Broken Faith
Inside One of America’s Most Dangerous Cults
By Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr
A Review by Dwight A. Moody
Broken Faith is 400 pages of the most unbelievable religious story I have read in a long time. It narrates the ministry of Jane and Sam Whaley and the church they launched and led in Spindale, North Carolina. Much of the narrative involves how another couple, Rick and Suzanne Cooper (and their nine children) moved to Spindale to join the church, how their children as adults grew disenchanted with the church, and how in the end all of them left the church, children first, then parents.
It caught my attention because the Coopers moved to Spindale from Darien, Georgia, a town just north of my home on Saint Simons Island (and where I have dined many times at B & J’s Steak and Seafood); and Spindale is 40 miles east of the small church I pastor in Hendersonville; Spindale is a town I have passed many times driving from Hendersonville to Charolotte. These two locations, introduced in chapter one of the book, brought the narrative home to me immediately and powerfully, with the question: how could the bizarre things described in this book happen so close to my circle of life?
Chief among the bizarre is the core practice of this church, founded and led primarily by Jane Whaley: blasting. Never heard of this? Neither had I and for good reason: it is equal parts intimidation, manipulation, violence, and control. Blasting occurs when a group of church people (I can’t in good conscience call them Christians) gather around an individual and seek to control their ideas and behaviors by screaming, stomping, staring, denigrating, and pounding them with open hands or closed fists. It is presented as a work of God to prevent a person from behavior unacceptable to the church community. It was (and is) used by the church to crush the spirit of individuals and force them into submission to the church, in general, and the pastor, in particular.
Where Jane Whaley got this practice is unclear, except that she and her husband had been formed early in adult life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the culture of Pentecostal religion. Think Oral Roberts, Robert Tilton, and Kenneth Hagin. After some years there, the couple moved in 1979 to Spindale to launch their own ministry, the Word of Faith Fellowship, eventually connecting with outposts in Africa, Asia, and South America.
What this church turned out to be is a cult. Jane Whaley gradually assumed control over the decisions of church members, including who they married, where they lived, what they studied, how they worked, and (of course) how they supported the church. Couples even needed church permission to have sex and conceive children; sex during or after the honeymoon is forbidden.
The Coopers had connections to the church. Rick’s mother was a member, and as a young man, Rick was enamored with what he saw and felt when he attended church with her. The message of “spiritual warfare” was captivating, and Jane herself was charismatic. Jane knew what she wanted, and Jane got what she wanted: power and money.
How the Coopers fared in this environment is the story of this book, including the gradual collapse of their marriage, the quiet, underground rebellion of their children, and the strategies they used to get free of the cult. It began with the children and their desire to leave the church and community to pursue an education. But at every turn people in the church created roadblocks. And when some (Coopers and others) managed to “escape” and seek the intervention of authorities (claiming child abuse, violence, and such) they were met by resistance or indifference on the part of sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, and investigators. Nobody wanted to cross Jane and her network of minions. It was a modern-day reign of terror.
The story the book narrates ends in 2019, but Jane Whaley, now in her 80s, still leads the church. Many people have left but the church manages to thrive. And Jane manages to add to her personal wealth.
This story illustrates how it can be that leaders (religious leaders, in this case) can convince otherwise normal people to give up their independence, their own convictions and judgments, their own money, possessions, and even children, to give it all up for the sake of God and the promise of heaven. It is a sad commentary on religious leaders and religious people. It makes me sick. And to think it could happen so close to my own communities, neighbors, as it were, pulled into a dark tunnel of control and fear.
The book is well-researched and written by two award-winning secular writers. It is also an easy read, and I hurried through the book to learn the outcome. I suspect you will as well.
