Charlene Lamy Edge Speaks about The Way International

Photo of Charlene L. Edge, 2022, at Rollins College. Winter Park, FL. Photo by Hoyt L. Edge, PhD. Greetings, readers. The following essay is about love. I post it here because it conveys some things about how my experiences in The Way affected me. I wrote it in 1990. Maybe its value to you, readers, is that it shows what happened to me soon AFTER I escaped the cult in 1987. I haven't posted much about that, about how I "deprogrammed" myself from Victor Paul Wierwille's cult. Note : I do not use AI to compose anything I write.  About Love: A Conversation In December 1990, I was on the verge of divorce. Despite unimaginable stress at home, for a college class final project, I managed to write about the assigned topic: love. That collapsing marriage, my first one, was to a man I met in the fundamentalist cult, The Way, when I was eighteen and he was twenty. Our cult-saturated union ended in April 1991 when I was 39 years old. Divorce wasn’t easy, like most people t...

THe following Endorsements are found in the front pages of the book, Undertow . Praise for Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International “In  Undertow,  Charlene Edge has written a brilliant and engrossing warning to the future by dissecting the past. There are really two books here: one is on a cult called The Way (one of the largest fundamentalist cults in America with about 40,000 followers [in its heyday]). The second book is an examination of the dynamics of all personality, religious, and political cults. By looking (from a heart-wrenching insider’s point of view) at a misuse of power in one specific group, Edge has written a book that unpacks a far greater truth. What she exposes to bright liberating daylight is just how our political and religious worlds actually function based on the mesmerizing enticement of belonging to an in-group. This is a brilliantly written and timely warning against falling into the tr...

First, a few words about Undertow If you’re not acquainted with my story in Undertow , here’s a section from the Preface of my book: In its heyday in the 1980s, The Way International was one of the largest fundamentalist cults in America, with about forty thousand followers worldwide. 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. Former Way devotees endorse Underto...

Fundamentalism , by James Barr, is a book that helped educate Charlene concerning Victor Paul Wierwille's claim of inerrancy of Scriptures and other aspects of Christian Fundamentalism. Greetings, readers! Today, let's flash back to a few of my posts about Christian fundamentalism. I wrote about Christian fundamentalism... ...because The Way International, the Bible-based cult I spent 17 years in, fits into that category of religious ideology. How's that?  Belief in inerrancy makes The Way a fundamentalist sect The main reason The Way is a fundamentalist organization/sect/cult is that The Way's founder, Victor Paul Wierwille (1916-1985) promoted the claim that "the Bible" is inerrant. Which Bible? He didn't say, other than "the original Scriptures," which were lost or destroyed eons ago. What's inerrancy?  It means that Scripture in "the Bible" is without error or contradiction. In other words: "it" is perfect. Why must th...

Welcome to the continuing celebration of Undertow's upcoming 10th birthday. If you've read the book, I want to say thank you for your support of my memoir—a story that, for one thing, shows how good intentions can go so very wrong. I foreshadow this at the end of the first chapter, "In the beginning, I only wanted to know, love, and serve God and understand the Bible. What harm could that possibly bring?" Thankfully, Undertow has a relatively happy ending, but believe me, that's not the case for many other people who escape from cults. From reader feedback, I know Undertow is a source of healing for other former cult followers. I also know it's a resource for outsiders. It shows how vulnerable seekers can get hooked on false promises, claims that prove detrimental to the quality of people's lives. A stellar review of Undertow In 2017, Undertow was independently reviewed by a professional at Kirkus Reviews. If you haven't heard of Kirkus, Wikipedia...