tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post8688738419272017289..comments2024-03-26T14:34:28.415-07:00Comments on Religion and Child Abuse News: A Writer in Bridgewater Found Way Out of The Way International CultPerry Bulwerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-20529974670075863142024-02-28T14:41:35.068-08:002024-02-28T14:41:35.068-08:00This is a book that anyone interested in evangelic...This is a book that anyone interested in evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, or aberrant fundamentalist Christianity should read. Maybe everybody should. As I read it I wondered how many other, similar movements there are like this one? What about Bill Gothard? Herbert Armstrong? Tony Alamo? How about the small, or not-so-small army of money-grabbing televangelists and radio preachers all over your Perry Bulwerhttps://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-42990305202425667432024-02-28T14:40:31.631-08:002024-02-28T14:40:31.631-08:00The Way claimed any number of overtly supernatural...The Way claimed any number of overtly supernatural manifestations. They could heal with the laying on of hands. No amputated limbs were regrown, but other conditions were healed. They could speak in tongues, and they could teach you how to do it. And of course Doctor Wierwille was on direct speaking terms with the Creator of the Universe. In the religious order he founded, Wierwille was Perry Bulwerhttps://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-36507520016867516522024-02-28T14:39:10.253-08:002024-02-28T14:39:10.253-08:00I wondered if her earlier religious life primed he...I wondered if her earlier religious life primed her in some way for this more intense experience. Would a secular child have become as fanatical? In all likelihood it just depends on the individual and the circumstances at the time. Charlene said that “the idea of Jesus as a pal” held great appeal to her. She was in college soon enough, and at a Christian meet-up there she encountered a young Perry Bulwerhttps://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-58852532380300337152024-02-28T14:37:00.478-08:002024-02-28T14:37:00.478-08:00ICSA Reviews: "Undertow: My Escape from the F...ICSA Reviews: "Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International" by Charlene L. Edge, New Wings Press, LLC, 2017. ISBN-10: 0997874708; ISBN-13: 978-0997874709<br /><br />Reviewed by Bart Stewart<br /><i>Bart Stewart lives in metro Boston and has been a student of the cult scene since the Jonestown story hit the news in his youth. Bart has no Perry Bulwerhttps://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-83089859824126615092021-01-31T12:37:44.092-08:002021-01-31T12:37:44.092-08:00A prominent leader in the group visited me during ...A prominent leader in the group visited me during the spring semester of my senior year. He revealed a plot by an elite group of multimillionaires to form a one-world government and challenge God’s natural order (which included the supremacy of white European races). Many of my classmates, he said, were children of this elite group and they must learn The Truth. He charged me to stir things up onPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-85085354012791288572021-01-31T12:37:33.793-08:002021-01-31T12:37:33.793-08:00Losing the Way: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing, Man...Losing the Way: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing, Manipulation, Abuse, and Escape<br />by Kristen Skedgell<br /><br />Shows how the daughter of East Coast intellectuals was recruited into a well-known rightwing Bible cult, The Way International, where she was manipulated, betrayed, and abused, before being rescued by the worldly mother she rejected. This title also shows how easily an idealistic Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-10794381174931214062016-06-21T16:03:47.012-07:002016-06-21T16:03:47.012-07:00Minnesota cult leader charged with 59 counts of ch...Minnesota cult leader charged with 59 counts of child sex abuse<br /><br />Fox News Latino, June 21, 2016<br /> <br />PINE CITY, MINN. (AP) – A judge set bail at $1.5 million Monday for a religious sect leader who's charged with sexually abusing girls at a secluded compound in rural Minnesota.<br />Victor Barnard, 54, made his first state court appearance since his extradition from Brazil. Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-62073593088667167632016-06-21T12:24:20.744-07:002016-06-21T12:24:20.744-07:00Cult leader Victor Barnard back in Minnesota to fa...Cult leader Victor Barnard back in Minnesota to face charges<br /> <br />Extradited from Brazil, he is now in the Pine County jail. <br /> <br />By Liz Sawyer Star Tribune JUNE 18, 2016<br /> <br />Cult leader Victor Barnard has been extradited from Brazil and was booked into the Pine County jail on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.