Charlene Lamy Edge Speaks about The Way International

This post was first published on 9/21/2025 on my personal blog at https://charleneedge.com. Greetings, readers! I hope this finds you doing well. I’m okay, but these days I’m flashing back to many alarming times I experienced in a cult. This time of year, I tend to reflect on the last stages of writing and publishing my cult memoir,   Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International ,   which came out in November 2016. Today, I’m sharing the first few statements from the Preface in  Undertow  (at the end of this post, after some initial thoughts). These statements put a chill in my heart, striking me to the core even after all these years since the damaging events happened that I describe in my book. In my memoir, you meet and hear from an authoritarian,  Victor Paul Wierwille (1916-1985), founder of The Way International™ (1916-1985). The Way is the fundamentalist Bible cult I was in for 17 years (1970-1987), and it’s  ...

The following was first published on my website's blog on  8/15/2025. Greetings. Today I must share this IMPORTANT NEWS:  If you come across a Spanish translation of any part of my memoir, Undertow , or of my other book, From the Porch to the Page , or any of my blog posts, I want you to know I have NOT authorized it. You may know that I am not only the author but I am also the publisher of both of my books. I own New Wings Press, LLC which published them. As the publisher, I've not given permission for anyone to generate any translations of my work into Spanish, or into any other language. And I do not plan to do so. Translating, which involves reproducing, an author's published work without permission from the publisher is a big NO-NO. As a reminder, here's the rule which appears in my books: “No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information stor...

I say yes. First, let's consider this definition from  Christian nationalism | Definition, History, United States, & Facts | Britannica : "Christian nationalism ,  ideology  that seeks to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian  religion  with a nation’s character. Advocates of Christian  nationalism  consider their view of  Christianity  to be an  integral  part of their  country’s  identity and want the government to promote—or even enforce—the religion’s position within it."      I was a leader and biblical researcher in The Way International for 17 years before I escaped in 1987. In my experience with The Way, it was clear Victor Paul Wierwille, its founder, believed the U.S.A. was created to be a Christian nation and Wierwille's bible-based-ministry's goal was to bring this country back to God's Word (which was, in actuality, Wierwille's mostly-stolen bible teachings and personal opinion...

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...

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...

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!