The question is not for the present, but for looking into future. Could you be involved at some point in the future, in a controlling religious cult? Could you be considered as a “regular member”? I am not asking if you could be a cult leader. That question is for another post. Could you tell when the people around you that you love and trust are beginning to take your freedoms away? At what point would you know that what started out as benign and maybe even beneficial had morphed into a controlling environment? Are you so sure?
My experience is one that has taken me to, into and through years of a group that began as what I considered as beneficial and by no means harmful. Did I miss the changes and the signs of control? Apparently, I did. Was I susceptible before I even came into the church in Greenville, SC known first as Grace and Truth Fellowship and then Word of Life Church? That is not a question I am able to answer here, but possibly in another post. For this post, we will review several statements from those involved with cult groups on some level. After all, cult survivors should be able to give at least some insight into how they were taken into a cult group, right?
“Nobody joins a cult. Nobody joins something they think is going to hurt them. You join a religious organization, you join a political movement. Most of all you join a group of people you really like!” These are the words of Deborah Layton on the PBS Home Video- “Jonestown” (copyright 2007). Deborah Layton is a survivor of the Jim Jones cult disaster. She left the Peoples Temple communal living project in Guyana, South America five months before it became the scene of a mass murder. After she left, she went before Congress and testified in committee to her fears that there would be a mass suicide disaster. She had been in the group and worked her way up the ladder to a very important position dealing with the finances. One Congressman believed her. Congressman Leo Ryan led a team to Guyana to investigate the claims of people being held against their will. He was murdered on the airstrip as he was leaving. Many people missed the signs of serious danger.
From the “Raven” by Tim Reiterman with John Jacobs (copyright ©1982 Tim Reiterman, Introduction copyright 2008 by Tim Reiterman, ISBN 978-1-58542-678-2); the author writes; “Jones always said that religious people made the best members because they were the most easily conditioned to self-sacrifice, devotion and discipline” (page 137). So, from a church leader who made a regular practice of stealing of other church members, comes his perspective of who “made the best members”. Are you easily conditioned to “self-sacrifice, devotion and discipline”? How would you know? Do you consider yourself devoted to God and ready to make sacrifices? As things were changing at Word of Life, I did not see the effects of the changes. When I first began visiting Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) in 1992, I did not see the warning signs. The faith there was moving from faith in God to faith and trust in the leader – Jane Whaley. Would you have been so keen to see that the folks around you that you loved and trusted were also changing their allegiance from God to a person? Would it have been so obvious? The changes came gradually and as I had been one who obviously could be conditioned to “self-sacrifice, devotion and discipline”, I allowed the changes to come in my thinking, in my relationships, in my family. I made a good cult member- for a while. I believed that the self-sacrifice of obeying all the rules; new rules, old rules, their rules, my rules, made things better. Was that true? Do you like religious based rules? Do they make you feel closer to God?
Over the years, I began seeking permission to do things, all the while under the guise of “checking things out with authority”. Was that a sign I was devoted- to God or to a system or to a person? I felt uncomfortable at first, but, for a while that eased as “everyone was doing it”. All good faithful members were checking things out with authority. Who did not want to be a good faithful member? If you wanted to be a part of the move of God, you did as WOFF members did… Yes, there was the peer pressure to conform, but somehow that does not seem like a strong enough term. When your life is engulfed by a church group, is it easy to lose perspective?
Major uncomfortable feelings came when we were required to “check it out with authority” before we spent private time (had relations) with our spouse. Yes, you read that right. Who would want to miss that deal? Then one day, I was “locking in” with GS, and he said, “John, we don’t do that anymore.” The brick he hit me with landed not too far from my feet. Suddenly, I had more questions than he had time to answer. Why did we now NOT do what was so critical to do in days past? Had we reached a “level in the spirit” that we could “hear God for ourselves”? Or was this not a priority anymore and there were other areas in our hearts that needed the peering eyes of leadership and thus Jane? Years later, “God would come back around that mountain” and Jane’s adopted daughter would say that God never intended to stop, but, we had to. (???) Now, (some time in 2007) we are going back in that place and if it feels uncomfortable and you don’t want to do it, leave now. If you plan on going and talking about this among yourselves and to the world, then don’t stay, leave now! I stayed. Why? Because you knew if you got up and left that meeting there were consequences that were known and yet unknown. Who would want to go that road when everyone else stayed in the room? Again, you went along to get along.
This next quote is from the documentary- “Join Us”. The film is presented by Interloper Films along with Lusitan and was produced by Ondi Timoner and Vasco Lucas Nunes. (copyright© Third Floor Productions, LLC 2007) Here is the link to the first post about that film – https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=3456 Liz Shaw from Wellspring said, “Most cults start out as something very normal. They start out as a church or a fellowship that might be a benign thing at first. Every day you are interacting with people who are involved in something dangerous or abusive or heading that direction, and they are giving up a little more and a little more control of their own life.” This quote starts at just over six and a half minutes into the movie.
When I heard that quote, it made me feel somewhat better, if that can be said. I realized that when I began attending the church in Greenville, it would be okay to say it was “normal”. Well, we met in trailers and practiced loud prayer and deliverance. But, why did I miss the signs? What “came over me” that persuaded me to give up control over my own life to another person, another system and eventually to the dictates that came directly or indirectly from Jane Whaley? In 1992, did I know of the controversies surrounding Jane and Sam Whaley? No, not in any detail. If others I knew before 1992, knew the details, they were not willing to tell them. What did that group in Greenville offer that I felt was so important to have in my life? You could say, “the move of God” or the love and acceptance and the instant friends as well as the support from the pastors. At least, as long as you went with the flow and believed and prayed and did not ask the wrong questions or express too many doubts, things went well. As I consider the last few years, I ask many questions and search for the answers. So, could you be a cult member? Are you sure?
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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 244.