10
Wednesday, May 2,1979
University Daily Kansan
The Wav leads to staunch faith, criticism
By BILL RIGGINS
Staff Reporter
I was sitting in front of Wescoe Hall one warm, sunny, October day, when a brunette with long hair and a Mary Tyler Moore down next to me and struck up an unhappy
We talked for a while and, just as I was fumbling for a good pickup line, she pulled a Bible out of her knapsack and said, "Oh, by the way, I'm a Christian and..." "It hit me."
She said she was a student at The Way College of Emporia and was on the KU campus "giving testimonies." She ended up getting my phone number and soon the phone calls from Way members (males, incidentally) began.
Maybe revenge was one reason for visiting The Way College. If they could send a Miss October to the KU campus to disrupt my afterfeast, I reasoned, I had the right to go to their campus to turn over a few rocks.
FIRST CAME a tour of the campus by Chip Stansbury, director of admissions. Stansbury turned out to be an am仔能 gay with a disarming West Virginia draw).
He asked me to stay for lunch and, because I was eager to see if these folks are normal food, I accepted. The food was normal—chili and cornbread. An organist played throughout the meal, giving the cafeteria a roller-rink atmosphere.
After lunch it was time for the daily announcements. Stansbury introduced me to the student body as a teacher who believes deliverers up in Lawrence." The announcement was met
with cheers and applause and I toad to
there whist about 500 students sang a little
song.
After lunch, Stansbury and I were walking through the hall when Miss October ambled by and struck up a conversation. She didn't remember me.
"YOU'RE FROM Lawrence?" I was in Lawrence for a while," she said. "For some reason, she had looked better in front of Wescoc.
The Emporia campus is the only college of The Way, a self-proclaimed "biblical teaching and research ministry," based in Knoxville, Ohio. Its beliefs are based on the teachings of Victor Paul Wierwille, who founded the ministry in the 1940s.
Wierwille spreads his teachings by way of
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1979 Season Football Tickets at Reduced Rates
for Recent Grads
1977-1978-1979 Graduates are eligible to receive up to 2 tickets for the reduced price of $42.00 per ticket
Come by or mail your check to:
1. Remittance must accompany your order.
2. Make your check payable to:
3. In the event you have a change of address before Sept. 1st please notify the company.
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2. Do not expect to receive tickets before September 1.
4. Late season ticket orders received 14 days prior to the first game, cannot be mailed and must be picked up under name in which ordered at WILL CALL
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6. People who had season tickets last year and want to reorder the same seats this year must do so before May 15th.
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For further info.—Call 864-3141
--a videotaped course called "Power for Abundant Living."
Name:
Address:
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No. Price Amount
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--a videotaped course called "Power for Abundant Living."
The course consists of 13 three-hour sessions. Students are allowed neither to ask questions until the last session, nor to answer questions during the course. According to Way members, any initial question a student may have are answered in later sessions. The course costs $100.
A WAY MEMBER said that The Way did not like charging money for the course but people were more likely to stick out if there was a financial obligation they involved.
The course is advertised as an "answer to so percent of your questions about the Bible" and is priced at $125.
The Way's motto is "The word of God is the will of God," and it"s upheld on walls all over the campus. It summarizes The Way's doctrine that the "scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were Theoaps and Breated and perfect as originally given
Members of the Way take the Bible literally but believe that its true meaning has been distorted through bad translations. So they go back to the original texts in Sumerian and other ancient languages and take them apart word by word.
ALL THE COURSES at The Way College are religion-oriented, and the college is not accredited. But some students take courses at Emory State University.
Obviously, most of them know the Bible by heart.
Students at The Way College are in one of two programs. Students who plan to find a job must take the first program, college take a two-year program. The students said this program's purpose was to instruct them how to live fulfilled lives that they will be able to teach them that the Bible really says.
The other program is The Way Corps. It is a four-year program whose graduates go into the Corps to spread "The Word in the State of the Union and 40 foreign countries."
Way Corps members are sent to pre-determined "area of need" Lawrence is
Jay Lehive is the leader of the fourmember Way contingent in Lawrence Lehive and the three female members of the staff. She shares an apartment on Louisiana Street.
"Oh, it's all plateric. We're just like a big family," he said.
