penworks

It seems to me that any organization that charges money to learn their interpretation of the scriptures which they claim to be The Word of God is suspect.

The "nostalgia for research" article/thread prompted me to contemplate the significance of "inerrancy".

The Way Ministry focused primarily on study of The Pauline Epistles. This was a precedent that was established early in the PFAL class via the introduction of Biblical administrations (Dispensationalism), the concept of observing "To Whom It Is Written" and the idea behind all people belonging to three specific categories. ("Jew, Gentile or Church of God") In addition, it was established early in the PFAL class that what "Holy Men of God" spoke or wrote was tantamount to words directly from God, himself. Thus, we were to consider the contents of The Church Epistles to be equivalent to words from God (Holy Men Of God Spoke.), directly to us (To The Church of God),

Here is were it gets sticky. Using the aforementioned criteria, it became an accepted "given" that whatever Paul said in Ephesians, Corinthians, etc was the same thing as God saying it directly to us. Suppose for a moment, though, that Paul was, perhaps, the VPW of his day. (So often, people would put forth the inverse idea that VPW was the Apostle Paul of our day and time.)

Well, I'll just say a lot of Waysider's thoughts I've entertained, too, although I steer away from suspecting that Paul's motives were less than sincere or like a con man's. Maybe, maybe not.

What does interest me, though, is the historical approach to the Scriptures that Waysider is bringing attention to in this post. I think VPW deliberately steered us away from asking these sorts of questions because he had already made up his own mind that an historical-critical approach was bad, that it meant the person thinking like this was a God rejector, etc. He repeatedly made statements like that in the PFAL class and in public meetings.

Anyhow, I for one have come to accept that those letters were written for specific reasons to specific people about specific situations and not to me...

Also, I noticed in an article "Our Sufficiency is from God" on the new Way web site that they are using a translation VP never used to my knowledge, so I guess they've "changed" something in their reserach approach. It's a N.T. translation by Charles Bray Williams. Here is why he said he produced it, from the web site http://www.sprawls.org/williams/about_the_translator.htm

“In these four centuries (since the death of William Tyndale, who was condemned to death for translating the New Testament into English and for seeking to put it into the hands of the plain people) scores of other translations have been made. Then why make another? someone asks. A distinguished Bible scholar answers, "Language is a fluid thing. It does not remain fixed for a day. There is therefore constant need of retranslation."

Our aim in publishing this new translation is that of Tyndale, "to cause the plowboy to know the Scriptures." Our aim is to make this greatest book in the world readable and understandable by the plain people. Only three books in the New Testament are written in anything like good literary Greek–Luke, the Acts, and Hebrews. In our translation of these books we have tried to use good, smooth English. Elsewhere we use simple everyday English which reproduces the everyday Greek which the writers used. In accord with this aim we have used practical everyday words to replace many technical religious and theological terms. In other words, we have tried to use the words and phrases that are understandable by the farmer and the fisherman, by the carpenter and the cowboy, by the cobbler and the cabdriver, by the merchant and the miner, by the milkmaid and the housemistress, by the woodcutter and the trucker. If these can understand it, it is certain that the scholar, the teacher, the minister, the lawyer, the doctor, and all others can.”

From where I sit......the "next generation" is, mostly, not buying into the wierwille/cult hype. Sure, there will be a few (8-10% ??) who might be swayed, but from my corner of the world.....I don't see it.

Heck, even the offshoot leaders' kids do NOT want it......CFF, CES, others?? Now granted, I have no idea about the many offshoots all over the country.....60 offshoots ??.....but have heard snippets of some.

And, didn't that SOWERS-program amount to 4 graduates .......??? At that rate, it's gonna take awhile to get "word over Ethel, Mississippi".....population 451.

<_<

Thanks for this...I hope it all fades out...people do grow up and begin to question...sometimes...

At least they put PFAL in mothballs. That's a step in the right direction. Take the poison off the shelf. Keep it out of the reach of children.

Does anyone know how much or what portions of PFAL content is carried over into their new class, The Way of Abundance and Power?

I didn't read any books or novels since they were "lies." What a crying shame...since I was an avid reader growing up.

Close to the time I left TWI, I read the novel, The Word by Irving Wallace. It's a fun read...actually makes you think! What a concept...

It is a far cry from "The Word" by VPW!

