For the better part of two decades, a fringe charismatic church in Spindale, North Carolina has been under fire for abusive and outright cultish practices. In many cases, it crossed the line into criminal misbehavior–including child abuse. Well, this so-called church is in the spotlight again after more than 40 former members told the Associated Press that their former church waged a decades-long campaign to throw police and child welfare investigators off the scent. In one of the most shocking allegations of all, these former members say that two deputy district attorneys who were also church members put their loyalty to their church over their duty to protect children.
Word of Faith Fellowship first came to national attention in 1995, when “Inside Edition” teamed up with the Trinity Foundation–best known as the outfit that took down Robert Tilton–to look into allegations that the church’s youngest members were being emotionally and physically abused. Watch here–with a young Bill O’Reilly, before he went hard right.
That painfully loud screaming you may have heard is called “blasting.” It’s intended to drive out any demons that have taken hold in a person. It can go on for hours at a time–even when the target is a child.
Moreover, the church’s founder and pastor, Jane Whaley, expects children at this church located roughly halfway between Charlotte and Asheville to join in on this wholeheartedly. When child psychologist Ruth Peters saw hidden camera video of a WOFF service taken by “Inside Edition” and the Trinity Foundation, she bluntly denounced this as child abuse.
But that’s not all. Kids at the church’s daycare were frequently tied down with bedsheets, and got “blasted” when they didn’t sit still. Adults were frequently the target of abuse as well; one former member recalled being hit so hard that he flipped over a desk. Soon after this story aired, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation conducted dozens of interviews, but found that the allegations were too general and broad to merit prosecution.
However, the complaints about WOFF’s practices have continued unabated since then; Rick Ross’ Cult Education Network has a whole page of articles about this outfit. The controversy flared anew in late February, several former WOFF members reached out to the Associated Press in hopes of turning the hot lights on their former church. More than anything, they fear for the safety of the some 100 children in that church. They claim that things have not changed at all in the last two decades.
According to these walkaways, WOFF’s idea of deliverance includes beating, slapping, and choking people in order to drive out demons. They also say that Whaley has been known to keep a number of men branded as particularly egregious sinners in a converted storage facility for up to a year, during which they face a regimen of beatings and “blastings.” According to Rick Cooper, who spent 20 years at this church, Whaley believes that “you literally had to beat the devils out of people.”
Even kids are subjected to this Kafkaesque horror. Former members have seen kids being called Satanists. Crying babies risk being shaken, smacked, and “blasted.” Teachers at Word of Faith Christian School, the church’s K-12 school, have been accused of encouraging students to beat their classmates if they act in a manner that suggests they may have a demon in them.
Whaley rules this church with absolute authority. According to former members, she dictates whether members can marry or have children. Needless to say, daring to question her authority can get you publicly dressed down from the pulpit–or worse, beaten. She frequently warns her flock that if they speak out, God will strike them dead where they stand.
Under the circumstances, it’s no surprise that few people have been willing to speak out. What is surprising–and outrageous–is that some of the very people who should be blowing the whistle on this behavior are accused of being complicit in covering it up.
According to several former members, two of the worst offenders are Frank Webster and Chris Back, who are assistant district attorneys in the district next door to Rutherford County, home to Spindale. They are also ordained ministers at WOFF, and Webster is Whaley’s son-in-law. The former members say that Webster and Back took part in strategy sessions to help throw investigators off the scent.
In one of the most egregious cases, former members claim that Webster and Back helped sabotage a 2015 social services investigation into the alleged abuse at Word of Faith Christian School. According to former members Chad and Rick Cooper, Whaley convened several meetings to plan how to throw the investigation sideways, and told members to lie to social services investigators.
Rick Cooper recalled that when someone didn’t answer a question the way Whaley wanted them to answer, that person was told, “No, this is the way you should answer this question. This is the way that God would have you answer that question.” Chad Cooper recalled that Lori Cornelius, a social services worker who was also a WOFF member, was on hand for one of these meetings. So at least three people who definitely should have spoken up to stop the abuse may have been complicit in covering it up. Disgraceful.
Rick and Chad’s brother, Jeffrey, a former member who is also a lawyer, recalled that two years earlier, Webster and Back helped four members beat charges of harassing a former member by holding a mock trial. According to Cooper, when the defendants said something that could potentially come back to haunt them, Back said, “There are better ways to say that.” Three of the defendants were ultimately acquitted when the case went to trial for real; a fourth had the charges dropped.
If this is true, Webster and Back engaged in behavior that would be unethical at best in North Carolina. Prosecutors who offer legal advice or get involved in outside cases can face discipline up to and including disbarment, and doing so to help someone avoid prosecution is a crime.
Webster and Back’s boss, District Attorney David Learner, says this is a personnel matter. Well, if there is anything at all to these charges, this isn’t just a personnel matter. It’s a criminal one–and that’s putting it kindly. And if there is anything at all to these allegations, Webster and Back better have lawyers on speed dial.
I’d wondered for some time how this outfit was still in business. Well, this may be part of the answer. Simply put, the mere thought that two of the very people who should have been protecting WOFF’s current and former members–especially kids–from this abusive behavior were helping cover it up is too damn obscene for words. And it is especially outrageous to me, as a charismatic/pentecostal Christian. I can count on one hand the number of charismatics and pentecostals who would find this even remotely okay.
I sometimes say that abusive churches aren’t really churches at all, but crime families. Well, this may be literally the case at WOFF. If this is even half true, then everyone responsible for engaging in this abuse and covering it up must be arrested, and they must GO TO PRISON.
(featured image: screenshot courtesy WSPA via WBTV)
