entangled with a cult, it will surely have been worth it. I wish you all the best and many blessings. We’re in Florida every January–we really should try to get together one of these times!
Stanley
PS I’ve been noodling around your site and enjoying your writings on various subjects.
Charlene L. Edge
Dear Stanley,
Wonderful of you to write a bit about your story here. I admire you for the courage you’ve had over the years, and still do! We’ve come a long way. I always say the greatest gift from those Way years is my daughter and the lasting friendships I gained, which like you say, are VERY few but precious.
We learned a lot about life from that experience, but at a terrible cost. I’m grateful for how those years taught me that life is complicated and that love is the best part.
All the best to you and Bo. Hope to see you in Florida sometime!
Cheers,
Charlene