Tag Archives: Word of Faith Fellowship

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.

  Continue reading No Outward Symptoms – Sorta →

Behavior Control, Books, Resources, Peoples Temple vs WOFF, Uncategorized

More From The “Raven” (2)

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         In two previous posts, we have reviewed some excerpts from the work by Tim Reiterman- “Raven”. Reiterman co-authored with John Jacobs (copyright ©1982 Tim Reiterman, Introduction copyright 2008 by Tim Reiterman, ISBN 978-1-58542-678-2); the authors tell “The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People”. “Tim Reiterman is a prizewinning journalist who extensively covered Jonestown for the San Francisco Examiner. He was wounded in the jungle airstrip attack that killed a U.S. Congressman, plus three reporters, and a Peoples Temple defector.” (from the back cover)  The link to the most recent post is here… https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=3281 . There are more similarities in the story of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple when comparing them to Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF).

    In following our theme of questions, we must ask a few more on the subject of this post. Why are there similarities in the practices that Jim Jones used and those of Jane Whaley and her leadership at WOFF? We will list more similarities in this post. Do the similarities speak of the same goals or just the same methods used in governing and/or controlling the members of each group? The two leaders had very few similarities in their message; but in their methods, we find likenesses- why? What was the goal of Jim Jones and was that goal the same or similar to Jane Whaley’s goal(s)? Regardless of the differences in the messages of the two leaders, what were the outcomes of the control methods used in each case? What was the key ingredient that allowed Peoples Temple members to sacrifice their own life for Jim Jones- some willingly, some not…? Is that same ingredient found in the lives of WOFF members today? Hopefully, we will find some answers to these questions. If the answers cannot be found here, we will keep searching and asking more questions. I believe the key to understanding WOFF and groups like WOFF is in learning about the practices that are used on the members and also between the members.

   Continue reading More From The “Raven” (2) →

Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Uncategorized

Do Christians Suffer Illnesses?

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     Do Christians suffer illnesses? Yes, Christians get sick from sometimes very hard to detect diseases. Some even die in what some may regard as “strange circumstances” or “before their time”. Recently, I purchased a book written by Renee Coates Scheidt, titled- “Songs of the Night — Singing Sorrow’s Songs Through the Darkness of Grief”. (Copyright ©1995 by Renee Coates Scheidt –ISBN 1-888237-34-1) When I picked up the book, I had no idea about the subject of the book except what could be gleaned from the title. While reading this book, I have found several things that reminded me of my time at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). Before I share those thoughts, let’s review some of the events in the book.

   The author tells in very frank terms, her life experiences during the time she was married to her husband. She reviews meeting and beginning her relationship with him. He got “cold feet” before their wedding and would later recover from that and they would eventually marry. Recounting the beginning years, she tells of their struggles to diagnose the reason for his mood swings and sometimes very destructive behaviors. She writes, “When you are a dedicated Christian, the humiliation of being depressed can be so overwhelming! Very few people in our world understood us… Couldn’t we speak the truth in Jesus’ name command the depression to leave? No matter how many Bible verses we quoted on the victory we have in Christ or how hard Chuck (her husband) worked to apply them, the depression never left for long.” (page 28)

    Can anyone else relate? Has there ever been a mountain of circumstances or even an illness that was in your life and no matter the prescribed steps you took – the situation became no better or even got worse? Has anyone else ever been in the confess your healing mode? After all, it seems so logical on one hand. Yet, after a while, when the answers don’t come, the questions go deeper. Is this the time when real relationship with God starts? When we come to the end of our formulas?

   Continue reading Do Christians Suffer Illnesses? →

Behavior Control, Books, Resources, Criteria for Cults, Peoples Temple vs WOFF

What Are The Questions? (2)

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    In the last post, we stated questions that have been asked about Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). Some questions were about Jane Whaley, the leader. Some were about daily life at WOFF. “Why” was/is a common question and well as “how”? We shared some questions that new members have to face. Those answers would be very interesting as each new member would face them first in the church and then in their private lives. The main point being that their private life morphs/merges into their life at church. For sure, new members learn that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed – to Jane. When a new member joins WOFF, at whatever degree or stage that is or becomes, he or she will face the realization at some point that privacy is a dwindling commodity. All facets of life merge into the realm of the church’s/Jane’s purview.

     Life at WOFF becomes all consuming- why? Why did/does membership at WOFF require ALL of a member? What other churches which claim to be “Protestant, non-denominational church…( as defined by classical Christianity) with traditional, evangelical doctrines” require so much of their members? I am not saying there are no others; I just want to know who they are… We shared about this type of group in a post from August 1, 2010- “Know the Marks of Cults” Part 6 found here: https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=2896 .

    Continue reading What Are The Questions? (2) →