What the hell does that really mean anyway? Isn't that contrary to research? True, objective research would have to mean that you are willing to re-examine your conclusions to see if they still fit in light of new findings that may have a shared context. Currently at TWI - they have what they term "proven ministry research". It's silently considered above any further "research". And yes, this means that the so called research Department, which is really President's Publications, spends time working things from what has already been published as a first, and almost always final, authority. The logic you may ask? What has been published is "proven ministry research". To me it would be more honest to call it "enshrined conclusions from supposed research that happened a long time ago by people who are either dead or long gone".

I only wish I was as cynical as this sounds...it's true.

From OldSkool's comments: Currently at TWI - they have what they term "proven ministry research".

My questions:

Do they say that they have "unproven ministry research," too?

Do they list anywhere the people doing "research" or their credentials?

Do they publish in any journals anywhere?

After 60 years of "reconstructing the original" of the Bible, have they done it yet?

Do they access the databases in other organizations that track all the varients in extant manuscripts?

Just asking...

Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, the "Firemen's" job was to burn the inside of houses that contained books.

IMO that should be on a post-TWI reading list. Along with 1984 by Orwell mentioned by RumRunner. There are so many parallels in both books with the TWI experience some of us had, as well as Patti Roberts' From Ashes to Gold, her memoir about being a student and singing in the choir at Oral Roberts University and later as the wife of Oral's son, their divorce, her leaving the fold, and her recreation of a life outside the "cause."

Cheers! And many happy wishes!

Pen

I don't think the "MOG" could stomach the thought that the "ministry" could survive without him. The poop paper (I like that!) was him telling those of us that were around that none of us could make it without him...at least in his mind. He was the only one "spiritual" enough to lead the ministry.

Let me be real clear...Wierwille wanted the ministry to fail without him. He could not stand it being successful, not that it was.

Perhaps the answer is that many are looking for a hero. Perhaps the answer is many are looking for a good father substitute. I'm getting pretty deep, I know. Someone please pass the chocolate chip cookies.

Yes, I agree that it is highly likely he didn't want his ministry to go on without him and so in the PoP tirade, he said it was aleady contaminated even before he died, etc.

My post, which I guess I didn't make too clear, was really more about questioning whether we can say the "next generation" has woken up; in my view many have NOT. They are buying into the TWI wannabee groups, repeating the same dogmas VP propounded, etc. Granted, as Skyrider shared, his kids don't, and my daughter certainly does not, but many of her peers do. They took PFAL when they were 12 years old in the mid 1980s, right around the time we left TWI, and PFAL, VPW and the cliche lifestyle still hold sway over them.

They seek out youth groups and camps and weekend "advances" run by spinoff groups to reinforce the old TWI-based Bible rhetoric and cliched thinking. These groups are under the direction of people from my generation (I guess I would be the first generation since I took PFAL in Dec. 1970 at ECU). Many spinoffs are longtime Corps grads who are, in my view, still deluded about VP being the man of God when there is plenty of evidence to the contrary but they choose to either stay ignorant of it or deny it outright. I find that irresponsible and harmful beyond words.

We're supposed to be the adults and figure out how to guide our kids, yet my peers seem to have dropped the ball by not examining the system we were in and not listening to "the other side of the story" that is told in places like this web site (not that there really are any except for a few blogs). Worse than that in my opinion, is that they're actively PROMOTING the dogmas, directly or indirectly, by continuing to indoctrinate their own kids (and other's kids), who aren't even kids anymore, they are 30 years old! I say shame on them.

On top of that, some of my generation who left TWI but just went on to other things in their lives and never tried to confront their TWI experience and sort it out have another set of problems of their own making. They did not talk to their kids (now grown up) about TWI nor explain the dangers of it or encourage their kids to get educated about cults, fundamentalism, etc. so that their kids get easily sucked into a TWI offshoot and these parents shake their heads and wonder why! I know, I've talked with them. Amazing and very sad...some of their kids, now self-righteous spinoff believers think their own parents who left TWI are the unbelievers! This is messed up beyond words.

Anyhow, my point is that I'm not sure that the cult is dying out...granted, it's slightly revised in these offshoots, but its essence still thrives in them. It's sickening to me and I hold the parents (my generation) responsible for not admitting the known facts of VPW's life, twisted research, and abuse of power. Many have not disassociated themselves with the fanatic fundamentalist attitudes, the propaganda about The Bible, and the non-civil discourse (to say the least) that these groups promote.

