This past Wednesday, on ABC, there was a PrimeTime® show titled, “Battle with the Devil”. Here is the trailer which is about 5 minutes.

 

  Earlier in the week, I had heard about the show previous to Wednesday from another former member of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). The show was of particular interest because in the previews there was a lead piece about a church in New York that practiced “deliverance”. The preview showed members of the church wrenching and coughing up in brown paper bags. As a previous member of a WOFF and having been under the teachings of Jane Whaley, this was particularly interesting as I participated in similar activities while in Greenville at Grace and Truth (Word of Life) and while at WOFF. I shared the information about the show with yet another former member and they refused to watch saying that “there would be too many unpleasant memories”.   

  Even with my interest, I did not record the show. So, in commenting, I may have certain scenes out of order. The show started with material about Catholic exorcisms. There were clips from movies which I had not seen and interviews with Catholic priests that perform(ed) exorcisms. One lady was shown testifying as to her great relief as her demons left her body.

   Next, there was an interview with Pastor John Goguen of Agape Bible Fellowship in East Aurora, NY. This interview was interspersed with different scenes from his church services showing people singing and praying. Then the announcer said that “fireworks” were about to begin as a man prepared paper towels and plastic bags for the last part to the service.

  

 Here is the link to the church website- http://www.agapebible.org/ . The pastor had graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary and espoused many Baptist doctrines and beliefs. This is a quote from the page about the pastor:  

     He was trained at and graduated from both Philadelphia Biblical University (B.S. in Bible) and Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M. in Theology). He is a licensed and ordained Southern Baptist Minister, but prefers to be now known as a “Bapti – Costal”.

   (We will mention more about the website for Agape Bible Fellowship a little later in the post.)

   Pastor Goguen explained deliverance toward the end of the service shown in the documentary. There were no deliverance circles at the beginning as with WOFF. People remained in their seats as the pastor explained the “devils” were leaving them as they “yawned, burped or coughed actual mucus”. He would lead the prayer sometimes reading from the book titled “Deliverance Thesaurus– The Devil Hit List” by John Eckhardt- available at Amazon®.com. The paper towels were used for the same thing as at WOFF- catching the throwings! – be they mucus, saliva or heavier material. During the service, one man was shown jumping up, talking loudly then being wrestled to the ground. Others then gathered to pray over him and command the devils to leave him in Jesus’ name! He would keep talking or screaming or whatever noises he made. The pastor was asked does everyone have devils. “If you are breathing, you have them; If you are not breathing- don’t worry”. In another scene, he was shown reading a list of devils to his members- muscle spasms, cramps, restless leg devils. There were several scenes of folks yawning and coughing up into brown paper bags. The pastor was then shown coughing up devils in a brown paper bag- himself! Now, here is where I got very interested.

   As I watched this part of the show, I remembered the book, “American Exorcism – Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty” (Copyright©2001 by Michael W. Cuneo- published by DOUBLEDAY, ISBN 0-385-50176-5). We have previously posted from this book. (Here is the link- Carolina Blues at WOFF Part 1– https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=3062 ). Cuneo visited WOFF and interviewed Jane Whaley about the exorcisms she performed. His descriptions of the members, including Ray and Josh Farmer, were very accurate. He was allowed into a Sunday evening service. In that service, Mike C. talked about his father’s Catholic funeral and the stand he took not to participate. I remembered that testimony and was probably in that service! 

   In the end of his WOFF visit, Cuneo was not allowed to witness an exorcism, but, he quoted Jane Whaley talking about her “gift”.

   “Nevertheless, Pastor Jane wasn’t entirely closed to discussing her ministry with me. Just about everyone needed ministry. She herself had received exorcism, and so had her husband. Sam had been afflicted with spirits of lust and fornication and she had ministered to him personally.

“That’s right,” said Sam, a stocky, gravel-voiced man about ten years his wife’s senior. “I was in rough shape before Jane got in there and cleaned everything out.”

    Did everyone who joined her church receive exorcism? I asked. She said that they did, often involving multiple sessions. Her exorcism ministry was a special gift from God, and she wasn’t stingy with it. And contrary to what had been portrayed in the media, it wasn’t a screaming ministry. It was a wailing, groaning, and travailing ministry. This was the gift that God had given her: exorcism through wailing, groaning, and travailing.”(page 191-192 emphasis added)

   At first, this is where my reference to Cuneo’s work stopped. But, after I finished the first draft of this post, I went on to search the website for Agape Bible Fellowship and found a link to Hegewisch Baptist Church. That was the church Cuneo visited before he visited WOFF! Then I realized Agape was closely tied to Hegewisch and the practices were the same. Cuneo has this to say about Hegewisch, their Pastor Mike Thierer and one of the deliverance sessions,

   “Throughout the auditorium, demoniacs are paired off with exorcism ministers, wailing thrashing and regurgitating. Demons are being expelled in gushes of vomit and strands of mucus, and assistants pick their way through the heaving mess, handing out paper towels, holding brown paper bags up to people’s chins. Not more than five yards from me, a teenage girl, eyes dancing crazily, hurtles herself to a clearing on the floor, where four women hold her down, one of them praying fervently. Across the hall, an attractive, middle-aged blond woman named Linda wails constantly, a high-pitched air raid siren of a voice. Young children roam the hall, taking it all in nonchalantly.”   

    Yes, I have heard the “air raid siren” prayer before. Jane Whaley, as well as others at WOFF, can do that very well. I found the history of Hegewisch Baptist to be interesting and will share some more from Cuneo’s book before we move on. Pastor Mike came from a “working class Catholic family in Chicago”. He spent time in the military but, was released because he was “dealing heroin”. After a time, his co-worker told him about Hegewisch and he became curious and attended. The pastor at that time was Win Worley, a native of Texas. Mike continued attending and received “massive deliverance for several years… Along the way he married Joy Worley, the pastor’s elder daughter, and became a mainstay of the Hegewisch congregation. And in 1996, three years after Win Worley’s death, Pastor Mike was called by the congregation to take over the ministry.”(page 178)

   Cuneo goes on to describe Win Worley as “A strange kind of theological hybrid, a Baptist preacher who cast out devils and spoke in tongues and who liked to refer to himself as a “Baptecostal,” Worley answered to no one’s bell but his own.” (page 179)

  For now, I will close this post by quoting and commenting on the comparison between Hegewisch Baptist and WOFF that Cuneo made after visiting both churches. “And the more I thought about it, Pastor Mike of Hegewisch Baptist came out looking quite the better in comparison. Next to the Word of Faith operation, Pastor Mike’s ministry seemed marked by a kind of proletarian honesty: no health and prosperity mumbo jumbo, no manipulative weeping, no pressure to submit to an authoritarian leader. With Pastor Mike it was grapple on the floor, a slap on the back, a regurgitation, perhaps into a paper towel – no questions asked, no strings attached, take it or leave it. In the exorcism business, one could do worse.” (page 192)

   Even with his limited contact and understanding of Jane Whaley and WOFF, Cuneo could see the “..health and prosperity mumbo jumbo, … manipulative weeping,… (and) …pressure to submit to an authoritarian leader.”  He was pretty perceptive as far as I can tell! From what I read and have learned so far, neither Hegewisch Baptist or Agape Bible Fellowship operate in the exact same way as Jane Whaley and Word of Faith Fellowship. There may be some common practices of praying for deliverance, but, the authority emphasis is much different at WOFF.

   In the next post, we will continue comparing Agape Bible Fellowship and their methods for deliverance to what I experienced at WOFF with Jane Whaley and her leadership team. I will list my concerns in regards to the deliverance practiced at WOFF.

    Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.

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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 322.