Tag Archives: Information control

Behavior Control, Criteria for Cults, Information control, Uncategorized

WOFF Contradictions – Part 2

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      As we continue with the contradictions witnessed at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF), I will again state that I will not pretend to know each one or the depth of the contradictions or ironies that are present at WOFF. These statements are my opinions. Some contradictions are obvious and some need to be explained. While attending WOFF, I did not seek to understand or note these contradictions. If one happened across my path, I would excuse it or set it aside. Do the former members agree or disagree? Was I the only one who sought to keep as many as possible of the contradicting facts – in check?

     After all, dodging or hiding from “truth” can be a full-time job when you are inside such a controlling group as WOFF. Consider- does it take pages and pages of scripture references to validate a doctrine or practice? Is this an attempt to justify practices the Holy Spirit does not bear witness to, inside of other believers? Either a practice or doctrine serves the purpose of God or it does not? If that practice does not serve God’s purpose – what or whose purpose does it, serve?

    To WOFF members, the voice of truth could be coming as that little voice on the inside of your heart or as the blare of a fog horn resounding in circumstances and events too glaring to ignore! However the prompting comes concerning WOFF – listen. Do not spend years ignoring what seems obvious to some and hard to grasp for others. I denied the questions and spent years in the blinding fog bank, drifting in the group known as Word of Faith Fellowship.  

Continue reading WOFF Contradictions – Part 2 →

Behavior Control, Uncategorized, WOFF and Money Issues

Jane Whaley makes $600 a month (sorta)

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     One service the subject came up and Jane Whaley shared how much she gets paid a month. She said she gets a check for $600 a month. From that $600, she gives Sam $200. Sam volunteered at that point that he “squirrels away” his $200 for a future time. Sam is also a licensed used car dealer. He buys cars for those in the congregation and makes “about $500 a car”. ( If you buy a car from somewhere else, you are paying too much! says Jane.)

    The impression given was that the $600 a month was Jane’s total compensation. The problem with that is vast. Everyone in that service had been to her house on 40 + acres. We remember her saying that she and Sam had taken out mortgages every property possible including their home, to pay attorney bills. Everyone had heard about the shopping trips in NC and also to Atlanta for the dresses and jewelry she had to buy. Many there heard her say at another time, “If all my clothes were laid out, it would cover 2 city blocks!”. We knew she had a cell phone, television and a pool at her house. Just a quick look at her lifestyle would cause anyone to wonder how she makes it on $400 a month?  So, is it reasonable to think that the “church” pays for her house, cars, cell phone, new clothes, trips out of town and other things. But, why would we not know for sure?

     Last January, I attended a church in McDowell county. That Sunday, they were handing out the Annual Report from the previous year! This report outlined  offerings received and expenditures made during 2008. It was a pleasant shock for me as a visitor to be given this report. Why? Because in my 10 years in Greenville and 6 years at WOFF, there was NEVER a report issued to the members as to the amount of offerings received and expenses paid. After attending seminars and services for a total of 16 years at WOFF, I had no idea how much was received and where it went. Did others know? Well, maybe a handful of folks, like the Board may have known. Someone said (I do not remember if Jane or Sam) in one service that the church needed $20,000 a week to meet the bills. That makes over one million dollars a year brought in, if the “budget” is met. Would it not be reasonable to openly account for a million dollars of revenue to the people who gave it?  

      Did the Greenville church or WOFF –  EVER issue any written information to the members about where the money was spent? No, not that I ever remember. There were always pleas for more money. I have been in services where the offering plates were passed four times. Maybe one offering would be for tickets for Jane’s pending trip or some other “special need”. The other times the plates were passed, Sam or the lady in the office who “balanced Jane’s personal checkbook”, would say “pass them until we get it…”  Many times, we would all have to wait until the offering was counted to see if we were dismissed or if the plates needed to be passed , AGAIN! That rang hollow when there was no open accounting. We were told many times that the CPA for the church “said we were more than above board in the use of the ministry money.” Really? He also was getting paid to perform a service. Why not let the folks know where their “tithes and offerings” were being spent?

