Fundies at my door! ...The Way?

[GryffindorFTW]

Has anyone heard of "The Way International?"

Two evangelists from their organization just came to my door and tried to invite me to a meeting. Their defensiveness, social ineptitude, glazed expressions and unusual emphasis on the KJV Bible pinged my cult radar, and the website on their info card (theway.org) is suspiciously vague and sanctimonious.

Thoughts? Insights? Their somewhat generic name seems to make researching them kind of difficult.

Is it a cult or just fundagelical?

ETA: Oh, boy! If I join up and progress sufficiently I'll be eligible to visit The Way Household Ranch - Camp Gunnison! Looks like this is definitely on the cultier side of things. theway.org/available.php?page=gunnison〈=en

[CanadianHippie]

Not the most reliable source, but a good place to start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_International

There are apparently a few people who consider them a cult. But then most systems of belief have people who consider them a cult.

[pixydust]

I know that I have heard of them, something about them being a cult. I think that 20/20 or someone did a show about it, but I just don't remember. I will do some google-izing and see what I can come up with.

Edit to add: It is really hard to find concrete info on The Way, I can't find anything on a website that I would consider credible. There is a video on youtube about it (if you google The Way International it comes up, I can't watch it on this computer, no speakers, so I don't know if it's good or not).

[GryffindorFTW]

Not the most reliable source, but a good place to start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_International

There are apparently a few people who consider them a cult. But then most systems of belief have people who consider them a cult.

Ah, Wikipedia, duh! I assumed they wouldn't have an article, since they seem a bit obscure. Sorry! :D

The "Mark and Avoid" stuff sounds disturbingly similar to $cientology's Disconnection Policy.

[ladyamylynn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBlLkoFz ... re=related

These guys are from "The Way." This is easily one of the funniest videos on youtube.

[GryffindorFTW]

In his class Christian Family and Sex, Wierwille teaches that the original sin was masturbation. He compares the tree of life to verses where people were figuratively referred to as trees, and the fruit of the tree of knowledge with the human genitalia. In the Foundational Class on The Way of Abundance and Power, Martindale expands on this doctrine, concluding that virtually every word in Genesis 3:6 has a sexual connotation. Influenced by his belief that homosexuality was the lowest degradation of sexuality, he teaches that the original sin of mankind was Eve having lesbian sex with the Devil, who had "come into concretion" in the form of a beautiful woman. (LINK)

Er... What?

Kinky!

[CanadianHippie]

So first Cain manages to find a wife in a world where him, his brothers, and his parents are the only people, and now Eve get lured into lesbian sex...

[BravaAmica]

Er... What?

Kinky!

Methinks he doth protest too much. He's trying to justify all that "research" watching lesbian porn.

[fundielurker]

I had to come out of lurking for this one. My husband's grandpa was friends with the founder and one of the original members of "The Way" in the beginning. DH's grandpa had a different vision for the group than what the founder started preaching and asking of members, so they parted ways in the mid-50s before the movement blew up and became a "cult".

[ThisOlGirl]

My stepbrother and his wife were part of The Way for a few years. I don't know too much about it but my stepbrother did seem to get a little kooky(er) during his stint in the way. He came to a family gathering once talking about how he was lucky he made it out of the house that day. Apparently, he woke up with the worst flu in the history of mankind, so he just spent the morning on the couch praying his flu down to a cold. Who knew that if you just prayed hard enough, God would downgrade you from a bad case of the flu to the sniffles in mere hours?

Luckily, they had the good sense to go "hmmm" when they started seeing/hearing/reading things about The Way and their leader (I believe there were some Warren Jeffs-type shenanigans going on). They were done with The Way for good when they started looking for a house to buy and the church elders (or whatever they're called) flipped their wigs because my stepbrother would be going into debt. I guess debt was a big no-no.

My stepbrother put all the literature that they were required to buy on EBay, and he said it sold like hotcakes, so I guess there are plenty of people following The Way. These days, I get the impression that he leans agnostic/atheist--and he's a lot more fun to be around than in his "Way Days".

