In review of the material which so accurately describes the environment of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF), I have been rereading the work by Robert Jay Lifton- “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism- A Study of “Brainwashing” in China” (Copyright©1961 originally by W.W.Norton and Co., first published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1989- ISBN 0-8078-4253-2) From time to time over the last few years, I have been magnetized in reading the accounts of Lifton though he does not directly describe WOFF, he does not mention Jane Whaley by name. Yet he describes the dynamics inside that place in great detail. He does this by sharing his observations from his studies and “… analysis of the experience of fifteen Chinese citizens and twenty-five Westerners who underwent “brainwashing” by the Communist Chinese government.” (from the back cover)
Today, I was particularly interested in the section of his text in which he describes – “The Demand for Purity”. Without sharing the entire passage and numerous details, I will summarize and get right to the point of this post. He writes that in totalistic environments where thought reform is practiced, the daily world for its participants, or in this case its members, is “sharply divided into the pure and the impure, into the absolutely good and the absolutely evil. The good and the pure are of course those ideas feelings and actions which are consistent with the totalist ideology and policy; anything else is apt to be relegated to the bad and the impure.” (page 423)
Continue reading WOFF Members are “… expected to expect…”