My Time There

Testimony of former member's experiences in the Word of Faith Fellowship Church - Spindale, NC. Individual and company names have been removed or changed to protect privacy; only exception is the name of the group's leader, Jane Whaley

My time at Word could best be described as lonely. Friendships were not allowed to become close, because you were afraid to share your heart. We were taught that if you really loved someone, then you would expose their sins to leadership. That meant that anything you said , could and probably would get into the ears of the main leadership. So you kept to yourself; at least I did. This concept of telling leadership everything was a doctrine. We were taught to tell about everything we did, even to the most intimate areas of our lives. Nothing was personal there. We were expected to expose sin in those we loved the most. That included my husband, my sister, my mother, my children. We did these things as unto the Lord. You were taught that to tell on someone was showing them the love of God. It was also a wonderful way to advance yourself in Jane Whaley's kingdom. If leadership perceived that you would come to them, they would reward you for telling on people. It would be said that you were getting a breakthrough. Ten years, and no close friendships were formed.

Raising children in the Word of Faith was tough. I was expected to be with them at all times, to listen to their conversations, as they might give to harlotry in their talk. My spirituality was tied into whether I could control them. We were told that we had to put big underclothes on the children when they turned two, even if they were not potty-trained. It was thought that if your children were not trained by the age of 2, then there was something wrong with your walk with God. If you were right with God, then your children would get their breakthrough, and be potty trained. It was said that failure to use the potty was rebellion. Just as individuality was discouraged for the adults, so it was also for the children. The children were scolded for laughing and having a good time; they were being foolish if they laughed. My son wanted to play with his friend at our house, but was never allowed to because they (the friend's family) never got a breakthrough in God. What exactly did that mean? Well, when they were together they laughed, played, and loved each other; this of course was a sin. The church's leadership was threatened by any close relationship at any age. They would say it was perversion. Children were not allowed to be alone at all. They were kept under the supervision of an adult at all times; this included older children and young adults. They were not allowed to even go to bathroom alone, even in their teenage years. Teenagers were not allowed to answer the phone or use it without the presence of an adult. There were a million rules, even about the way children played, for instance no car noises, no imaginary friends, no pretending at all. They could not even play with real tools; they might be dangerous. Jane was big on promoting fear at every level to every member. Their every move was controlled and monitored. They were taught to expose everything to leadership. They were taught that they should tell on their parents for any wrongdoing. They would be told that they did not love God or their parents if they didn't tell all.

There were many rules about marriage as well as everything else. They taught again that if you loved your mate, then you would expose their sins to leadership. The thought behind it was that you could get them help with their shortcomings. Closeness was discouraged by this rule. If a mate really believed this, then you would be afraid to talk to that mate, because they might go to leadership. Jane, over a period of several years, began to interfere with the marriage bed. She taught first that the love of God was the same for everybody, that you would feel no different towards your mate than you did towards her, or anyone. If you had feelings for your mate, then that was perversion. If you wanted to spend time with them then you were perverse. After all, it was the will of God for them to be on the work schedule. After this teaching, they went into the marriage bed. They taught that you were only to have sex with your partner 2 to 3 times a month, that you should wear a condom even if you could not get pregnant; this would bring restraints to the act itself and keep it from being "unclean". They said it was a sin to bring lust into the marriage bed, which was defined as being together more than 2 to 3 times a month. They also taught that you were to go to someone in authority over you if you wanted to be intimate with your mate. The idea was that they could help you discern if it was God's will, or if you were being driven by lust. They also encouraged the men to let Jane Whaley's son-in-law buy the condoms for the couples. The idea here was that they could make sure that couples were not together more often than was taught. They divided the married couples into groups according to age. Incidentally, Jane taught the group of middle aged men herself. She encouraged them to have meetings with her and other members of the leadership to tell them their shortcomings related to this area. One other scripture that they used was that "to the pure in heart, all things are pure." They have since denied teaching this, because it ended up in the local paper. They did teach it; I heard it with my own ears.

I am convinced that the reason behind the marriage doctrine was to keep people from complaining about the work schedule. At one point, I went to Jane's daughter and asked about the 2 to 3 x a month doctrine. She told me that it was because of our schedules; since we were, in effect, too busy to give our whole hearts, so that we should be able to give our whole hearts when we were with our mates. I now believe that the whole thing was centered around the work schedule, and Whaley's desire to keep the men on it. If being with your mate was a sin, then the work schedule was God's way to keep you out of sin. The work schedule was originally created to remodel the homes of members. Jane perceived that breakthroughs were coming as a result of working together. People literally were and still do work from morning till bedtime. We wanted to get our house painted, so we were put on a list. Although my husband went out on the work schedule every night and sometimes on Saturdays, we were on the list for 2 1/2 years and never did get our house painted. Paying jobs and work for Jane's many aunts, uncles, and cousins took precedence. So although we were working on the schedule every night, we couldn't get our house painted. While on the work schedule, my husband pulled a muscle, and we would see, plainer than ever, the true heart of the ministry.

