So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXIV - The Nineties (for real)

Like any organization, how precisely theory and practice coincide depends on the people who are tasked with executing the rules and regulations. We've all worked for companies where everything changed when a new manager was brought in. The Way's leaders were no different. The chaos that followed Wierwille's death and the proliferation of splinter groups led by former Way leaders resulted in a culture where non-leaders would push back against leaders that they didn't like, convinced that they held the true and accurate interpretation of how things should be. 

When we reestablished our relationship with The Way the state leaders were Way Corps graduates Gary and Mary Ehman. For the most part Gary was an easy-going guy. Oddly, for an organization that put so much emphasis on reading and researching the Bible, Gary was functionally illiterate. This made it difficult for him teach the finer points of the definitions of Greek and Hebrew words, which The Way put so much stock in, when he could barely read English. Despite Gary's friendly and non-dogmatic approach to leadership, the President of The Way, Craig Martindale, was continually teaching his version of fire and brimstone, which included no room for those who didn't toe the party line. It wasn't as if Martindale's polemics were only heard by the top tier of leadership - his weekly Sunday rantings were sent out in cassette tape form to anyone who wanted them. Often an area would be "dialed in" directly to hear the teachings live. Several women in our area, inspired by Martindale's clear direction on what was "on" and what was "off" informally anointed themselves as the arbiters of what was "off The Word" in the lives of the local Way "believers". My then-wife Pat was one of them, Gina, the wife of a Lincoln fellowship overseer, was another. 

Even though the actual local leader was not pushing the extremism of the head man, the women's circle was doing the work of evangelizing behind the scenes. Fingers were pointed, people were being accused of being "possessed" by devil spirits, even Gary was the recipient of these accusations. It was a bubbling cauldron of suspicion and judgement. And since Gary wasn't getting involved, neither taking their side or condemning their actions, there was no outlet. The pressure was building. 

Each year, around summertime, the Board of Trustees and other top leaders would work on Way Corps assignments. New graduates would be given their new jobs, veterans would find out if they were staying in their positions or being moved around. That year, Gary and Mary would be reassigned and our new state leader would be a single guy - Ed Wentworth. Ed was also pretty easy going, so nothing changed. Ed lasted a year. His replacement would be a newly minted Way Corps graduate named Fred Brown. With Fred's arrival everything would change - things were going full cult!

Start at the beginning:

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2019/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-i.html

Part XXXV

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2022/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-xxxv-fred.html

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXIII - The Nineties (prelude)

A lot was going on in the nineties. My first wife, Pat, and I completed our family - our youngest son Steven was born in December 1990; our son John became deathly ill due to mold and bacteria after our rental home was flooded; there were continual changes and challenges at my job in circulation at the Omaha World-Herald newspaper; we started home schooling; and we were adapting to the changes that re-involvement in The Way was causing. 

In late 1990, when we got back involved with The Way, Pat and I had been married for nine years. We had developed a routine that had nothing to do with organized religion, including The Way, although we still believed broadly in the doctrines taught by The Way. Although it wasn't really obvious back then, Pat and I had two divergent world views. Pat as she was back in the eighties and nineties would have fit right in with today's right-wing Christian Nationalist types. She had a down-in-the-bone conviction that there was a literal spiritual battle going on in the world, literally believed that the Devil and his minions were actively working against Christians. As we had isolated ourselves from, not only The Way, but from any type of organized religion, she didn't have the vocabulary to articulate her beliefs. I, on the other hand, wasn't as literal-minded in my beliefs. I still had some residual thoughts about devil spirits, prayer, etc., but didn't really make it part of my daily life. The other characteristic in which we were opposites was that I was usually willing to compromise, or reach a consensus, whether it was in my marriage, work life, or personal relationships, while Pat was more of a black-and-white thinker - no grey areas. Most of the time this didn't present any problems - areas that she was uncompromising on, were often areas here I could go either way; when it did present problems in order to maintain peace, I acquiesced to her wishes. This difference in personality would become important as out nineties in The Way progressed. 