One reason for the failure of some parents to give up TWI dogma, I've been told, is the psychological bonding that went on between VP and his "girls," girls he took advantage of sexually long ago, some of whom are now mothers of grown up kids. That bond created a loyalty to VP and "the Word" he taught that is difficult to break, for some women (obviously not the ones willing to speak out against it). But that is another can of worms for another topic...

Enjoy your day!

I tell these "kids" they are responsible for anything rosie et al. does.

Interesting...could you, would you elaborate a little more on this idea?

I wonder how they maintain the "accuracy" of The Word as they translate TWI teachings into their language?

The chickens have come home to roost.....ie the bad policies, the legalism, the elitism, bad research ethics, sexual predation, bullying practices, etc....HAVE COME HOME.

Call it "what you reap, you sow".....call it karma, or whatever....it happens.

Whether in wierwille's twi, or ces, or the cgeer franchise.....it seems to take about 15 years before the followers catch on to the fool-erers. As wierwille ratcheted up his movement in 1969 with program after program, by 1982/83 it was unraveling. The wierwille cult is little more than a retirement center (hq) and anemic pockets of support for books/teaching tapes. With CES.....dangerous treks into a momentus canyon, personal prophecies where nose-spiders consume human brains, and threats of lawsuits.....the power-grabs seem so twi-like, don't they? And then, there's the geer franchise where food-chain operators wanted to distance themselves from the franchise brand and franchise bills.

Wierwille was too narcisstic to change and alter his course. He bullied his way through countless situations in his past and couldn't find humility to listen to others. Even when corps were exiting in the latter 70s......wierwille's feathers weren't ruffled. Even when bodyguards and/or pilots flew the coop...wierwille remained undaunted.

Imo....it wasn't wierwille's death nor cgeer's poop paper that initiated the exodus, it was the assimilation of discrepancies, hypocrisy, doesn't-pass-the-smell-test, etc. No longer were these ADULTS going to follow in lock-step another leader, namely Martindale. The push-back was stiffening and it was only a matter of time. Wierwille's health problems, and the subsequent cancer-death lies only solidified the growing disdain of being fleeced as fools.

The chickens were coming home to roost......and the problems mounted exponentially from there.

One generation........is about all it takes for people to wake up and see the hypocrisy, the scam. One generation........and the loyalty fades away. Most kids have no interest in following.

The wise man builds his house upon a rock.........and the house on the rock stands firm.

The foolish man builds his house upon the sand.....and it all comes tumbling down.

While I tend to agree with most of this, I can't help but wonder how this line of thinking accounts for the many (many, many, and more popping up every day that I've seen on the web) offshoots or spin-off TWI wannabees. Many of my daughter's generation (in their 30s now) revere Wierwille as their father in the Word, a man they never knew as even young teenagers, since he died in 1985. They revere the leaders of these spin-offs just a surely as we (I should speak for myself) revered VPW as "the man of God" and they continue to revere the dogmas (no matter how slightly revised or re-worded it is) and propaganda about the Bible as if it is The Word of God, just as their parents did.

Makes me wonder...

Not from lack of trying.

I heard the early form of this slogan from vpw on ROA tapes.

(Review ROA '79's tapes sometime.)

I probably heard him say it in passing on other tapes as well.

He started off with the early form, phrased a little different,

and as a question, then required the answer from large groups

where SOMEONE was bound to give him the answer he wanted.

"Where would we be without GOD?"

(audience off-microphone)

"That's right, some of us, we'd be DEAD!"

From there it was a short hop to swap out "God" for "God's ministry"

or "God's class" or some other nonsense,

making it "if not for the plagiarizing rapist, his class, and his group,

I'd be dead!"

One more short hop brings you to "I must owe this organization my slave-labor

for life!"

Well put, I have to say the same things are in my memory banks, too!

You make a good observation, and in my view, it aptly addresses part of the overall setup of the Way, with the Way Corps in particular. I was in that program 1971-73. VPW used to tell us to counter any complaints from our parents about the intensity of our training and limitations on visits home by likening our isolation to that of boot camp for the military...we were to ask our parents what was the difference? Would they complain if we couldn't come home for family events while in training in the Marines or Navy or any other branch of the military? No, was the assumed answer. VPW gave us further info to try and use to intimidate our parents - that they should be happy we were in training to serve God and his people (of course VP was just using us to further his cause), and that is a much more important mission than any earthly cause like serving our country; missing family events like weddings, etc. shouldn't bother our folks!

