By G. [A former cult member]
This is in response to Nxivm Perv Leader Keith Raniere Taught ‘Rape as a Metaphor for Orgasm’
I am offering my perspective from my own experience in a cult since they are all about power, sex and money.
Cults don’t reveal everything up-front or lay it all out in the beginning. One is casually strung along with the inner workings privy to a trusted few whose world is now the cult only and whose moral judgment has now been suspended.
Plus there’s a lot of word salad going on by the leader. Note the ever-ready plastered-on smile, the long soliloquies where this kind of stuff would be hidden among what one was told was the main topic yet the real agenda was to propagate sexual acts we would ordinarily find abhorrent.
I was in a cult called the Way International for two years
The Way International is a Christian ministry based in New Knoxville, Ohio, with “home fellowships” located in Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chile, and the UK.
Now I was never openly told, nor did I see it, but the members in leadership, those close to leadership in the Way Corps, those who had gone WOW, [Word over the World ministry] those who lived communally with other Way members saw, knew and participated in sexual shenanigans where the reasoning given was “take care of the shepherd and you take care of the flock”.
The same reasoning was given for Jim Bakker of PTL being serviced by women other than his wife.
I never saw it, but I did suspect my twig leader [A twig is an organizational term and consists of about 10 members] of being unfaithful to her husband because of her overly flirtatious, touchy-feely manner with a new male recruit for the Way].
I even questioned her about it and how her husband was off, alone, with female prospects. I can’t recall her exact reply but I do recall her anger at my even questioning and the immediate punishment meted out to myself by her. I was made to feel I was in the wrong.
Neither Catherine Oxenberg nor Sarah Edmondson lived in the Nxivm community; thus, I doubt they would have been privy to it. Add to that they are rather free-thinking women, not prudes, who would not look askance at NXIVM adult members sleeping around.
Once I lived in a houseful of Way women, for a short period of eight months. I began to see the “anything goes” sexual attitude of the women I lived with. When one was on the WOW field, one was supposed to be celibate for the entire year, if one was unmarried. Yet my Twig household was screwing WOW’S right and left under my own roof!
I went to my area leader, questioning this, thinking she would enforce Way policy. Boy, was I naive.
When the high mucky-mucks from headquarters, always men visited, the prettiest young woman in the area was chosen as his bed partner and the young women thought of it as a privilege.
Again, I knew nothing of this at the time.
Catherine Oxenberg is no prude. In fact, she’s a bit risque as they say. At one point, and she may still be, she was involved in some group having to do with the female orgasm as some spiritual passageway to enlightenment.
Do you begin to see the complexity, the drip, drip of it all yet how it always boils down to power, sex and money?
Some say that the Way International is a cult. The group itself says it is a Christian ministry.
The Way International fellowships are located throughout the United States, as well as over 30 countries. The Way is predominantly financed via its course fees and tithing. In 2000, the president of The Way, Craig Martindale, resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct. Rev. Rosalie F. Rivenbark became president of the organization and served along with two other members on its board of directors. In 2017, Rev. Jean-Yves DeLisle was installed as the fourth president of The Way and currently serves in this position.
The President of The Way International, Rev. Jean-Yves De Lisle, and his wife, Michele. Does this man lead a cult or a serious Biblical based religion?
