This is a slender book, more like a lengthy essay. 

Recently I was struck by a newspaper article about a woman in her 40s, Lyndell Montgomery, who had been part of the religious cult called 2 X 2s or "The Way" or even "The Church without a Name".  Montgomery had recently charged a leader/ministering member of the 2x2s with child sexual abuse that happened when she was 14. She lives on the Island that we live on (maybe even in our community). I am interested in the diversity of memoirs by people who were spiritually abused. And I have some scattered recollections of knowing people who were part of this particular cult. 

I have a blog page listing more than 25 books that I have read about spiritual abuse. This book will be my 2X2 contribution. 

J. Wium intertwines her own history with the 2X2 story.  Her mother was a 2X2 member and her father would drive her and pick her up from meetings, and take the family on trips to the "Conventions" that were held a couple of times a year. They lived in South Africa during J's childhood, but as an adult she lives in California.

She provides a easy-to-read picture of life in this 'insular' and mysterious religious Sect. In some ways it sounds not dissimilar to other quasi-Christian sects with cult-like features. They believe they are THE TRUE FAITH and that one must profess their beliefs, follow their dogma to the letter, and be sort of mentored into Heaven-- that it is not possible to achieve Heaven from outside the Way.  This is called "exclusivity" in their lingo.  They also expect their membership to be pretty active in religious attendance-- up to 3 programs on Sundays and a prayer meeting on Wednesdays, as well as "Gospel Meetings" (like Evangelistic outreaches to potential new converts) and the Conventions I mentioned above-- many of the better known fundamentalist churches have similar calenders that they expect members to support. They purport to read and follow the Bible, and they have a hymn book with hymns that they prefer.

How is The Way different from other Christian Churches? 

Well, I guess the fact that they don't consider themselves "a church organization" might be one anomaly.  They refer to themselves as "The Way" indicating, it would seem, that they follow the New Testament method of ministry. 

They do not have a church building, and most frequently meet in members' homes. 

They are anti-Trintarian, believing that Jesus was a man who was elevated to being part-God by the Holy Spirit. 

Their leaders and "Workers" are in place of administrators and Ministers. The Workers do not marry and when they are invited to become Workers (like Itinerant Ministers or Missionaries, sort of), they give all their worldly possessions to the sect (houses, cars, etc., which is largely liquidated and put into what? account). They are now homeless and are assigned partners, traveling 2 by 2 and members take up the slack and provide them with free board and room while they are in a certain area. It would appear that they travel around from town to town in their large regions. 

There are apparently around 75,000 members of The Way in the world, mostly in English-speaking places like UK, Canada, US, and Australia.  The membership dropped significantly (by 50%) since its peak in the 1980s, but that is probably not too different from most religious organizations.

Administration of the Fold

One important thread in the book is the mysterious, often nefarious, nature of the administration of this sect. They do not publish any literature or tracts related to their beliefs except for hand poster invitations to the Gospel Meetings. They do not own land or church buildings, so they apparently feel free (in some countries) to avoid any expenses (taxes, etc.) since they also purportedly do not receive salaries as leaders and Workers. The financial situation is not available to members of the sect. The author suggests that there must be some explanation for all the surplus money that is banked (possibly with offshore accounts in places like Switzerland). I will let you read about this.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

The other important thread in the book involves the explosion of reports of child sexual abuse and rape. The author actually uses only about 25% of the book to go into these abuses, but she also includes a number of references to online forums. The Internet has had an impact in this sect, as it has had in all other religious communities where predation has reared its ugly head over the past many decades. J. Wium provides links to the 2X2 support pages (yes, they are now publishing help for their members who have been through the sexual abuse wringer) and other interesting links that aim to provide something like history, member education, and general information about the sect. It is frustrating for those who truly care about child welfare to find out that the pedophiles involved in this community-- mostly Workers and Elders-- did not keep good records of their whereabouts during their work careers making it difficult to affirm where they were when assaults were said to have taken place.  In fact, they were instructed to burn their assigned addresses when they received a new address.

The  kindle book is slim and inexpensive, so for anyone who wants to have this data organized for them, there you go. You can, of course, just do your own searches online. There are quite a lot of interesting links, some of which I will provide in my blog post.

This was an easy to read and navigate little book.  The story goes on.  The author mentions in a couple of places that there ARE dedicated 2x2 members who (like her mother) give their hard-earned money to the Way.  The author states emphatically at the end of her book that now that she has revisited the difficult experiences of her life in The Way (she and her sisters were not sexually abused but did put up with inappropriate conversation from one Elder, unnamed) she is going to go on and do something uplifting!