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After creating a live radio show in 1942 to broadcast his sermons, an out-of-work preacher from Ohio was quickly throw into the spotlight of an international spiritual movement. Through his hypnotic Power for Abundant Living (PFAL) course, Wierwille bought the Way International to a large farm in Ohio during a time of revolution in the 1960s. “The Teacher” appeared to be devoted to God, but actually wanted sex, money, and control. (Ep 62) A disgruntled pastor of the Evangelical and Reformed Church creates his own religious group in 1942 after claiming he received Biblical secrets dating back from the First Century AD. By 1980, The Way International was one of the largest and wealthiest cults on Earth. Despite it’s tremendous growth, Victor Paul Wierwille’s paranoia and institutionalized methods of control ultimately led to the cult’s demise. Find these a Parcast.com

Thanks for posting this, Rocky. I just finished listening to both episodes. I think they did a good job researching and was grateful they cited from Karl Kahler's and Kristen Skedgell's books, and from Undertow. Not that the producers should have, but they had not contacted me prior to the podcast, so I was surprised. I hope the show will inform more people still in the dark about TWI, especially those who prefer to listen rather than read stories. They did refer to The Way's official biography of Wierwille, but gave no title. Does anyone here have a copy of it?

Ok, let's see. These people have said a lot of things that sound like sound teaching. Then again, so did vpw, and he was plagiarizing and considered the twi budget to be his own piggy bank. (And made merchandise of the people, and so on...) They set up the name and website for the ex-twi group while announcing they wanted to try to reform twi, and set up the new group while in twi. (Which is what vpw did- he had his twi original group going for years while he was on the church payroll before he resigned his pastorage.) What else do we have here, among all of the "talking a good game?" "There is not a single individual controlling the group, it is a handful of people controlling the group. And they are tightly knit." Welcome back to the us-and-them. The cadre runs the show, everyone else is second-tier or lower, and has neither voice nor vote on anything. "There is basically a handful of regulars that do the teachings, with the occasional cameo appearance of someone fairly close but not in the true inner circle. " There's a token presence of others, otherwise there's a tier of teachers and that's that.If that was all, it wouldn't be that bad. But it is NOT all... "They are following the teachings of VPW almost entirely, with some modifications here and there, and they all praise VPW almost without exception. " All hail the plagiarizing rapist! He claimed to hear from God while ripping all his material off other Christians- but surely he actually got it all from God. He claimed to have had a Special Connection to God, and he would never have lied about that- we have his assurances he was legit! Let's pretend he really heard from God in 1942 as he claimed almost 30 years later! " There hasn't been any interest expressed as to what we are interested in hearing more about, or topics of interest at all. " There are the insiders, and there's all you jerks. All you jerks need to listen, support the group, buy their stuff, and pay 10% of your income. In return, be thankful they are teaching and selling and keep your fool mouth shut! You have a subject you want to hear taught? Tough! They teach what they want and are not accountable to you as a whole. "While many of the teachings are well done, few have any real relevance to me, and some of them aren't good at all, wandering around a topic like the teacher has no real direction. My situation is unique, and they are just blowing their own horns, showing what they know about a particular topic because that's what they feel like teaching." Like tens of thousands of Christians in the US, they can do some good teachings. In the process, they're more concerned about showing off than someone getting something when they listen. Edification? No, self-aggrandizement. Congratulations! You had the nerve to look behind the curtain, and didn't ignore the man you saw there. You gave them a close look, and saw that they talked a good game, but have nothing to offer you but nostalgia for "the good old days" of twi- which weren't as "good" as we were led to believe. There's plenty of other Christians out there. Many are far better and healthier to associate with. The insular "ex-twi only" system is self-limiting, and can't go much beyond the best performances in old twi days. That's pretty much something they used to criticize churches for at the time- limiting Christians by locking the doctrine.

Alright everyone, I have an update on the progress of the R&R group. After becoming aware of them in May of 2017, and following their progress from a disorganized group to a somewhat organized group, I have reached the conclusion that what several of you have said is correct along these points: There is not a single individual controlling the group, it is a handful of people controlling the group. And they are tightly knit. There is basically a handful of regulars that do the teachings, with the occasional cameo appearance of someone fairly close but not in the true inner circle. They are following the teachings of VPW almost entirely, with some modifications here and there, and they all praise VPW almost without exception. There hasn't been any interest expressed as to what we are interested in hearing more about, or topics of interest at all. While many of the teachings are well done, few have any real relevance to me, and some of them aren't good at all, wandering around a topic like the teacher has no real direction. My situation is unique, and they are just blowing their own horns, showing what they know about a particular topic because that's what they feel like teaching. I had stated clearly before that I was keeping them at arm's length, and now I see they have nothing to offer me. Going forward I will have nothing to add because I am no longer following them at all.