The main divergence in opinion came about when our two oldest were in fifth and third grades respectively. Ben, our oldest, got bullied a lot at school. Chris, two years younger, didn't have that problem, but was habitually behind in his schoolwork and had continual struggles with reading and understanding. Pat thought that the solution to these problems would be home schooling. 

I'm not saying that home schooling is always a good choice, or always a bad choice. I certainly don't accept the criticism that home schoolers are socially awkward and have no friends, or never leave the house. My kids were involved in sports (and in fact were outstanding in track), 4-H and several of them achieved the rank of Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. The younger children were involved in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. But home schooling, if done right, will take a lot of time and effort. Initially, Pat put in that time and effort. She had gone to college to be a teacher, although she did not graduate. She was organized and for the first several years did put in the time and effort. My role was more peripheral. I had a full time job that took me out of town several days a week, so Pat did most of the work. 

Although the initial impetus for considering home schooling was Chris' need for more one-on-one attention, and Ben's being bullied, the rationale changed to more of an emphasis on spiritual warfare. The local home schooling support group was dominated by evangelical-fundamentalist Christians, who believed that the public school system was the Devil's playground and that public school students were being actively taught to turn against God. Pat absorbed this mindset; it meshed perfectly with The Way's position on the so-called spiritual battle, even though The Way did not encourage home schooling. 

As we transitioned into Way life, we (at least one of us) was primed to see everything as a God vs. The Devil struggle, yet not at all prepared for the increasing level of control that being involved in The Way necessitated. Yet we both had retained a belief that Wierwille, the original leader of The Way, had hit upon an interpretation and application of The Bible that was, not only correct, but not to be found anywhere outside The Way. Problems that we had encountered separately and together we chalked up to people, leaders who had strayed from the path set by Wierwille. 

I know I started off by saying how this post would be about the nineties, but as I wrote I thought that it would be helpful to outline what kind of people we were going into the nineties. In some ways we were primed for the increased cultishness of The Way in the nineties, in others we were ticking bombs of rebellion, waiting for our moment to explode.

Start at the beginning:

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2019/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-i.html

Part XXXIV

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2022/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-xxxiv.html

Prayer

There is more than one definition, or type, of prayer. One website lists seven different categories, but for the purpose of this blog post I will narrow it down to two: (1) Prayer thanking, worshipping or praising a god or (2) Asking for something, either for yourself or on behalf of others. I'm going to  address #2 exclusively in this blog post.

People ask God for things all the time. Sometimes it's fairly petty, like finding a parking spot, or praying that the new recipe for Chicken Bonfiglio came out all right. Other times the stakes are bigger, like petitioning God for that promotion at work or that you submitted a successful bid for that house you so wanted. And then there's the really big items: that the line of tornadoes miraculously misses your town, or at least, your house, or begging God for that pesky cancer to go away. But does all this praying do any good? By "any good" I mean does the thing that is prayed for actually come to pass? 

I think that the honest answer is a resounding "NO".

Sure, you can find people who will tell you that they prayed for a specific outcome that subsequently came to pass. I have no doubt that they're right. After all, tornadoes don't hit every town, or every house in a town that they hit. Cancer often does go into remission, never to return. (And we sometimes get the parking spot, the Chicken Bonfiglio is a success, and we get the promotion). But the ugly truth is that there are myriad examples where houses are destroyed by tornadoes and cancer patient die painful, drawn-out deaths. It stretches the bounds of credulity to suppose that none of those who suffered various catastrophes prayed, that they were all atheists, or God-deniers of one type or another. And I'm sure that we can all think of examples of God-believing, religious people, who led exemplary lives, whose prayers were for naught. 

Believers address this in different ways. For those who have avoided the more horrible of circumstances, they can smugly assert that their continued health, safety and prosperity is due to their godliness and the frequent utilization of prayer. The more realistically-minded (including theologians) devise explanations to explain why prayer obviously doesn't "work" 100% of the time. One explanation I'll broadly call the "mysterious ways" or the inshalla explanation. This umbrella category includes the belief that God, no matter what the situation looks like, has a plan, and that the disaster that you are experiencing is part of a greater plan that you just don't understand - you not being God after all. A subset of this belief is the theory that there is a benefit to suffering, and that you will be a better person in some undefined way by enduring. A different theology holds that it's not God's decision at all. Since it says in the Bible that "whatever you ask in prayer, believing you will receive", then it's the fault of the individual, not God, when bad things happen. This theory insists that there are numerous "promises" in the Bible that are guaranteed as long as you believe them, and when you don't receive these promises, then obviously you didn't believe. Points to you if you recognized the circular reasoning of the latter theology. 

