Category Archives: Criteria for Cults

What critieria should one use to determine if a group is a cult?

She has no self awareness….

As with many posts written previously for this blog, I begin this one in the early morning hours. It has been a long work day, but the drive and need to write the thoughts from today lead me to yet again delay reasonable sleep time and explore the musings over a series of thoughts and observations from earlier on Wednesday. I won’t pretend to be able to completely cover the scope of the subject which is introduced here. My hopes are to write until some more answers come and hopefully spark some more interest and understanding in those who read this post.

Wednesday afternoon, a coworker and I were tactfully going over the observations she had about another one who works on the team. This following statement was not intended to be harmful; I felt as if the person who made it was trying to explain their difficulties with the other person in hopes of finding more patience in dealing with them. She said the person “has no self-awareness.” Honestly, I don’t interact with the person in question enough to be qualified to make such an observation. My hours are only part-time whereas the person talking worked with the young person in question much more than I. I simply listened and as with certain statements made to me or around me during the day, I registered them somewhere in my conscious or sub consciousness. This scenario landed in the consider later stack.

Continue reading She has no self awareness….

When is life made cheap? (video)

As I sit here at a very late hour, relaxing after a long day of domestic tasks, I am looking forward with bitter sweet anticipation of sharing with you the questions and insights that this past week held for me. Not every week is like this past one. Many slide by with no events to note. This week however was different. Rarely do I see such a week coming, but these last few days have been filled with serious reflections and new insights. Let me explain.

During these last few days, I have had a few opportunities to talk to Bryan Bullock, the latest survivor from Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). I have been able to ask him several questions and have not been surprised at many of the answers. At some point, I asked him if he ever witnessed people being slapped inside WOFF. He said – yes, in prayer. He went on to share other things that we may review later. But, the main question I had was if he could again confirm the physical abuses inside WOFF. Some he had seen himself, some he had not. The understanding that physical abuses continue inside WOFF did not surprise me – it just concerns me deeply every time it is affirmed.

Continue reading When is life made cheap? (video)

Grace Stoen: “what would be very shocking…became very common place…” (videos)

Over the last few years, I have talked to different survivors from Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). The first reports I heard which contained information about physical abuse and beatings were a surprise to me. During my time there, I was never physically abused myself. Now, I was screamed at by Jane Whaley and other leadership, I was publically called out for infractions of unwritten rules. I was shunned by family and friends; I had times of segregation from others in the group. I saw others held down during prayer circles and a few corralled by a group of members and kept from running away after they made it outside. I overheard hard spankings by parents of children. But, adults abusing other adults by physically slapping, punching, kicking and beating- I never saw personally at WOFF. When I first heard the stories, I wanted to ignore and not believe it. Then I realized that that tendency is what kept me inside that group so long in the first place! We must tell the truth and face the ugly facts about life inside WOFF!

Now, the list of survivors telling stories of abuse is growing and the abuses seem to be worsening. We have previously exposed some of the details on this blog. Also recently, I viewed a documentary on Youtube® about survivors of Peoples Temple. It was done in 1979 by NBC, Inc. I cannot be sure if the entire documentary has been posted. I found three parts and will include them in this post. There was one survivor that explained two very important characteristics of Peoples Temple which have occurred at WOFF. In this post we will share those insights which I believe help explain why things evolved as they have at WOFF.

Continue reading Grace Stoen: “what would be very shocking…became very common place…” (videos)

Another Exit Drama – December 2013

Earlier this week, I received a call about a man who had left Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). After a couple of more phone calls, I agreed to meet him and hear his story. The following is not a comprehensive narrative but a short version of what would take several posts to cover. To no one’s surprise, EVERY survivor of WOFF has a unique and often heart wrenching story of emotional upheaval, confusion and heartache. This man’s story is no different-sorta.

The survivor’s name is Bryan Bullock. During his stay in a local prison, he had contact with other churches in the area. While inside, he had heard some negative things about WOFF over an incident with a Christmas tree. While WOFF members were visiting the prison for a time of ministry, an inmate plugged in the Christmas tree lights in the same room as the gathering. An unidentified WOFF member promptly unplugged the tree and said “We don’t celebrate Christmas.” That event stuck with Bryan, but who considers Christmas traditions in early spring?

