Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Peoples Temple vs WOFF, Uncategorized

Questions and Possible Answers About WOFF-life

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      For those who are new to this blog or have read just a few posts, you may know by now that I am a survivor of 16 years under the influence of the teachings and doings of Jane Whaley. She was/is the leader of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) in Spindale, NC. Over the years, there developed doctrine, teachings and practices that would extend Jane Whaley’s control into many, if not all areas of her member’s lives. At WOFF, the 1990’s and earlier in this decade were filled with court battles over different issues. Some cases would be child custody suits. One case was brought by an ex-member stating Jane had brought physical harm while praying over them. Inside Edition sent in a young man to film meetings and take notes on the conduct, practices and prayer at WOFF. Life at WOFF never seemed to lack drama. Why was that? How did folks get entangled with such a group and yet stay even in the midst of all the drama and controversy?

    In the previous post, I wrote this statement-  “People already in church and familiar with the concept (“…self-sacrifice, devotion and discipline) and even very religious about their religion seem to flow better at WOFF. That must have been me for many years… Right?”  I suggested that I was this person, familiar with self-sacrifice, devotion and discipline. Membership for the faithful at WOFF certainly did require “self-sacrifice, devotion and discipline”. There was self-sacrifice of time working for the church doing various tasks. A sacrifice of money- as Jane would check the records to see if you were tithing and there was always a fund raising project to support or multiple offerings being taken in a service, especially when there were no visitors. Devotion- faithful WOFF members lived out a devotion to Jane and the group that ran deep and cost them dearly. Discipline—the faithful regular WOFF members denied/deny themselves many activities and pleasures.

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Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Peoples Temple vs WOFF, Uncategorized

“Sheep Stealers”? Jim Jones and Jane Whaley?

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    During the last few weeks, I have been considering some further questions about Peoples Temple and Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF).  Did Jim Jones, leader of Peoples Temple, participate in the recruitment of church members from other congregations? How do we know? (This is commonly referred to as “sheep stealing”.)  Did/does Jane Whaley, leader of WOFF participate in recruitment of church members from other congregations? How do we know? If both leaders did recruit other church members, were the techniques similar or different?    

    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 authors tell of several attempts of Jim Jones to recruit members from other churches. Let’s look at a few examples.

    “Jones’s expansion attempts were those of an impatient and aggressive man. While on a quest for new organizational techniques in the late 1950s, he had read extensively about Father Divine, spiritual father of the gigantic Peace Mission movement. In typically direct fashion, Jim Jones drove to Philadelphia to meet the black cult leader in person.” (page 59) Father Divine has been mentioned previously on this blog. Here is another link to read about the sharecropper turned “self-proclaimed “Dean of the Universe,”..(page 58)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_Father_Divine

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Criteria for Cults, Peoples Temple vs WOFF, Uncategorized

WOFF Family Has Mother Jane as the Head

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    One of the first things a new Word of Fellowship (WOFF) member learns is how important it is to cut-off contact and ties with those who “don’t walk in God’s ways” or “do not have the fear of God (god)”. This includes not only co-workers or friends outside the church, but family and relatives that are not in WOFF. These relatives could be neutral on Jane Whaley or be against Jane Whaley, it does not matter. If they are not walking in the Truth that Jane preaches/teaches then they are not worthy of your fellowship or company. This includes family during the holidays or birthdays or any other special family gathering times. Why? Of course, Jane Whaley does not allow her members to celebrate holidays. This is not new information to anyone who is familiar at all with WOFF. 

    As mentioned previously, I went along with the no holiday practices of WOFF. I did not go visit my family for years on any holiday. Now, I see the practice accomplished more than just keeping “WOFFers from sinning”. (Did it really accomplish that?) Keeping WOFF members from contact with family may have been spiritualized as necessary to “protect the gift of God in you” or keep you from the “common ground” that still exists in you and them. See the post about common ground here… https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=2356 .  The post “What is Common Ground?” serves as an introduction to this post. I explain the term “spiritual parents” in that post. The concept was a growing one at WOFF. It sounded so spiritual to follow others and set-aside your natural parents that may not be “in the things of God” and “flowing with the revelation” that God had given Jane.  But, really it served to cut you off and substitute Jane Whaley and other WOFF leaders as your family. Many faithful adult members would go further than using the term “spiritual parents” for Jane and Sam. Some would call Jane – Mother Jane and Sam- Father Sam. Many children had begun calling Jane – Grandma Jane by the time I left.  Is WOFF the first group where this practice is found?  Where else can this phenomenon be found?

    Continue reading WOFF Family Has Mother Jane as the Head →

Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

Memories from November Seminars

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    During the years spent at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) in Spindale, NC; there were some memories around the November seminars that need to be shared. The build-up to each seminar was intense, but for some reason the November seminar was unique on many occasions. These seminars were always held the week of Thanksgiving. My memories of these times may not be in time order and/or I may confuse something from a May seminar with this time of year.  But, here goes…

  Can any previous or present members relate to the feeling you first get when you tell your family outside of WOFF that you will not be seeing them during Thanksgiving week? The question comes- Why? Then the answer- Well, the church is having a seminar and we really need to be there… or the church is having a week long seminar and we all need to be there…. Whatever your answer ended up being, did it feel awkward? Maybe as a new WOFF member it was real easy to tell your family that Jane said I needed to be there… or maybe you told them that you would come see them another time. Were you so sure you would be allowed to go see them another time? As best I can remember, it was awkward for me.  