If you don't recognize the frustration inherent in both of these theologies, then you have a high tolerance for frustration indeed. If you accept the "God has a plan" view, you're going to be praying for things, with no assurance that God is going to comply. In fact, the God being described here is capricious and arbitrary. You have no way of knowing what actions are going to keep you healthy and safe, because God ain't gonna tell you! Why bother praying? If God is going to do whatever his mysterious plan entails, prayer has no affect! The other way isn't any better. God, at least, isn't described as the black hole that the former theory describes him, but it's a blame the victim theology. And, just like "God has a plan", there's no way determine what works and what doesn't. I was part of a group that subscribed to the "law of believing". Many times we thought we were believing God's promises but were convinced that some tiny sliver of doubt had crept in...it must have, or else we would have received, right?

Something I told a family member some years ago was "Maybe God isn't who (or what) you think he is". This was in response to her telling me about prayer fervently in a situation and the polar opposite coming to pass. Evaluating why you think prayer works, or why God is obliged to do what you think he should do, is as something I recommend that believers do. Despite there being a books written that allegedly describe God's attributes, most people create God in their own image, ignoring inconvenient parts of their holy books. Why do you believe God is an entity who is required to answer your prayers, rather than the God of the Deists who created the world, but then headed off to a warm, sunny beach with a good book and a cocktail with an umbrella in it. 

The other thing that I heartily recommend to anyone who is convinced that God answers prayers (in the affirmative) and believes that their prayers are answered without exception, or at least consistently) is to keep a log. Write down everything that they pray for, in detail no matter how insignificant or petty. Then, log the results. Honestly. Without editorializing on why it didn't come to pass or rationalizing why a non-result could be actually be a positive result, or how you got what you needed rather than what you asked for. I predict that the statistics will be disappointing. 

However, if anyone can honestly document a year of 90% or greater positive prayer results, I just may change my mind about the efficacy of prayer.

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXII - The Man of God for Our Time

So, we had our meeting with Gary & Mary, the Limb (state) Coordinators for The Way of Nebraska. Back in the seventies, pretty much anyone who was interested could show up unannounced to a Way meeting, and unless you were disruptive or overly  argumentative you could keep coming back for as long as you liked, although you weren't really considered "in" until you took the PFAL class. Things were different in 1990. Part XXX - From the Frying Pan outlined what was going on in The Way during our absence, the splintering of the organization that accompanied a rebellion among top leaders. Trust wasn't as easy to come by as it had been. While from our point of view the meeting was simply to touch base with the Way leaders and find out where fellowships were being held and when a PFAL class was going to run. That meeting looked a lot different from the other side. Gary and Mary were checking us out to make sure we weren't trying to infiltrate The Way from one of the splinter groups - to make sure that we, in short, would be good little cult members and not rock the boat. 

The first thing that we were asked to do after we were invited to be part of The Way was to attend a weekend presentation of what was euphemistically called "The Leadership Tapes". As I referred to in Part XXX - From the Frying Pan, Way President Martindale at some point decided that he was going to assert his de jure authority and demand that Way Corps leaders at all levels decide whether they would stand with him, the one anointed by Founder Wierwille, or what he referred to as the rebellious ones in the ranks. This resulted in an exodus of roughly 80% of Way leaders and membership. In order to regain control of the narrative he taught a series of seminars, first to the remaining leaders and later to non-leaders, explaining his understanding of what had happened to The Way and to him during what he began to refer to as "The Fog Years". These seminars were taped and were initially called "The Galatians Tapes", after Galatians 3:1 - "Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?", but later were renamed "The Leadership Tapes". A group of us gathered at the home of Gary and Mary outside Syracuse (a small town a half hour east of our home in Lincoln) and spent the whole weekend listening to Martindale's rationale for allowing the organization he was entrusted with to explode.

