The Rise & Fall of the Word of God Covenant Community

lHlHow a small,

idealistic religiouscommunity in AnnArbor spawned asprawling empire

of paranoia,subjugation and

despair.

AND

OF AcH EA VEI\J LV

EMPIRE

...h t 'dMiredk the words t a ~7~j'

. fist Jim Cavnar first spo e .~:e~~rd of God in 1967. .

I!!!!I~NTIIE BEGINNING, TIIEALlrPOWERFULGOD whocreated the universe reached down into an apartmentabove the Campus Comers party store in Ann Arborand spoke to the world through the mouth ofa guitarist

It was the fall of 1967,a time when God was doingstunning things in many prayer groups nationwide. Godwas giving them special messages: and inspiring themto pray ecstatically in strange languages, They were

Ii_IIforming a movement the charismatic renewal.The Ann Arbor guitarist, Jim Cavnar, was part of that

movement He was praying fervently one night with a dozenfriends when he was surprised by a sudden, urgent desire toopen his lips, and by the powerful sense that God was directinghis mouth to form a message. The others, hearing the changein his voice, fell silent This is what God said:

"The work you have begun in Michigan will continue and willspread to many other states ... Iwill raise up spiritual sons anddaughters armed for my work. A shining cross of my body ...willbe raised up among you ... Iwill send people to you from allacross the nation to receive a message from you that they willtake back."

-x Q~ter Century in the Word of GodCavnar was not quite sure what such a stunning and unex-

pected message meant But two of his closest friends in theroom that night - Ralph Martin and Steve Clark - thoughtthey knew what God was calling them to do.

Over the next two decades, Martin and Clark enlisted hun-dreds of spiritual warriors to help them build up a powerfulChristian community they called the Word of God. Along theway, God sent thousands of additional messages through themouths of their followers, nearly always blessing the work Mar-tin and Clark had begun.

By the late 19708,the Word of God had become the kind ofshining symbol of spiritual power God had predicted in Cavnar'sfirst prophecy. Besides the 1,500devout adult members in AnnArbor, Martin and Clark reached millions of charismatic Chris-tians around the Worldthrough the tapes, training manuals andbooks the conununity's publishing house was pumping out

As the Wordof God grew, its most zealous members looked totheir spiritual leaders to advise them in their most intimatechoices: what careers they should follow,who they should mar-ry, what houses they should buy, how to treat their spouses andraise their children. .

BV DAVID CRUMM

In 1976, as a sign of commitment, men who became /ullmembers of the Wml of God began wearingwhite cloth stoles draped around their shoulders at community gatherings. Wmten-

draped their heads with similar white cloth.

Sept. 20, 1992 • Detroit Free Presr.

At left, Hbrd of God cofounder Steve Clark (far left)prays with the Rev. Harold Cohen in 1973. Above, mem-bers embrace at a community meeting in the late 19605..

•• - .~

GOD'S HOLY SPIRITMAYHAVE CALLEDTIlEWord of God into exis-tence, as its members fer- "For 18 ·years, I lived my lifevently believed, but Ralph _=~c:es:~~:fas if I were in a submarine,its chief architect ( , . .

Now in their early 50s, submerged in the waters ofthey embody their callings.Martin's piercing slate- our own culture," says Kathyblue eyes, silvery hair andpolished preaching serve Javornisky, who joined thehim well as one of the na-tion's most popular Word of God in 1973. "And

.Catholic TV evangelists.Clark's thinning hair and when the end came for me, Ispectacles seem perfectlycut for his role as a latter- 't Rlh·· g. hday monastic and a reclu- spen m011LS ID an UIS - a~t:n::!~~:~:.Of the very, very painful time."

But even in their 20s,these slim, intense young men were charismaticin the most common sense of the word. _

"Itwas a very wild scene around 1970,"recallsRon Ghormley, who was a ~year-old, straight-backed Lutheran in a business suit when he andhis wife, Liz, first waded into a Word of Godprayer meeting in the basement of St Mary'sCatholic Chapel.

"It was a student scene with more hair thanyou can imagine now, bib overalls and combatboots or bare feet - and here Icame, this busi-nessman accustomed to wearing three-piecesuits," Ghormley says. "But Iliked the environ-ment - itwas so charged, There was such a highlevel of expectation that something importantwas going to happen as we prayed. And the rela-tionships were just great People were huggingeach other. Ihad never seen such affectionamong a group of people in my life. It was like awliole new world was opening up in front ofme."

An accomplished civilengineer, Ghormley wasa respected lay leader in his Lutheran Church-and more than 10 years older than Martin andClark. "But Idiscovered Iwas a novice at whatthey were doing," he recalls. "I dropped back andbecame like a student to these younger guys."

And when their heavenly empire began tocrumble, and key Word of God leaders sorrow-fully confessed they had been wn;>ngabout manythings, it was as if a terrifying earthquake hadbegun to rumble beneath hundreds of house-holds.

