Charlene Lamy Edge in The Way's Rock of Ages 1972 film

Today is the 53rd anniversary of my graduation from The Way Corps leadership program, 1971-1973. I'm distressed beyond belief that The Way is still in business and continues to operate that program of undue influence and propaganda indoctrination. 

If you've read my memoir, Undertow, you know that my 17-year experience in The Way eventually revealed itself as a career in a fundamentalist cult where I was psychologically manipulated and deceived by the cult leader, Victor Paul Wierwille, who turned out to be a deceitful plagiarist and abhorrent sexual predator.

This time of the year reminds me of that "graduation" and the annual Way festival held in August called The Rock of Ages (ROA) that Wierwille used to gain more committed believers for his organization. In 1972, a film was made of that festival and included appearances of Way Corps members. I was one of them.

In those days, The Way's founder, Victor Paul Wierwille, trained the Way Corps himself. I was in the Second Corps group of 10 men, and 9 other women. We lived in trailers for two years at Way headquarters just outside New Knoxville, Ohio. This was the old 147-acre Wierwille family farm where Wierwille and his family lived, staff members were housed, and Way Corps trainees worked and studied and obeyed Wierwille, their "father in The Word." What could possibly go wrong?

Read my memoir Undertow and find out.

Charlene Lamy (later Edge) appears in the Rock of Ages '72 film

The ROA film was made by a professional filmmaker, Bud Morgan. He produced it in 1972 when he paid a visit to Way headquarters to film the annual music and Bible teaching festival.

On the film, you see young people arriving at the Rock of Ages, held that year on the Shelby County fairgrounds near Way headquarters in Ohio. You see and hear Wierwille teaching the Bible, several music groups on stage, and voice-overs of Way Corps members' testimonies praising Wierwille's teachings that we called "The Word." These testimonies narrate scenes of those of us in The Way Corps jogging down Wierwille Road one morning. We did that to fulfill one of the Way Corps Principles: "Physical training making your physical body, the vehicle of communication of The Word, as vital as possible."

That group-jogging scene is near the beginning of the film. When you get to the time 10:43, 44, 45, the group of us appears. I'm wearing my gray sweatsuit and run alongside a 2nd Corps guy who I ended up marrying in August 1973. Our story is featured in Undertow. We were leaders for Wierwille in California and Florida and worked at Way Headquarters 1984-1987. 

That's when I worked on the Biblical Research Team and saw firsthand how Wierwille twisted Scripture to mean what he wanted it to mean. I also saw firsthand that he copied other men's books and gave them no credit where credit was due. That's called plagiarism. Things went haywire for the organization after Wierwille died in 1985.

In 1987, my then-husband and I, with our young daughter, escaped from Way headquarters and moved to Florida. Like many marriages made within the Way, ours did not last. We divorced in 1991.

Here's the video. Rock of Ages 1972 - YouTube

What I think of that Way Corps principle today: The goal of physical training was to make us stronger, healthier, and more dynamic agents for selling Wierwille's propaganda. Everything we did was designed to make us useful to him and his agenda: "Move the Word over the world." 

The Word turned out to be Wierwille's interpretation of the Bible, much of which was plagiarized. In Undertow there's a few scenes about that.

For more info about Wierwille's plagiarism, check out my post: Victor Paul Wierwille & Plagiarism

Thanks for reading,

Charlene

P.S. I changed my last name to Edge when I married my second husband, Hoyt Edge, PhD, in 2002.

Note: I do not use AI for any of my content.

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