Martindale's long and rambling explanation was predicated on the belief that 

1. The Way was more than just an organization it was literally all that was left of God's "household"
2. V.P. Wierwille was ordained by God to lead this "remnant"
3. L. Craig Martindale was anointed by Wierwille to be his successor

This put anyone who opposed him in the position of opposing God. 

While the belief in Wierwille and The Way being on a special mission to reestablish First Century truths was widely accepted and taken for granted, in the past it had been viewed as Wierwille accepting a divine commission to study and teach, rather than some pseudo-infallibility. Sure, there was an expectation that Wierwille's word was law and his interpretation of The Bible was not to be gainsaid, but it was more due to his skill at Biblical research rather than an intrinsic inability to be wrong. Now we were being encouraged to believe that there was some kind of magical-spiritual something that was conferred by God on Wierwille and passed on to Martindale that made any argument an argument against God.

Game changer.

The tapes broke down in minute detail, according to Martindale's point of view, the steps that his main antagonist, Wierwille's former bodyguard Chris Geer, took to undermine his authority and plunge The Way into chaos. Geer was portrayed not merely as power hungry, or a trouble maker, but almost wizardly in his abilities and demonic in his inspiration. Throughout the seminar, Martindale identified what he said were specific "devil spirits" (some Christians refer to these simply as "demons") operating within, not only Geer, but virtually every other person who opposed Martindale. This was not something being discussed as theoretical, or behind closed doors, or as a fringe idea; this was now the out-in-the-open, officially sanctioned policy and position of The Way. Martindale is "The Man of God for Our Time" (later jokingly turned into the acrostic MOGFOT) and anyone who opposes him, in any way, is possessed by devil spirits. 

Why didn't we run away as fast as we could after this? Mainly because we still harbored the thinking that the teaching found in The Way was as close to truth and Biblical accuracy as you could get, and we had missed the years of internal conflict, therefore missing out on hearing the other side's version of the conflict. At any rate, we were in the thick of it now.

Start at the beginning:

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2019/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-i.html

Part XXXIII

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2022/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-xxxiii.html

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Newbie Primer

This month The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuted on Prime TV. Here's a short primer on Middle Earth for the uninitiated -

The Beginning

God creates a bunch of gods and goddesses. They in turn create the world & everything in it. One of them, Morgoth, is an asshole, and tries to break everything. The rest of the gods and goddesses (known collectively as The Valar) defeat him and lock him up for a while. The Valar create a paradise to live in. There is no sun or moon, so one of the Valar creates two magical trees that give light to paradise.

The Elves

After a while the immortal Elves "wake up". One of the Valar finds them and they (The Valar) decide that for their own protection the Elves should be invited to come live in paradise. Some go, some don't. Elf culture thrives in paradise until the gods decide to let asshole Morgoth out of captivity. An Elf named Fëanor creates three jewels (The Silmarils) that glow with light from the Two magic trees. Morgoth steals the Silmarils, kills Fëanor's dad, destroys the light-giving trees and escapes out of paradise and sets himself up as a "Dark Lord" in Middle Earth. 

The First Age

Fëanor leads a large group of Elves out of paradise into Middle Earth to recover the Silmarils. One of the leaders is the family of Galadriel (who we meet in the movies and the series) On the way out he steals some ships from another group of Elves and kills a bunch of them. Then he burns the ships, stranding a rival group of Elves. Fëanor is also an asshole, but he is killed almost immediately. A 500 year war ensues. 

Once in Middle Earth, the Elf refugees discover Elves who never migrated to paradise, Dwarves, and Men, some of whom ally with the Elves in the war against Morgoth and his Orcs (who are Orcs? Long story) and evil Men. Lots of people die. Eventually Eärendil, who is descended from both Elves and Men with the help of one of the Silmarils that had been taken from Morgoth (long story), sails his ship to paradise to ask the gods for help. They give it, and an army led by the gods defeats asshole Morgoth. Surviving Elves are invited to come back to paradise. Some go, some don't. One prominent, high ranking Elf who stays is Galadriel. Oh, and a big chunk of the continent of Middle-Earth is submerged under the sea. 