"For 18years, Ilived my life as if Iwere in asubmarine, submerged in the waters of our ownculture," says Kathy Javornisky, who joined theWord of God in 1973 and left it last November."Andwhen the end came for me,lspent monthsin anguish - a very, very painful time. Ilookedin the mirror and asked so many questions: Whathave Idone to myself over all these years?"

Martin was young, but he was confident andreassuring. He could talk about God performingmiraculous deeds as casually as other men wouldtalk about DetroitTIgers games. He was marriedto a slim, pretty woman, Anne, who appeared tobe a model wife and enthusiastically helped carefor the hundreds of guests Ralph draggedthrough their house - including Ron and LizGhormley.

Clark, by contrast, adopted the life-style of amedieval saint, organizing his own celibate reli-gious order, called Servants of the Word, and liv-ing for many years in virtual poverty with only a.handful of clothes and some books to call hisown.

"Weleaned on Steve and Ralph a lot ... a lotmore than we realized atthe time," recalls PeterWilliamsOn,who became aWordofGod coordinator atage 19and was assigned tosupervise members in sev-eral University of Michi-gan dormitories. "Weworked as a team, but theyreally defined the universeof our consideration."

MARTIN AND CLARK.had been perfectly poisedto ride this, crest-of thecharismatic renewal as itswept like a tidal wave --across the Catholic Churchafter 1967.like Cavnar andGerry Rauch, the fourthfounder of the Word of

God, they had been Catholic students at the Uni-versity of Notre Dame in the early 1960s. Bothhad experienced a profound spiritual awakeningwhile attending a Cursillo, a system of short, in-tensive spiritual retreats that still is popular

.throughout the Catholic Church.Martin and Clark became so involved in the

Cursillo thattheywere hired as paid consultants,traveling across the country to train local Cursil-10 leaders. Neither was satisfied with these sim-ple retreats, however. So much was going wrongin the world: the VietnamWar;the Satanic spreadof Marxism; people everywhere rejecting allforms of religion. God had to have a larger, morepowerful plan to change the world. ..

The two men saw dramatic changes in theirown church. They welcomed the fact that for thefirst time in its history the Roman Catholic masscould be ce1ebratedlnEnglish. Butthey also sawmany dangerously secular elements- fromfem-inism to Marxism - eroding the pillars of thechurch they loved.Whatwas needed, Martin andClark concluded, was a tightly knit Christiancommunity, a force for renewal in the church anda bulwark against Satanic forces.

Clark had made several abortive attempts to

organize such a community be.fore, but in 1967the climate wasmore conducive than ever.Thatwas the year the largest churchin the world, the RomanCatholic Church, crossed pathswith the one of the most power-1u1spiritual forces in 20th-Cen-tury America, the ProtestantPentecostal movement. Martinand Clark were among the van-guard ofyoung Catholics stand-ing at this historic crossroads,eagerly channeling thePente-costal forte into their church.

Since the turn 'of the centufy,Pentecostals had been' promis-ing that any Christlan could

• claim the same spiritual powersthe Bible says were unleashedto Jesus',followerson Pentecostthe ability to speak and pray instrange languages, and to re-ceive special messages deliv-ered directly by God's HolySpirit. By the late'60s, suchmessages were being receivedregularly by members ofthe nascent Word.of God com-munity.

"Yes, I have chosen to act

through you:' God reassured that I am God, and that lamMartin, Clark and their friends .among you,"one night, speaking through the; This was a far more awesomemouth of Bruce Yocum, an ear- connection to God than most ofly Word of God recruit who be- the group's recruits had evercame a leading prophet. "I have imagined. Their weekly wor-made"your voice like a trumpet ship became a dazzling displayand it will De heard from one of that spiritual power. Hun-end of the earth to the other. 1 dreds crowded into their meet-willspeak through you to whole ings in the big hall at St.nations." ' Thomas Catholic Church in

Yocum's messages were far Ann Arbor. Catholics always, from unique. Soon God was were the majority: - but thespeaking, at least occasionallg charismatic renewal spreadthrough the mouths of almost among mainline' Protestants asevery member. Hundreds of the well,messages were written downand circulated through the com-munity as divine revelations, of-ten with little or no human iden-tification. ,

God even named the commu-nity one night in 1970 in a fa-mous message uttered byYocum:"I ... call you the Wordof God, because you are myword now to the whole face ofthe earth .... I am going to pourout upon you a spirit of powerand ofgrandeur and of glory, sothat all who see you will know

LIKE MOST OTHER RE-cruits, Kathy Javornisky wasdrawn to the WordofGodby theecstasy of its worship and theopen affection of its members.Going to a prayer meeting in theearly '70swas like rallying for aUniversity of Michigan homefootball game. "Youwould startwalking down the street in AnnArbor and you'd see othergroups 'of students walking in

CONTINUED ON P. 12

PHOTOGRAPH - STEVEN R, !'HCKERSON

Sept. iO, 1992 •

CONT. FROM P. 9

the same direction, then we'dall converge,"Javornisky says."There was this tremendousyouthful zeal." _

Cavnar usually began the- meetings with a high-energy

folk song glorifyingGod'spow-er .-:..at first accompanied byacoustic guitars and, in lateryears, by an orchestra.Then hewould invite the crowd to un-leash the full power of God'sHoly Spirit, and the meetingwould soar.

