Greetings, readers. Last month, I was again invited to meet with students assigned to read my memoir, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International in a Rollins College class, “Extremes of Religion,” taught by Todd French, PhD.
Keep reading to see his endorsement of Undertow at the end of this post. It’s also included in the front matter of the book.
Rollins College Course Description
“This course examines the roots of extremism in religious belief and practice. Tracing topics such as fasting, sexual politics, sacred ritual, and terror, it will examine when religious passion and devotion transform into what society deems ‘extreme.'”
Source: click here.
Undertow goes to college
This is the eighth year I’ve been honored to visit this class and answer questions, participate in a discussion, and (among other things) warn students about high-control groups called cults. Each time, I learn what eighteen-year-olds think about such a story as mine: a 17-year commitment to a group I thought was promoting God’s Word.
Usually the students are amazed over my living in a trailer for two years with nine other women—to train as leaders for The Way. Other things shake them up, like the scene in which Victor Paul Wierwille (1916-1985), founder of The Way International, made some of us in his Advanced Class on Power for Abundant Living (his Bible class) watch a porno movie in the name of what he said was education about people in the movie who need healing. What??? Would a real “man of God” act like that, and, as I discovered later, seduce some of my Way “sisters” into his bed? On and on the drama of my experience unfolds and raises all sorts of questions for interested students.
We also discuss what inerrancy of the Bible means (a non-contradictory and perfect Bible), which is a non-negotiable belief of Wierwille’s and other Fundamentalist Christians, and we think about how that poses problems in Christianity. We talk about the history of the texts in the Bible as we have it today, what translating the Bible involves, how cults recruit followers, how to respond to such recruiters who employ “love bombing,” and other relevant topics they are interested in. I also reveal that Wierwille plagiarized other men’s work. In college, these students well understand plagiarism is theft.
For more about inerrancy, fundamentalism, evangelicalism, and other religious terms, I highly recommend Stephen Prothero’s book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t.
Rollins is my alma mater
Rollins is a private, liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. I was fortunate to attend that school and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English Literature in 1994. My husband, Hoyt Edge, PhD, (whom I married in 2002) taught at Rollins for more than 40 years in the Philosophy/Religion department. Todd is in that department now and became our friend. While I was writing Undertow, he showed great interest in my story, ended up reading the manuscript, and offered the following blurb which appears in the front pages of the book.
I’m so grateful that people like Todd stick out their necks to support this memoir, which seems more relevant today than when I published it in 2017.
Dr. French writes of Undertow
“This thoughtful, beautifully written memoir is a window into the gradual but compelling pull cults have on unsuspecting and well-meaning people of faith. Edge’s writing conveys images that invite the reader to a particular moment in US History and the fascinating development of a community seeking to impact the world as they perceived it. Undertow is an honest and affecting look at the way evangelical movements perceive their world and their duty in it. One gets the impression Edge wants to run back in time and tell that young, intelligent girl to reconsider her worldview. What Edge has created here is a welcome voice of reason for those who would be tempted by similar visions of evangelism and the accompanying claim that an original version of Christianity existed and could ever be accessible or fully intelligible to Christians today. The narrative she pushes against is one that continues to lay claim to evangelicals in our world. It is a worldview in which every moment is interpretable as a reaffirmation of ‘us vs. world,’ rendering a perspective and promulgated purpose that is hard to fathom if one has never experienced it. Edge’s fascinating text gets us as close as one could hope to be. It is a worthwhile read, brimming with insight into a world many of us claim we could never understand. Edge lifts the veil on the power a community can have when discourse and ideology fuse.”
—Todd French, PhD, Assistant Professor of Religion at Rollins College
For more about Undertow and the people who endorse it, click here.
Thanks for reading!
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
See book launch for From the Porch to the Page: Author Salon: Charlene Edge (youtube.com)
Candy Dawson
Charlene, how wonderful for these students to hear from you in person after studying your book. Dr. French’s words about Undertow are spot on and yes, it seems more relevant—and foreboding, now more than ever. “Religious” cult leaders are very dangerous and in some cases, a threat to our nation.
Charlene
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, Candy. I always welcome your comments!!!!
Roz
Charlene, I think that your book and Todd’s class are both wonderful and necessary for students
in this world of extreme politics and religion. I hope that many other professors are using Undertow to educate young people. Keep up the good work!
Charlene
Todd’s class is more and more important every year. I’m honored he asks me to participate!