Loy Craig Martindale was stripped of his clergy title, dropped from active Way Corps, removed from staff, placed on "spiritual probation," and is no longer allowed to live at The Way International's (TWI) New Knoxville headquarters.
"The board of trustees have considered these matters very seriously at length and made our decisions because it was the right thing to do," TWI spokesman Rico Magnelli said in a prepared statement on September 20. "We have had to respect everyone's interest here. This is all we are prepared to say on the matter at this time, as we don't believe it warrants public discussion." He added that Martindale is seeking "secular employment." (Reported in the Celina Daily Standard and St. Mary's Evening Leader, Sept. 21, 2000.)
Magnelli did not say if the three- member Board of Trustees (BOT) placed similar sanctions on Martindale's wife and children.
Martindale resigned from TWI's presidency on April 20, but the BOT allowed him to continue to work on staff in specific areas of responsibility. These are harsh new sanctions, particularly since "probation" normally means that he would not be allowed to participate in or attend any TWI functions in any capacity.
This creates a troublesome situation for Way followers, as the article "Time to Change Pictures?" at points out:.
+ Should Way people remove Martindale from the top of their "lift (prayer) list?"
+ Should they destroy all of his teachings, including his book Rise and Expansion..., his Sunday service tapes, his "Athletes of the Spirit" video dance production, his "Way of Abundance and Power" series of classes, and his other classes?
+ Should they reevaluate everything he taught in his 18 year presidency?
Why It doesn't Help Much to Get Rid of Martindale
While the BOT tried to improve TWI's situation by removing Martindale, the move doesn't help much.
First, it doesn't significantly help the problem of the Allen and Parker lawsuits. Undoubtedly, the BOT hoped that removing Martindale would convince the court that the charges in the lawsuits are false. However, the BOT was so weak and slow in dealing with the problem, that this is probably a case of "too little, too late."
Wayers have been led to believe that the lawsuits were just a problem of one man (Martindale) who "stumbled" (momentarily fell into sexual temptation) and then recognized and dealt with his error. Not so! The core of the lawsuits is that several of TWI's top leaders conspired together to foster and protect Martindale's longstanding habit of sexual abuse of TWI staff and followers. These top leaders are still in control of TWI (except for Donald Wierwille, former trustee and son of TWI's founder who died in October). So the main targets of the lawsuits' allegations are still in control of TWI.
(Note: when TWI made an acceptable offer, the Allens accepted a settlement out of court on November 7, 2000.)
Second, the new president, Rosalie Rivenbark, is one of the main sources of TWI's increasingly manipulative control of its Corps leaders. Martindale's firing won't remove this type of oppression which Wayers feel.
Third, the newest trustee is also seeped in the oppressive practices of Martindale's regime. Platig himself said in a January 1999 California/Hawaii Household Heartbeat, "How great it would be to have a Ministry of a whole bunch of Rev. Martindales." This was written after Martindale admitted to the trustees that he had sexual affairs with employees. It is unlikely that Platig will use his new power as one of the three people who totally control all aspects of TWI to reform its extreme practices.
Fourth, TWI's entire indoctrination program is dominated by Martindale. In the last ten years, Martindale made a concerted effort to eliminate all of the courses taped by founder V. P. Wierwille, and to replace them all with courses he taped. Martindale even replaced many of Wierwille's terms with his own new jargon.
It will take another major effort for TWI to find a new teacher (or more likely, a platoon of teachers subservient to the BOT) and to tape new versions of all the courses. This takes a lot of time, money, initiative and energy, all of which are in short supply in TWI at this time.
TWI tried the platoon approach in the May 2000 Dealing with the Adversary class. Way Corps and State coordinators were allowed to teach the class. But they still had to depend on the videotapes and syllabus from Martindale's class.
The Way Magazine, July-August 2000, claimed that 4,600 attended 53 classes around the world (averaging only 87 per class). Since Wayers are essentially required to attend, this reflect TWI's total following. The number is much lower now, because hundreds have left TWI since Martindale's errors became public.
In the mean time, the BOT is in the awkward position of needing to use courses taught by someone on "spiritual probation," even though Wayers are normally told to avoid all contacts with anyone on probation. Furthermore, Martindale left a legacy of corruption, false teaching and paranoia which are reflected in his taped teachings.
Fifth, TWI's "new" leaders are also its "old" leaders who helped foster Martindale's corrupt legacy. They won't be quick to reform the problems they helped to create.
However, TWI is good at pretending problems don't exist and at hiding leadership failures from its followers. (While this is a form of "denial," it is partly based on TWI's teaching on negative believing which prevents its followers from acknowledging present problematic situations.) For instance, The Way Magazine (July-August 2000) noted that Martindale resigned, but gave no reason for it. There wasn't even a hint of Martindale's affairs, sexual harassment of an employee or lawsuits against TWI.
Ways that Getting Rid of Martindale Will Help
Although getting rid of Martindale won't help much, it will help in some ways.
The removal may help to get rid of some of Martindale's extremes. Like his predecessor, V.P. Wierwille, Martindale exploited his title as "The Man of God for Our Day and Time." As such, he came to think that every wild notion he had was revelation from God, that every profanity he spewed was acceptable, that every joke he told was funny, that every woman he wanted should be available to him, that every one of his teachings was God's teaching, and that he was generally above correction.
It may well be that his successors as president and teacher will not take upon themselves this degree of exalted status. The new president, Rivenbark, works mostly behind the scenes and doesn't have the capacity and hunger to be in the spotlight that Martindale and Wierwille did. Therefore, TWI may replace the "Man of God" system with a more widely distributed and/or anonymous style of leadership and teaching. Both the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses made this transition after having had dominating leadership personalities as their first two leaders. (One difference is that the "second leader" of the Mormons and JW's led for decades and wasn't removed in disgrace.) TWI may, by necessity, make the same transition. This may result in fewer new, radical and extreme teachings, which may make the cultic nature of TWI less obvious.
Dr. John Juedes, C. 2000, lcmremvd