The' sound of their praiseseemed unearthly.Hundreds ofpeople would pray aloud, eachusing different words. Peoplesang snatches ofadozensongs,

, all at the same time, and beau-tiful new melodies wouldemerge. Rhythmic chants of"Hallelujah! Glory to Jesus!Thank you, LordJesus! Praiseyour name!" would echothrough the hall.

Soon, English would nolonger suffice to express 'the .spiritual yearnings and the Ron and Liz Ghormley (standing at right) join_other Hbrd o/God members at the July prayer meeting in J

'strange tongues would erupt ' I _ _

("Kee-ah-tah-mav-ray-Ioo.Kee- J9Tl, 10years after its found- Slowly a real communityah-tah-mah.Kee-ahhhl1hh-tah~ ing, the group's annual rev- fo[xued:-first of students at-Kee-ahhhhhh-tahhhhhh, " enues from -publishingtolil - ;; tending th~university,and, lat-chants one woman-inltJ;~.c-oni---$-~rirllli'on:They were selling er, of talented men who weremgofa1970prayerserViceasa _599,000 books and training schoolteachers, medical doc-chaos of other prayers, songs manuals annually, plus 78,400 tors, computer experts,engi-and tongues roars aroundher). records, 159,418cassettes, and neers, musicians, artists, insur-Then, abruptly, the din would 429,000songbooks.Their mag- ance and real estate agents, andgive way to silence, and a lone azine, called New Covenant,' grocers. Most of the Word of 'worshiper's voice would enun- had become the mainjournalof God women married andciate the newest message from the charismatic renewal with stayed at home, raising theGod, clear and compellingas a 71,000subscribers. community's hundreds of.chil-church bell tollingat dawn. dren.

Moments later, the noise of JJ,.SEXCITEMENT AND EX- Even among male members,praise woulderupt again.Some pectations skyrocketed in Ann the pursuit of wealth was sub-worshipers fell on their knees Arbor,peopleyieldedmore and jugated to spiritualgoals.Wordto pray; some clasped hands more of their individuallivesto ofGod leaders took no salaries

_ andformed smallcircles;some the larger mission of the com- _at first and, later, only modesthugged. Peoplewould lift their munity. ones. Some Word of God mensmilingfacestowardthe ceiling "There was such a romantic, clustered with fellowmembersand gently wave their open idealistic character to what we in anumber ofloca1companies.hands above their heads,.as if were doing and it was pro- A handful found jobs in firmsreverently stroking God's mov- foundly Christian," says Peter controlled by Domino's Pizzaing spirit. Williamson. "I was very influ- ownerTomMonaghan. Itwas a

Thousands of visitors made enced by reading about st. comfortable environment forpilgrimages to AnnArbor from Francis of Assisi, so I gave up them, because Monaghan wasaroundthe world,andnearlyall my shoes and went barefoot a zealous Catholic himself, al-of them wanted to carry back from May to October. My hair though he never joined thesome glowing ember of this was long and parted in the mid- WordofGod.spiritual fire.WordofGod pub- - dle with a leather headband In 10 years, Word of Godlishing companies obliged. By around it." • membership swelledfromfour

12 Detroit Free Press Magazine • Sept. 20, 1992•...

yoyng men tp 1,200a<ralt&-an1,2~itiidren. -' '

Most of the members wereorganizedintohouseholds. Stu-dents living in dorms met fornight prayers before bed. Sin-gle people shared apartmentsthat were carefully segregatedby sex, and married couplesusually had at least one singleWordofGodmember assignedto livewith.them.All membershad personal pastoral leaderswho met with them regularly tohelp guide their lives.

In 1976, as a sign of theirdeepening commitment, menwho had become fullmembersbegan wearing white clothstoles draped around theirshoulders at community gath-erings. Women draped theirhairwith a similar white cloth.The community called thesecloths "mantles and veils."

Eventually,scores offamiliessold their houses or left apart-ments to purchase homes innew Word of God neighbor-hoods that sprang up aroundAnnArbor andYpsilanti.

PHOTOGRAPH - STEVEN R. NICKERSON

TO' C;REATETHE PERFEGr_newfainuies for the heavenlyempire, Word of God leadersdeveloped a strict code forcourtship and marriage. Singlepeople were enjoined from.dat-ing until a' person's spiritualcounselor decided they wereready to get married. "Wethought that in our society;dat-ing was not an effective way tofind a good marriage partner,"Cavnar says. "It often led to se-rious problems - sexual im-morality; broken relationships,and other hardships." The sys- 'tern also reflected the Word ofGod's Catholic majority.All sin-gle people were urged to con-sider making a vow of celibacyand entering a religious orderor the priesthood.

Because she was a freshmanat U-M when she joined theWord of God, Kathy Javorniskywas barred both from datingand from marriage for severalyears. Then, in late 1976,MartyJavornisky, another member of

CONTINUED ON P. 14

CONT. FROM P. 12

the Word of God community,telephoned and asked her tohave dinner with him and someothers at his home one night

At first, she did not realizethat it was a date. It was onlyabout two weeks later that shediscovered Marty had formallyinitiated a courtship process thatwould change her life.

