Recently, a lunch meeting with a couple of new friends produced some very interesting information. There were three of us eating at a local restaurant. One fellow holds a management job at a local company. I had spent time with him, previously. The other fellow is preparing to go overseas with his family as a missionary. He and I had never met. There were the introductions and we began to find out about each other. As questions and answers began to come; the fellow preparing for the mission field mentioned he had come out a legalistic church. I did not miss the door and made mention I had experience like that, also. From there the conversation took off.

     The newest friend was a survivor of the Worldwide Church of God. He was a local fellow that had grown up in the county. He and his wife had attended the church-sponsored college and left the group in 1995. Though he had grown up in the county just north of Rutherford county, he was unaware of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) and Jane or Sam Whaley. We discussed some of the reasons he may not know of them.  I began to explain a brief history of WOFF. WOFF started in 1979(?), but being so involved in his world may not have allowed him to find out about other groups. Plus, many members of WOFF are from out of the area. As a percentage, most WOFF members are not “home grown”.

     Here is where the fellow that works in management said he had spoken recently to a friend that had left WOFF in the late 80’s. Much of what that WOFF survivor remembered was the “blasting” and loud prayer. (that is another post in the making..)

     The survivor of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) mentioned that “Inside Edition” had come and researched their group. That had happened to WOFF, also. It sounded like around the same time period. He mentioned that the State of California had come into the group and put them in receivership to investigate mis-handling of funds. Later, the State had to admit they had crossed the legal boundary even though there were wrong-doings in the group. The WCG survived for a time. The son of the leader took over. His personal desires for money, liquor and wrong sexual relationships did not reflect well on the church. Eventually, according to the survivor, “The hand of God came down and splintered the group into over 300 groups. Before that, they had over 80,000 members all over the world.”

     As I mentioned things that had gone on at WOFF, such as the list of 145 “don’ts” that was not complete; (see list here.http://tiny.cc/rfeBp ). the WCG survivor said, ” WCG was not that controlling.” Can you believe it? When I mentioned the “Toilet Paper Revelation”, (see post here. http://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=243  ). he sat back in shock. I mentioned other restraints and “don’ts” and he again confirmed his original statement.

     We agreed on several points. Many survivors have anger when they leave a cult group. Some deal with it well , while others allow it to poison them and even drive them to destructive personal habits. Some deny their belief in God or any type of religion all together. This is very sad. We also agreed that leaving a controlling group can be a direct rejection of the message and the methods while you still respect and love the members. He mentioned he still has relationship with others that had been in the WCG though he had been out since 1995. I did agree that rejecting the group does not mean rejecting the all of the people and relationships. He said that a book his wife read several years ago about cult survival, mentioned it can take eight to ten years to fully recover from cult membership. He agreed now, though at first he did not think so.

     The time spent with these men was a blessing to me. It was good to talk to someone who had grown up in a cult, survived and not lost their hunger for God. We both agreed that seeking God after a cult membership was critical to full recovery. I look forward to more time with these new friends.

     Below are links to some more information about WCG.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_College  – college info

http://www.wcg.org/ – Website for re-organized Worlwide Church of God.

http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/w/wcog/#news   – fact sheet from Steven Hassan

    Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. It could very well save their life. There are readers at WOFF. I hope this is a help to them.

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      (Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, the information about WOFF is from my memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be. )