<br /><br />Barnard, now 54, who led the River Road Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-9396914040306949422016-05-22T15:46:35.378-07:002016-05-22T15:46:35.378-07:00Cult leaders extradition from Brazil to Minnesota ...Cult leaders extradition from Brazil to Minnesota to face rape charges suddenly called off<br /><br />Victor Barnard was supposed to arrive back in Minnesota Thursday; timetable now unclear.<br /><br />By Paul Walsh Star Tribune MAY 19, 2016 <br /><br />Cult leader Victor Barnard was supposed to have been put on a flight from Brazil under guard of federal agents Thursday and returned to Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-52074286114683555832016-04-13T11:53:40.871-07:002016-04-13T11:53:40.871-07:00Pine County cult leader accused of rape asks to be...Pine County cult leader accused of rape asks to be extradited from Brazil<br /><br />Victor Barnard reportedly asked to be sent back from Brazil to face rape charges. <br /><br />By Jennifer Brooks, Star Tribune MARCH 28, 2016<br /><br />Brazilian authorities will extradite accused cult leader Victor Barnard to Minnesota to face charges that he raped young girls in his congregation.<br /><br />Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-13194026446607332242015-12-14T11:27:23.245-08:002015-12-14T11:27:23.245-08:00Pine County authorities tracking reports of suicid...Pine County authorities tracking reports of suicide attempt by cult leader Victor Barnard<br /><br />Victor Barnard charged with raping young followers in Minnesota. <br /><br />By Paul Walsh, Star Tribune NOVEMBER 19, 2015 <br /><br />Authorities in east-central Minnesota are tracking news reports out of Brazil that Victor Barnard, the cult leader accused of sexually assaulting dozens of young Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-91366751954036718382015-03-05T12:01:44.626-08:002015-03-05T12:01:44.626-08:00Out of the boxes full of evidence Blackwell said h...Out of the boxes full of evidence Blackwell said his office collected on Victor Barnard, he says there are interviews with the leader’s alleged sex victims in which they said he would tell them “I am the Messiah” so he could violate them. “He said, ‘I’m the Holy Spirit and therefore it’s not rape. And you’re still a virgin, so it’s not sex,’” Blackwell said.<br /><br />Initially, investigators onPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-29385232577634013952015-03-05T12:01:36.008-08:002015-03-05T12:01:36.008-08:00Barnard who wore biblical hand-sewn flowing robes ...Barnard who wore biblical hand-sewn flowing robes and carried a staff, started to take the wives of the ministry’s men as lovers.<br /><br />“He told me with a couple other guys that he had sexual relations with one of the wives,” Tornambe said. “[Victor] thought he was trying to help this woman because she was having problems.”<br /><br />The philandering with wives was a precursor for Barnard, Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-10853474614457122362015-03-05T12:00:25.636-08:002015-03-05T12:00:25.636-08:00Inside the Sex Cult of Christ
He claimed to be a ...Inside the Sex Cult of Christ<br /><br />He claimed to be a Savior. But he turned on the teenage girls in his flock. And when they spoke up, he went on the lam.<br /><br />by M.L. Nestel The Daily Beast March 5, 2015<br /><br />“Christ in the flesh” has been captured. And now, his alleged victims and embittered kin are left to process the damage he’s wrought.<br /><br />Self-professed holy Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-4350201032121321042015-03-01T15:10:22.368-08:002015-03-01T15:10:22.368-08:00Brazil Arrests US Cult Leader Victor Arden Barnard...Brazil Arrests US Cult Leader Victor Arden Barnard, Wanted on Child Sex Charges<br /><br />NBC News and The Associated Press February 28th 2015<br /><br />Brazilian authorities said Saturday they arrested a self-professed minister put on a U.S. most-wanted list for allegedly molesting two girls in a "Maidens Group" at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.<br /><br />A statement Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-9822054064016796762014-08-14T15:37:39.571-07:002014-08-14T15:37:39.571-07:00The alleged victim said she was 22 years old when ...The alleged victim said she was 22 years old when she left the compound in 2010.<br /><br />The second alleged victim told police she was 12 years old in 2000, when Barnard started having sex with her. She said he told her it was okay for them to have sex because he was a "man of God and she would remain a virgin because of it," according to the complaint.<br /><br />The second victim Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-74424187213289296842014-08-14T15:37:16.684-07:002014-08-14T15:37:16.684-07:00Victor Barnard, Fugitive Minnesota Cult Leader, Sp...Victor Barnard, Fugitive Minnesota Cult Leader, Spotted In Washington<br /><br />By David Lohr, The Huffington Post August 14, 2014 <br /><br />Authorities in Washington say they have received a "credible tip" as to the location of Victor Barnard, the leader of a cult-like religious sect who is accused of sexually abusing at least two girls.