Tag Archives: Cult Criteria

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… →

Books, Resources, Uncategorized

Two Good Questions, Two Good Answers

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   Several months ago, a fellow survivor of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) gave me an article he had cut-out of a newspaper. He did not leave me the title or date of this publication, but the author of the small piece was very well known. The article was titled, “No need to fear a loving God- In My Opinion by Billy Graham”. It included a question and answer. Here is a copy….

Fear of God and Love for God
Article answers question about fearing God

   I stuffed the small piece of paper in my calendar and left it there for weeks. It was not until a second article came to my attention that I retrieved the first one and considered them side by side. In reference to the first clipping, and in order to avoid quoting the entire piece, I will recap. The person writing the question was trying to reconcile the instructions to fear God and love Him. “How can you love someone you also fear?” It would be incorrect to assume that the entire scope of the matter could be answered in a small newspaper clipping, but, one could get some direction from this answer.

   Continue reading Two Good Questions, Two Good Answers →

Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

“Mind Over Mania”- on MSNBC

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   Sunday evening, MSNBC aired a documentary about Teen Mania and the Honor Academy. In previous posts, we have reviewed the Teen Mania program. The link is here:  Protests in Dallas at Acquire the Fire Conference – https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=4049 . The latest post for the alumni blog is titled “MSNBC Airs Documentary on Honor Academy”- http://www.recoveringalumni.com/2011/11/msnbc-airs-documentary-on-honor-academy.html .

Here is the trailer from docs.msnbc.com

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

  
Continue reading “Mind Over Mania”- on MSNBC →

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 →

Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

What Was I Thinking?

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  There are moments of reflection after coming out of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). Okay, there are hours of reflection after coming out of that group. I was under the influence for about sixteen years. The story is one that many faithful readers of this blog have already heard. But, after a very long day, the hours slip away and the night runs away from me- so to speak. I get to asking myself “What was I thinking during those years in WOFF?” If you are on the outside looking in you might be wondering what do members of WOFF think about and how do they reason away many of the obviously strange or un-normal characteristics of life inside WOFF?

   That is a fair question to ask. After all how many other churches in Western North Carolina practice communal living? How many other churches have a closed culture and only allow church members to attend their “Christian” school? There may be a few. How many other churches in North Carolina have been investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)? How many churches get an undercover member to film their services and broadcast them over national television? How many other churches in North Carolina or in the Southern United States practice load prayer, blasting and deliverance from demons? Are there other churches in America that have such a control over their members that they tell them how to dress, where to live, where to work, where to go to college, who to have relationships with and who to marry? Do other churches forbid their members from accessing newspapers, television, magazines, “unauthorized” books and literature? Do others churches instruct the husbands and wives on the approved birth control method and approved sexual technique- in detail? If there are deviations from the set and ordered life within the kitchen, living room, bathroom or bedroom; do other churches require the family members to report these “sins” to church leadership and bring all to church for “correction”? If there are other churches that practice this kind of control over their members- do you want to join that church? Does your church already “flow” this way?

    So, after learning about life inside WOFF, it would be a natural question to ask- What do the members think of all these controls and how do they rationalize and tell themselves that all of this is acceptable and necessary in order to please God? I can only answer from my experience. There is no way to know for sure what other members were/are thinking. We can only observe how they act and what they say. But, as hard as Jane Whaley would try, she cannot absolutely control what her faithful members think ALL the time. Yes, there was/is strong mind control measures used at WOFF. But, as it is evident from the fact that some folks do leave; Jane Whaley cannot stop people from thinking their own thoughts ALL of the time. At some point, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem WOFF members can have a thought of their own. It may shock them, it may scare them, and it may cause them to think they are going to hell. That is how they are conditioned. “Stray thoughts” are labeled as the devils thoughts coming into you – the faithful WOFF member.

   Continue reading What Was I Thinking? →

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… →

Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

Has Anybody Seen My Ladder?

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  On the way to church this morning I was listening to the radio. Yes, I know that is dangerous and unacceptable in some circles. But, after leaving Word of Faith fellowship (WOFF), I eased back into the evil habit after several months of being out. When I first left WOFF, it was hard to break from the rules and rules and more rules that I lived under while in WOFF. Yes, we have gone over that before and yes, there are some rules that change and some have been added since I left in July of 2008. As I talk to other survivors of WOFF, I learn that others also find some rules of WOFF will continue with them after leaving the group.

   The pastor speaking on the radio was reviewing three parables from the Gospels. I will not attempt to re-preach the message, but, I did hear some interesting analogies. The minister was speaking about how Jesus treated the Pharisees. Jesus warned them about all the man-made rules and not to trust in them for salvation. That is what caught my attention. The analogy was used that for some folks, their “rules” become their “ladder” to climb and elevate them “closer to God” and over and above other Christians or other folks not in the church. The picture became quite clear for me as I have been on that kind of ladder in the past. The ladder climbing time at WOFF seemed logical, since keeping all of the rules was required for continued membership. In that group, obeying the rules and ultimately Jane helps you climb the ladder and move up the pyramidal structure.

   Can you relate to the word picture? As the focus shifts from following Jesus to following His followers or one main “follower”; it is easy to take those steps up the ladder and you submit to more and more outward rules and requirements thinking that keeping those requirements equates to serving God. It is a trap that many fall into even if you are not in WOFF. But, the deception when you are on such a ladder is to deny you are on the ladder. In your thinking, you are just “walking in a higher place in God” or “finding your place in God” or “walking in a higher place in the spirit”. I have heard it called many things while at WOFF. But, the actual results included a pride or feeling of superiority that came since you were submitted and could keep most all the rules and rarely if ever got correction. If you have ever been in the sound booth at WOFF, keeping the rules puts you that high or higher over other WOFFers or outsiders – for sure. After all, others just don’t walk in the place “we” do at WOFF. I heard it said and felt its effects during my time there.

Continue reading Has Anybody Seen My Ladder? →