    But, since I was so excited about learning WOFFness and hearing what would be preached, I went to my first November Seminar in 1992. The meetings were longer back then and there were three meetings a day on most days. If I remember right; the meetings were 9:00AM, 2:00PM and 6:00PM? Does that sound right? The evening meetings could last until after midnight. There was much more blasting, deliverance prayer back then. There would be teaching most meetings, followed by long prayer sessions of folks- well you know- getting devils out. It never occurred to me to wonder why so many folks would get prayer for the same thing over and over again. I never stopped to ask- “Is this stuff really working or is there something else going on here?” Those would have been the logical questions to ask.  

Continue reading Memories from November Seminars →

Behavior Control, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

What is WOFFness? (2)

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   We ended the first post in this series on the term “WOFFness” with “There is more to discuss about the deception of WOFFness on WOFFers and its attempt to deceive those on the outside. Is everyone on the outside of WOFF in love with WOFFness and all that goes with it?” And there were also these questions—“Are WOFF members aware of the effects of the term? Could they not even be aware that they live in WOFFness? What do others outside of WOFF see and know about WOFFness? Do outsiders appreciate WOFFness in every situation?”  

    As a Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) member for many years, I can say that in my experience; as the life inside WOFF developed into a more distinct sub-culture, I was aware of the changes, but not fully aware of the effects of those changes. The rules were added in a subtle way in many cases and always justified as either “Jane Whaley has said…” or “It is God’s will for this to happen…” or “This activity has opened our young people to sin so we must go in a different direction….” Some seemingly legitimate spiritual reason was given for all of the rules as far as I remember. Yet, rarely if ever did I stop and count or summarize the rules. Very plainly put, Jane Whaley instituted a LOT of rules or “don’ts” as I have shared in previous posts. (see posts in the Category – WOFF Don’ts) But, living in WOFF and under WOFFness meant that the full understanding of how these “don’ts” affected us was not discussed between members or even considered necessarily a bad thing. Living this way was just part of WOFFness. Does this seem plausible? Could someone be under all of the WOFF rules/don’ts and not be affected in some way? Simply keeping up with all the don’ts could cause anxiety, right? After all, the penalty for doing a don’t could be severe and cause great turmoil in your daily life.

    Continue reading What is WOFFness? (2) →

Behavior Control, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

What is WOFFness? (1)

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    In several posts, we have looked at terms used by Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). One of those posts is found here…. https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=101 .  We have discussed the purpose and the effects of these terms. Jane Whaley is the leader and she took time to define the use and meaning of many different terms. In most cases thsee terms were defined to mean what she wanted. During the development of this blog, I have created several terms to describe what I experienced during my time at WOFF. For this post we will discuss the term “WOFFness”. What does it mean? What does it include? Are WOFF members aware of the effects of the term? Could they not even be aware that they live in WOFFness? What do others outside of WOFF see and know about WOFFness? Do outsiders appreciate WOFFness in every situation?  

    First, let’s discuss the feeling and thoughts of being a WOFF member that are directly included in the meaning of the term. As a reminder, I was under the influence of the teachings of Jane Whaley either directly or indirectly for 16 years. Does that qualify me to give meaning to the term WOFFness? In my opinion, yes, the time inside gives me the experience needed to shape and define the term. While inside WOFF, there were many emotions, thoughts and experiences that were noteworthy. The attitude of WOFF members was one that no one else in Christianity had the revelation, the understanding, and the holiness that was conveyed on those living at WOFF. Conveyed? Yes, conveyed by listening to, obeying and living around Jane Whaley. Key to living at WOFF was the belief that Jane Whaley was the key to living for God, knowing God, understanding God and ultimately making it to heaven. If you were out of favor with Jane, you were out of favor with God. If you were in favor with Jane, you were tight with God.

   It sounds absurd when put in those terms, But, I challenge any one inside or outside to dispute those statements. Why is this crucial to WOFFness? Because, if you are to understand WOFFness, you must first understand where WOFFness originates and that is with Jane. Jane originates shapes and moderates the attitudes that are crucial for those inside WOFF. The first attitude and belief is fear of Jane. WOFFness is built on that. Jane promotes fear of her power as the foundation and undisputable requirement for all members in order to remain at WOFF. That fear of a person replaces the fear of God. In many ways, the fear of Jane is disguised as the fear of God. But, who on the outside is really fooled?

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Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

No Outward Symptoms – Sorta

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     Over the last couple of years, I have heard several stories of individuals who have had illnesses and not known their condition. The condition, usually cancer, would progress until they had a very nominal pain and went for an examination. At that point, the doctor would tell them they had more than a backache, more than a stomach ache or headache- they had cancer. One fellow went in because he was bothered by his back. He was diagnosed with stage four cancer and was dead in two weeks. Another lady, I heard about was in her early 30’s. She had never been in to doctor other than for check-ups. Her stomach ache revealed cancer all through her body. She has been taking treatments and is working as much as she can. Still another man I heard about had a headache for several days; he was diagnosed with brain cancer and had never missed a day’s work in his life.  He is trying to work while he takes treatments.

   As the stories kept coming to my attention, I could readily see that as humans, we know very little about our own bodies. In certain cases, we could have a deformity or malady and not know it. We usually have to have someone point it out after they have examined us beyond what can be seen on the outside. In the theme of questions, I began to consider my life at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). The group, led by Jane Whaley, has been hard for some folks to figure out or diagnose. Certainly on the outside, many do not see the symptoms. Many see the fine cars, big house and nice clothes and do not see the symptoms of an illness that go deeper than the surface. It is easy to miss the illness when you look at the outside trappings of an apparently “healthy” looking group of folks such as WOFF. When a person sees the “happy” expressions and the courteous mannerisms of the youth, they become oblivious to the other symptoms that definitely exist.

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