My husband went out and worked on Jane's cousin's house, and pulled a muscle while there. At our employer's urging , we went to the hospital. After this, we were trying to decide how to pay the bill. We did not have any benefits at the church company that we worked for. Church leaders came to us and basically said that we could pay the bill by borrowing money against our house, or we could sell our trac loader. They said that we could consolidate our bills and that would be helpful to our deteriorating financial condition. We did not earn good money at the church, so it was difficult to pay our bills. I prayed, and believed God showed me that we could go back against the homeowner's insurance. This action would not and did not have any adverse effects against the homeowner's insurance. I went back to them and told them this; they did not want to do that; they said that it would attack Jane's cousin. Jane's cousin earns a lot of money, and tithes. She also has influence and knows many important people in law enforcement. So, even though they knew that our financial situation was very bad, that I stayed home, and though we only earned around 23k per year, they wanted us to pay the bill. We could not and I went back to them, so they told me that they would put it against the church's insurance. They told us that they would handle everything; in fact, one of the church leaders informed me that it had been put against the church's insurance. However, the person at the hospital told me that the company that Ray had given would not pay; she filed it against a company that she knew would pay. Then that company said that they would not pay until the homeowners paid their share. At this point, we were making payments and were just letting it ride. We hated to file it against the homeowner. The hospital stepped in and told us that we had to come up with the money. We then went back to the church leader, who assured us that he would go to Jane's cousin. He later said that he had gone to her, and that her insurance would pay . We were told that it had been filed and that everything was taken care of. I was talking to Jane's cousin's mother and realized that this church leader was listening; I immediately knew that something was wrong. I called around and found out where her insurance was the next day. Our claim had never been filed as this leader had told us. I confronted them, and it was filed that next day. I had to make them do what was right.

This was not the first incident on the work schedule. The first time that anything had ever happened on the work schedule was when XYZ Construction was working on the Green River Project in Boiling Springs, NC. My husband had worked around 90 hours the week before, and got paid only for 44 hours. We were asked to donate the rest to build a new school for the children. (Although you were "asked", it was expected.) My husband contracted trench mouth the following week, which is a condition caused by a lack of rest and poor nutrition, in other words a direct result of the schedule the week before. Although we had worked all those hours the week before, we were not compensated in any way for the time lost. We had to put our groceries on our credit card, and had to pay the doctor bills. Right after this, XYZ Construction donated 15,000 to the new building. We were beginning to get the Word of Faith picture. This was the very first job, that XYZ got paid for, that the labor of the men was donated to the Word of Faith. This practice started out innocently enough, but after the building was built for the school, men were still expected to donate free labor for jobs that both church companies, XYZ Construction and ABC Company, got paid on. Thus, the hidden money agenda was no longer so hidden, at least not to us.

I still vividly remember an incident that exposes the heart of the ministry so plainly. There had been media exposure, and someone in the community had driven by the church yard sale and shot into the house where it was held. Despite this, church leaders never missed a day of the yard sale. They asked for volunteers to sit out at the sale. They told people that they would have to have hold of God if they went out. The person who was responsible for the shooting was not in custody at this time.

Businesses were not allowed to start unless Jane approved of them. She not only had to approve of them, but in actuality she had to run them as well. We got an old tractor and truck. John thought that we should buy a new tractor to be good witnesses for the Lord. After all, God would not have an old tractor. I never felt like that was right. We were forced by Jane Whaley to run our tractor through XYZ Construction. We never felt comfortable with this situation. I went to Jane and to another leader numerous times to try to get around this , but never could. As time passed, we began to realize that John was getting his own equipment. When I approached him about it, he lied and said that he did not know where God was taking him, but that at that time he was not going into heavy equipment. I told him that if he did that, we would be making other employment plans. I believe that he thought that Jane could make us go with him. She did try. John did indeed buy heavy equipment. The way he played it out was that he needed some work done at his house. He had my husband bring our tractor to his house. When my husband was moving the tractor, Jenny came over to help me watch the children. Many times I went to leadership, because that my husband was gone so much he could not mow our yard. We never had any help except a high school girl who was forced to come. Since she did not want to be there, it was a deal to get her to help. But on the day that we moved our tractor to Jenny's house, she came to help. Since she was there, we could not discuss the situation. My husband never felt like it was right to take the tractor over there. John bought his own tractor 4 days after we did the work at his house. He had asked us to do it for a blessing. He would pay for the fuel. We did. My husband quit working for John on the Wednesday that he told him he was going to buy equipment. John had never owned heavy equipment. He had only had experience on a rubber tire tractor, with a backhoe attachment. He needed my husband to stay. After this, John came back around and told us how much he loved us, and that if we ever needed him, he would be there. John knew that my husband had run his tractor for 7 hours, and that we were not working. In spite of this he tried to pay him for 3 of the 7 hours. I flipped out and called Jane, who made him pay us for the rest of the time. We were getting the message about Word of Faith.

After my husband left, a former member tells how that he and another member went in front of John's to watch for the DMV, as John did not have the proper license to run his own truck. When the former member went to Jane, she told him God's laws were above man's laws and that if he understood God's laws, he would have understood why it was the will of God for John to break the law.

It was most difficult to leave John's company, because we were emotionally involved. It was more difficult than leaving the church. We were treated very badly when we left his company. John was an idol of the people. I remember that I had my small children in my arms, and was going for the door, when Carrie (John's niece by marriage) walked out the door looked straight at me and then let the door go right in my face. My arms were full. I had my baby and my toddler in my arms. That was how it was, people perceived that we had done something wrong. It was reinforced by Jane. First she put us on church discipline for leaving and then she announced that it was God's will for another member to go to work somewhere else. No such announcement was ever made for us. The timing was deliberate on Jane's part to brainwash the people, and it worked! People who had known us for years stopped speaking to us. It was a very hard time in our lives.

We left, actually my husband left first in February of 1999, then I left in April of the same year. I would like to say that we have been allowed to go on with our lives, but we have not. The church has had members ride up and down in front of our house daily. They have also gone on a private road beside our house and looked into our sliding glass doors. One member who did this followed my husband at work for several days. Recently another member tried to run my husband off the road. This same guy had blocked us from making a turn earlier in the year; and he'd had no way of knowing whether my children were in the van. It was our family vehicle that he tried to run off the road. We were helping a former member leave when this happened. We have consulted with a lawyer, who for a nominal amount will sue. We did file a complaint with the police department, but because of the influence that they have nothing has been done. In effect, we have been denied the privilege of leaving the church , peacefully.