The Cult that Snapped ~ Chapter 13

I don't recall what was suggested last week, as a non-subject for writing. I feel I need one to help me start writing.

I am hesitating continuing the GreaseSpot story. And I haven't even gotten to the GreaseSpot part yet; I'm still writing the exiting The Way part.

Exiting The Way. I thought I'd never leave what was my spiritual family. I thought I'd never doubt the belief system with which I'd indoctrinated myself.
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Last night as I read a section of "The Cult that Snapped," a section in which the author, Karl Kahler, transcribes various parts of a teaching and discussion, I heard their voices. In my mind's ear. The voices of Craig and Doctor and Walter. I heard their inflections and tones. I could see Doctor's eyes and expression.

And I felt.

I felt I was back in a Way Corps teaching or an Advanced Class teaching. Teachings only for the mature, the initiated. Serious biblical students for whom "It Is Written" was their breath.

I felt the grand purpose of the Word, the unique position of The Way to accurately know the scriptures. So much so that even without final verification of a text we in The Way could figure out the right-dividing of that scripture. We could orthotomounta (straightly cut) that Word because of the feel we had for the Word. Doctor had worked the Word for decades mining truths that had not been taught since the first century. Doctor was passing that legacy to us.

But it wasn't just Doctor teaching us; it was God. God within each of us had brought us here. This legacy was larger than any one person or any organization. Yet it could only live via people and a structure in which to function. We were the people. The Ministry, the Way Tree, was the structure.

Doctor taught us how to read the Word. The immediate context. The remoter context. To acknowledge the culture of Biblical times. To utilize concordances and lexicons to get the feel for the words that God used. To have an awareness of figures of speech of which there are over 200 in the Bible and up to 40 varieties under one figure. Sometimes I'd wonder if any of the Bible was not figurative, with so many figures.

Doctor taught us that the Word was absolutely perfect as it was originally given and that it would always fit like "a hand in a glove" and with "a mathematical exactness and scientific precision." If there was ever an apparent contradiction, it was due to translation or to our lack of understanding. Doctor taught us that the Word always interprets itself; no man had a right to interpret it. If the Word was wrong, then Doctor was wrong.

As I read last night, between the lines and the words, I entered the scene. I was back in the Corps. I was one of the called, one of God's elite.

And I felt.

Surety. Clarity. Purpose. Resolute. Confident. Enveloped. Sanctioned.

Craig. Doctor. Walter. Their voices in my mind's ear. Voices that gave birth to images, almost simultaneously, in my mind's eye.

I eagerly sat among the audience of disciples to drink in the deep, sweet waters spoken by these men of God, Doctor and Craig as they sat in upholstered chairs in a living room-type setting on the carpeted podium platform, sipping beverages as they conversed. They were not in a hurry, not trying to prove anything, as they shared thinking out loud through the logic of the Word and what must be the proper interpretation of Ephesians 6, in order for the imagery of that Word to fit with the rest of the Word regardless if there were any texts (yet found) to substantiate what they knew must be. An air of meekness, these men who could hear God's voice more clearly than I, who tantalized my spiritual taste buds. If I were truly enlightened and meek, I could digest the meat of the Word that Craig and Doctor would lay before me, God opening the eyes of my understanding to the richness of the banquet.

Craig Martindale, the second president of The Way. His voice and presence confident and sure. His words intelligent, yet down to earth. An intense man, driven. Craig, who would think out loud sharing his thought processes with us explaining words and meanings. Always apt to teach, being an example of what we as leaders were supposed to do, supposed to be. I'd heard Craig say jokingly, "Ask me what time it is and I'll teach you how a watch works." Though I don't think he knew anything about watches.

Doctor, Victor Paul Weirwille, founder of The Way. His voice grandfatherly, strong and resonate. His eyes lit with excitement. His expression thrilled with the Word. Eager to share and dig it deeper. For the Word was life. "The Word, the Word, and nothing but the Word," as Doctor used to say. Doctor was a perfectionist, but admitted that he wasn't perfect. "I wish I were the man I knew to be," he had said. Yet, he heard God's voice clearly; he spiritually walked a tight walk with the Father. Doctor used to say that our temptation as believers (and especially as Way Corps, God's crack troops) was no longer between good and evil but between good and best. Even so we were to have no condemnation toward ourselves or others; all humans fall short. I'd heard him say quite a few times, "People are to be loved; things are to be used."

In my mind's eye, the living room setting switched to another image. A six-foot, rectangular conference table with the three men seated on the back side of the table facing the audience. Doctor in the middle. Craig to Doctor's left and Walter to Doctor's right. Each with a glass of water and Bibles open on the table. Walter with a stack of research books, maybe three or four. Doctor and Craig with a couple different Bibles. The podium decor felt of a scholarly essence, important and serious.

Walter Cummins, head of the research department. His mother had married Uncle Harry, Doctor's brother. Uncle Harry who was the first secretary-treasurer of The Way and financed much of The Way's inception. Walter was mild-mannered, academic without a stuffy demeanor.

Serious stuff. Working the Word. There was nothing more important than that Word. No family. No person. No other cause. To rightly divide the Word of God was the highest calling on earth.

The Way. Its self-importance was that of arrogance. Obsession. Hubris. All guised in authority given from God. Cloaked with clever words. Laced with sweetness.
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After reading Kahler's words and entering the scene and traversing my own responses as I read, I felt separate from my self. I felt like I had been in a movie. But it wasn't a movie; it was my life.

I chose not to linger with the separate feeling for if I engaged too deeply, I felt scared.