Category Archives: Behavior Control

Behavior Control, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

Jane’s Perception Became Your Reality…

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   Today, in a conversation I had with someone who had never been a member of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF), I tried to explain to them how a member of WOFF could be accused and found guilty of a sin, while never committing the act. Jane Whaley uses the Scripture in Matthew 5:27-29- (Amplified Version)

 27You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. 28But I say to you that everyone who so much as looks at a woman with evil desire for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  29If your right eye serves as a trap to ensnare you or is an occasion for you to stumble and sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be cast into hell (Gehenna).

   I was not trying to explain the correct way to incorporate this in one’s life, I was trying to explain how Jane uses this passage to control members- often members who are younger and may not have any idea what the term describing the sin act – actually meant. If Jane perceived that a member had a thought or evil desire, then she often would press for a confession to confirm her “word from God”. The pressure could be light at first, and then increase intensity as she would be convinced she had heard God and that member was in sin. This tactic was not limited to Jane, as many in leadership would have the same “skill” to root out sin in WOFF members. Remember, the environment we are talking about- a pyramidal control structure. Regular members toward the bottom of the pyramid had more “leadership” above them looking at them and pressing them to open their heart and expose their sin. A few young boys (men, now) have confided in me that they would confess to sin when they did not actually know what the sin act consisted of. Many times, this was sexual in nature. After leaving, one man told me he found out what he confessed to and was mad since he had never done that act. Other told of being required to write their confessions. After they left WOFF, they would be reminded of their written confessions and that they could/would be used against them, if they attacked! Can you say black-mail or at the least- WOFF-mail?

  Continue reading Jane’s Perception Became Your Reality… →

Behavior Control, Uncategorized, WOFF Updates

Another Exit Drama Unfolds…

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  This past Monday I was made aware of a young man that had left or was actually put out of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). My information came through anonymous sources. Before I tell of the events, let me explain why this post will be different. The events surrounding this exit from WOFF were in many ways not unique. Many others have gone through very similar drama scenes. In light of this and because the events are in many ways still unfolding, I will refrain from using the names of the family members involved. I will mention those who are in the drama-trauma that have been mentioned before on the blog. So, we begin…

   Monday, I received a notice mentioning that a young man had been dropped off at a local hotel in Forest City by his Dad.  He was asking for help and he may be open to my help. I proceeded with caution as I can never be absolutely certain until contact is made with a person who wants to leave. I called the number given and left a message. Soon, I received a call back from this young person. He explained simply that he was out and needed help. He was dropped off with the clothes on his back and had not received his personal effects. I agreed to meet him for dinner and we would talk. As I drove to the area, I had thoughts of helping him at least get his clothes and other basic items. My initial thoughts were to attempt contact with Mark Morris as he had been very helpful in the Morgan Sample exit drama.

   I picked him up from a business where he had been waiting since earlier in the day for help. I learned he had walked from the hotel to the phone service provider and actually purchased his first cell phone. We went to a local restaurant. As we both sat down with our dinner, this young person appeared very cautious and not sure where to start. I encouraged him just to relax and tell me what happened. He began by saying he would review the events over the last year. He would not be able to tell everything, but would give the main events. So, he began to tell a story very similar to ones I had heard before. This young man had been sent to the fourth building at WOFF. There he was sent to live with other men who were giving to the “unclean”. As he spoke of the rules and the punishments, my heart sank. For a brief moment, I had hopes that maybe things had changed. But, in the end, I could see that the behavior modification methods had not changed, but, in fact seemed more intense.

   Continue reading Another Exit Drama Unfolds… →

Behavior Control, Books, Resources, Uncategorized

The Short Creek Effect

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   Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer wrote “Escape” (Copyright©2007 by Visionary Classics, LLC, published by Broadway Books, ISBN 978-0-7679-2756-7). We have reviewed this book previously in a guest post written by Lahna Morakis. Honestly, I have had a copy for a while, but had not picked it up until recently. From the back cover, “ESCAPE provides an astonishing look behind the tightly drawn curtains of the FLDS church (Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints), one of the most secretive religious groups in the United States. The story Carolyn Jessop tells is so weird and shocking that one hesitates to believe a sect like this, with 10,000 polygamous followers, could really exist in twenty-first-century America. But, Jessop’s courageous, heart-wrenching account is absolutely factual. This riveting book reminds us that truth can indeed be much, much stranger than fiction.”  –Jon Krakauer, author of Under the Banner of Heaven, Into Thin Air, and Into the Wild.

