One of the first things a new Word of Fellowship (WOFF) member learns is how important it is to cut-off contact and ties with those who “don’t walk in God’s ways” or “do not have the fear of God (god)”. This includes not only co-workers or friends outside the church, but family and relatives that are not in WOFF. These relatives could be neutral on Jane Whaley or be against Jane Whaley, it does not matter. If they are not walking in the Truth that Jane preaches/teaches then they are not worthy of your fellowship or company. This includes family during the holidays or birthdays or any other special family gathering times. Why? Of course, Jane Whaley does not allow her members to celebrate holidays. This is not new information to anyone who is familiar at all with WOFF.
As mentioned previously, I went along with the no holiday practices of WOFF. I did not go visit my family for years on any holiday. Now, I see the practice accomplished more than just keeping “WOFFers from sinning”. (Did it really accomplish that?) Keeping WOFF members from contact with family may have been spiritualized as necessary to “protect the gift of God in you” or keep you from the “common ground” that still exists in you and them. See the post about common ground here… http://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=2356 . The post “What is Common Ground?” serves as an introduction to this post. I explain the term “spiritual parents” in that post. The concept was a growing one at WOFF. It sounded so spiritual to follow others and set-aside your natural parents that may not be “in the things of God” and “flowing with the revelation” that God had given Jane. But, really it served to cut you off and substitute Jane Whaley and other WOFF leaders as your family. Many faithful adult members would go further than using the term “spiritual parents” for Jane and Sam. Some would call Jane – Mother Jane and Sam- Father Sam. Many children had begun calling Jane – Grandma Jane by the time I left. Is WOFF the first group where this practice is found? Where else can this phenomenon be found?
From the book – “Raven”, by Tim Reiterman which Reiterman co-authored with John Jacobs (copyright ©1982 Tim Reiterman, Introduction copyright 2008 by Tim Reiterman, ISBN 978-1-58542-678-2); we find his reference to Father Divine and Mother Divine of the Peace Mission. (see link here about Father Divine and his group.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Divine ) The interactions of Jim Jones with this Father Divine will be discussed later in another post. Sufficient to mention here that after the attempts of Jones to take over the Peace Mission group under Mother Divine on 1971 and again in 1972, Jones did convince about a dozen Peace Mission members to join People Temple. “To make them feel welcome, he had the Temple choir learn Peace Mission songs, with appropriate substitutions of his name for Divine’s. And he had his followers call him “Father” and Marceline (his wife) “Mother”. (page 141) What purpose did this serve besides making previous Peace Mission members feel welcome? This served as an outward sign of the inward commitment and allegiance Jones required of his members. Does Jane require the same? Would former members like to comment here?
A reference to the family a person is born into is termed as “family of origin”. We get many aspects of our personality, outlook, values and demeanor from the family in which we spend our formative years. There is much more material to research and bring out in later posts about this term and the theories of its impact in a person’s life. For this post, let us just acknowledge the obvious and the compelling. It should be obvious that when a person joins a group such as WOFF or People’s Temple or Peace Mission; there was/is a struggle to obtain the full commitment and loyalty of that new member. If the “family of origin” still held sway and either direct or indirect influence over that new member, the leader, Jane Whaley, had competition for that person’s attention and very soul. In reality, there would be competition also for that person’s finances. In my opinion, Jane Whaley made/makes purposeful, planned steps to obtain the total commitment of her members. The compelling evidence shows that for many, this effort includes causing members to set aside and/or shun the influence, fellowship and counsel of immediate family members in order to put the unwavering trust and faith in Jane and her “gift”. The compelling evidence would include calling her Mother Jane and Grandma Jane. Whether this change in WOFF life was purposeful and plotted and planned it matters not, the effects have been the same regardless of the admitted motive.
Also, the effects I have witnessed when members made the switch from the natural parents’ influence to the spiritual parents influence of Jane and Sam or others in WOFF leadership, included a deepening of commitment and the increased perception of importance of Mother Jane. Dependence on guidance from Mother Jane became an inordinate importance in a member’s life. Critical thinking that may have existed seemed to wane and was replaced with hours of groping for the counsel of Mother Jane. This groping for Mother Jane consumed folks instead of them seeking a deeper relationship with God, personally. A person I was very close to while inside WOFF said MANY times that GS and LS (leaders at WOFF that came from Greenville) were more parents to them than their own natural parents. This person would spend hours on the phone and in person asking GS and LS what they were “hearing from God” about their situation or question of the day. Sometimes the counsel would come right away, other times; it would come after that couple spoke to Mother Jane for that person. This all could have changed and this person could be going directly to their Mother Jane, I don’t know for sure. Admittedly, while in WOFF, I would ask GS and/or LS questions for direction, but, I NEVER considered them spiritual parents with greater influence or authority that replaced my natural parents.
Another consequence of this resetting from natural parents to “spiritual parents” is the ability of the spiritual parents to redefine the parameters of the relationship. What is meant by that? Consider these possibilities. The natural set of parents or siblings making up the family of origin may or may not have spiritual or religious influence over the members in the family of origin. The level of overt religious input may vary and may be heeded or may not. If it not heeded, this usually does not change the participation in the family. The underlying habits and values may be taken either knowingly or unknowingly. All of those variables change from one person/family to another.
However, in the all consuming, controlling environment such as WOFF where the rules that members are required to keep affect MANY different areas of a person’s life, how easy would it be to capture the minds and hearts of the extremely faithful members who see Jane or some other leader, as their spiritual mother or spiritual father? Add the outward rules of conduct originating with Jane to her claim that she can also determine if a person is in sin or right with God or fulfills the call of God or makes it to heaven or slides into hell and the full effect of the WOFF environment begins to come into focus. What happened when a person rejected the counsel of Mother Jane? We have discussed that before.
How often would a mother or father in the natural family of origin claim the “gift” of knowing their children’s spiritual destiny or where they were to work, live or who they were to marry, when they should have relations with their spouse or when to have children and how many children to have—and, and, and… If those parents in the family of origin claimed that level of influence, would that be considered healthy or normal? In contrast, Mother Jane does claim that power and influence over the WOFF faithful. As a result of this redefined spiritual parent /child relationship, WOFF members go step by step, day by day into WOFF and give up more and more of their own decision making prerogative, the tentacles of Jane Whaley’s control continue to surround and suffocate the real person from the life they were meant to have. Members eventually fade as cogs into the machine of WOFFness built by Jane Whaley. “Leaving the nest” in Mother Jane’s family is not in her plan. In Mother Jane’s plan, everyone stays and obeys. Why is that? Mother Jane claims to hear God for ALL areas of life for her spiritual children. Does that sound like a healthy place to live? Does that sound like a formula for helping folks to grow or for bondage? Does Mother Jane “hear God” perfectly every time in every situation? While I was there, it appeared as if Jane thought she did hear God perfectly every time. Why? Because she became upset when folks did not ask her about every decision of any consequence in the church or the lives of church members. It became an understood foundational principle of WOFF- clear everything through Mother Jane or risk a rebuke or worse.
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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. ) Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 217.