Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International

by Charlene L Edge, Ruth Mullen (Editor), Duane Stapp (Designed by)

Overview

Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International(TM) is 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997874709
Publisher:	New Wings Press, LLC
Publication date:	03/26/2017
Pages:	474
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Charlene L. Edge spent seventeen years in The Way (1970-1987). Since then, she's become a poet and prose writer and earned a B.A. in English from Rollins College. She worked for more than a decade as a technical and proposal writer in the software industry. Her poetry has been featured on WMFE-FM's Poetic Logic and published in The Florida Writer magazine, the Tampa Writers Alliance's Wordsmith, and the Rollins Book of Verse 1885-2010; her essays have appeared in Shifting Gears: Small, Startling Moments In and Out of the Classroom and ICSA Today, magazine of the International Cultic Studies Association. She is a sought-after guest speaker, and a member of the Florida Writers Association, the Authors Guild, and ICSA. She lives in Florida with her husband, Dr. Hoyt L. Edge. Charlene blogs about their travel adventures, writing, cults, fundamentalism, and other topics at: http: //charleneedge.com.

Table of Contents

Praise for Undertow Preface by Charlene L. Edge 1: Hiding in Plain Sight PART1:RECRUITMENT 2: The Midwife 3: Brought In 4: Enticed 5: The Way for Me 6: Warnings PART 2: REVOLUTION 7: Snow Story 8: Revelation of My Own 9: In My Father's House PART 3: ADDICTION 10: The Class 11: No Defense 12: It Is Written 13: Mantras and Marriage 14: Blindsided in Toledo 15: Addicted to the Ministry 16: On the Beach 17: Summer School PART 4: LEADERSHIP TRAINING 18: Becoming Corps 19: Literal Translations 20: Nothing Is Perfect 21: The Marriage Deal 22: Those Doctor Moods 23: Family Disconnections 24: Me, Lazy? 25: The Aramaic Dream 26: Do or Die for Doctor 27: Missing Rose 28: Going Forth PART 5: ON THE FIELD 29: California Shocks 30: Climbing the Way Tree 31: A Graceless Fall 32: Boot Camp Again 52: Interlinear Fiasco 53: Spilling Secrets 54: Clampdown 55: Sleeping Beauty 56: Ambiguous Mission 57: Cures and Calamity PART 9: ESCAPE 58: Hanging Threads 59: Exodus Afterword Notes Acknowledgments Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Charlene Edge has written a brilliant and engrossing warning to the future by dissecting the past. ... What she exposes to bright liberating daylight is just how our political and religious worlds actually function based on the mesmerizing enticement of belonging to an "in-group." -Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back "A magnificently written life story that sheds light on the enticing ways of cult recruitment and indoctrination ... Undertow will sweep you away." -Janja Lalich, PhD, Professor Emerita of Sociology at California State University, Chico. Author of Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults "This thoughtful, beautifully-written memoir is a window into the gradual but compelling pull cults have on unsuspecting and well-meaning people of faith ..." -Todd French, PhD, Assistant Professor of Religion at Rollins College "... Edge's heartfelt and earnest journey will leave you in awe of what the human spirit can conquer when it launches out in the search for truth. Well-written, compelling, and inspiring." -Kristen Skedgell, author of Losing the Way "How could a smart woman join a cult that asked of her everything, and took her all in the process? ... you'll find yourself wanting to reach into the pages to pull the author out of harm's way. ... There is something in this book for anyone who has ever wholeheartedly embraced a questionable theology." -Susan Campbell, author of Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl "Undertow is a gift to young people and their families who want to understand the inner workings of fundamentalist cults." -Steve Muratore, publisher of award-winning political blog the Arizona Eagletarian "Edge's heartfelt and heartbreaking memoir takes us behind the scenes to reveal how easily a handful of religious charlatans betrayed the trust placed in their hands. ..." -Robert Ruff, Emmy Award-winning television news producer "A fascinating insider's account of day-to-day life inside a cult ... with its endless sacrifices, compromises, and increasingly convoluted doublethink ..." -Arthur Goldwag, author of Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies "Charlene Edge writes with clarity and sensitivity. This memoir on her experiences in The Way International will help readers understand the subtleties and complexities of cultic groups." -Michael D. Langone, PhD, Executive Director of the International Cultic Studies Association "This well-written exposé of life in a Christian fundamentalist cult reads like a novel and portrays, in lucid detail, how the author was seduced into joining the cult. ... she helps us understand how she lived with the founder's fantasies for seventeen years of her life. ... how she got out is as illuminating as how she got in. It is a must read." -Rita Bornstein, PhD, President Emerita of Rollins College, author of Legitimacy in the Academic Presidency: From Entrance to Exit "A tenderly written, intensely personal narrative about being swallowed alive by a cult. Edge's encounters with the abusive Victor Paul Wierwille and her firsthand observation of how The Way's Research Department twisted the Scriptures are enlightening and chilling." -Karl Kahler, author of The Cult That Snapped: A Journey Into The Way International "With balance and grace, Edge gives the reader a compelling portrait of the group's leader and his fraught relationship with his followers that stands as a warning beacon to all those drawn to charismatic prophets and their high-demand communities." -Phillip Charles Lucas, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies at Stetson University, co-editor with Thomas Robbins of New Religious Movements in the Twenty-First Century

From the Publisher

2017-03-31
An author recounts her experiences with the religious group The Way International in this debut memoir. Although Edge was raised Roman Catholic, she drifted from the religion as a teenager. Following the loss of her mother to cancer, she had questions about God that Catholicism seemed unable to answer. After participating in a Young Life camp and other flirtations with Protestantism, she came across some young men at East Carolina University who claimed to have something stronger. They were representatives of The Way International, a group founded by Victor Paul Wierwille, whose aim was to present the Bible in a way that "would reveal the original, noncontradictory, error-free Scriptures that God authored." It was with The Way that the author's life would change completely. From dropping out of college to becoming part of The Way Corps to marrying another member, she would spend years immersed in what many, including Edge, would consider a cult. Although The Way claimed to be an organization aimed at researching and spreading the original message of the Bible, the author argues that it was really a group that embraced the whims of its often moody leader: "This wasn't a church where people attended only once a week, but a thriving family with a common cause." It is easy to see from Edge's account what might attract one to such a family, despite warnings from others. While a variety of controversies ended up surrounding The Way, the author's most astute portrayal concerns her participation in its research branch. As she and others worked to translate old biblical texts, it became clear to her that the only interpretation that mattered was the one that had been decided by Wierwille. After all, his whole claim of authority came from his notion of "a perfect Bible." Scenes of disagreements among researchers might not be as salacious as accusations of sexual misconduct within the group (which Edge mentions, though she did not experience it firsthand). But the clashes pointedly illustrate the contradictions at the heart of such an institution. If a research branch denies its own findings due to the will of one man, then surely trouble is afoot. A frank, in-depth account of one woman's struggles in a controlling organization.

Kirkus Reviews