Like proper young suitors acentury ago, Word of God mentook full responsibility for initi-ating courtship-s- and then onlyafter obtaining the proper per-mission. "Marty had gone to hispastoral leader to ask about me,"Kathy says. "And then his pas-toral leader had talked to m:ypastoral leader. My pastoralleader had given permission forme to enter into a dating rela-tionship. But all this time, I had .no idea any of it was going on."Only when Marty asked to seeher again did Kathy realize thatshe was the target of a formalmarriage suit

That was OK; she was eager

to marry someone, and Martyseemed very nice. Their chastecourtship lasted nearly a year-always guided by theircoun-selors, and they were wed in De-cember 1977.

AS EARLY AS 1972, SOMEoutside observers were becom-ing alarmed at the degree ofcontrol Martin, Clark and otherWord of God leaders exercisedover their flock. In a stinging cri-tique written for a church maga-zine, the Rev. Charles Irvin, anAnn Arbor priest, warned thatWord of God's leaders were fartoo quick to "sprinkle holy wa-ter on all that is said and done ....Ninety-nine percent of the timethat which is merely a humanjudgment is characterized as ifit were the 'Lord's all powerfuland holy Word."

But Ralph Martin and SteveClark were climbing so fastthrough the hierarchy of the R0-man Catholic Church that no lo-cal critic could hope to catchthem.

Clark published one book,

The Best Seats In The HouseNow·0nSme.

With over 50 different styles of barstools and counterstools inour inventory, you can find the perfect seat at Casual Concepts.From contemporary to traditional and everything in between,

we have what suits you. Your search will end here.

828North Main DowntownRochester (313)652-1080Open Sundays.14 Detroit Free Press Magazine • Sept. 20, 1992

"Unordained Elders and Re-newal Communities," thaturged the Vaticanto ordain menlike himself and Martin aspriests or bishops. The Vaticanrejected that idea, but Pope PaulVI endorsed the renewal move-ment during a massive rally of10,000charismatics that WordofGod leaders helped organize inRome in 1975. An internationalpress corps of more than 100re-porters heralded the pope'sblessing., A year after the rally, Martinand Clark moved with a delega-tion of Word of God leaders toBrussels to spend several yearsrunning the Catholic Church'sinternational headquarters forthe charismatic renewal.

Martin was granted easier ac-cess to Paul VI and, later, toJohn Paul ITthan many Catholicbishops enjoyed. Afterone 1976'visit to Rome with Belgian Car-dinal Leo Josef Suenens, he.wrote a glowing letter to his fol-lowers in Ann Arbor. The Bel-gian embassy in Rome hadtreated them like royalty andserved them desserts on solidgold plates, Martin boasted.The Vatican itself was evenmore glorious; palatial rooms:rariks of Swiss guards, pricelessmasterpieces by Raphael andMichelangelo, flocks of scurry-ing priests and nuns, and eventhe bones of St. Peter, thefounder of the "church 2,000years ago.

Capping the visit was the suecessor of Peter himself, who invited Martin into a small roonto praise the young man's work"You and your group - thrcommunity - have my beswishes and my blessing," Pop.Paul VI declared.

Martin's verdict "far out"

NEARLYAS STRONG AS MAEtin and Clark's faith in God \Val

their faith that training classeand personal counseling coulradically reshape their folloVlers'lives.

Shortly after the Word of Gowas founded, Clark helped design a series of Life in the Spirseminars that harvested a necrop of tongue-speaking chartmatics every six weeks. Copie

thority.More levelswere addedin 1982,whenWordofGodlead-ers launched the internationalcharismatic government theycalled the Sword of the SpiritThe new government was de-signed to rule not onlythe Wordof God but about 15,000 mem-bers of other charismatic com-munities around the world.

of the seminar manuals quicklyranked among the Word ofGod's best-selling products ashundreds of other religiousgroups tried to borrow theirstyle. .

Other Word of God trainingclasses followed.The most in-tense was a series taught from .1980-84 that was dubbed, sim-ply,the Training Course. It con-sisted of40lectures designed to Bur EVEN AS THE WORD OFspiritually train a Christian Godhierarchy grew in size andguerilla force. to combat four complexity, two things re-movements the - mained con-Word of God A I - 1972 stant: Martin,consideredmor-. - sear y as , Clark and atal enemies of handful ofotherChristianity: some outside men usuallyfern i n ism, wound up onMarxism, secu- observers were top, and hun-lar humanism, dreds of mar-and Islam. The becoming alarmed ried womencourse ended clungto the bot-with a special at the degree of - tom rung. -secret oath that In 1974,Wordgraduates were control Word of God of God leadersnever supposed decided to ad-to reveal to any- leaders exercised vise against anyone who had marriage iftheynot taken the. over t~hel'r-flock. thought thecourse already: man was not

~ pledge our r; strong e-nough!~ty to all who fight with us. . to dominate the womanhe was