   This book follows my other reads on this religious cult. I have read books by Flora Jessop “Church of Lies”, Brent Jeffs, “Lost Boy” and Elisa Walls, “Stolen Innocence”. We have reviewed each of these books as well as made several comparisons to the practices of Warren Jeffs, leader of FLDS and Jane Whaley, leader of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF).

   In “Escape”, Carolyn Jessop begins with her childhood memories in Salt Lake City, Utah. She tells of the influence of her Grandma and how this relationship shaped her outlook. “Listening to my grandmother talk, I felt like I was being rocked in a cradle of specialness. Grandma made me feel unique, but not in a traditional way. She taught me that I had been blessed by God with an opportunity to come into a family where the generations of women had sacrificed their feelings and given up things of this world to preserve the work of God and prove worthy of the celestial kingdom of God.” (page 19) With this book, as with the others, I will compare the memories and observations of the writers about their life in FLDS with my experience in WOFF.

  Continue reading The Short Creek Effect →

Behavior Control, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

But, They Were Preaching the Gospel…

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   Have you ever been in a meeting, whether it is a business meeting or civic meeting or some other type of meeting and the speaker begins to “share the gospel”? You know some type of message which includes the message normally heard in a church service. I am not speaking about a generic prayer for wisdom or guidance but, some verbal link made between the purpose of the group and a Christian message. How did you react or respond – if at all? Was it confusing? Did it cloud or make at least a little hazy the purpose of the meeting or the group? If you were informed or knew of this ahead of time before the meeting began – that is a total different matter. But, if it was planned and you were not told, that is what I am talking about.

   Many years ago, I was a part of a business group which had morphed into a quasi-religious group. The stated purpose of the group was the business of selling consumer products. After you became interested in that and began to attend seminars and “retreats”; another side of the group became evident. Don’t get me wrong, there were very sweet and sincere people in the group. There were many folks who genuinely wanted to “succeed”. The operational methods of the group were revealed in stages. You were not told the entire scope when you first attended a meeting. I suppose the leaders wanted to see how committed you would become before they unloaded the whole deal on you. Maybe they wanted to see how comfortable you were with what you were being shown before you were informed of the next step.

   I came in contact with the group through a shift supervisor at the cafeteria where I worked while attending college. He was a likeable fellow named Dennis Farmer. He had a very interesting background which included being a Formula 1 race car driver in Europe. He would tell stories and catch the attention of many of my co-workers and friends. Every once in a while he would say something odd about making big money – but, not in racing. One day I started asking more questions and he began to tell me the Amway story. As best as I can remember, that was late in 1980. Well, it didn’t take long before I had decided that selling soap and vitamins and whatever else was a great part-time job. It began to garner more and more of my attention and well, you may already know the story. I attended meetings in the evenings during the week and began attending seminars on the weekends once every few months.

   Continue reading But, They Were Preaching the Gospel… →

Behavior Control, Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Thought Reform, Uncategorized

WOFF Members are NOT Brainwashed- Really? (1)

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   Wow… What’s up with that? Before you accuse me of listening to Jane Whaley tapes… I will explain the reason for the title in this post. (I turned in all my WOFF tapes years ago – before I left WOFF! We were not allowed to keep them – even if we had purchased them!???) During my years of being involved with Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF), I was made aware of the accusations and chuckled along with the rest of the congregation when KR explained there was “no such thing as brainwashing!” What better way to push away doubt than to tell trusting members that brainwashing does not even exist? Actually, in previous posts, I probably have made the statement or at least the insinuation that those who remain a part of WOFF are being brainwashed. However, after rereading material found in Steven Hassan’s book, “Combatting Cult Mind Control” (Copyright©1988, 1990- by Steven Hassan, Park Street Press, ISBN-0-89281-311-3), I learned the difference between brainwashing and mind control. From Chapter 4 of this book titled: Understanding Mind Control, I will quote the author’s insights and compare them to my experiences during WOFF days.

