What Did Victor Paul Wierwille Say In Print About Women?

Greetings, readers. This post will give you insights into attitudes Victor Paul Wierwille (1916 - 1985) founder of The Way International, had about women. 

Those attitudes are not flattering to women. They are written in black and white, and published in a book. That makes them clear evidence. The book?

The Way: Living in Love

In 1972, The Way International's American Christian Press published a book by Elena Scott Whiteside, The Way: Living in Love. In the book, Whiteside creates a story about what life was like at Way Headquarters in New Knoxville, Ohio. Among other things, she gives word-by-word accounts Wierwille told her about aspects of his search for Bible knowledge and how he started The Way. 

Readers get some history about Wierwille and his Bible group that's not available anywhere else, despite the fact that Whiteside's book is, in my view, a 282-page piece of propaganda. 

If you are thinking about "joining" The Way, you might want to consider joining a different Bible group after you read this.

First, a little background

In 1972, I was in The Way Corps leadership training program at Way headquarters when Whiteside published her book, so by then I was 100% committed to Wierwille's ministry. My fanatical belief in Wierwille as "the man of God" created blinders on my eyes. I had become adept at rejecting any criticism of the leader of The Way. If you've read my memoir, Undertow, you may remember this.

Like many other loyal Way believers, I made excuses for Wierwille when I heard unflattering things about Wierwille. I also did that when I read the following section in The Way: Living in Love. 

Back then, I'd say things like, "Oh, that's just Dr. Wierwille. He didn't really mean it."

What did Wierwille say about women in The Way: Living in Love?

In the book The Way: Living in Love, on page 199 and 200, Victor Paul Wierwille made some serious chauvinistic remarks about women. 

He did this as he was telling Whiteside about his trip to Tulsa, OK in 1951 to attend a Full Gospel Rally. At the time, he says he was on a quest to find someone help him speak in tongues. At first, he met with some men at the rally who believed they were successful when they coached him to speak in tongues, but he knew they were lying. He says they’d thought he was speaking in tongues, but he was only speaking some Greek and Hebrew he already knew. After that, we read in the book that Wierwille says the following:

“Then a woman came over to me, and said, ‘I think God sent a man here to meet your need. Meet me at 9 a. m.’ I thought, ‘Women never tell the truth.’ But then I reconsidered, since I was stuck in town anyway. So I decided to meet her.

“I got to the place she said at 9 a.m. and there she was. She introduced me to a man named J. E. Stiles. He’d come in from the West Coast. A few days before, God had told him to go to Tulsa to minister the holy spirit to one man. We talked for a few minutes, and he suggested we go into the rally to hear Oral Roberts and then meet for lunch.

“So that’s what we did. At lunchtime Stiles came in with his wife and the pianist. I just remember thinking to myself, ‘There aren’t going to be any women around when I get the holy spirit.’ I was just watching and waiting. Lunch was kind of light talk—we talked about Oral Roberts, the Holy Spirit, lots of stuff. When we were done, I picked up the check, and then Stiles turned to his wife and said, ‘Honey, I’m going with V.P.’ She said something to him like, ‘How long will you be?’ And he said, ‘That’s none of your business.’ That was it, and my opinion of him as a man went up 99 percent. His stature increased in my eyes, just from the way he handled her.’

END

Thanks for reading,

Charlene Edge

Bio

Charlene grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in a Roman Catholic family. In college, students recruited her into The Way International, a Bible-based cult; she gave it the next seventeen years of her life.

After escaping The Way International™ headquarters in New Knoxville, Ohio, in 1987, she earned a BA in English Literature from Rollins College in Florida, graduating summa cum laude, and worked for more than a decade as a writer in the software industry.

She is a published short-short story writer, an award-winning poet, and a member of the Florida Writers Association, The Authors Guild, and the International Cultic Studies Association. Edge also serves on the FWA Speakers Bureau.

Charlene lives in Florida with her husband, Dr. Hoyt L. Edge, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Rollins College.

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