Charlene Lamy Edge Speaks about The Way International

  The following was written by me when I was known as Charlene Lamy at  Valencia Community College (in Orlando, FL) in  1988 for a creative writing class assignment that required us to do research on something personal to us. Research was to include information from interviews and also citations from published materials.  A bibliography is included at the end of the essay. I married in 2002 and changed my name to Charlene L. Edge.   Note: I do not use AI to produce content.  From Fundamentalism to Freedom by Charlene L. Edge From 1970 until 1987 I was involved with a fundamentalist Christian group known as The Way International Biblical Research and Teaching ministry.   One important point that its founder, Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, taught was that the United States was a Christian nation founded on the Bible.   In 1985, questions I began to ask concerning how we got the Bible, how translations are produced, and the history of early Ch...

I say yes. First, let's consider this definition from  Christian nationalism | Definition, History, United States, & Facts | Britannica : "Christian nationalism ,  ideology  that seeks to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian  religion  with a nation’s character. Advocates of Christian  nationalism  consider their view of  Christianity  to be an  integral  part of their  country’s  identity and want the government to promote—or even enforce—the religion’s position within it."     I was a leader and biblical researcher in The Way International for 17 years before I escaped in 1987. In my experience with The Way, it was clear Victor Paul Wierwille, its founder, believed the U.S.A. was created to be a Christian nation and Wierwille's bible-based-ministry's goal was to bring this country back to God's Word (which was, in actuality, Wierwille's mostly-stolen bible teachings and personal op...

Photo by Eduardo Wall. The City of Los Angeles, California.  Launched in L.A.: The Campaign of Christian Fundamentalism When I began writing my memoir,  Undertow , I wanted to bring to the foreground the fundamentalist aspect of the group I was in, The Way International. Why? Is something wrong with fundamentalism? I say “yes.” My story shows serious drawbacks in the fundamentalist approach to Scripture and its detrimental effects on adherents. Note:  Strangely, some ex-Way followers have argued that The Way International is not fundamentalist, but rather a destructive cult that promotes a patchwork of plagiarized teachings that Victor Paul Wierwille (1916 – 1985) put together.  I agree that Wierwille did conduct a cult, and was a controlling cult leader, but I’m here to say that The Way is ALSO fundamentalist. Why: Because of Victor Paul Wierwille's non-negotiable belief in  inerrancy  of the Scriptures. He founded The Way...

Former Religious Right Leader Endorses Undertow by Charlene L. Edge Greetings, readers. I'm honored that my cult memoir is endorsed by Frank Schaeffer. If you have a copy of my memoir, Undertow , you'll see his blurb on the front cover and a longer version of it inside. In brief, Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times bestselling author, an artist, and, among other things, the son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer, Christian evangelicals, who in the 1960s, helped found what's known as the Religious Right. Keep reading to learn more. But first, the endorsement. Frank Schaeffer Endorses Undertow “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 cu...