Rocky

Technically, that's a question for an attorney. Change the "could" to "would" and it becomes subjective and a matter of how severe the public perception becomes.

Good thread to bring back from the abyss... Since 2004, to my knowledge, two books by former TWI insiders have been published: Losing the Way: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing, Manipulation, Abuse and Escape by Kristen Skedgell (2008) " A riveting and finely crafted true story, Losing the Way recounts how the daughter of East Coast intellectuals was recruited into a well-known rightwing Bible cult, The Way International, where she was manipulated, betrayed, and abused, before being rescued by the worldly mother she rejected. Skedgell shows how easily an idealistic young person can be swept away by a spiritual quest and the quiet malevolence lurking beneath the religious exterior of a false leader." and Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International by Charlene Edge (2016) "Charlene Edge’s riveting memoir about the power of words to seduce, betray, and, in her case, eventually save. After a personal tragedy left her bereft, teenaged Charlene rejected faith and family when recruiters drew her into The Way International, a sect led by the charismatic Victor Paul Wierwille. The Way became one of the largest cults in America. Charlene gave it seventeen years of her life. Believing that God led her to Wierwille, she underwent his intensive two-year training program, The Way Corps, designed to produce loyal leaders. When Wierwille warned of a possible government attack, she prepared to live off the grid. She ignored warning signs of Wierwille’s paranoia and abuse—he condemned dissenters as the Devil’s agents, he required followers to watch pornography, he manipulated Corps into keeping his secrets in a “lock box,” he denied the Holocaust, and he surrounded himself with bodyguards. She married a Corps graduate and they served across the United States as Way leaders, funneling money into Wierwille’s bursting coffers and shunning anyone who criticized him. As obedient Way Corps, they raised their child to believe the doctrines of Wierwille, the cult’s designated “father in the Word.” Eventually Charlene was promoted to the inner circle of biblical researchers, where she discovered devastating secrets: Wierwille twisted texts of Scripture to serve his personal agenda, shamelessly plagiarized the work of others, and misrepresented the purpose of his organization. Worst of all, after Wierwille died in 1985, shocking reports surfaced of his secret sex ring. Amid chaos at The Way’s Ohio-based headquarters, Charlene knew she had to escape—for her own survival and her child’s. Reading like a novel, Undertow is not only a brilliant cautionary tale about misplaced faith but also an exposé of the hazards of fundamentalism and the destructive nature of cults. Through her personal story, Charlene Edge shows how a vulnerable person can be seduced into following an authoritarian leader and how difficult it can be to find a way out.

John's wife Hope asked me to post this letter and some associated follow up. He wrote it and sent it 17 years ago this week. In a sense, it contains some of the same stated concerns the R & R group has stated much more recently. I think it's about 5 pages altogether. Of course, more than 30 years ago, another group of then soon to be former TWI leaders tried to get the attention of the hardheaded and hardhearted hoarders of millions of ABS dollars. So, for your reading pleasure, here's what John wrote in June 2000. Richeson Letter to Rivenbark June 2000.pdf

Fig pep

How cool is that?! Have fun.

In October 2016, cult leader Victor Barnard was sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting two teenage girls for nearly a decade. Tonight’s episode of In An Instant will focus on the family of Lindsay Tornambe, one of Barnard’s victims. When Lindsay moved to Minnesota to live with Barnard’s River Road Fellowship, he called for her family to let Lindsay live with him and nine other “maidens” in his home. It was then that she was forced to undergo nearly a decade of sexual abuse at the hands of the cult leader. Read on to learn more about Victor Barnard. ----- Of course, many readers here already know most of these facts, most importantly that Barnard... "Before starting his work as a solo cult leader, Barnard was a member of a Christian sect called The Way..."

That's heavy, dude!

btw, T-Bone I'm confident you know this but maybe not everyone does... one doesn't have to own a Kindle to read Kindle e-books. I use the free Kindle app on both my computer and phone. :)

This 99 cent "book" is the transcript of a speech Bertrand Russell gave nearly a hundred years ago. Russell had no use for religion, but his insight on Free Thought and Official Propaganda is illuminating in light of our experience with a fundamentalist cult... if you dare read it.

He paid the bills... his MLM scheme provided her with an "abundant living."

Top of the page, right side of the dark blue bar.

You can watch it online. AETV.com

Did you forget where the doctrinal forum is? That's probably where you could get the attention of people who might be interested in engaging regarding those questions.

That was my thought too.

Rocco Errico

Yes... late 1970s, then again in the early 1980s.

Wouldn't it be intriguing if you could ask leaders of that renegade group and get them to candidly answer? But then again, I'd infer from the group's videos and writings that OldSkool is right on the money...

Great question. Thanks for posing it. From where I sit (or stand), it doesn't make a hill of beans difference what one believes about God (or god or gods).

Why would you assume nobody did that?

Just start googling the names of early way corpse grads... you'll find them if they want to be found.

At AETV.com. Nine episodes from season one now available.

Can whited sepulchres "wake the hell up?" Just sayin'

Yes, that's a subset of the baggage to which I referred.

At this point, it seems likely that the intent of this R and R group is a wholesale coup d'etat to gain access to the $50million+ assets that Rosie and Yves now control. They as much as telegraphed that intent when they denied they plan to start a new splinter ministry. Of course, I could say that I received revelation to that effect, but that would be bull dung. It IS a hunch on my part. What irks me most about the situation is their declaration that they intend to oversee a spiritual revival in TWI. I mean, come on... how freakin' arrogant of them. Even if they had a humble attitude, wouldn't it still be up to God rather than people to determine whether there was going to be a spiritual revival? The people seeking the overthrow of the current administration of TWI have LOTS of baggage themselves. Have any of them demonstrated anything even close to resembling repentance for their own wickedness? Just sayin'.

oops