Another Cover-up: TWI Hides V.P. Wierwille's Plagiarism

The biography of founder VP Wierwille on The Way’s website states that Wierwille "consulted and worked with" 14 theologians (“About the Founder Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille,” https://www.theway.org/about-us/about-the-founder/ Dec 2021). Noticeably missing from the list are three authors he heavily plagiarized: EW Bullinger, JE Stiles and EW Kenyon. If TWI was honest about noting Wierwille’s primary influences, and considered plagiarism an ethical practice, it would feature these men in Wierwille’s bio.

Some of Wierwille’s followers try to defend Wierwille’s plagiarism by pointing out that some book jackets admitted that Wierwille "learned from" Bullinger (though Stiles is never mentioned). But even high school students know that "learning from" is radically different from plagiarizing, which is a literary crime which results in students receiving failing grades and journalists being fired.

TWI’s bio appears to be comprehensive by listing several obscure characters. By leaving out Bullinger, Stiles and Kenyon, TWI hopes to avoid embarrassment when its followers read books by those men and discover Wierwille’s plagiarism for themselves.

The bio implies that Wierwille was a peer of such prominent theologians as Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr, which certainly is not true. Followers of TWI may be troubled to learn that Barth, Tillich and Niebuhr considered the New Testament to be full of fictional myths, and rejected basic Christian beliefs such as the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Tillich’s writings suggest he was pantheistic and even atheistic.

Another man the bio notes is Glenn Clark. Other biographies of Wierwille in his books note Rufus Mosely and Albert Cliffe along with Clark. These three held New Thought beliefs (like Christian Science), which are radically different from both Wierwille’s teachings and biblical teachings, so to include them as Wierwille’s sources doesn’t do him any credit.