Category Archives: Uncategorized

Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

Family Members Suffer Separation

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    Readers of this blog come from many countries, backgrounds and situations. I receive comments and emails from several survivors of many different cults as well as people who have family members still in a cult. In a previous post, we highlighted a repost from my mother’s blog. She has written from the perspective of those who have a child in a cult and the feelings and struggles of that relationship. Many of the things I have read in her posts have not occurred to me before. I consider her insights as reflective of the emails I get from readers who have a family member still inside a controlling cult group. I have read of their struggles and until recently not been able to understand what I put my family through during my years in Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF).

 My Mom, Darlene Eichler, writes here:  http://cultcasualties.blogspot.com

 Family Members Outside the Cult–Part II

The following is an excerpt from “Satan’s Best Friend”:

October 10, 1975
Dear Maggie,
I have written this letter in my head many times in the past few years. It is way past time for me to put it on paper and send it on to you. First of all I want to say how much I love you. Sometimes I don’t think I like you because of your absence from me. We could have been so much comfort for one another after your Father passed away. Those days were the darkest in my life. I still have nights when I cannot sleep because I’m thinking about you and your Father and saying to myself, ‘what if?’

You would be shocked if you came back to………..today. There are new roads, stores and some things have vanished. Of course the old part of town will always remain the same (I hope). All of your friends are married and some have divorced. All have children except for Peggy………………………….
Here I am rambling on about unimportant things. I haven’t asked how you are. I pray that you are happy whatever you are doing. Please write or call me sometime. Would it be asking too much to ask you to come for a visit? You know you are welcome anytime.
With all my love,
Mom

P.S.I know you don’t celebrate birthdays in your church but I hope you have a happy birthday on October 15. I will remember that day and be thankful for such a beautiful daughter.happy in whatever she is doing.’ That is difficult to say and mean it. She is almost finished but saves the real reason for the letter until the end. “Would it be asking too much for you to come for a visit?”

I tried to write this letter to include the ways a mother views her child in a cult. She begins by telling her daughter how she has composed this letter over and over in the years they have been apart. In my experience I would have a running conversation in my head and then I would try to answer for the absent family member. I wonder how many times I got it right. In the third sentence she declares her love for her daughter but states that sometimes she doesn’t like her because she is absent. Sometimes there was anger on the part of the family member. One feels forsaken by the cult member. Then, of course we have the ‘laying on of guilt.” Why not? We want them to know we are having hard times because of their decisions. Along with the feelings of guilt we want them to know their friends have moved on with their lives. The writer realizes she has been rambling and asks her daughter how she is doing. Notice that she opens her heart and prays that she is ‘happy in whatever she is doing.’ That is difficult to say and mean it. She is almost finished but saves the real reason for the letter until the end. “Would it be asking too much for you to come for a visit?”
I will print the daughter’s answer in the next post. Comments are welcome.

  ____________________________________________________________________

  Looking back, I can see now how the times between visits to family was too long during the WOFF years. I would say that was by design, Jane Whaley’s design. After all, Jane said God did not want us to celebrate ANY holidays because they were all PAGAN. When do most families take time to visit each other? When do most folks get off work? Well, for years, Jane used certain holidays to have seminars and conferences! For other cult survivors, does that ring a bell? Of course, in the WOFF culture, we were kept so busy that we would lose track of how long it had been between visits to family members outside the group. We actually needed letters like the one above to remind us of what was important. So, for those with family members still in cult groups, keep in touch with them as much as possible.