.~JWare ready for every sacrifice, pursuing."Thehusband has theeven death, if the Lord honors us responsibilityto order the wife'sby calling us to die for him or our and children's use of time," thebrothers ... ~ will be loyal to our coordinators said in 1974. "Thecomma1uJers ... ~ will keep our . husband should direct the con-plans and movements hidden versation and not leave it to hisfrom the enemy and his agents. wife.The husband should nor-

This was to be an unarmed, mal1ygive the practical direc-spiritual war, members were tions."taught But some Wordof God This doctrine of wifely sub-families began storing food in mission was no brief experi-

. their basements just in case civ- ment; it was the bedrock of theilizationcollapsedaround them. . community's way of life for

"Itwas such a dark and para- nearly two decades. As late asnoid time;wewere so obsessed 1988, the Sword of the Spiritthat the end of the world was leadership declared as an offi-near,"Kathy Javomisky recalls. cialpolicy:"Thehusband, as the"And we couldn't tell anyone head of the wife,is over every-anythingabout this secret infor- thing in her life."mation we had been given. We . The Word of God catalog ofstocked food and water in our directions to husbands andbasemenf-enoughforseveral wives grew longer and longer

~ weeks." over the years. Among theMeanwhile, an elaborate hi- teachings:

i erarchy had sprung up in the • Married men shouldmake up!- Word of God to run its ever- a schedule each week for their[t growinglistofprogramsandre- wives to follow at home. Men11 inforce its endless stream of should never clean the house, <,

;- teachings.Bythe late '70s,there wash dishes or change diapers,s were as manyas six levelsofau- which were regarded as dan-

gerously "feminizing" activities. They were for-bidden to coach their wives during childbirth.• Fathers "should not be involved significantlywith the day-to-day care of children under theage of 3, except when circumstances of life de-mandit"• The wives' weekly assignments were: clean-ing, cooking meals, raising the children, andkeeping their homes orderly.They were trained .specifically to suppress their angry, sad or ag-gressive feelings, because these emotionsmight be used to lure their husbands into shar-ing housework or childcare.· A husband should manage his householdlike a good businessman manages his office,Martin explained in a book called, "Husbands,Wives, Parents, Children: Foundations for theChristian Farnily."Towives, he advised: "Awifewho wants to support her husband's headshipmust drop any defenses and truly allow him todirect her life.". Under the.letter ofWordof God law,marriage

had less to do with romantic love than it had todo with "service," one of the community's mostpopular buzzwords.

Women were told repeatedly over the yearsnot to deny sexual service to their husbands,even if they did not feel like it Men's groups oc-casionally were taught that they had the sameresponsibility to provide sexual service if theirwives requested it In practice, however, manywomen found that it was their husbands whodid the asking, and they who did the serving.

Many Word of God leaders, like Steve Clark,lived in celibate male households and seemnever to have realized the havoc they werewreaking in marriages.

In a 1976letter to other leaders, Clark com-plained that too many married couples weregetting sloppy: "The husbands are not mainlythe heads-of the wives, but they are companionsto them. They mainly hang around with theirwives and the result is that their approach tolifegets feminized ... The men are still assistantmothers, in my'observation,"

Muriel Mooney was a zealous advocate ofMartin and Clark's teachings for the first fewyears of her marriage. She had read all ofClark's 761-pagemanifesto on the subject, "Manand Woman in Christ"

"I bought every page of that book lock, stockand barrel. I had yellow highlighting on every

. page," Mooney recalls.She and her husband, Jim, zealously divided

their tasks.- "He never changed a diaper; and I washedevery dish," Muriel Mooney says. "If! was sick,I was supposed to call another woman in theneighborhood to make dinner for my family."

When Muriel went out to a meeting, Jimwould take their baby daughter upstairs in theduplex where they were living to have anotherwoman from the community change her wet di-apers.

ftVfi

N

Birminghl .

IN 1990, WORD OF GODleaders asked Jeane Larson, alongtime leader among thegroup's women, to help conduct 'a private study of communitylife.

A single woman, she had littlenotion of what married life in .the community was like untilshe began interviewing Word ofGod wives. The picture that be-gan to emerge horrified her.

"People began telling me justhorrible things," Larson recalls."I went home at night and I

. couldn't sleep ... Here in themiddle of this communitywhere everything was supposedto be going right, I suddenlyhear 200 stories from peoplewho are miserable.

"It shocked me." Larson says."Something was really wronghere, and I started asking: Howcan we be teaching this in otherplaces? Is our whole systemoff?". Larson fillally shared her dis-

covery with other Word of Godleaders. Far too many Word ofGod women were "disillusionedwith life, with the community,and with the Lord," she report-ed. In marriages, Larson founda startling "lack of communica- _.on-witff lrusbands;Iiu~bands

keeping an emotional distance."Many wives felt unloved. Somereported being treated morelike the oldest child than as anequal partner in caring for thefamily.

