CHAPTER 2

Chris Geer's reading of "The Passing of a Patriarch" sent massive shock waves through the ministry. Wierwille had come back from the dead to report that something was rotten in The Way, starting at the very top. In a ministry in which criticizing the leadership was unheard of, Wierwille's tirade from the grave against his hand-picked successors stunned and devastated the faithful. It reverberated throughout The Way as a warning that the ministry was in dire danger.

But no solution was offered, no guidance, no advice. "Patriarch" raised earthshaking questions without providing any answers. The only answers lay in the Word, as everyone already knew, but who could be trusted now to interpret the Word?

The ultimate triumph of "Patriarch" was to prove that The Way was nothing but a cult, and that its leaders, Geer included, could be trusted to act exactly like cult leaders.

A cult is a dictatorship, an authoritarian organization that manipulates people into blindly obeying a leader whose authority is absolute.

Every cult is a cult of personality, revolving around and subject to the leader, usually the founder, usually a man, who dupes his followers into believing he has special knowledge and powers.

Cults are not organized around ideals, principles, beliefs; they are organized around cult leaders. If there is no cult leader, there is no cult.

When the leader dies, the cult is also in danger of dying. If no successor arises, it can only drift apart or find ways of ruling itself democratically, in which case it becomes something other than a cult.

If there is an unquestioned succession, the cult is safe. But if two or more leaders stake a claim to the throne, and if they refuse to back down while retaining a base of support, the only solution possible is to divide up the world like Alexander's generals. That's what happened to the Hare Krishnas, and that's what happened to The Way.

© Karl Kahler 1999