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When Fundamentalism Hooked Me

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  When Fundamentalism Hooked Me  by  Charlene L. Edge   Me during the weekend I got “born-again” at a Young Life Christian retreat in Ocean City, MD, November 1969 Some of you know about my former life as a Christian fundamentalist. It lasted seventeen years (1970-1987). I loved it. Until I did not. First, what do I mean by fundamentalism? The term applied to Christianity comes from a series of publications called  The Fundamentals  (1910-1915) which stated basic beliefs that  real  Christians must agree to, like the virgin birth of Jesus, miracles, Jesus’ resurrection, and biblical inerrancy. This post pertains to fundamentalism’s striking and often inflammatory tenant of biblical inerrancy. A Catholic youth But first, to understand how and when fundamentalism hooked me, let me tell you a bit about my upbringing. I grew up Christian, the Catholic kind. When I was a kid, my parents paid for me to attend St. Francis de Sales Catholic School. I carried the brown tuition envelope to Siste
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Preface to Charlene L. Edge's memoir, "Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International"

The following is the Preface to  Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International. By Charlene L. Edge In its heyday in the 1980s, The Way International was one of the largest fundamentalist cults in America, with about forty thousand followers worldwide. 1 Founded in 1942 by a self-proclaimed prophet, Victor Paul Wierwille (1916–1985), who marketed the group as a biblical research, teaching, and fellowship ministry, The Way still operates in the shadow of its dark history.  I knew Wierwille personally. As one of his biblical research assistants and ministry leaders, I am a witness to his charisma, as well as his abuse of power and manipulation of Scriptures to serve his own agenda. I discovered his sexual abuse of women and chronic plagiarism. Today, those underbelly facts are hidden, denied, or otherwise squelched. The years of Wierwille’s authoritarian reign and the chaos after his death provide the context of my story. In 1987, after seventee
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What’s Critical About Critical Thinking?

  What’s Critical About Critical Thinking? Greetings, readers. This post is to share some thoughts about a topic near and dear to my heart: critical thinking. For me, it’s a vital skill I aim to exercise, like a muscle, as well as I can. How about you? Keep reading to find out why this matters to me so much, and my recommendation of a book that’s helped me with critical thinking. Why critical thinking matters to me In my view, critical thinking is like a muscle that needs exercise to keep our minds well. I gained some experience with this when I broke out of the indoctrination and undue influence of a cult leader. If you’re reading this, you probably know I wrote a book about that: Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International. Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International. My capacity to think critically became a major help when, at The Way headquarters in Ohio, I made a serious effort to think for myself.
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Is Victor Paul Wierwille and The Way International Fraudulent?

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What Seems Fraudulent About Victor Paul Wierwille and The Way International? by Charlene Edge In my view, based on my 17 years of experience in The Way and on research I’ve done since, The Way International is highly suspect, even fraudulent, in my opinion. Among many reasons, two are: 1) V. P. Wierwille claimed God told him He would teach him The Word like it had not been known since the first century if he would teach it to others. "The Word” is a phrase Wierwille usually employed to refer to the Bible. This claim is made by Wierwille himself and recorded in the book by Elena Scott Whiteside,  The Way: Living in Love.  American Christian Press. 1972. If by the term "the Word" Wierwille meant the Bible (the cannon as seen in the KJV), there is a BIG problem: the New Testament, the contents of half the Bible, was not established until AFTER the first century.  It evolved between 250-300 A. D. 2) The second reason The Way is highly suspect, even fraudulent, in
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The Good People I Met at The Way International

 by Charlene L. Edge Sometimes people who have not yet read my memoir, Undertow , get the impression from articles I write about The Way, that I think everyone ever involved with The Way was "bad." Not true. What I think is that an array of people with a myriad of interests, needs, and talents, were caught in the high-control group of The Way just as I was. Some of the kindest people you'd ever meet showed me love and understanding, and offered me support in many ways. Often. The "people problem" I had with Way believers came about when it was discovered I no longer held Way beliefs as true, no longer clung to the belief that Wierwille was a great man of God. Then I was shunned by loyalists who could not accept my change of heart and mind. Sadly, when a person rejects the beliefs and practices of a group they were enmeshed in for years and years, they usually lose the friends who remain in the group. So, they must start over. They must make a new path in life an
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What Makes The Way International a Fundamentalist Cult?

What Makes The Way International™ a Fundamentalist Cult? by Charlene L. Edge First, what makes The Way International a  cult ? The Way International organization, at least while I was involved 1970-1987, exhibited two major features of a cult: 1) A "guru's" claim of  special knowledge  not found anywhere else.  The Way was founded in 1942 by Victor Paul Wierwille, its "guru," who claimed: "God told me He would teach me The Word like it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others." Right away, that claim set him apart from every other minister and let us know we couldn't get this special Bible knowledge from anyone but Wierwille. I believed that claim with my whole heart until about fourteen years into it, I began to doubt it. This claim of Wierwille's was published in Way materials, for instance, the book by Elena Whiteside, The Way: Living in Love . How did we get this special Bible knowledge: we
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"The Word" - Which Bible Is It Anyway?

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"The Word" - Which Bible Is It Anyway? by Charlene L. Edge Photo by:   emilydickinsonridesabmx Will the real Bible please stand up?  Trigger warning: if you hold the belief that the Bible is perfect—factually, historically, and scientifically true and is without contradictions—it is highly likely you’ll get uncomfortable reading this.  I’m not here to argue, but simply to share with those who care what I learned on my  journey out of what I consider a fundamentalist cult, The Way International™ (TWI). ♦ By the by, I think trigger warnings do not really help people, but keep them from learning something new and possibly worthwhile, like the value of considering other viewpoints. In this post, I want to give you some food for thought from the most instructive book about Fundamentalism that I read and re-read after leaving TWI. It’s James Barr’s book simply titled,  Fundamentalism . In 1987, just before I escaped TWI headquarters in New Knoxville, Ohio, a friend gave me a copy,
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