17 VOLUME 7 |ISSUE 2 |2016
Why I Had tO
Escape A
Fundamentalist Cult
By Charlene L. Edge
I was a born-again college freshman in 1970 when sincere
Christians recruited me into The Way International, founded
by Victor Paul Wierwille. He marketed his organization as a
biblical research, teaching, and fellowship ministry, but it was
a fundamentalist cult that grew to about 40,000 graduates of
Wierwille’s classes worldwide. I had only wanted to know, love,
and serve God and understand the Bible—what harm could that
bring? After 17 years in the cult, I realized some of the harm it had
brought me. The harm originated with Wierwille’s character—he
was a charismatic, authoritarian fundamentalist, a dangerous
mix—and his nonnegotiable belief in the inerrancy of Scripture,
for which he used fear to compel others to share. While working
at Way headquarters during 1984 to 1987, the final years of my
involvement, I awakened to the reality that Wierwille did not
teach “the accurate Word of God” as he’d claimed, nor was he the
man of God I had believed in. For my own well-being, I had to
escape.
How I Got in The Way
In college I was searching for more than a degree in English. I
wanted truth. At the time, college campuses around the United
States were coping with student demonstrations protesting
the Vietnam War. A protest at Kent State University in Ohio, a
few months before I entered college, had ended in tragedy. The
National Guard opened fire, killing four students and seriously
injuring nine. Outrage, confusion, and fear ensued. Concurrently,
an active Jesus movement in pockets around the nation attracted
young people seeking answers in a world gone mad. “Jesus
freaks” spread a message of love and peace and Bible reading.
The Way followers I met on the East Carolina University campus
were different. They said their group was a serious, organized,
nondenominational ministry doing significant biblical research.
It was a nonprofit organization that appealed to me. So did the
members’ friendliness and certainty about God’s Word having all
the answers for life.
About The Way International
Victor Paul Wierwille (1916–1985) started The Way in 1942. During
the late 1960s, the organization was tearing across America
thanks to hippies recruited in San Francisco, Kansas, and New
York, and college students in North Carolina systematically
spreading its message. The basic outreach tool used to promote
The Way was Wierwille’s 2-week Bible class “The Foundational
Class on Power for Abundant Living.” Wierwille taught what he
called special keys to unlock the true interpretation of the Bible,
“the accuracy of the Word.” He quoted Scripture verses to support
everything he said. He acted and sounded convincing.
My Initial Trauma
What made me vulnerable to The Way? I was raised in the Roman
Catholic faith. In 1968 when I was 16, my mother died of cancer.
Devastation overtook me, and I fell into a pit of grief. Infuriated
by my father’s Catholic platitudes of “God took your mother,” I
began to ask questions. “What kind of God takes away mothers?”
I needed her more on earth than God needed her in heaven! My
father grew distant, struggling to process his own grief. With my
older sister married and living far away and no other relatives
around, I felt lost, alone, and abandoned.
Growing up Catholic, I had taken for granted that the authority
on how to live for God and what to believe as true was partly the
Scriptures, but really the Pope and 2,000 years of tradition that
formed our esoteric rituals at Mass, and righteous attitudes, such
as believing Protestants were damned. Since it augmented the
Church fathers’ authority, I knew only a little Scripture. Instead
of the Bible, in Catholic school I internalized questions and
answers carved in the stone tablet of the Baltimore Catechism,
the standard tool for converting young minds to the doctrines of
the One True Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by St.
Peter. My parents were devout. So was I. Until my mother died.
A year after my mother’s death, a high-school girlfriend
introduced me to Young Life, an evangelical group for teens. I was
still grieving for my mother and also upset over a recent breakup
with my boyfriend. I was a vulnerable, ideal candidate. The kids in
the group seemed happy. They made me think Jesus could help
me. Someday I would understand why my mother died. I became
convinced that the Bible held answers to every problem and
every question. When my friend told me I was “born again,” I wept
and asked Jesus to be my Lord. My life began anew.
Encountering Protestant Fundamentalism
The Way followers I met in college took Young Life’s message and
behavior to the next level with Wierwille’s dogmatic Bible classes
and an agenda of influencing me to make one commitment after
another. Wierwille, they said, taught people how to have a more-
than-abundant life—only follow his teachings. I gobbled up
every word.