I have to tell you I never repeated that cr*p to my father. It just wasn’t my style. And I got away with going to my father's wedding, too, because D*l D*ncan, my Corps coordinator, gave me permission to fly up to New England for that event. I never asked VP directly for permission, only D*l. But when VP found out I was away for the wedding, D*l got in trouble and took the heat for it. I was so thankful for D*l’s stepping in; he had known it was important for me to be there for my dad since my mother had died three years earlier and my father had found happiness that I needed to share in, too.

Although there are many incidents when D*l and other Corps coordinators made screwed up decisions for people’s lives, for me this is a good one to be remembered...

Last night I came across the movie, Inherit the Wind, which I’ve seen before, showing on the Turner Classic Movies channel and found myself loving it even more than I did first time I watched it. Here are some summaries about the plot, which I think ties into the topic of this thread about where we got the idea that truth can be found only in the Bible.

Netflix summary from their web site:

Spencer Tracy (in one of his best roles) as lawyer Henry Drummond and Fredric March as Matthew Harrison Brady square off as opposing attorneys in this blistering courtroom drama about the famed 1930s "Scopes Monkey Trial," where a Tennessee teacher was taken to task for teaching Darwinism in the schoolroom. Song-and-dance man Gene Kelly co-stars as newspaper reporter H.L. Mencken

And from Inherit the Wind - film plot summary

Inherit the Wind (1960) portrays, in partly fictionalized form, the famous and dramatic courtroom "Monkey Trial" battle (in the sultry summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee) between two famous lawyers (Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan) who volunteered to heatedly argue both sides of the case (over 12 days, including two weekends).

Its story centers around the issue of evolution vs. creationism, in the prosecution of 24 year-old Dayton High School mathematics teacher and sports coach - and substitute science teacher - John T. Scopes for violating state law (the 1925 Butler Act) by teaching the Darwin's theory of evolution in a state-funded school. The film's title was taken from the Biblical book of Proverbs 11:29: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."

From THIS link:

“The Biblical research which was presented wonderfully built upon the foundation of the Word I knew, and it inspired me to enlarge my thinking as to how to apply the great truths of the Word to my life.”

What does that even mean?

Looking at it logically, devoid of emotion, it becomes apparent that the very essence of The Way's approach to the Bible is built on an erroneous understanding of II Timothy 2:15. Wierwille mistranslated, misinterpreted and misrepresented the meaning of this verse in order to promote his own agenda. How can one promote an organization as being a "research ministry" when the very "research" (II Timothy 2:15) the organization itself is built on is faulty?

So, it seems to me that TWI's propaganda leads to bibliolatry. How do the rest of you feel about that connection?

Hi everyone,

These last few posts are especially helpful and fabulous to me...sure appreciate the participation!

Just a quick update on the content of the original article, where I said the following:

During the past few years I’ve read many comments from others who also left TWI. I’ve read them not only here at GSC, but at web sites of former Way followers who started offshoot groups, and at the Way Corps web site open to Corps grads. While reading, I've noticed a general theme cropping up in a number of them: a wish for "the old TWI days," and more importantly, a desire to re-create them. Because my interest lies in research and I see nostalgia for it in many people’s comments, I focus on that aspect of the “old TWI days” in this article.

As of last Thursday, Jan. 14, I can no longer speak from personal experience about the Way Corps site, which I referred to above. That day I deleted my profile page, voluntarily removing myself from the site. For further info on the site, interested parties would need to contact someone else who has a page there.

Cheers!

I guess because he's having a difficult time making reality conform to his theology, Rev. Robertson indulges in a really disgusting game of "Blame the Victim", simultaneously betraying - I think - his own brand of unvarnished bigotry and xenophobia. What a thoroughly repellant personality...

I could not agree more. And IMO, from my experiences in TWI, I know VPW held the same sort of interpretation of the world...this makes me sick and sick that I was ever associated with TWI.