<br /><br />According to the Washington StatePerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-68727817655566454192014-04-28T11:00:07.201-07:002014-04-28T11:00:07.201-07:00Their daughters did not live with them — living ab...Their daughters did not live with them — living about a mile away with other women.<br /><br />Elmblad, who lives at the address on Barnard’s driver’s license, told a Pine County Sheriff’s deputy in late 2012 that Barnard didn’t live there but occasionally visited.<br /><br />A reporter recently knocked on the door of the secluded home where several former maidens list a cleaning business. The Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-31114970355140039512014-04-28T10:59:49.413-07:002014-04-28T10:59:49.413-07:00There was always fear of getting punished for doin...There was always fear of getting punished for doing something wrong or saying the wrong thing. “Fear was the main thing that kept this in check,” Vail said.<br /><br />Adults who weren’t compliant risked being shunned, losing jobs, friends and the community that they had come to depend upon. Some lost their families.<br /><br />A broken promise<br /><br />In 2008, the group’s tight bond began to Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-24721367029927756942014-04-28T10:58:31.637-07:002014-04-28T10:58:31.637-07:00 It added up to nearly a decade of alleged abuse.
... It added up to nearly a decade of alleged abuse.<br /><br />The day after Barnard first touched her sexually, the charges say, he sent her a card: “To my beloved … I thank God for you as I remember your tears and love and believing. I have you in my heart, and I’m so glad to be waiting and watching and longing together for our beloved lord Jesus Christ. Kept by His love together with you, VictorPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-52689874686066400012014-04-28T10:56:59.329-07:002014-04-28T10:56:59.329-07:00Residents planted gardens, then canned vegetables....Residents planted gardens, then canned vegetables. They raised cows, sheep and chickens. They sewed clothes.<br /><br />“Everybody there loved the lifestyle,” said Larsen, a trustee who helped acquire and oversee Shepherd’s Camp.<br /><br />As the fellowship grew to 150 people, the height of its membership, families spread to simple homes clustered around four areas they knew as Shepherd’s Camp, Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-83577603906851707802014-04-28T10:54:59.543-07:002014-04-28T10:54:59.543-07:00Caught in a cults dark embrace
By Jenna Ross and...Caught in a cults dark embrace<br /> <br />By Jenna Ross and Pam Louwagie, Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 27, 2014<br /><br />Victor Barnard played the shepherd, wearing linen clothes and sometimes wielding a shepherd’s crook.<br /><br />The minister kept his flock close, urging members of the River Road Fellowship to move to four clusters of properties in this rural area and discouraging the Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-56571767144400991082014-04-26T15:28:26.963-07:002014-04-26T15:28:26.963-07:00The Way International splintered after Wierwille’s...The Way International splintered after Wierwille’s death, Kahler said. “The ministry virtually collapsed,” he said. “Lots of new leaders arose, left the ministry and took their followers with them.”<br /><br />Building a following<br /><br />By 1990, Barnard had returned to Minneapolis, registering a business, Lost and Found Enterprises, to a home in north Minneapolis.<br /><br />The following Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-25160561839130377982014-04-26T15:28:18.147-07:002014-04-26T15:28:18.147-07:00He came out to visit his friend Gillman, who was g...He came out to visit his friend Gillman, who was going to school in Wisconsin and shared a ride with Barnard back to Minneapolis that weekend. “He brought up the Way. I didn’t really bite on that. … I never talked to him again.”<br /><br />In the parlance of the Way, it was known as “mark and avoid,” a technique of shunning those with different beliefs and views. Some of his friends got a harder Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-13787362276325726452014-04-26T15:27:11.312-07:002014-04-26T15:27:11.312-07:00Friends recall rise and fall of Victor Barnard
by...Friends recall rise and fall of Victor Barnard<br /><br />by JENNIFER BROOKS and JENNA ROSS , Star Tribune staff writers April 19, 2014<br /><br />Friends recall how a kid from Minneapolis fell in with the Way and lost his.<br /><br />Long before he formed the River Road Fellowship, minister-turned-fugitive Victor Barnard was just a kid playing hockey along Minneapolis’ River Road.<br /><br />Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.com