Many times the question comes up to me concerning how people can become a member in a group such as Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF)? In answering this question, I often reflect on my own path into the group. While considering that road, I must also admit not everyone joins following the path I did, nor does everyone become a “faithful” member in the same time frame as me. Though the dynamics of influence are the same for almost everyone to be connected or drawn into WOFF; each individual has different needs and may identify with different positive parts of the WOFF presentation in order to decide to join. Some may need a job or place to live, while others need financial help, child care or just new friends. Likewise, not everyone becomes emerged in the sub-culture to the same level on a set timeline. That being said, not everyone develops the same intense dependency on the leader, Jane Whaley; but, I would contend that every faithful member develops some degree of dependency and that level of dependency determines their evolving emotional state and how they respond to the punishment for breaking the unwritten rules.

Regardless of how difficult as it is for those on the outside to understand how an adult could become so dependent on another adult for very common basic decisions, it is the state that many faithful WOFF members find themselves in– daily. Just how that happens has been discussed in previous posts on this blog. For now, let’s acknowledge that it does and that it is a common occurrence in high-demand faith groups which use mind control techniques. We will use a few resources to confirm that fact.

“Cult members are expected to surrender autonomy, and often must ask permission for routine activities, like using the bathroom.” (Releasing the Bonds, Steven Hassan, Copyright©2000, Freedom of Mind Press)

As previously mentioned on this blog, WOFF controls many aspects of a member’s private time in the bathroom, especially the males.

“In groups where members lived communally, most life decisions were made by leaders. Members were encouraged to be selfless and obedient. This form of dependency creates low self-esteem and retards the desire and ability for individual development.” (Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, Copyright©1988, 1990, Park Street Press)

WOFF members live communally and many life choices are made through leadership by the practice called “locking in.” Faithful WOFF members do not want to be “out from under authority”, which requires asking permission before making many of life’s basic choices. In my opinion, this practice results in grown adults regressing and losing their ability to make certain decisions. For the most faithful, they “become like a child” in faith and trust in Jane Whaley and her ability to hear God for them.

By definition in “Recovery From Cults” edited by Dr. Michael Langone, (Copyright©1993 by the American Family Foundation, now- the International Cultic Studies Association) Among other things, a cult- “(c) systematically induces states of psychological dependency on its members,” and “By gradually isolating members from outside influences, inducing unrealistically high, guilt-inducing expectations, punishing any expressions of “negativity”, and denigrating independent critical thinking, the group causes its members to become extremely dependent on its compliance-oriented expressions of love and support. Once a state of dependency is firmly established, the group’s control over members’ thoughts feelings and behavior is strengthened by the members’ growing dread of losing the group’s psychological support (physical threat occurs in some groups)…” (page 5 and 7)

It is my belief the above process has a regressive affect on the adult member to cause them to act like a child in an adult body. Robert Lifton suggested this in “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism” (Copyright©1961 W.W> Norton and Co. then published in 1989 University of North Carolina Press) In speaking of one’s experience in a totalistic group where thought reform techniques are being employed;

“Rather than stimulating greater receptivity or “openness to the world,” they encourage a backward step into some form of “embeddedness,”—a retreat into doctrinal and organizational exclusiveness, and into all-or-nothing emotional patterns more characteristic (at least at this stage of human history) of the child than of the individuated adult.” (page 436, emphasis added)

For relatives who have family members in the group, this child-like behavior is evidenced in the “locking in” process that goes on when you ask your family member in the group to come see you. The WOFF member must lock in with Jane to verify they are “in a place in the spirit” where the sin that is in you or your house or your words or your clothes or lack of clothes or your television or your music will not “pull them out of the will of God” and thus attack them “to leave the will of God” or Jane’s control. This behavior is just the tip of the iceberg which would be revealed if you lived with your family inside of WOFF. Everything is controlled by the rules and edicts of the group. If you were to live inside WOFF, you would see grown adults full of anxiety over if they wore the right clothes or if their make-up was full of harlotry. They would stress to know if they were in sin in some unknown area or maybe gave over to a devil that attacked them… or some such worry. How would they know if any of this had happened? They would ask Mama or Grandma Jane. She would tell them if they had missed God and have sinned.

