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Since being so totally taken in and deceived by VPW and TWI I now find myself being very critical of things that people say. When an ad appears on TV my immediate reaction is what is the hook they are using to reel me in. Especially when someone quotes something they heard via social media, i immediately want to know who is their source? So many on social media are only interested in their 15 minutes of fame and will say about anything. Always in the back of my mind is the realization I once was tricked by a con man and I do not want to allow this to happen again. These articles are very helpful to ensure I can make an informed decision about what I am listening to.

Hilarious but seriously sad. In my experience with The Way (1970-1987), Wierwille's suggestions and outright orders amounted to "Do what you're told." Many of us loyalists in The Way Corps derived our willingness to obey Wierwille from our belief that when we did what we were told, we were "obeying God." We believed Wierwille spoke for God. This setup treats mature adults as children. It kept me and other Way Corps especially, stuck in an immature role, not thinking for ourselves, not claiming our own autonomy, not questioning VP. Today, I say he was overbearing and mean. Added to this, Wierwille called us "his kids." He would say it in a charming way, like when we sat around the campfire in the Way Woods down Wierwille Road. We felt like a family then. BUT he was deliberately setting himself up as a father image and we fell for it. Until some of us woke up to the B.S., and that doesn't stand for Boy Scouts :-) WE WERE NOT HIS KIDS. We had our own parents. HE WAS NOT OUR FATHER. HE WAS A CON ARTIST who used us to promote him as a bible authority and get others to support his organization. Can you tell I'm worked up this morning? I'm feeling like this because this week I got more messages from victims of Wierwille's insanity, either in the old days or recently in an off-shoot spawned by Wierwille's twisted beliefs and practices. You may know about the phrase we all used (and MANY innies and off-shoot believers still use): "Dr. Wierwille is our father in the Word." That was so ingrained in many of us (not all) that it locked us into dependence on him, trapped us in a stage of unquestioning obedience to whatever he said the Bible said to do. We also adopted his opinions about the world and how we should behave in it. For instance, he taught that The Way represented God's true household of believers because we had "the accuracy of The Word." That fostered the practice of looking down on outsiders. It made us think we were more "spiritual" than they were and we'd get more rewards in heaven if we remained faithful to The Way (give our time, money, resources). As Greasespotters know, this only breeds haughtiness and unkindness to people who did not follow Wierwille--to say the least. I could go on, but enough already. Have a good day. Charlene L. Edge Author of Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International

Certainly it would be difficult to accept and process. It is hard for children to image anything sexual about their parents.

I keep those messages confidential. But one thing I can tell you without naming names is one person asked whether I knew if their mother was one of VPW's "girls." I did and I told that person the truth, which they said they already suspected from comments they'd heard directly from their mother, who was a Corps grad. I also know she solicited other women for VPW. How would you like to hear that about your mother?

Matt 23:9 (KJV) And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.