By the time Larson reportedher findings to Word of Godleaders, she estimated that atleast 20 percent of the commu-nity's women were seeking helpfrom counselors or supportgroups. Many others who want-ed counseling had been forbid-den by. their husbands to seekit

Even if married womenthought of walking away fromthe community, they were al-most powerless to do so, KathyJavornisky says. "Yousat therein the community month aftermonth, year after year, andheard the teachings, and it built

. up walls around you, enclosingyou," she says. "You'were mar-ried and you were in an obedi-

Ralph Marlin, continuing head of the mrd of God, is a popular televangelist who hosts a national1V show,

ence relationship to your hus-band. If you wanted to leave, itwould mean a divorce. Youhadto go along. And you quicklylearned that if you were ques-tioning anything, you shouldn'tmention it"

At a Word of God communitygathering just before Christmasin 1990, hundreds of members .were surprised to see BarbaraMorgan come to the main mi-crophone and ask to make apublic statement. For manyyears, Morgan had been one ofthe chief trainers of women inthe community.

The crowd was hushed asMorgan began in a frail voice,her words halting and quiveringas she fought back tears:

"Iwant to repent for teachingauthoritatively the communitypolicy on subordination andobedience ... It caused womento lose confidence and strengthand I want to repent for betray-ing women by teaching it."

ABOUT THE SAME TIMEthat Morgan, Larson and others

.were telling Word of God lead-

ers their empire was rotting atits roots, WordofGod members'were discovering that thegroup's leadership itself was riv-en by dissent.

For the previous 15years, or-dinary members had been privyto very little that went on be-tween Martin, Clark and othertop leaders. In 1974,the coordi-nators had decided that theyshould no longer consult theirown membership on most ofthedecisions they would makeabout their future.

"Now that we have become a -community with headship, weno longer have to approach de-cision-making in the same way,"the coordinators declared in adocument that was kept secretfrom most of their members.The coordinators deepenedtheir insulation the followingyear when they decreed that"community members ...should not be telling communi-ty problems outside the com-munity, even to a priest or min-ister."

Steve Clark decided thatthere were two main subjects

that should be kept from out- •siders: the community's teach-ings about pastoral counselingand the authority of its leaders,often referred to simply as"headship," and also its teach-ings about men's and women'sroles. A public airing of thesesubjects could hurt future re-cruitment, he warned in severalmemos to his friends in the mid1970s."Weare getting a reputa-tion for a position on men-wom-en roles and headship that iscausing an evangelism prob-lem," he warned in one note.

In the late 1970s,Word of Godleaders urged members to pullout of a dozen Ann Arborchurches they had been attend-ing and asked them, instead, toattend four new Word of Godcongregations they were orga-nizing.

Around this same time, ahandful of members whostaunchly opposed the coordi-nators' rigid style were kickedout of the group and officiallyshunned. Their former friendsin the community were forbid-den to talk to them. By 1982,

16 Detroit Free Press Magazine - Sept. 20, 1992

'The Choices m Face. "

when Word of God leaders toldtheir members that they nowshould join the heavenly empirethey were calling Sword of theSpirit - few people were braveenough to raise objections. -. The Sword of the Spirit wasfounded mainly by Wordof Godleaders, but Steve Clark's hopewas that the new internationalgovernment would evolvequickly to include representa-tives from many charismaticcommunities around the world.Each group would follow theWord of God's example in giv-ing up local independence andagreeing to be bound by theelaborate codes of behaviorspelled out in the Sword of theSpirit's hefty constitution.

Several dozen charismaticgroups - from Northern Ire-land and Mexico to South Africaand the Philippines - agreed tojoin.

This was not a major changefor most members in Washte-naw County, because most ofSword of the Spirit's rules weresimply transplanted from theWordofGod.WordofGodmem- _

-bers did have to.take yet anoth- Jim Cavnar, who. had helped

. er solemn vo.w,this one pledg- Martin and Clark found theing their lives to.the new world- Wo.rd of God, says he had no.wide government -:- but, clue of the problems his oldafterward, most of them never friends were facing.found out much about what the "1 was a coordinator in the ~new government did. Wo.rdof God and, until October

Behind its cloak of secrecy, 1989, none of us knew thatthe Sword of the Spirit soon Ralph and Steve, and other~w stagnant That's because guys in the Sword of the Spirit,it was trying to.export an elab- had reached a point of r~fusingorate spiritual system that was to. work together anymore,"not really working even in the Cavnar says. "We were awareleaders' own hometown, says that things weren't workingRon Ghormley "Instead of first well because decisions weren'tsolving the problems we had being made and there was abeen having at home, we just kind of paralysis. Then, Ralphincreased them by 10times." and Steve finally told us in 1989

A large part of the problem, that they could not work withsays Bert Ghezzi, a longtime each other any more."Wo.rdof Godleader and friend. In the midst of it all, God stillof both Martin and Clark, was was speaking through thethe leaders' determination to. mouths of many Wo.rdof God -provide specific rules for every members. In September 1989,aspect of their followers' lives. according to. one memo. circu-"This constitution was much lated among the community;more complicated than the CQn- He warned that the Sword ofstitution of the United States- the Spirit had become like athis was high falutin' stuff. It great tree with many roots andwas like Steve regarded himself branches. God said: "1am go-as this great judge setting up ing to.sift through the roots oneme laws for this international by one, and every Qne that isnation we were building," not mine I will pull up. My wind·G4ezzi says. will blow through the branches