[ChunkyBarbie]

Isn't Kirk Cameron part of The Way? I seem to remember seeing it on his and his sister's websites.

ETA I googled and Kc is part of The Way of the Master, whatever that means...

[AmyP]

"The Way" has been around alot longer than "The Way of the Master". As far as I know they are not the same thing. I think this quote covers it pretty well.

Like many cult groups, the Way claims the Bible is the word of God, yet it denies the doctrine of Trinity, the deity of Jesus, the personhood and deity of the Holy Spirit, and salvation by grace. In regards to the Holy Spirit, Wierwille draws a distinction between the Holy Spirit and the holy spirit. The first is the same thing as the God the Father. Second is an emanation or power from God. Jesus was not born of a virgin. The dead are "unconscious" after death; that is, they don't exist until they are brought back to life in at the judgment. They also deny the efficacious nature of the atonement.

The Way also teaches that Jesus was raised on Saturday and that there were four people crucified with Him, not two. Additionally, only true believers who lived after Pentecost will be saved. The dead are not conscious and will be raised for judgment. Speaking in tongues is taught as a mandatory practice and part of salvation to be cultivated by the members daily.

Also, the Way teaches that once a person is saved, he cannot sin in his spirit. His body and soul can sin, but not his spirit -- this can lead to sinful practices that are said to not affect the spirit of a person. http://carm.org/way-international

[lilwriter85]

I have heard of them before. There was a small conference in my area years ago and a local paper covered them.

[The Archivist]

I have a version of the Bible from like the 60s or 70s called The Way - is it related to this??

ETA: Just looked at their publications list, and I don't think so. Darn. Mine is "An illustrated edition of The Living Bible as developed by the editors of Campus Life Magazine, Youth for Christ International."

[Brainsample]

Factnet has good links if you want to read more about them: factnet.org/cults/way_international/index.html

One of the summaries of the group had this to say-

apologeticsindex.org/w17.html

Due to its unbiblical teachings on the key doctrines of Christianity, The Way International is, theologically, a cult of Christianity

The Way, International headquartered in New Knoxville, Ohio, was founded by Victor Paul Wierwille, who was a devout anti-trinitarian. This organization teaches that Jesus Christ is not Eternal and did not exist before the creation of the world.

In His book, Jesus Christ Is Not God Wierwille teaches: "We, as well as Jesus Christ, were with God in His foreknowledge, but not in existence, before the world began. Neither did Jesus Christ" (pp. 31-32). Wierwille teaches that Jesus did not exist except in the mind of God before conception in Mary's womb, and was at that time "Jesus Christ the Son of God, was made by God" (Ibid, pp. 103-04).

The Jesus of the Way becomes nothing more than a miraculously conceived sinless man. He was not God in the flesh but only a very special man who became "God's Son" as a result of divine genetic engineering.

Source: James Walker, The Jesus of The Way InternationalOff-site Link, article on the Watchman Fellowship site

They've also been cited in the anti-cult literature, so they do use thought reform measures/are spiritually abusive.

[deepasducks]

This article definitely seems to come down on the "cult" viewpoint:

http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/the-way-after-a-family-breaks

I'm not sure if it's still available at the site of the newspaper where it was originally published. I came across it when I was reading about abuses in bootcamps and juvenile detention centers, which is apparently one of the big stories of this journalist's career.

[FloraDoraDolly]

They are a cult. I know three people who have been involved with them. One got dragged into The Way via her crazy mother, who became even more crazy. The other two people I know who were in The Way (they've never met the first girl, BTW) got out after a short time and moved onto a fundie lite church. But members of The Way kept pursuing them and bothering them, trying to drag them back in. They were living out of state while they were in The Way, so I wasn't around them much. But when I did see them, they proselytised a lot.

[treemom]

Well is orginal sin is just lesbian sex I guess I can get behind us all being born with it.