Of monuments & statues: "The Teacher" & "The Trainer"

I've been searching my brain, trying to find a history file, When did I take that print of Wierwille off our living room wall?

The "print" refers to a print of a painting depicting The Way's founder, Victor Paul Wierwille. It's entitled "The Trainer." Wierwille, dressed in hunting apparel,  is leaning over commending his dog after a bird hunt. The dog has obediently retrieved the kill and brought it to his master. A quote, apparently from Wierwille, underscores the picture, "Training with love yields loving obedience."

Hubby and I were given the framed print as a wedding gift in 1984. It hung on our various living room walls for over two decades.

When I left The Way, I didn't immediately erase The Way from my walls. I still have framed prints from past Way artists hanging on the walls, but none depict Way references. I would like to replace some of them, but not because they "trigger" me or because they were painted by past Way artists. I just want different art. But, I can't even dust or vacuum, much less redecorate. So, they stay.

I'm thinking that it was 2008, and maybe 2009, before I took "The Trainer" off our wall. I left The Way in 2005 after 28 years of loyalty. My husband left in 2006 after 24 years of loyalty.

I recall looking at the print multiple times after leaving The Way and wondering, Should I take this down? But as I'd look at the print, I still felt fondness. I felt nostalgia and the desire for all to have turned out differently.

My memories of Wierwille were good memories. Through my decades in The Way he was a fatherly figure. My few personal encounters with him were of a gentle, wise, caring father or grandfather. For decades, in my mind and heart, he was and had been the man of God of the world. I never thought of him as God or Jesus, but I did equate him with the likes of Moses and the Apostle Paul.

At the end of my Way days, and even after leaving, when I'd read or hear the stories of Wierwille's abuses, I'd have my doubts. I was caught within my own internal civil war.

What's true? What's not true? Who do I believe? Dr. Wierwille isn't here to speak up for himself. What about David in the Old Testament and his sins? Were Doctor's any worse? What about the culture of the times? Did these women encourage the sex? Doctor was always kind. He taught, 'Things are to be used. People are to be loved.'

My ambiguity trumped the take-it-down-yet question. Not to mention my reactionary sensitivity to The Way's doctrine of discarding the past by "forgetting it and declaring it null and void." I didn't and don't want to forget the past - the so-called good or so-called bad. For me, that picture represented 28-plus years of my life. How could I just toss that aside?

And then one day, but for the life of me I can't recall the day or year or month, I took it off our wall. It was time.

Now, I would never have an image of Wierwille displayed in our home. He used people as merchandise, not only the women whom he sexually abused, but others as well. His main interest was power. Now, a print depicting Wierwille hanging on our wall would be repugnant, mostly.

The recent controversy over Confederate statues brought to mind the life-size, bronze statue of Victor Paul Wierwille which stands inside the Victor Paul Wierwille Prevailing Word Auditorium on the grounds of The Way International headquarters in New Knoxville, Ohio, which is located on property that used to be the Wierwille family farm, where Victor Paul and his siblings grew up. If I recall correctly, Wierwille's bronze depicts him standing, holding an open Bible in one hand, teaching "the Word." Wierwille referred to himself as "the teacher."

What if that statue were in a public park? (It never will be. But if it were...) How would the women who were Wierwille's victims, or family members of those victims, feel if they had to pass that statue on a regular basis? How would the victims of Victor Barnard feel? Bernard's victims never had personal contact with or knew Wierwille; he was dead. Yet his legacy in part continued with Barnard, though Barnard took Wierwille's sexual abuse doctrine to a sicker, twisted level.

No, it's not an exact comparison, probably far from it - the Confederate statues to that of Wierwille's life-size bronze. But it's what I thought of. And the limited-edition, 7-inch, miniature, bronze Wierwille replicas that were made and sold. And that print that once hung on our living rooms' walls.