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Man, I don't even know where to start with this. I get into the Way in 2010. Way Disciples (basically a revamped program of the WOWs) knocked on my door. I got sucked in because at the actual household level of things they seem to be good folks. Hell, I still think there are good people in the Way. It's just the organization as a whole is bad. Anyways, I took the classes. I went out Way Disciple. I went on Staff. The more I served the more unhappy I was. I couldn't figure it out. A while back (while we were still on staff, actually) my wife and I did an experiment to see whether or not we would be confronted or not. We quit tithing. I was certain that somebody was going to notice and bring it up, but nobody did. When I got to HQ, people were leaving staff or getting fired left and right. People who had said they were going to come on staff cancelled at the last minute. We were doing a lot of "volunteer" hours to make sure all the work got done. Since there weren't enough people to get all the work done more and more responsibility was being added to just about everyone that was competent enough to handle even the simplest of tasks. People who should have been fired for gross incompetency were allowed to remain in their jobs simply because HQ didn't have the bodies to replace them. Needless to say, my wife and I were unhappy. We finally made the announcement that we wanted to leave. In some ways it didn't go over well, and in others it did. We had to sit down with our President's cabinet and explain why we wanted to leave, that was the difficult part. The good part was that they moved us out of there in like a weeks time. Anyways, we get to our field location and things are just kind of . . . I don't know how to describe it other than to say "dead". The fellowship is only a handful of people. The coordinator and his wife are the only people who lead or teach. And the teachings are just kind of empty of any content because it's just trying to go over what was said in the STS. I'm not sure if everyone on the site is familiar with any current members of the Way, but it seems that RFR is on the warpath. I recently spoke with Karl Kahler (the author of "The Cult That Snapped). I explained to him what is going on, and he said it's pretty much the same thing that was going on in Martindale's day; a huge purge. I'm not going to drop a lot of names, because some people are still private. So, before I went on Staff, I was looking forward to working with a friend of mine. The month before my wife and I arrived he got canned. So, we're talking around July of 2014. I arrived in August of that year and left the following year. In the time that I was there I know of at least 2 other people that got fired. I'm not sure of the reasons. Another friend of mine that I had made while on Staff (who felt the same way about life at HQ) had some discrepancies with his pay. After weeks of nothing being done to rectify the problem of NOT GETTING PAID FOR OVERTIME, he just decided to show up a few minutes late to work to get his time back. Needless to say he got in trouble, and was asked if he wanted to stay. He answered honestly and said no. Within a month he was gone. There were two couples who were in their second year of in residence Way Corp training. They asked some questions about the Foundational Class. They were immediately let go. Fast forward to right now. I got some news this weekend about some corp being dropped. One couple (the husband had recently been promoted to coordinate the IO department) had been fired shortly after I left HQ. He gets sent to another state. I'm not sure of the details, but this weekend I found out he was dropped from the Corp and has left the ministry. Another good friend of mine who was Corp also got dropped. The reason? He made some comments about feeling unproductive. Now here's the kicker. One of the Vice Presidents of the Way got canned also. We're talking a senior officer. So, I see all this stuff going on, and I've read all the stuff about the years under Martindale (which I didn't go through) and I think to myself "Oh my God. It's happening again". I don't know what else to say. I'm in the process of getting out. I don't know how to go about breaking it to my "leadership" without getting sucked back in.

BlueCord One thing that helps, in my opinion, is coming to grips with the reality that The Way is just a cult. It's not some elite organization, striving for some noble goal. It's just a cult, like thousands of cults that have come before it and thousands yet to come. You're not reneging on a sacred vow nor should you allow anyone to make you feel guilty or ashamed. Even the worst of organizations has people who, as individuals, are goodhearted. The organization, itself, is corrupt to its very core. I first became involved in 1972. Even back then, it was corrupt and evil. I didn't know that, of course, nor did many of the genuinely good people I met along the way. Get out while you can. Don't be talked out of your decision.