Over the past weeks I have seen some folks, in & out of TWI, say that our information here on GS is out of date and does not apply to the current TWI. Heck, we have heard for years that TWI has become kinder and gentler, all the "bad leaders" are gone and the "wrong doctrine" changed.

If this is so, then I personally would like to see a public from admission of this from official TWI sources. There are many people who were kicked out of TWI or driven out for reasons that may not be valid, including questioning doctrine that TWI no longer holds to or confronting leaders who have in turn been thrown out.

It's not as if I have any plans to return to TWI, but they would gain a measure of my respect for coming clean, admitting their problems and apologizing to those who they hurt.

Since I'm preoccupied with research issues, I figured I'd check the current TWI web site research page just to see whether or not they've changed their approach to the Bible and claims of "knowing how to find the accuracy of the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts." IMO, what they're currently doing is the same thing VPW promoted from when I was involved back in 1970-87. I'd be curious about what the "wrong doctrines" are that they've changed...it seems to me VPW made a doctrine out of his methodology, but I could be wrong...

TWI Biblical Research 2010

...and ...Pg. 104

VPW: “If the Word can be broken at any one place, The Word crumbles from Genesis to Revelation. Either the whole Bible is God’s Word from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 or none of it is God’s Word.”

So, here he clearly states the Bible is God’s Word. He does not qualify the Bible by saying “in the original texts” of the Bible, nor does he say which Bible, although he uses the KJV as his text for the class so by implication accepts the canon used in that version.

Charlene, the only problem I have with the article is that you describe the inerrancy of the Bible as a TWI conclusion. I don't remember ANYONE ever saying "...therefore, God's Word is perfect."

George

Hi there, George. Well, I've been re-reading some of these posts and thought you might get a kick out of this ection of PFAL that I've located for you:

PFAL BOOK pg. 103 (1971 edition)

"By deductive logic, if God is perfect, then the logos, Jesus Christ, has to be perfect. If God is perfect and Christ is perfect and The Word is given as holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, then God’s Word must be perfect also.

God is perfect, so Jesus Christ is perfect, so the revealed Word of God is perfect. Consequently the words which make up The Word must also be perfect. This is why if any other word had been used than the preposition pros in John 1:1 and 2 the whole Bible would fall to pieces because of imperfect usage of words. To have a perfect Word, the words must be perfect and the order of the words must be perfect.

...God is perfect, The Word is perfect, and therefore The Word means what it says, and says what it means. God has a purpose for everything He says, where He says it, why He says it, how He says it, to whom He says it, and when He says it." END OF PFAL BOOK QUOTE.

I suspect most of us are aware of the endless problems this leads to when dealing with various translations and versions...

Anyhow, just thought I'd add this here for the record.

Cheers!

Its an interesting subject..I think that just about everyone has some sort of desire to find out what is true and what is untrue, if not in a wide sense at least for themselves and their own life.

TWI co opted that and became the sole arbiters of truth available for the one time low cost of your life blood and soul. Im sure some people still believe that the bible is the whole source for truth but to me it is narrow.

It really wasnt until after I left, was not quite so gung ho as I had been and worked with some Buddhists that I realized that these people were not possessed but actually had some very interesting viewpoints and understandings of things that werent at all contrary to the better parts of what I had learned from TWI. To me that started opening up a broader way to see things than through the bible alone filter.

Of course maybe "narrow is the way" and Im screwed or it could be that was added in as a control measure to keep the followers on the straight and narrow...in the same way that "no man comes unto the Father but by me" may be true or it may be a very big ego moment by an otherwise very cool guy who had some human control issues...and of course youd have to first believe in the Hebrew FatherGod concept for that to hold any weight anyway.

Im not sure but Im willing to take my chances. Truth is in a lot of things. There is truth in relationships, truth in business, truth in science, truth in politics etc etc that is almost always difficult to ferret out and get to...in a religious or spiritual sense Jesus was a 'truth teller" but I dont think that he was the only one who formulated ideas with universal appeal and application (Love, Forgiveness, compassion etc etc...)

The questions about life after death --Heaven, Hell, Reincarnation etc etc, to me are ALL conjectures even if recorded by spiritual thinkers as they cannot be known.

IF people do choose to believe one of those concepts and take it on faith (The return of Christ, heaven,paradise, reincarnation..whatever) it may be very comforting to believe it is "the truth" but it is a choice and at best a hope that it is the truth on which they are willing to gamble.