Why I Had tO
Escape A
Fundamentalist Cult
By Charlene L. Edge
I was a born-again college freshman in 1970 when sincere
Christians recruited me into The Way International, founded
by Victor Paul Wierwille. He marketed his organization as a
biblical research, teaching, and fellowship ministry, but it was
a fundamentalist cult that grew to about 40,000 graduates of
Wierwille’s classes worldwide. I had only wanted to know, love,
and serve God and understand the Bible—what harm could that
bring? After 17 years in the cult, I realized some of the harm it had
brought me. The harm originated with Wierwille’s character—he
was a charismatic, authoritarian fundamentalist, a dangerous
mix—and his nonnegotiable belief in the inerrancy of Scripture,
for which he used fear to compel others to share. While working
at Way headquarters during 1984 to 1987, the final years of my
involvement, I awakened to the reality that Wierwille did not
teach “the accurate Word of God” as he’d claimed, nor was he the
man of God I had believed in. For my own well-being, I had to
escape.
How I Got in The Way
In college I was searching for more than a degree in English. I
wanted truth. At the time, college campuses around the United
States were coping with student demonstrations protesting
the Vietnam War. A protest at Kent State University in Ohio, a
few months before I entered college, had ended in tragedy. The
National Guard opened fire, killing four students and seriously
injuring nine. Outrage, confusion, and fear ensued. Concurrently,
an active Jesus movement in pockets around the nation attracted
young people seeking answers in a world gone mad. “Jesus
freaks” spread a message of love and peace and Bible reading.
The Way followers I met on the East Carolina University campus
were different. They said their group was a serious, organized,
nondenominational ministry doing significant biblical research.
It was a nonprofit organization that appealed to me. So did the
members’ friendliness and certainty about God’s Word having all
the answers for life.
About The Way International
Victor Paul Wierwille (1916–1985) started The Way in 1942. During
the late 1960s, the organization was tearing across America
thanks to hippies recruited in San Francisco, Kansas, and New
York, and college students in North Carolina systematically
spreading its message. The basic outreach tool used to promote
The Way was Wierwille’s 2-week Bible class “The Foundational
Class on Power for Abundant Living.” Wierwille taught what he
called special keys to unlock the true interpretation of the Bible,
“the accuracy of the Word.” He quoted Scripture verses to support
everything he said. He acted and sounded convincing.
My Initial Trauma
What made me vulnerable to The Way? I was raised in the Roman
Catholic faith. In 1968 when I was 16, my mother died of cancer.
Devastation overtook me, and I fell into a pit of grief. Infuriated
by my father’s Catholic platitudes of “God took your mother,” I
began to ask questions. “What kind of God takes away mothers?”
I needed her more on earth than God needed her in heaven! My
father grew distant, struggling to process his own grief. With my
older sister married and living far away and no other relatives
around, I felt lost, alone, and abandoned.
Growing up Catholic, I had taken for granted that the authority
on how to live for God and what to believe as true was partly the
Scriptures, but really the Pope and 2,000 years of tradition that
formed our esoteric rituals at Mass, and righteous attitudes, such
as believing Protestants were damned. Since it augmented the
Church fathers’ authority, I knew only a little Scripture. Instead
of the Bible, in Catholic school I internalized questions and
answers carved in the stone tablet of the Baltimore Catechism,
the standard tool for converting young minds to the doctrines of
the One True Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by St.
Peter. My parents were devout. So was I. Until my mother died.
A year after my mother’s death, a high-school girlfriend
introduced me to Young Life, an evangelical group for teens. I was
still grieving for my mother and also upset over a recent breakup
with my boyfriend. I was a vulnerable, ideal candidate. The kids in
the group seemed happy. They made me think Jesus could help
me. Someday I would understand why my mother died. I became
convinced that the Bible held answers to every problem and
every question. When my friend told me I was “born again,” I wept
and asked Jesus to be my Lord. My life began anew.
Encountering Protestant Fundamentalism
The Way followers I met in college took Young Life’s message and
behavior to the next level with Wierwille’s dogmatic Bible classes
and an agenda of influencing me to make one commitment after
another. Wierwille, they said, taught people how to have a more-
than-abundant life—only follow his teachings. I gobbled up
every word.