   Next, my Mom wrote a post which reflects the letter back from the daughter who is in the cult group. Here is the next post in this series:

    Continue reading Family Members Suffer Separation →

Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

Survivors of NTCC Share Concerning Blind Zeal

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    Don and Angela Tumioli are survivors of the New Testament Christian Church (NTCC). We have mentioned their work and their blog in previous posts. (blog is here: http://ntccxerblog.blogspot.com/ )

As a comment to the post- “Not “If”, But “When”?”, Don and Angela wrote the following about blind zeal. The piece contained  honest observations and encouragement so, I have reprinted it for the foundation of this post. Don, Angela and I have been shocked at the similarities between their former group and Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). Here is their comment:   

 Submitted on 2011/06/06 at 12:59 am

“Just because you may be a part of a “non-denominational, Protestant church” as WOFF bills themselves, does not mean it requires blind zeal to be in that church.”

The similarities between the NTCC and WOFF are alarming. The blind zeal is definitely prevalent in our former church. Zeal was almost an understatement. We would raise our hands and work ourselves into a frenzy during many of the services. I’m not saying that the raising of hands is wrong but we really took zeal to a whole new level. Most of our members were young male soldiers in their teens and twenties that were already trained to follow orders and were motivated to be all that we could be. We opened our services in prayer which consisted of “holy hands being uplifted to God”. This would include a very loud offering of voices at maximum decibels in addition to the pastor’s amplified voice often enhanced by a sound system.

Then we would have our song service which many times would consist of singing loudly, clapping, dancing and sometimes running. I’ve seen folks doing somersaults around the altar on occasion. The preaching would usually be loud and in your face. Ultimatums would fly from the pulpit. The primary thrust was to create more tithe payers and to get folks to give more in offerings. There was an altar call that involved much pleading and the supposition that all non-members were lost. Those of us who worked the altars were taught to “make the people realize they are lost” so they could be saved. We were expected to hound them and be persistent to the point that many would walk out of service during the alter call. People were made to feel uncomfortable and uneasy. People that prayed were called brother or sister, but people who claimed salvation already were not called brother or sister. They must first receive NTCC style salvation. Some exceptions were made for tithe payers or givers.

There was definitely blind zeal in our former group. If we questioned anyone, we were rebellious. If we looked in our bibles to find references while the preacher was preaching we got blasted from the pulpit. If we did not act or think or live the way that we were expected, we were also castigated and demeaned. The only way to live a Christian life was to follow their non-biblical policies and doctrines with unwavering faith and blind zeal.

Continue reading Survivors of NTCC Share Concerning Blind Zeal →

Uncategorized, WOFF Updates

Spring Missions Project on Graduation Night at WOFF

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Blind Zeal 6 5 2011
Sign Used at Graduation

     Simply to avoid any hint at overkill, I have not posted about every adventure during the Spring Missions Project. But, today’s happenings are worth sharing and hopefully there will be some feedback. Let me go back to Friday. There was a wedding at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). How could you tell? There was a SIGN out front that let everyone know where to turn for the wedding. It was no big secret. I spent about 40 minutes at the road in my spot near the driveway to the Tuscany Italian Grille. There were a few folks giving the thumbs up and one phoned in complaint to the restaurant for letting me stand there. How do we know it was not a regular WOFF member? Because, WOFF members do not support places like Tuscany Italian Grille. The Grille serves alcohol. So, it could have been the people in the car I saw go straight across the road from the restaurant to Old Flynn Rd. If that was the case, then they were for sure not regular WOFF members.

    Sunday evening was graduation for the high school at WOFF. I may not get these events in order, but, I will do my best. I arrived about 5:50PM and soon thereafter “took my place”. The WOFF members were continuing to file onto Old Flynn Road to make their way to the church grounds. Some would glance my way but most ignored me altogether. Did I expect any different? I saw several folks with out of state license tags. The states included SC, TN, FL, GA and maybe PA?  That was great. Many folks in those cars would turn and at least attempt to read my sign. Maybe they got the gist of it and asked questions inside? After all, what does “BLIND ZEAL” really mean? I would love to hear a regular WOFF member explain that concept. Would the answer go like this: “Oh, blind zeal? I am sure I don’t have it. That guy with the sign is crazy…” Yes, I am fairly certain that my activities on days like today give Jane Whaley fodder for her preaching cannon. However, Jane, you helped me with much of the content of this post. Please, continue reading and find out how that happened.  