Second Age

This is the time period in which The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power takes place. A remnant of the Elves set up a kingdom ruled by King Gil-Galad in the northwest of Middle Earth. There are other Elf kingdoms or cities scattered around. The Men who were loyal to the Elves (the Edain) are given the island of Numenor, halfway between Middle Earth and Paradise (which we will start calling the Undying Lands). Their first king is Elros, the son of the previously mentioned Eärendil. The twin brother of Elros is Elrond, who we are going to see a lot of. (Elrond and Elros, being half Elf and half Man were given the choice of living their lives as either - Elros chose to be mortal, Elrond chose Elven immortality.)

Sauron

During the Second Age Sauron, the right-hand man of Morgoth during the First Age, works toward accumulating power himself. In the books, he disguises himself as Annatar (Lord of Gifts) and works with Celebrimbor, an Elven smith, to create magical rings of power. The Elves think that these rings will be used to preserve what is good in the world, hold off the ravages of time and change, and enhance the natural magical powers of those who use them. Sauron wants to use them via one master ring  to dominate Elves, Men and Dwarves. The Elves figure it out and centuries of war ensue. 

Numenor

While all that is going on, Numenor starts out as the perfect place for Mortal Men. Eventually though, its kings and people begin to be jealous of the Elves and their immortality and the island kingdom starts to morph into a dictatorship and breaks off contact with the Elves. The last king of Numenor, Ar-Pharazôn, declares war against Sauron and defeats him, bringing him to Numenor as a hostage. Sauron weasels his way into the king's confidence and convinces the king to invade the Undying Lands. In response, God (the original, head God that we haven't heard from since creation) sinks Numenor (think Atlantis). Numenorean survivors escape to establish kingdoms in exile in Middle Earth. They defeat Sauron's army, seemingly kill Sauron and take the One Master Ring and almost immediately lose it. 

Third Age

The exile kingdoms thrive for a while, but eventually diminish. At the end of around 3000 years Sauron is back (he's basically a fallen angel, really hard to kill), and it looks like he's going to win until the One master Ring is thrown in the volcano. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings tell the story of the last years of the Third Age. 

What's Different in "Rings of Power"

There's a lot of room for non-canon storytelling in the Second Age. Galadriel is not portrayed in the books as a military leader, inspired by the death of her brother. In fact, all her brothers and male cousins, as well as her uncle and other assorted kin are killed in the 500 year war in the First Age. It's certainly possible for her to have been a military commander, but it's nowhere stated. There's around 6000 years between the beginnings of the Second Age and her appearance as a wise and magically powerful queen of the forest in The Lord of the Rings, plenty of time for her to change. One thing is certain, there is no evidence that passage to the Undying Lands was given as a reward for service, and especially wasn't forced on anyone. Galadriel specifically decided against returning there and founded Lothlorien with her husband Celeborn. In an unpublished manuscript she, as virtually the only survivor of those who led the exodus from paradise, is banned from returning to the Undying Lands. 

There's no mention in any published or unpublished sources of hobbits or of their precursors, the Harfoots. Tolkien spent very little time discussing the origins of hobbits. He does mention that they first came to anyone else's notice in the Third Age and that they descended from three different "tribes", the Fallohides, the Stoors, and the Harfoots. Gollum/Sméagol is said to belong to a group that were "...akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors", which lived around 500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. So the Harfoots could have been around in the Second Age, it's just not stated anywhere. 

Nobody magically arrives by meteor in any of the books. 

The timeline is very compressed. As I stated earlier, the Second Age last around 3000 years. One review stated that the writers did not want to keep killing off the main human characters, so everything seems to be happening in one generation. The rise and fall of Numenor, for example stretches over the entire age. The forging of the rings by Celebrimbor takes place about halfway through the age, yet he is alive at the same time as Elendil and Pharazôn, who both were around at the end of the Second Age. 

