REVISED Speaking of "Way" Stories ...

Headquarters of The Way International. New Knoxville, OH. 1982. Photo by Charlene L. Edge

Hello, readers. Have you read or heard one or more exposés of The Way by former Way followers? Today, I write about what to consider as you think about or read these accounts, particularly as more such accounts are showing up on social media.

People who don’t know anything or very little about The Way are my primary audience today. However, many former Way followers interested in telling their Way stories may find it helpful, too.

In this post, I give some background about The Way, and list some things to keep in mind whenever you encounter former Way followers’ stories.

REVISED from original post: I’ve deleted a reference and a link to another former Way follower’s story.

Background on The Way & Understanding Way survivor stories

Regarding The Way: unseemly and/or abusive behind-the-scenes activities by Way leaders/followers did not happen to every single person in the group. And it would be impossible for every Way believer to ever know about those behaviors when they happened or even afterwards.

During its heyday of the 1980s, The Way was a large organization. Around 40,000 people were graduates of Wierwille’s Bible classes and attended Way fellowships. Higher estimates are floating around the internet, even up to 100,000, but those are hard to verify. In my memoir, Undertow, I give references for my estimate of 40,000 members.

Way believers were spread across the fifty states of the US and in thirty-six other countries. They attended home fellowships, as well as larger gatherings of Way people to hear Bible teachings and fellowship with each other. As a result of this dispersion, there were what I call “pockets of awareness” within the hierarchical setup of The Way.

Way beliefs

Way beliefs stemmed from Wierwille’s teachings in the Power for Abundant Living class and his other classes on various subjects in the Bible. We were indoctrinated with the idea that Wierwille taught “the accuracy of The Word” and we should stick to studying only his books, listening to recordings of his teachings over and over, and using only Way sanctioned materials in our fellowship meetings.

Interpretation of Wierwille’s beliefs about how to live “The Word” was supposed to be based mostly on doctrines from St. Paul’s epistles in the New Testament. Higher-up Way leaders were to be vigilant in overseeing that lower-level leaders did not abuse followers. Control to ensure correct behavior, if you could call it that, would be something like Believer #1 correcting Believer #2 by quoting a Bible verse or quoting something Wierwille said, if Believer #2 appeared to be disobedient. Disobedience was called, “off The Word,” or “out of fellowship with God.”

That behavior control was called “reproof and correction.” It was supposed to be done with a loving attitude, but whenever there is a power differential in a relationship, abuse is possible. And abuse happened in The Way. We’ve got to face it and hold abusers accountable, if possible.

To understand Way survivor stories, remember “a pocket of awareness.” It was everywhere in The Way. There were lots of off-the-cuff or behind-the-scenes “advice” or opinions that Wierwille and other leaders handed out in various settings. For instance, the people who went through the intense Way Corps program, like I did, often heard Wierwille say things that he never made public, like his feeling betrayed by some leaders he trained who no longer participated in The Way. That would be what I call “a pocket of awareness.” No one else in the ministry heard him discuss this in-depth, only us. Another example: Since Undertow was published, I’ve heard from many women, victims of Wierwille’s sexual abuse, that he swore them to secrecy about that activity. For a first-hand account in print, there is Kristen Skedgell’s book, Losing The Way.

Here’s another example of “a pocket of awareness” from my own story in Undertow. The general population of Way followers did not know what went on in Ohio at The Way Headquarters within the Biblical Research Department where I worked 1984-1986. What went on? Disputes about what “the accuracy of the Word” really was. Cover-ups of Wierwille’s plagiarism and abuse of Scripture to serve his purposes. And more. Undertow reveals a lot of that. So, I was in that research “pocket of awareness,” and in my book I tried to share what that was like.

Considerations for understanding Way survivor stories

Here’s my list of things to remember when reading or hearing stories people tell about their time with The Way. Some apply to any cult-like, mind control group. Each person has a slightly different experience, depending on one or more of the following:

when they were involved
how they became involved
where they became involved
why they became involved
their age at the time of recruitment
their gender
their religious or non-religious background before encountering The Way
their position in the hierarchy of The Way
what part of the country or other country they lived in during their time with The Way
who their local Way leader was
whether they were a Way leader
whether they participated in The Way Corps leadership program or other outreach programs
whether they were in the Family Way Corps program or the “regular” one for single people and married couples without children
if they did participate in The Way Corps, when was that? At which training location? Who was the Way Corps Coordinator (leader/administrator)?
whether they worked on staff at a Way training center (there were several)
whether they were in The Word Over the World Ambassador one-year program, where they agreed to live anywhere Way leaders sent them
whether they were born to parents already involved in The Way, making them “raised” in The Way’s propaganda.

There may be more factors that contribute to these Way stories having “pockets of awareness,” but I think those are the main ones.

What good are these considerations?

They put a Way story in context, give it some perspective. Something else to realize is that cultic groups change over time, especially after the founder dies. Victor Paul Wierwille, the “founding president of The Way” who personally trained me, died in 1985. His teachings, however, are propounded mostly intact and promoted to this day, regardless of the fact that many are plagiarized. I document some of this in my book and here on my blog.

Changes after Wierwille’s death included the dismissal of Craig Martindale, the second president, in 2000. He was kicked out after lawsuits alleging sexual abuse. There have been several Way presidents since then. Also not all classes stayed the same. Some have been revised or discontinued. For today’s status on The Way, visit one of their websites: About The Way International