Ghezzi was one ofthe few in- and those which are not graftedsiders who.objected out loud. ''1 in me will be broken o.ff.I willwas saying regularly to Steve reach out with my hand andand Ralph and Peter break the trunk."WIlliamson: 'Thisis crazy,guys! Finally, the crises, at the topWeare at a level of detail here in and the bottom of the empiretrying to.manage people's lives converged. Jeane Larson's re-that just won't workl' I thought port was circulating throughthey would listen to. someone the community; and many oth-like me who. had been their er longtime members were be-friend and colleague for 22 or ginning to. voice objections.23 years. But I was basically The massive tree trunk wastold to.get with the program or ready to. snap, just as God hadleave. When I resisted them, said.the pressure justgotworse andI wasn't going to. subject my IN LANSING, BISHOP KEN- i

family to it So Ileft. " neth Povish, the spiritual leader,

The Ghezzis moved to.Flori- o.fall Catholics in Ann Arbor;1da, where Bert now works for a watched as the empire col- -

company that writes materials lapsed. )

used to. train business man- "It was like the Velvet Revo-agers. But most WQrd of God 'lutlons in eastern Europe whenmembers were not told any- people finally began to.protest ,

thing about why Ghezzi had left against the system that tightlyso. abruptly. It was not until a controlled them," Povish says. ii

•year ago. that Ralph Martin "It was almost a spontaneous ,I

gave Ghezzi a formal apology uprising. Heads of the house- rt

and invited him to.publicly tell holds and regional pastors had ;1Iin

his story had enormous power over

-=5

these people. Although it ap-peared the people were willing-ly accepting the directions theirleaders had been giving -there really were many resent-ments underneath that finallycame out."

Kathy Javornisky quietlystarted asking her own ques-tions. She found out about TomYoder, a man who had beenkicked out of the community in1976for distributing Xeroxes ofsecret decisions the coordina-tors had made. Since then, Yo-der had continued building upan unofficial archive of morethan 10,000Word of God docu-ments, photographs and tapes."1·started reading throughTom's files, and then I broughtsome of them home with meover a couple of weeks," Javor-nisky recalls. "I'd say: 'Oh, myGod!I can't believe this was saidby the coordinators!' Or: '1can'tbelievewe didn't know that thiswas done!'1read many things tomy husband and 1helped influ-ence him, too."

IN MAY 1990, A GROUP OFdisgruntled Word of God mem-bers forced the Sword of theSpirit Assembly to grant themtheir4ndependence om theworldwide government. Sincethen, several other charismaticcommunities, once governed bythe Sword ofthe Spirit,have fol-lowed the Word of God's exam-ple. The international group'smembership' has been cut inhalf, to about 7,000.

After the WordofGPdwon itsindependence, a fifthofits mem- Rauch's group remains closelybers left the group to remain guarded. Steve Clark and Brucepart ofthe international govern- Yocum,who alsohave remainedment. Those 250adults have re- with Sword of the Spirit, de-·organized themselves as a new elined to be interviewed for thisbranch of the Sword of the Spir- story.it called the Washtenaw A new constitution has beenCovenant Community. . drafted for the Sword of the

Gerry Rauch, one of the four Spirit that greatly simplifies theWord of God founders, is now government and modifies manythe Covenant Community's of its harsher teachings, Rauchchief spokesman. He says says. But he also refuses to re-proudly: "1 think we're doing lease a copy of it.something wonderful and 1 The Word of God still listswant people to know that. We about 1,100 members. Atten-really enjoy who we are as a . dance at a recent meeting atcommunity'and we think this is Cleary College was about 300.a delightful way of life." But Although the name remains the .

After almost 20 years with the JiJbrdof God, Kathy javornisky became I

movement. Her husband, Marty, remains a member.

same,the community has mademajor changes.

Last summer; 12 top Word ofGod leaders met and humblyadmitted that they had begun todoubt the authenticity of someof the prophetic messages theythought God had given themover the years.

"There was authentic prophe-cy all along - but there alsowas a real peer pressure that putprophets more in the service ofbolstering our authority than inreally guiding us," Martin ex-plains.. On March 1 of this year; forthe first time in more than two

PHOTOGRAPH - STEVEN R. NIC

18 Detroit Free Press Maga~ine • Sept. 20, 1992

iisenChanted and has left the

decades, Word of God leadersallowed their followers to voteon the basic shape of their gov-ernment

There was a landslide for rad--ical reform.

More than 90 Percent of the478members who attended thatafternoon voted to dump the oldsystem of counseling that guid-ed each member's life, to scrapmost of the heavy-duty trainingcourses, and to allow women toserve on a new, democraticallyelected leadership team. Somemembers cautiously asked ifthese changes should be dis-cussed first with their old

friends in the Sword of the Spir-it - but more than 70 percentvoted not to bother.

