Charlene Lamy Edge Speaks about The Way International

Greetings, readers. Happy new year 2026! This coming year I'm celebrating my thirty-ninth year of life after escaping The Way International, the Bible-based group I gave myself to for 17 years as a leader (1970-1987).  Today, I want to give hope to anyone thinking about disassociating from that organization or leaving any other group based on the teachings of Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way. It is possible, with loving help and education, to leave the confining teachings of Wierwille and create a new life.  It is possible to gain confidence to make your own decisions and not have to check with a Way "spiritual leader" first. It is possible to find friends who accept you as you are, not people who say they are your friends but demand you believe their Bible teachings. It is possible to find joy in the world and not constantly worry about the Devil trying to ruin your life, which is what Way leaders, especially Wierwille, said would happen if you left The Way. Aft...

  The following was written by me when I was known as Charlene Lamy at  Valencia Community College (in Orlando, FL) in  1988 for a creative writing class assignment that required us to do research on something personal to us. Research was to include information from interviews and also citations from published materials.  A bibliography is included at the end of the essay. I married in 2002 and changed my name to Charlene L. Edge.   From Fundamentalism to Freedom by Charlene L. Edge From 1970 until 1987 I was involved with a fundamentalist Christian group known as The Way International Biblical Research and Teaching ministry.   One important point that its founder, Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, taught was that the United States was a Christian nation founded on the Bible.   In 1985, questions I began to ask concerning how we got the Bible, how translations are produced, and the history of early Christianity, brought me to the realization that m...

The following was originally published on my blog at https://charleneedge.com. May 21, 2021 Greetings, especially to those of you interested in cults and their downsides. Today, I'm happy to republish the following E-Newsletter, "Deception, Dependency, and Dread in the Conversion Process" with permission of the author, Michael D. Langone, who holds a PhD in counseling psychology and is executive director of International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), which provides information, education, and help to those adversely affected by or interested in cultic and other “high-control” groups and relationships. Besides that, I happen to know him personally for the kind, intelligent, and dedicated counselor he is and have worked with him at ICSA conferences. In my opinion, Langone's article well describes aspects of cult ensnarement that many of us, after exiting the cave of a high-control group, look back and recognize from the tunnel of darkness in which we'd been tr...