If they were caught in “sin,” their punishment would far outweigh the crime by your standards. And herein is the conundrum. Faithful adult members of WOFF who sin or break an unwritten rule live in the same place as children outside the group in an abusive relationship with a caregiver. Let me explain.

I understood this better as I began reading “Rebuilding Shattered Lives: Treating Complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders” by James A Chu, (Copyright©2011 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ ISBN- 978-0-470-76874-7) Chu begins to explain how the abused child feels responsible for their own victimization. In my opinion, this is in much the same way a faithful member of WOFF will blame themselves for “missing God” or allowing the devil to deceive them when in fact the rule or crime was no real transgression, but was only an infraction of a personal preference of the parent-like leader, Jane Whaley.

Chu quotes two sources, first a paper by psychoanalyst, Leonard Shengold, MD (Child Abuse and Deprivation: Soul Murder”: 1979) “…then the child must, out of desperate need, register the parent – delusionally—as good…So the bad has been registered as good…(Shengold , 1979, page 539)

When the faithful WOFF member is abused by Mama Jane, they cannot in keeping with the mindset of a child assign evil or wrongness to Jane. Jane is their source of access to God. Jane could be their source of a job or house or the next material blessing. To assign or label Jane as bad would be the first step in their exit and the perceived loss of their “salvation.”

Chu quotes another source: psychiatrist Roland Summit, MD (“The Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome”; 1983) When speaking of an abused child, “…The child cannot safely conceptualize that a parent might be ruthless or self-serving; such a conclusion is tantamount to abandonment and annihilation. The only acceptable alternative for the child is to believe that she has provoked the painful encounters and to hope that by learning to be good she can earn love and acceptance…” (Summit, 1983, page 194)

Do you see the analogy? Adults recruited into WOFF (or other high-demand groups) are drawn or deceived into a state of intense dependency on Jane which causes them to regress in many ways to the state of a child. When they are abusively disciplined, they blame themselves and think that if they can just submit enough or do more or pray harder or read their Bible more or “take hold of Jesus sat a higher level” then Jane will “love” me and I will be happy. The need for love is universal and a strong driving force to conform behavior in many a child or adult.

This denial is what allows these child-like adults to stay in the abusive aura of Jane for year after year after year! They are totally unaware that these dynamics are abnormal at best and robbing them of years of life being the person they were meant to be. Because of this denial, you will not catch one of them saying anything negative about Jane – some not even after they may be kicked out! Just because a person leaves WOFF does not mean the psychological damage is healed or that the dynamics of abusive beliefs are gone. These dynamics of abuse and denial can be hidden behind the intelligence of a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant. This denial is many times not conscious; it is an underlying set of learned behaviors which form the mind out of the fear of rejection.

It is the next quote by Chu that crystallized for me the power of mind control over adults and the resulting years of damage.

“Psychologist Jennifer Freyd, PhD (1994), has offered another interpretation concerning the child’s denial of their own victimization—even to the extent of forgetting it—as a syndrome of “betrayal trauma”:

“Betrayal trauma theory suggests that psychogenic amnesia is an adaptive response to childhood abuse. When a parent or other powerful figure violates a fundamental ethic of human relationship, victims may need to remain unaware of the trauma not to reduce suffering but rather to promote survival…” (page 304)

My contention is that whether conscious or subliminal, adults with child-like dependence on Jane Whaley (or another group leader) must deny and in some cases “forget” that what Jane does to them is abuse, for continued survival and membership in the group. Once the denial of the facts surrounding the abuses ends and there is an admission that being in Jane’s reach could be harmful; then the member must make a decision to stay or go. I chose to leave. Many others will as well.

We have been discussing adults who morph into a child-like dependence on the group leader. These dynamics apply even more so to children being reared in the abusive environment of WOFF. This explains why a child inside the group rarely if ever will admit to being abused, the cost is too great and they have no comparison reality or hope of life outside the group. This, my friends, is a sad thought indeed.

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. Jane told me and Josh confirmed it.

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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Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 487.