11. Notes about this Article

11.1. Note to the Second Edition

IT HAS BEEN A YEAR AND A HALF since the first edition, and the article has proved to be of some value to those most interested with this subject. I am always grateful for specific comments and suggestions, and have answered some of these in this second edition.

      The text remains, however, primarily unchanged. The reason for the second edition was cosmetic, not editorial: I have, however, inserted a quote from Alexander Pope which I searched for when composing the first edition, but could not find, and did not know well enough to quote by heart; I have also polished the prose a little, and clarified a few things. The text has been reset in an easier-to-read proportionally-spaced Roman type. We are all doing well, and I wish, as always, the best to you, dear Reader.

      [Jesse Ancona, January, 1992.]

11.2. Note to the Third Edition

IT'S BEEN EIGHT YEARS since the first edition. After so many changes occurred in the Worldwide Church of God in recent years, I was tempted to amend various things I had said. This, I concluded, would only add confusion. I look at what I said on page 9 of the original article¹, "Strong measures are needed to counterbalance the forces that make this church tend to tear itself apart," and I think, what I have written, I have written. Let it stand or fall on its own.

      Aside from further minor proofreading corrections, I have decided not to change the text of the article any further. In a few places I have added new comments in square brackets². I have added a note before the article, new appendices dealing with the major changes to the Worldwide Church of God from 1992 on, and I have also added a Bibliography, and a List of Further Reading , both of books I used when writing the article, as well as those most closely related to things referred to in the article, giving titles of books on various related topics, and some Internet references, which, even if they become obsolete, can serve as a starting point for your own Internet searches.

      [Jesse Ancona, 1998.]

11.3. Note to the Fourth Edition

IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS since the first edition. The text of the original article remains substantially unchanged; I have continued with my policy of making changes by adding further notes at the end of the article. This is the first version to appear on the Web.

      I have updated the Bibliography, as well as adding sections on "Where I am at Now" and "Where do I go after the Worldwide Church of God?". The general trend has been to take a general case-study of religious mind control, and bring back more specific details pertinent to the Worldwide Church of God, without touching the central article. I hope this makes it more accessible to current and former "Worldwiders", without destroying its usefulness to people dealing with the aftereffects of mind control in other contexts, or other groups.

      While I have shown this article to various "ex-Worldwiders" I know, so far none have corrected me in any facts, and have not argued with me regarding my "take" on various subjects, not to say that they might not have various unvoiced opinions of their own. The fact is, it has only been in the last two or three years that I have even had contact with former WWCOG³ members. Generally, my contact has been with people who have found their way to the Messianic movement, since, with the exception of one service on the Day of Atonement a few years ago, I have not been to any meetings of any of the WWCOG offshoots, and, of course, never again have I gone near the WWCOG itself. Still, this article is my own view, and I doubt I would change much, unless it did involve errors of fact.

      I would expect this article to be somewhat offensive to current and former members of the WWCOG, though I haven't actually found anyone who has been offended. It was necessary for me to be very blunt in writing this, because too much vagueness was part of the disease I needed to cure myself of. The truth is often offensive, and often in direct proportion to its relevance. I think of a Worldwide minister who used to quote an old Dutch saying, "sweet doctors make stinking wounds." And, I would add, "faithful are the wounds of a friend." 'Nuff said.

      [Jesse Ancona, November, 2000.]

11.4. Note to the Fifth Edition

IT'S BEEN TWELVE YEARS since the first edition. I have continued with my policy of keeping the text of the original article substantially unchanged, but I have allowed myself the liberty, in a few areas, of inserting editorial notes. These are shown in square brackets, and are in a lighter colour than the main text. I am still continuing the practice of primarily adding to this article through additional notes at the end of the article. This is the second version to appear on the Web, and the first version to be mirrored on Keith Hunt's already-established Bible Study site.

      I believe it is due to Keith's kind offer that this is also the first edition to be linked to by outside sites, such as Exit & Recovery Network. And, considering the fact I am now receiving mail about the article, I suspect it is the first on-line edition to be read by anyone other than those I have personally given the URL to. Hopefully, this means it can begin to be as useful to the on-line community as it has proven to those in my local city when it was available in print.