Continue reading Another Exit Drama – December 2013

The Life-Changing Moment(s)

A few days ago, a blog reader shared a link to another blog with me. This particular blog was new to me; however, the person writing it had left a group/movement of which I was familiar. The movement was patriarchal based as opposed to Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) which is a matriarchal based structure.  In recent days, the posts on the blog—“Under Much Grace” have captivated me attention. About the time I was introduced to these posts, I had outlined struggles which face those inside of WOFF in a rough draft of a post. In my musings, I began to outline the inward struggles of a faithful WOFF member who has begun to doubt the foundational beliefs of the group or the supremacy of the leader’s gift.

From my notes: The Jane-vow

When WOFF members struggle with leaving — they have a choice; will they privately and publicly deny the one foundational belief inside the group that Jane is the only one who can “speak for God”? Once that unwritten, yet sacred, foundation is denied by members then the “benefits” of association with WOFF– are GONE. These benefits may include camaraderie, protection, provision, fellowship and “friendship.” Breaking fellowship or shunning present members can come by one merely expressing a desire to leave. By doing so, you are in danger of or have already disavowed the one and only reason the group exists- the edification and support of Jane Whaley- the Jane-vow.

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35 Years Later, Jim Jones Cult Leaves Lessons for Believers – Charisma News

Wow! This part of the Charisma® group got one right! A Google Alert® brought the notice of this article to my inbox Friday evening. The article was written by A. James Rudin/RNS and was posted on the “Opinion” page at 8:00AM EST 11/15/2013. The link for the entire article is here. I am unfamiliar with the author but at the end there is information about one his other works –  “A. James Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the co-author with Marcia Rudin of “Prison or Paradise: The New Religious Cults.” That book sounds interesting.

Recently, I mentioned to a blog reader that I planned to do a post about Jonestown and sent links to two previous posts from a few years ago. They said to be sure and include the links for others to read. We have made comparisons between Jim Jones and Jane Whaley before and we will again as we review further the material in “Raven” by Tim Reiterman with John Jacobs (copyright ©1982 Tim Reiterman, Introduction copyright 2008 by Tim Reiterman, ISBN 978-1-58542-678-2); the authors tell “The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People”. For now I will include the two links and then continue the review of this article.

More From “The Raven”      and              More From The “Raven” (2)

Continue reading 35 Years Later, Jim Jones Cult Leaves Lessons for Believers – Charisma News

The Question: How does Jane Whaley control her members of Word of Faith Fellowship? (2)

This is the next installment seeking to answer the question of how Jane Whaley controls the members of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). The first post only covered two parts of the answer. There are several parts to the answer to the ever resounding question. Here is the summary from the first post…

From Phillips’ work, we learn that many people have and will confuse the voice of their conscience with the voice of God. He says that the conscience is not a reliable source of guidance because even though some would argue it is our final moral guide; the conscience can be trained with wrong perspectives from our environment and/or the people around us from whom we take counsel. In our desperation for answers to life’s important issues, we often seek answers from our peers or ones we respect. In my opinion, Jane Whaley’s narcissism colors her perspectives and when seekers come to her, the counsel given is ultimately oriented to serve her and the voice of her conscience which she claims is the voice of God Himself.

In essence, Jane commandeers and seeks to supersede the ability of her faithful members to hear the voice of their conscience and/or if we may say- the voice of God speaking to them individually. Her position of super-spiritual authority demands that her faithful members relinquish the right to assert that they can or have heard the direction for their life independent of her required input or approval. The culmination of this process is more gradual for some than others. For those recruited into the group, the process of surrender to Jane may come in small steps of surrender masked or euphemistically labeled as surrender to the will of God. At any point along the journey, a new recruit may stop to consider the outcome of denying Jane the control she requires and demands, but, the consequences of refusal would be severe and will be the source of major emotional trauma and damage. Refusing Jane her control over you may cost your job, your home, your family and years of lost enjoyment of life.

Continue reading The Question: How does Jane Whaley control her members of Word of Faith Fellowship? (2)