I REMAARKED to Leluhe that his living arrangement was a good selling point for the company.
During a marathon coffee-drinking and cigarette-smoking session, Lehive and I
The Way is a charismatic organization, and its members are encouraged to speak in tongues. Lehane said the ability to speak in French was a gift from God to all true believers.
discussed several aspects of The Way that had aroused my curiosity.
Lehive said that he did not know what language he spoke in but that it sounded
I also asked Lehive why the Way members were required to hitchhike when traveling and were given a time limit to reach their destination.
He said it was "just a matter of faith."
LEHIVE HITCHHKIKED to The Way headquarters in Ohio last summer. He was given 28 hours to make it there. He made it within the time limit, but if he had not, he would have been given a meal and sent back to Emperor to try it again.
Lehive said he did not think there was pressure being put on him by the requirement. God provides the rides, he said.
"I've never had a bad ride before, but I've turned down rides before," he said, "I just ask UG before I open the door whether I go in the car. He's said 'No' a few times."
Lehive and The Way kept a low profile in Lawrence. Way Corp members do not go to the courthouse to hear testimony. They prefer to sit down and talk about The Way with people who happen to cross their
LIKE MANY WAY members, Lehive looked as though he could jog a mile or two without working up a sweat. The Way puts a lot of emphasis on physical fitness and physical attractiveness because personal appearance is an important part of spreading "The Word."
To Way members, good health is a God-given gift to believers. One Way Corps member, who was in Lawrence last week trying to organize a Power for Abundant Living class, said he had not been to a doctor since taking the class for the first time.
In fact, that is one of the selling claims for the class, as is prosperity, freedom from capitalism.
Some people who have taken the course said it was one of the greatest things that he had ever done.
It's worth the $100. It changed my life, it
needed me needing change. one student
believes
ANOTHER SAID, "During the first session I got so excited it was hard to keep sitting down. Everything made so much sense and fit together so well."
Lehive said he had taken the course 15 times and that he learned something new.
1NDEPENDENCE on May 2.
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INDEPENDENCE is the foundation of our society.
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mWED, May 2, 7:30pm, Jewish Community Center
917 Highland Dr.
Yvonne Keefer, director of the Baptist Student Union in Lawrence, is one of the critics of the Power for Abundant Living course.
There will be a program of Israeli Folk Dancing
"I think it's a very dangerous course, and wouldn't invite anyone to go near it," she said. "I don't care if they come around."
EVERYONE WELCOME!
She said Way members referred to the Holt Spirit as something they could control.
She said most people who took the course later joined The Way. She said intelligent people with flexible minds seemed most susceptible to Wierwille's course.
But the course has critics who are as stauarch as its supporters, and they say that the course is too vague.
The Way has been denounced by spokesmen of several denominations, some of whom said that The Way was a cult and other groups were similar to ones used in brainwashing.
KEEFER FIRST became interested in the Way in January 1971. Four of her students took The Way class and afterwards became deeply involved with The Way. She has been keeping tabs on the organization since she has.
"They use it like a big slot machine in the sky," she said.
"They play mind games with you," she said.
Keefer said The Way attempted to recruit students who had strong psychological skills and were exposed to cases; a woman who had attempted suicide, a woman whose father had recently died and a woman with heart problems who was scheduled for major heart surgery on her
"I THINK there is no question that it's a cut, she said. "Women exerciseies use this."
But The Way members scoff at that idea. They insist that The Way is a ministry, not a cult, and they downplay the idea that Wierwille controls the organization.
Stansbury said, "We don't go around selling flowers and junk like that. We don't tell people what to do with their private lives."
Stansbury said Wierwille probably would step down as president of the organization.
"We talk about him a lot because we love him a lot, but that's it," he said.
Stanbury's response to critics of the Way is typical. Way members have grown used to being called members of a cult. But them, too, have been called To them. To them. The Way is an answer to a prayer.
Kansan applications available this week
Completed applications must be returned by 5 p.m. Friday to 105 Flint Hall.
Applications for news and business staff positions for the summer and fall University Daily Kansan are now available. The forms can be picked up in the School of Journalism office, 108 Flint Hall, the Student Office Senate, State Office Union; and the student organization and activities, 220 Stront Hall.
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