Writers, AI, and Self-Respect

Charlene pictured in a Winter Park, Florida, shop, with copies of her memoir, Undertow, on the shelf. 2017

Hello, readers. Today's post is included on this blog because it cites serious issues about The Way's founder, Victor Paul Wierwille, plagiarizing the work of other writers. I also published it on my other Blogspot blog about the writing life: Charlene Lamy Edge Speaks about Writing.

What about writers and self-respect?

Self-respect is connected to today's topic: writers and AI. Remember, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. I know, I know. This issue of AI is all over the map. Some believe it's helpful in certain fields, like those pertaining to science and math. But if you ask some of us who care about literature, you might get a different response. We say something like this: If you want artificial novels, plays, poems, memoirs and articles spit out by a machine, fine. But some of us don't.

We don't want literature like that, and we sure won't write it like that. We refuse to use AI to create literary works, book reviews, poems, essays or ANYTHING else. We don't view a book as a product, although of course it goes into the marketplace to be sold like one. But it shouldn't be MADE like one. Writing is mysterious. It comes from our hearts, our minds, our imaginations, our intuition, our subconscious that wakes us in the middle of the night with the perfect adjective we need for a character in a story. Our own life experiences inform our work, too. Writing done by a living, breathing human contributes to understanding the human condition, shared by one human with other humans.

In case you haven't guessed, I do not believe AI is a good tool for writers. Frankly, I think consigning our work to AI shows a disregard for the creative process that only humans can experience. There's more, but I'll stop now.

A kindred spirit's view of AI and writers

A kindred spirit on this topic turned up recently. He is Cal Revely-Calder, Literary Editor, The Telegraph, who wrote an article titled, In an AI age, writers should have some self-respect.

I read it and said YAY! Revely-Calder points out that writers using AI to do their work are actually lacking in self- respect. He argues that if your confidence in your ability to be a writer is so low that you resort to using a machine to do it, then stop and do something else. I think that's sound advice. And on a side note (maybe more of a main note) I'll tell you, this topic sets off a volcanic eruption in me. Here's why...

What AI did

In case you don't know, AI swept up a whole lot of content from dedicated writers whose work takes time, reflection, human intelligence, experience, careful planning, and more. AI has none of those qualities. It is ARTIFICIAL. It's like a stainless-steel holding tank with a nozzle that spews out data and information. Where did it get all that? It stole it from HUMANS. Unlike humans, AI has no ethical or moral aspects to it. As far as literature goes, AI has stolen and continues to steal content from people who worked hard to bring their writing into the world. In my experience with the field of words, that's called plagiarism. People who plagiarize (that means steal) lose their jobs, friends, and reputations when they're caught doing it. In my dreams, I see them paying fines and going to jail.

Why the AI issue is extra personal to me

This issue is deeply personal, not only because of the obvious—I am a writer and a writer who wrote a guidebook for the writing life—but also because the cult leader I followed/adored/obeyed for 17 years, Victor Paul Wierwille, turned out to be a certain kind of thief: a plagiarist. He stole content from other people's theological books and Bible classes and passed it off as his own. (See note 1.) He did not cite others; he did not include footnotes acknowledging where he got his information, he certainly never confessed he'd been a thief. 

He lamely said he "learned from others" or that God told him what to write and teach. That's it. Back in 1984-1986 when I discovered what he had done, I quit making excuses for Wierwille and got out of The Way's biblical research department as fast as I could. That story is in my memoir, Undertow.

Shamefully, leaders of The Way International™, which is still in business, have not, and most likely will never, admit Wierwille plagiarized anything, (see note 2.) despite evidence given by me and a few others. To admit that might put The Way out of business.

The Authors Guild educates and advocates

I'm a member of The Authors Guild, which offers many articles about AI and writers. Here's a quote from one, Artificial Intelligence - The Authors Guild.  "Artificial intelligence machines capable of generating text-based works pose a serious threat to the writing profession and to our literary culture. Generative technologies built illegally on vast amounts of copyrighted works without licenses—that is, without giving authors any compensation or control over the use of their works—are used to cheaply and easily produce works that compete with and displace human-authored books, journalism, and other works."

I'll close by again giving you the link to Cal Revely-Calder's wonderful, articulate, and concise article about AI and writers. Published on April 7, 2026:
 

Notes:

  1. Wierwille helped himself to E. W. Bullinger's books, such as How to Enjoy the Bible; stole content for a Bible class he named, Power for Abundant Living, taken from a class about gifts of the Holy Spirit by B. J. Leonard; copied a huge amount from a Holy Spirit book by Jack E. Stiles (I have a copy of Wierwille's book and Stiles's book, and there's no doubt about Wierwille's theft). 
  2. The Way's website gives this whitewashed bio of Wierwille: About the Founder - Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille
Thanks for reading!

Charlene

CHARLENE L. EDGE is the author of the award-winning memoir, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International. She spent 17 years (1970-1987) in The Way as a leader and Biblical researcher. After escaping the cult, she earned a B.A. in English from Rollins College and worked for more than a decade as a writer in the software industry.

A member of the Florida Writers Association, the Authors Guild, and the International Cultic Studies Association, Edge is also a prize-winning poet. She lives in Florida with her husband, Hoyt L. Edge, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy.

Her latest book is From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life (New Wings Press, LLC. 2022). Both books are sold online in paperback and eBook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.

Read about Charlene and her work: Profile - Charlene L. Edge - The Authors Guild

Comments

Post a Comment

Please keep comments respectful.

Popular posts from this blog

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

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...
Read more

What Did Victor Paul Wierwille Say About Women?

Image
UPDATE on 2/25/2026: I just received two copies of the re-published version of  The Way: Living in Love  by Elena Whiteside that I ordered from The Way last week. I wanted to see whether they changed any of the text in the original text of the book that shows VPW in a bad light. THEY DID. In the quotes from the original version of the book (I own) that I give below, I will now bold the wording that's been deleted in the re-published version that I just bought from The Way. Greetings, readers. This post will give you insights into attitudes Victor Paul Wierwille (1916 - 1985) founder of The Way International, had about women that were published in a book about The Way in 1972. Those attitudes are not flattering to women. They are written in black and white, making them irrefutable 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 ...
Read more