      I have continued to update the Bibliography, which is increasingly difficult, as many books are now out of print, and many URLs no longer exist. I continue to add to the section, "Where I am at Now". I'm not altogether sure of the wisdom of this, but since this is, essentially, an autobiographical work, I feel that the current "Perils of Jesse" might be of some interest to those struggling with the same issues of "where do I go and what do I do now, and what's going to happen to me?"

      [Jesse Ancona, January, 2002.]

Short Addendum

      Very little has changed since January, and I wouldn't want to try to call this the sixth edition of the article, but I have moved to the domain site of my friend, Keith Hunt (https://watchman.news/archive-cogkeith/jesse/). I am working on various articles on finding authentic ways to live as a Christian without passing on the emotional damage we've suffered, but none of this is ready yet. I am hoping there will be some interesting new developments coming soon, but for the moment, I've just "moved house."

      One minor change I have made, however: the various later comments I had previously added to the article in square brackets, I have now taken out and placed in footnotes to the relevant page. This prevents anachronism, and preserves the original reading of the article.

      [Jesse Ancona, April, 2002.]

¹  This page reference is to my original printed booklet, which I laid out on 8 ½" x 14" paper, double-sided. In this format, it ran about 48 pages. I had no means to reproduce or distribute the article; this was done through the local cult information centre in this city. Later, when their office moved, the article became less readily available to the public, and I decided to put it on-line. The comment quoted above can be found in section 3.1 (the original print article did not have sections or a table of contents).

²  I later removed these bracketed comments from the body of the text, and put them in footnotes, to better preserve the original appearance of the article as it was first written.

³  Interestingly, the shorthand names used for the Worldwide Church of God have changed over time. When I wrote the article, the acronym was WWCOG; later, much after I left, people seemed to shorten this to WCG (though I've also seen WWCG); more recently, the short term seems to be "Worldwide," allowing for terms like "Worldwider" and "ex-Worldwider", which work better in spoken language. The earlier acronyms were OK in print, but the changes in terms, I think, indicate a tendency for more people to be talking to each other about these things, and using terms that might make more sense to an outsider.

It may well be that "Worldwider" is a moniker applied from the outside: certainly, Messianics refer to us as "Worldwiders", most of them not even bothering with the "ex-", maybe on the idea "once a Worldwider, always a Worldwider," or the idea that "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy." I remember being quite hurt that, after three years of active membership in a Messianic congregation, and hundreds of hours in a minor ministry, that they still looked at me as a "Worldwider." After more than seventeen years, it was as though I still bore the Mark of Cain.

This gets into the whole problem of the various Christian denominations that have seen an influx of former members of Worldwide and its offshoots (and in terms of psychology, the details of which offshoot don't make a great deal of difference, from what I've seen), and how the leaders have looked at the problem (members are generally too naïve to know about such things, so are much more Christian in their acceptance than the leaders). From what I've seen, it's like someone from an ethnic minority moving into the neighbourhood. If the neighbours are not bigots, they are accepting. But as more and more people from one ethnicity move in, the neighbours get restless, and fear being "taken over."

So, there may be some sort of "critical mass", in this sense with former Worldwiders in churches, too, though other leaders, who may have heard various horror stories from other ministers, may approach their very first ex-WCG member with a cross in one hand and a chain of garlic around their neck. When they emerge from the encounter still able to see themselves in a mirror, they may breathe a sigh of relief, though still retain a certain uneasiness. None of this is helped by the fact that no one can understand what the problem is. The Worldwide Church of God has been pronounced "no longer a cult" by no less than Christianity Today, and several cult-watching groups, so what's the problem? Why aren't these people "with their own kind"?

The fact that ex-WCG members are fleeing to other churches creates a "cognitive dissonance" among church leaders: if everything's OK, then why are these people fleeing to us like refugees, and why are they so emotionally damaged? And it's uncomfortable, too, because all churches have damaged some people along the way, and no one likes to look at that: it's like iatrogenic diseases (doctor-caused); it's an embarrassment, and might even involve admitting liability, or, if you're looking God-ward, guilt or sin! It's a very, very uncomfortable place, and many churches just might feel better having such obvious symbols of religious damage and abuse not quite in their own face.