Continue reading Spring Missions Project on Graduation Night at WOFF →

Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

Show Me the “Church-Facts”! (1)

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   Who besides faithful WOFF members has not seen the cute commercials that advertise the CARFAX® service? While a customer is looking over a potential used car for purchase, the “Car-Fox” somehow catches the eyes of the prospective car buyer and prompts then to ask the unwilling car salesman to “Show me the CARFAX®.” To which the car salesman replies with a statement meant to divert the customer to another great “feature” of the car. The advertising is effective. I have used the service in my line of work and for myself when considering the purchase of a used car. The reports include many things such as service records, any reported accidents and mileage verifications. The data is supposed to provide some level of comfort and knowledge about the used car or truck being considered. The reports can be found here www.carfax.com .

   This week, it occurred to me, wouldn’t it be helpful to centralize in one place the facts about a church or group that one may be considering joining? Would it have been helpful to know the facts about Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) before I slipped among them in 1992? I had heard a vague report from someone who had heard from someone else… but, that did not catch my attention as it should have. What is there was a central location to keep the facts about churches or groups that one could or would join? What would be included?

    Okay, there are some websites out there like www.freedomofmind.com and www.factnet.org that would be helpful for ANYONE to check out before joining a church or group. But, who knows about these sites before they or one of their friends ends up getting burned by one of the groups listed? I did not know about these websites, were they even around in 1992? Now that the tool of the Internet is available, what would be or should be included in a report on a church? What would be in the “Church-Facts”?

    Continue reading Show Me the “Church-Facts”! (1) →

Books, Resources, Thought Reform, Uncategorized

“Prophetic Charisma” by Len Oakes (5)

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     This is the fifth post in a series which will highlight insights found in the book by Dr. Len Oakes while comparing his observations and conclusions to my personal experience inside Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). This work by Len Oakes titled, “Prophetic Charisma” – The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities (copyright ©1997 by Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, ISBN 0-8156-2700-9) helps explain the different aspects of the personality of cult leaders. I have found that the material in this book helps me understand what I saw while in WOFF and the behaviors of Jane Whaley.

    In previous posts, we have covered several the traits Oakes lists that “broadly characterize the prophetic personality type.” (page 12) We ended the last post with the author’s description of the manipulativeness in people with these traits. Today, we begin with Oakes describing how “aloof” these leaders can be. “To the inner circle the prophet may be quite frank about some motives, but to the world beyond and to most of the followers he is aloof. (page16) Here, I must add that I was never in the “inner circle” at WOFF. I did not attend “leadership meetings” or take part in the meetings in Jane’s office before the services. My perspective is that of a regular member. I can attest that there was a caste system with some mystical requirements to move up in the system.  Nothing was ever put in writing that I saw as to how to become “leadership” within the group.  Moving down the ladder was obvious. You could express doubt as to the validity of anything Jane said or did and your status in the group was downgraded. You would be put “in discipleship” or “out of the church” until such time that Jane felt you had “repented” and “made things right”.

    “Prophets are self-contained and autonomous, seeming to need little to nothing from others… The prophet always holds himself slightly apart from others, revealing little of his true feelings and seeming to be something of a mystery even to his long-term followers. This may mean that he is unable to have close friendships… but it can also mean that he doesn’t take conflicts personally. Provided miscreants show contrition, and the cost of the conflict has not been too great, the leader can be very indulgent and forgiving. For he sees himself as above his charges in the way a lion tamer is above his beasts; they may turn on him from time to time in misguided rebellion, but he is not like them.” (page16)

    Continue reading “Prophetic Charisma” by Len Oakes (5) →

Behavior Control, Uncategorized

Not “If”, But “When”?

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   A recent theme of certain posts has been “blind zeal”. We have discussed this as a requirement to live inside of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) for any length of time. We went over several aspects of this zeal and even why WOFF members don’t see it for what it really is- because it blinds those who live by it! See first post on this subject – “A Blinding Zeal” here- https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=4118 .