Best of luck to them in their hope. I dont mind people believing that, it does perturb me though when peoples opinions and personal decisions do become the only way for everyone else to conduct their life.

and that is "truly" how I feel about that...I too have my own path of discovery that is hard enough to stay on without being wrenched off it time and again. So far its been difficult but good and true enough for me to most of the time stay at peace with myself.

If im wrong, im wrong..but I am willing to live my path and if necessary go down with my ship and for me thats fine.

I just got sick in TWI of spending my time "driving someone elses ship" and someone elses take on "the truth"

Ditto. Cheers to taking our chances...

Original question of this thread:...”but something was bothering me and it just came clear to me today and it is the idea that the only truth is in the bible. really? that's a pretty stupid way of thinking once i look at it in the light of day. and how'd i get to thinking like that? i think it started with the idea that "all things that pertain unto life and godliness are contained herein" or whatever the way international said about the bible. again, really?”

Waysider reminds us:

PFAL

It wasn't just a class.

It was indoctrination into fundamentalism.

From what I've figured out, The Way’s promoting the idea that the only source for truth is the Bible comes from a conservative segment in Protestantism, like Waysider points out, called the Fundamentalist movement, and there are lots of groups especially, it seems, in the USA. The idea has a fancy Latin name, sola scriptura, and was the rallying cry of the Protestants when they broke away from the Catholic Church with Martin Luther leading the cause. Although I usually refrain from using Wikipedia as a source, it’s not a bad start here...See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura

For me, being raised a Catholic in the 1950s and 1960s, I was immersed in a religious tradition that mixed church dogma AND the Bible as their sources for truth, so not until I got into Young Life in high school (a Bible-waving, born-again-proclaiming, Good News for Modern Man N.T. version reading segment of the Jesus movement alive in the 1970s and still going on today) did the emphasis in my fledgling kindergarden style theological training shift to scripture as the only place for truth to be found (which, of course ignores the long history of the way of thinking that claims there is only ONE truth, but that’s another topic for another rainy day – it’s raining here in Winter Park, Florida right now and they say it might turn to snow! Yippee...).

Anyway, for me, sitting through the indoctrination class, PFAL, as Waysider reminds us, was not only an experience of getting Wierwille’s theology (plagiarized as it is) hammered into my mind, but was also an indoctrination into the broader category of thinking which is called Fundamentalism which has as one of its major cornerstones the idea you are addressing: that the Bible is the only source for truth. Along with inerrancy, millennialism, and evangelizing, it feels (to put it mildly) that the Bible should be mankind’s only rule of faith and practice.

Fundamentalism is the extremely conservative segment of Protestantism that essentially fights against modernism (i.e. evolution and other scientific issues), textual criticism and other approaches to understanding what the Bible is that do not buy into “the accuracy of The Word,” for instance, or that it was dictated by God to the writers. It is mission-oriented and from what I’ve seen, rejects the validity of any other religions as avenues for “reaching God.”

This movement started in earnest in America during the 1920s when the clash between conservative Protestants and Darwinism hit the country.

For a book on the history of American Fundamentalism, check out, Fundamentalism and American Culture, by George M. Mardsen (Oxford Univ. Press 2006). It’s a long read and I haven’t read all the chapters, but from what I’ve read, I think it is a good source. See what you think. He is a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and is a Christian historian. I think he does a good job presenting the material about all the different ingredients that went into the recipe for American Fundamentalism.

If you visit Amazon online, for instance, you can find LOTS of books and resources that cover Christian Fundamentalism. Or wander around the public library, which I what I did in 1987 when I left TWI and started to try and understand what the heck happened.

A few I’ve read on the topic include these, but I’d like to find a few others that are good, too, so if anyone here knows any, please tell me:

James Barr’s book, Fundamentalism, which I quoted in the “Nostalia..” article posted on the front page here. Published in Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1978.

Sandeen, Ernest R. The Roots of Fundamentalism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1970.

Clabaugh, Gary K. Thunder on the Right. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Company. 1974.

Armstrong, Karen. The Battle for God, A History of Fundamentalism. The Ballantine Publishing Group. 2000.

For those of you reading this who may not be familiar with what Geisha is referring to by that “Charter,” here is the info (I find it inspiring and good) from:

Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.