The only really ridiculous things I have seen so far are:

1. Meteor Man - who arrives via a meteor. We have no idea who he is or if he is someone who appears in Tolkien's published works
2. Mithril - in Tolkien's books mithril is a metal that looks like silver and is stronger than steel. It is the strongest and most beautiful metal known. Bilbo's mail shirt is made of this metal. In the series, mithril has magical properties that come from it's supposed connection to a "lost Silmaril". The Elves need mithril (in the show) to avoid either returning to paradise across the sea or "fading". 

I'm sure more ridiculous things will present themselves. 

More to come as I watch more episodes. 

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXI - Getting Back In

The Way did not consider you one of them until after you had taken what they called a foundational class, Power for Abundant Living (PFAL). You could show up to their meetings, even contribute time and money, but without graduating from PFAL, you were just another "unbeliever". Even though my wife and I were not involved throughout most of the eighties, we still considered ourselves believers, and still viewed PFAL as the way to gain a basic knowledge of the Bible, even though we were not at the time involved with The Way. The usual minimum age that children were allowed to take PFAL was twelve (with parental permission). Toward the end of the eighties our two oldest children were approaching that age, so we tried systematically teaching them from the PFAL syllabus and collateral material. It was somewhat less than successful. 

Those of us who got involved in The Way in the seventies were generally high school or college students. We were also enthusiastically looking for answers. Part of the appeal of what The Way provided was that it was different from the religion that we were brought up with, different from our parents' religion. It was a way to rebel. We were unsophisticated enough in scriptural study to be unaware how shoddy Wierwille's "Biblical research" actually was, but curious enough to care about the minutia of things like "four crucified" or whether Jesus as or wasn't God. Those of who got involved when we were teenagers were now raising teenagers of our own, and PFAL was just "mom & dad's religion" to them. However I didn't realize at the time that the lack of enthusiasm that I was seeing in my own sons was pretty common among second generation Way kids. Wanting to give our children the foundation in "Biblical truth" that I had, we decided that we would seek out the local Way leaders and get our oldest son enrolled in a PFAL class. 

At the time I don't think we wanted to get wholeheartedly back involved in The Way, but just get our kids through PFAL. We knew a few people who were still active in The Way and asked them to set up a meeting with the local Way leaders - Gary & Mary, Way Corps graduates who were the Limb (aka state) Leaders of Nebraska, who also ran a home fellowship. That meeting was to affect the next ten years of our lives. 

From the beginning

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2019/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-i.html

Part XXXII

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2022/09/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-xxxii-man.html

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXX - From The Frying Pan

I'm skipping over the years 1983 to 1989, since I wasn't involved with The Way during that time. Even though I was still very much "Waybrained", I wasn't under the influence of the Way way of thinking. I still bought into Way assumptions and theological conclusions like speaking in tongues, the non-divinity of Jesus, the "law" of believing and all that. But beliefs, no matter how non-mainstream, do not a cult make, it's the behavior of its adherents and the influence of its leaders and we were not in touch with any Way leaders at that time. But while we were gone there was a lot going on in The Way. 

In 1980 Victor Wierwille, the founder and president of The Way "retired" and appointed the Director of the Way Corps, Craig Martindale, as his successor. The handing over of authority was a big deal. For many years Wierwille had encouraged the rank and file to view him as "The Man of God for Our Time" in the mold of the Apostle Paul, Moses and Elijah. So the presidency of The Way was not simply a corporate title and his role as the teacher of The Way's foundational class, Power for Abundant Living (PFAL) was not simply that of an academic or scholar. No, Wierwille was ordained, anointed, chosen by God to bring new light regarding the Bible to our generation. I don't believe he ever came out and said it overtly, but he certainly allowed the sentiment to proliferate. Therefore the passing of the mantle to a new generation was literally the passing of a mantle. An elaborate ceremony was conducted in October 1982 (the supposed 40th Anniversary of The Way), with enough pomp and circumstance that would not be out of place in a royal coronation, Martindale had an actual mantle placed on his shoulders, was anointed with oil and took a "salt covenant" and had Wierwille and the other two Trustees lay hands upon him. Within three years Wierwille was dead.