   When I first began to see WOFF members display this zeal, I viewed it with awe. This was when we first started coming to WOFF in 1992. I thought this “zeal” was something to be desired or coveted. After all, most members and certainly everyone in leadership in the Greenville church could hardly talk about anything else but – “What God was doing in Spindale!” It was not until we moved to Spindale, NC to live INSIDE the group that I realized how messed up the members were and that I had lived in a fantasy while in Greenville thinking that all WOFF members had it together spiritually. That was idolatry. That idolatry was exposed quickly as I began to live among the members of WOFF. It became clear that all WOFF members did not “walk in the high places with Jesus”. How was this made clear to me? Once I went inside WOFF, I saw how EVERYONE was corrected, rebuked and placed under Jane Whaley and the “holiness” she walked in. If you harbored any doubt about who was in charge at WOFF, that doubt did not live long. From the very first meeting, I could see who ran the show.

   Today’s question concerning this required “blinding zeal”; have you noticed it in your life or the life of those around you. This question is posed to three groups. First, we will pose it to present members of WOFF. Second, we will pose it to former members. And lastly, we will ask outsiders when or if they have ever noticed the blind zeal which permeates WOFF-life? My theory from the years I spent under the teachings and dictates of Jane Whaley is this; it is not “if”, but when will you recognize this “blind zeal” in your life or the lives of those around you? Each group will need the question posed a little differently.

    Continue reading Not “If”, But “When”? →

Books, Resources, Uncategorized, WOFF Updates

Blind Zeal in “Minimal Loss” Episode of Criminal Minds®

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    In October of 2008, an episode aired in the Criminal Minds® television series was called “Minimal Loss”. I did not see it then since I still did not own a television even though I came out of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) in July of 2008. Not until August of 2009 did I purchase a television. Some teachings of WOFF and Jane Whaley were hard to measure against the reality of “new” freedoms. Change was hard to come by after 16 years. “Minimal Loss” depicts two of the shows main characters as they attempt an investigation into a religious cult. Yes, I know the whole premise was conjecture and very much “Hollywood”. However, after watching it a few times, I began to see it as a composite of several true aspects of religious cults of years past. A conversation with a cult expert over this question confirmed my thoughts as they agreed the show was a composite depiction of certain known characteristics of cults.

    In brief, the local authorities become suspicious after a phone call is made accusing one of the male leaders of inappropriate contact with underage females. That is not unlike Tony Alamo of Alamo Ministries, Warren Jeffs of FLDS or Michael Tessner of Strong City. All of whom we have written about before and last I checked each was serving prison time for convictions on these types of crimes. The religious cult in the show lives on a compound set in many ways similar to the one the Branch Davidians lived on in Waco, TX. There are weapons and explosives and the like used during the show. Two FBI agents from the BAU team go in undercover to assess the situation and interview the younger females. The whole plan blows up literally when a State leader orders a raid based on an ongoing weapons investigation he was leading. The raid goes bad and I will not go into a lot more detail of the sequence of events except to draw out some interesting content that pertains to the theme of this blog.

   Let me acknowledge here that I am sure I do not recognize all the similarities between the show content and other cults. Even after watching it four times, I see new things. I am also sure I am set to key in on certain things that relate to my experience in WOFF and under the teachings and directives of Jane Whaley. After the State raid goes bad, the BAU is called in to negotiate with the cult leader for the best ending possible. The title of the show comes from the strategy used. Minimal Loss is the chosen strategy otherwise known as the “trickle theory”. Moves are plotted to get one person released, then maybe one or two more and then more. If at any time the negotiations break down the team would go in the extract as many as possible recognizing they will not save everyone. Some will die and in this show some did as we will mention later.   

  Continue reading Blind Zeal in “Minimal Loss” Episode of Criminal Minds® →