What The Way International REALLY Teaches

Hi readers,

Just for the record, I thought I'd post the following: a letter I sent to the St. Mary's Evening Leader newspaper 15 years ago. That's the major Ohio newspaper, in St. Mary's, OH, near to The Way International headquarters which is on Wierwille's old family farm outside The Village of New Knoxville, OH. I didn't expect a reply from the newspaper, and I didn't get one, but I sure felt good about telling them my thoughts. I still feel good about that.

FYI, I've updated the link to The Way's current website.

Letter to the Editor submitted online

October 17, 2011

In the spirit of the current “Occupy Wall Street” movement, I propose a similar movement called “Occupy The Way International” (TWI).

I am writing to your paper because TWI, founded by Victor Paul Wierwille (1916 – 1985) is located outside New Knoxville, Ohio, a town within your newspaper’s reporting jurisdiction. Since I live too far away to occupy Wierwille Road, the street in front of The Way’s headquarters, I am writing to raise awareness about one major way this group misrepresents itself and consequently misleads many people like it did me.

The Way promotes itself as a Biblical research, teaching, and fellowship ministry. I was in the group, which is a cult, from 1970 – 1987. During my involvement, I worked in its Biblical Research Department and became very familiar with Wierwille’s and other leaders’ methods of conducting so-called Biblical research. Today, The Way still claims to teach the Bible “accurately,” and charges money for classes to “help people find the accuracy of the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts,” as stated on the research page of its web site, Research - The Way International.

They don’t teach any such thing. They never did. What they do teach are Wierwille’s interpretations and theology that he regularly plagiarized from others including: J.E. Stiles, B. G. Leonard, George Lamsa, and E.W. Bullinger, to name a few. He also misrepresented the Biblical texts, twisting them to read as he wished. TWI continues to promote Wierwille-based propaganda as “The Word.”

Documentation on this and other topics pertaining to The Way is available from many sources, including Karl Kahler’s book, The Cult That Snapped, Kris Skedgell’s book, Losing The Way, and extensive articles by John P. Juedes.

If I were to march down Wierwille Road to “Occupy TWI,” my cardboard sign would read:

Down with deceivers like TWI leaders

Boycott TWI propaganda

 If you need a hardcopy of this with an original signature, I’ll be happy to send one.

 Respectfully yours,

 Charlene Lamy Edge

[I included my address and phone number here.]

---End---

NOTE: As of 2017, more documentation can be found in my own memoir, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International. (New Wings Press, LLC. 2017). Available in eBook and paperback at major booksellers.

Thanks for reading!

Charlene

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 in 1994 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.

Photo by Charlene Edge of entrance to The Way. 1982. On the left is a one-story building they call the Biblical Research Center. I was trained there in The Way Corps program, 1971-1973.



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