Posts

Hiding in Plain Sight = first chapter of Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International™

The first chapter of:  Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International™ by Charlene L. Edge New Wings Press, LLC (2017) Available in paperback and ebook at major booksellers and indie bookstores Hiding in Plain Sight If they find out, they’ll think I’m weird. In the winter of 1987, my Sociology professor clutched a stub of white chalk, drew a pyramid spanning the height of the blackboard, and crowned it with an X . Thirty students, many half my age, surrounded me in a beige classroom. None of them knew my secret. “Okay. Last week we discussed gender inequality in the workplace,” Dr. Schaffer said. “Tonight, we’ll examine autocratic groups and how they operate. My not-so-elegant drawing represents their hierarchical power structure. Religious ones are often called ‘sects,’ or ‘cults.’ By the way, I’m saying, s-e-c-t-s, not s-e-x.” When laughs died down, she said, “The leader is X .” She underlined the X . “He or she dictates the group’s ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Letters that Victor Paul Wierwille wrote to The Way Corps 1977- 1981

Greetings, readers. If you are interested in getting FREE PDF files of letters Victor Paul Wierwille wrote to his Way Corps in-resident members and graduates from 1977 to 1981, you are in for an eye-opening experience. These letters reveal his bizzare thinking, at times, and the manipulative tactics he used to get sympathy and loyalty from Way Corps members, the devotees he trained to be leaders in The Way International organization (which is still in business today). I was in The Way Corps from 1971 - 1973.  These letters are from my personal files. I kept them all these years... The letters also serve as an historical record of events during those years, in particular: lawsuits by The Way against deprogrammers, problems with Way Corps who questioned Wierwille's biblical research and who Wierwille condemned, and the list goes on. In case you don't know, I escaped The Way headquarters in 1987 and wrote a book about my Way experiences, publishing it in 2017.  It's called Und...
Read more

Caution: If you want to "join" The Way

February 22, 20025 The current Way organization still lauds the corrupt Victor Paul Wierwille as their founding "man of God."  About the Founder - Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille   That's enough for me to categorize the current organization as corrupt. Its roots, due to Victor Paul Wierwille's (VPW) corruption, are rotten. He stole nearly the entire book about the holy spirit from J. E. Stiles's book. He plagiarized other men's work like B. G. Leonard's class about the holy spirit, which VPW made into The Power for Abundant Living Class. He also "borrowed" from E. W. Bullinger's many works. Due to VPW's corruption, The Way's current "tree" cannot be any good no matter how "nice" any followers might be. Many of us had first-hand experience with the authoritarian, narcissistic, abusive, predatory (sexual and financial), and cavalier plagiarist named Victor Paul Wierwille. We know that he stole most of his teachings that ar...
Read more

November 2024 - Undertow's 8th Birthday

Greetings, readers! It’s November and we’re celebrating another  Undertow  birthday. Eight years ago this month, New Wings Press, LLC published my memoir that you probably know about —   Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International. What you may  not  know, is that not long after its publication, just before I gave a free presentation at Rollins College about my cult story, a local newspaper reporter interviewed me about the book. His article was published March 8, 2018. Here you go! Winter Park resident Charlene Edge escaped a fundamentalist cult | West Orange Times & Observer (orangeobserver.com) Undertow  is available in paperback and ebook at major booksellers. Indie bookstores and libraries can order it for you, too. Thanks for reading!
Post a Comment
Read more

Charlene's blog posts on the "cult" topic

Image
My own website blog posts about cults Did you know you can subscribe to my blog at https://charleneedge.com? You might be interested in my FREE posts about cults and Christian fundamentalism—especially The Way International.™  Where are they? Under the Blog link at the top of every page of my website. Click here . This is one I feel is especially helpful: The 3-D Cult Experience | Charlene L. Edge
Read more

When Fundamentalism Hooked Me

Image
  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 Scho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Preface to Charlene L. Edge's memoir, "Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International"

Image
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...
Post a Comment
Read more