   Mind Control Versus Brainwashing

   As we introduce the subject, allow me a few comments on the subject at hand. For some readers, the difference between brainwashing and mind control may be one strictly of semantics. Trust me; it is much more than that. Brainwashing has occurred in years past, and I have no doubt there are places in this country and around the world where individuals are being brainwashed. “Brainwashing is typically coercive. The person knows from the outset that he is in the hands of the enemy. It begins with a clear demarcation of the respective roles—who is the prisoner and who is the jailer—and the prisoner experiences the absolute minimum of choice…” (page 55). This is just not the case at WOFF. The roles are not clearly marked. Faithful WOFF members do not see themselves as prisoners- until it is time to leave!  And over time, within certain strata of the group, the roles can change and one who once was lower in the pyramid structure can be elevated higher than those who once where over them. For regular WOFF members, Jane and those in leadership are not cast as “jailers” until it is time to leave!

    Continue reading WOFF Members are NOT Brainwashed- Really? (1) →

Behavior Control, Thought Reform, Uncategorized, WOFF Updates

Personal Property Returned to Morgan Sample After 5 Months

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   These last few days have been very emotional and revealing to say the least. In this post I will tell of Morgan Sample’s struggles to regain her laptop, cell phone, sewing machine, school books, family pictures and calculator. The events that led up to the confiscation are not as critical to the purpose of this post as the events since her departure. The focus here will be her struggle to regain possession of her personal property. This story needs no embellishment. I will endeavor to recount the events to the best of my memory as confirmed by emails, text messages, pictures as well as Morgan’s narrative. Further details to the events leading to Morgan’s exit can be shared at a future time.  

   All of this came to my attention on August 24, 2011. Morgan contacted me via Facebook®. After realizing my typing was not fast enough to make chat feasible, we talked on the phone. I listened as Morgan told her exit story from Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). She had been a part of WOFF for about ten years. We were there at the same time, but never had regular direct contact. Again, after a brief introduction, this post focuses on her struggle to regain her personal property. Her exit story has many more events that can be told in another post.

   Morgan lived in the home of Randy and Cindy Fields. The Fields were leadership at the WOFF and still remain in that position, as far as I know. Morgan graduated from the church sponsored school and had moved into a role of child care provider while also taking college classes. Events unfolded that landed Morgan in “church discipleship”. This process has been explained in previous posts on this blog. I have been in church discipleship at WOFF and am very familiar with the process. She was there for months. After this period, she took another position helping in the church sponsored school. Another series of events took place and her cell phone and laptop were confiscated by leadership, this under Jane Whaley’s direction. This limited her access to her parents as they did not live in the area. When Morgan first decided to leave, she was not allowed to call her mother to come get her. This limit on her communication with her family lasted several days. Upon her mother’s next visit to see her, she packed her things and made her exit.

   Continue reading Personal Property Returned to Morgan Sample After 5 Months →

Behavior Control, Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized, WOFF Don'ts

Don’t Smash Those Pennies!

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   Thursday, while I was working at a Credit Union, I came across a jar full of change gathered from different places within the office. I notice an odd shaped “smashed penny” in the jar! For those that may not remember, that was CONTRABAND at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF)! Yes, it is true. So, I fished around in the jar and found another one and took them out. Oh, how evil was I? I put them in my pocket and proceeded to the manager’s office to explain this “contraband”. This was obviously a very minute issue on their radar and it hardly garnered any response at all. Why? I think because this person had ceased to be amazed at the absurdities I tell them about WOFF regulations AND the fact that it was a PENNY! To this person, there were/are bigger issues in life.

   Below is a quote from the post about this issue at WOFF. It was originally posted on March 20, 2010. I have added some comments which add more understanding.

More Don’ts for the WOFF “Don’t List”  https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=1087

While on family getaways or day trips, who has not seen the machines that take pennies and imprints an image on them? Well, some young folks close to me (my children!) enjoyed collecting those pennies very much. One service, one of the teachers and assistant principal of the school (Jennifer C.) got up to make the new “don’t” known to all. “No more smashing pennies! You are destroying government property.”  I am not sure, but she may have been (gagging on and) swatting gnats at the same time she was telling us this new don’t. Does this one make sense? Please, comment if you are a penny smasher.

  Okay, I admit, I enjoyed the whole penny smashing/collecting deal. I was actually excited to find the pennies in the jar. Having been away from WOFF since July 2008, I must admit I never researched to see if Jennifer C. was onto something or was she blowing WOFF smoke in order to make herself feel better and win some kind of favor with the Queen Rule Maker? So, I did a search just now and found the following answer to “Is smashing pennies legal?”

Continue reading Don’t Smash Those Pennies! →