The early to mid eighties were the peak years of The Way's numbers and influence. There were Way fellowships in all 50 states, including flourishing branches in the major population centers. There was a Way presence of over 40 countries outside the United States. The United Kingdom was a major center of Way outreach and had a European Way Corps training center located in Scotland. The central African nation of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) rivalled the U.S. in the number of active Way fellowships. Things were looking good in Way world. But looks could be deceiving.

The choice of Martindale as the new president of The Way was not a universally popular choice. The hierarchy was no different from any other organization, secular or religious, in that it was populated by many ambitious men (women too, but The Way was basically a patriarchal organization). Despite the trend toward leaders in any capacity higher than Twig level being Way Corps graduates, the internal operations of Way Corps training were a virtual black box to most Way adherents. Even among the Way Corps, once graduating, they were no longer effectively under the day-to-day authority of the Way Corps Director. The Twig coordinators answered to Branch coordinators who answered to Area or Territory coordinators who reported to Limb (state) coordinators who were under the authority of the Region coordinators who were under the Trunk coordinator who reported directly to the Board of Trustees, headed by the president. Many men who had attained high rank in the organization surely thought that they should have been called to be the next "Man of God for Our Time". Most non-Way Corps didn't know who Craig Martindale was and had been speculated about which of the more visible and more popular leaders would be the next president. While Wierwille was still alive the fact that he supported Martindale kept everything in line.

When Wierwille died all Hell broke loose. Wierwille had been the glue holding it all together. His pronouncements had always been beyond question and his decisions could not be gainsaid. Many of the top leaders during this time had come to be involved in The Way when teenagers or college students and saw Wierwille as a wise father figure, while Martindale was just one of them, lacking the esteem that most felt toward their "Father in The Word". The focus of the unrest was Chris Geer, Wierwille's former bodyguard and driver who had been assigned to the directorship of the European Way Corps. He authored a paper called "The Passing of a Patriarch" where he criticized Martindale and his fellow Trustees and claimed to be the recipient of Wierwille's last words. He never attempted to stage a coup and take over as leader, but little by little state and local leaders began to look to him for guidance and direction. Other leaders began to speak up and point fingers as well. Some in support of Martindale, some in support of Geer, some completely independent of both. 

At some point Martindale had had enough. He sent a letter out to all active Way Corps leaders demanding that they decide who they would be loyal to - himself, as the de jure leader of The Way, or Chris Geer. In retrospect this was a reasonable stance to take. Many of these leaders were still on The Way payroll and were supposedly within the Way hierarchy, yet were taking their marching orders from a technically illegitimate source. Martindale's choices in reality were limited to cutting loose those who wouldn't follow him, or resigning. Any of those leaders who felt that following Geer was the right, godly thing to do should have openly done so. Unfortunately for Martindale his letter did more harm than good. Even leaders who were standing in support of him were offended at what they categorized as a demand for a "loyalty oath". Eighty percent of leaders and rank and file members ended their affiliation with The Way at that time. Former leaders, including Geer, started their own offshoot ministries (often derided as "sticks", in contrast to "twigs") with many of the Way groups outside the United States breaking away as well. After things began to settle down Martindale dug in his heels. He taught several seminars giving his spin on what had happened, painting it as a battle between the forces of godliness and devil-inspired evil. He described those who left as becoming a "grease spot by midnight" for leaving the "household of God" and those who remained as "the faithful remnant". If Wierwille's approach was to present himself as the wise and loving father and grandfather, controlling through cajoling and encouragement, even while ruling with an iron fist and berating his intimates behind the scenes, Martindale went into full-on dictator mode. Wierwille in my opinion knew he was running a con, and did what he needed to do to retain influence and power; Martindale believed his own press clippings and really believed that he had been anointed to be God's representative. This would involve a lot of yelling and a lot of overt control.

This was the situation in The Way when we decided to get back involved after an absence of almost eight years.

Start at the beginning

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2019/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-i.html

Part XXXI

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2022/07/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-xxxi.html