     In the beginning years, both pastors of each church, Greenville and WOFF; claimed to not know who tithed. However, by the end of my tenure, that changed. Jane would say she looked at the offering records and “knew who tithed and who did not”.. She then offered a disclaimer- “I know when you are tithing by seeing if it (the amount) is consistent. If it is not, then you are not tithing.” Wow, people on bonuses or commissions were in a tight place… they were certainly assumed as “non-tithers..”  Of course, it was preached tax refunds were a blessing that you needed to give tithes and offerings from to the church.

      Sam would get up to receive offerings and make it plain: “If you are not being blessed financially, you are not tithing.” A person’s faith was called into question if they were not “blessed financially”.  At some services, people would get up to testify about “how God was blessing them financially”. There was almost always funds raising projects for one cause or another. Certain individuals would accept the task of keeping the find raising projects coming for the school of other needs, yard sales, car washes, bake sales, make-up sales, picture sales, fruit sales and more.

     Here is a link to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. This is how churches who want to be open with finances report and disclose to their members… http://www.ecfa.org/Content/7Standards.aspx

     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.

      (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. )

FLDS vs WOFF, Information control, Uncategorized

Information Control – Magazines -part 5 (cont.)

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      Information control is a mind control technique in several groups across America. We have been comparing and contrasting two groups in particular, FLDS and WOFF. We have listed several areas that are similar in both groups. Here is the experience of one fellow in WOFF showing his appetite for magazines and the consequences he faced.

      When folks would not show-up for services, you would be careful to not make open conversation about it. Jane finally set the record straight and said “if you want to know where someone is- then come ask me”! She was the one responsible for whether someone was “in or out”, so go to the source!

      She often times would just start sharing in a service where certain folks had “given over to devils” and been “put out of the church to find a place of repentance.” One day, she explained about a man who worked for a church member-owned construction company that had an on going project at the local hospital. This fellow had not been in services for a while. He and his family had talked to us several times and spent time with us but, we had not ventured to ask.

      Jane went on to tell how he had been “caught” looking at magazines on the job at the hospital. “He was so engrossed, he did not even notice so and so, (the Holocaust class teacher, practicing her craft..) standing behind him- watching.” She had passed on the incident to Jane and he eventually was fired from the job. He had set a bad example and “attacked the testimony of Jane and WOFF” by doing such an evil thing on the job at the LOCAL hospital. He had a family to support, so he found work at a local plant and worked there for a few years until he “found a place of repentance” for himself. He later returned to the former construction company and was allowed back in the church after a LONG TIME being out! Subsequently, the construction work he was doing became too taxing for his knees and I am not sure what happened after that. He was told by a doctor he needed to find another type of work.

      So, be aware no place is “safe to sin”, especially in Jane’s county- Rutherford County, NC. Before my tenure was up, we all heard about Jane and one of her lieutenants catching a man from a sister church in NC several miles away playing video poker in a convenience store! He was toasted and roasted. He must have “loved it”, though. He moved a few years later from that sister church to the main WOFF in Spindale, NC. A few years earlier, I had had contact with his daughter and son-in-law. They did not “admire” the control techniques of WOFF and did not stay.

      So, onward to other subjects. There are yet more similarities between FLDS and WOFF. Also, I will share more of my personal experiences from 16 years of church services, seminars, special music services, memorial services, weddings, Friday night fellowships, daily living inside a WOFF household and more.. Here are some of the titles of posts yet to come:

–Jane Makes $600 a Month (and Gives Sam $200 from Her $) 

— The $50,000 Offering

— Jane Whaley- The Medical Debt Collector

— Jane Whaley Gets a New Dog- So Do Others!

— The May Seminar We Watched TV Preachers!

— The Toilet Paper Revelation

And yet, the fun “rolls” on…

      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 some good readers inside of WOFF. I know for sure.. 🙂

      (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. )