Many former communityleaders have left the Ann Arborarea or are preparing to leave.Late last year, Jim Cavnar issuedan open letter, urging both theWord of God and the Sword ofthe Spirit to disband. His ideawas rejected and, this summer,he was laid off in the downsizingand reorganization of the Wordof God staff. Cavnar had been afund-raiser for a TV series host-ed by Ralph Martin in recentyears. Last month he moved toFlorida to work as a fund-raiserfor Food for the Poor, a religiousgroup trying to relieve povertyin the Caribbean.

Martin remains head of theWord of God leadership teamand a popular televangelist. Hisweekly nationwide TV show,'The Choices We Face," broad-casts interviews with Catholicleaders, sermons and Christianmusic to about 500,000 viewers.

Martin has taken on a nation-al mission to proclaim and try torepair many of his group's pastmistakes. He has formally apol-ogized to dozens of people, in-cluding the archivistTom Yoder,whom Martin now calls, "proba-bly the besthistorian we have."This summer, Martin appearedat the 25th anniversary celebra-tion for the charismatic renewalin Pittsburgh to deliver a brutal-ly honest confession of the Wordof God's failings. His list rangedfrom "Legalism," "Self-impor-tance" and "Disdain for otherChristians" to "Authoritarian-ism" and "Secrecy.'"

Martin's epitaph for the heav-enly empire he helped create:

'The Word of God communitybegan in a genuine encounterwith God in the power of theHoly Spirit We wanted to giveour whole lives to him and befruitful in his service. To a largeextent, this is what happened.But ... a gradual shift occurredwhich we scarcely noticed atfirst We moved from primarilytrusting in and exalting Christto focusing more and more on .'our way of life,' 'our teaching,''our leaders,' 'our approach,'

KERSON _------~--------------------------------~-

~ & E!

'our community.' to try to change with her. They rem,ain"Asa leader during this time it's been Roman Catholics,but, earlier this year,

humbling, embarrassing, and a cause they left the WordofGod.for grief to see the differentwayswe've "Tun and I were not friends beforewegotten off track, and the ways in which were married," Murielsays. "Now'We'rewe'vegrievedthe Lordand our brothers trying to figure out·how to becomeand sisters in Christ It's been a time for\ friends and that's a very paWul pro- .repentance, for soul searching, and for ''', cess."change." The Iavorniskys

Martin isdoing On March 1, for the first followed a similarthis partly to help path.preserve the credi- time in more than two "NowI regret that Ibility of the larger never had a normalrenewal movement. decades, Word of God dating experience,"Since 196?, 10 mil- . Kathy Javorniskylion American- leaders allowed thel"r says. "Iwas fortunateCatholics have had that I liked the guysome kind ofcharis- who pursued me -matic experience, followers to vote on the and that we're stilland there are mil- married. But in ourlions more around basic shape of their marriage, I had athe world. very heavily submis-.

In March, Pope -government. There was a siverelationshipwithJohn Paul II repeat- him. In the last twoed his ownendorse- I d I"d f years, wehave had toment ofthe renewal: an s I e or do a lot of restructur-"A~you celebrate radl"cal reform. ing of everything inthe 25th anniver- our marriage to try tosary of the begin- become partners."ning of the Catholic They have agreedcharismatic renewal,I willinglyjoinyou to a compromise:He remains a Wordofin giving praise to God for the manM God ~em~er; she severed her ties in'fruitswhich it has borne in the lifeofthe Nbvembet;t ! {- - .

Church." lor a year, Ka'thyhas n t prayed in .It's unclear, however, whether the tohgues, once an essential-part of her

WordofGodwillsurviveas a fruit ofthe , spiritualtraining,'Shehas begun towon-renewal. der ifthe strange sounds she made dur-

The group'sassets havedroppedfrom ing prayer weren't just something she$1.2millionin October 1990,tojust over made upto please her friends.$600,000in March. Leaders had expect- Youthfuldreams are returning, anded donations of $768,000in the fiscal KathyJavorniskyis takingcollegeclass- -year that ended in March, but they only es to prepare for a possible career as agot $606,000.Nowthey're budgeting for teacher, or perhaps a social worker, or$500,000,but they admit even that goal maybe even a writer.is optimistic. She still regrets the many small, but

Men and women in as many as 200 priceless experiences she.has lost andWord of God marriages have been in- cannotrecapture - likethe momenthervolved in some form of counseling or 9-year-olddaughter Laurawasborn, andtherapy,estimatesPhilTIews,amember communityteachingbarred Martinfromof the Word of God's new leadership - the deliveryroom.

-team, Kathykeeps a journal now and, earli-Kathy. and Marty Javornisky and er this year, jotted down: "I sometimes

Muriel and Jim Mooney have been wonderifthe painwilleverdissipate,butamong them. at least I'm better at understanding the

Muriel Mooney gradually decided origins of my pain ... I'm not walkingthat Steve Clark's book about men and aroundin afog anymorewonderingwhywomen was dangerous. "I tried every I hurt I knowwhy I hurt And I'm feel-word of it and I found out that it's very _ing there's a mellowingof the intensitydamaging ... It just battered my self-es- ofmyrage ... and an incrediblesadnessteem." regarding what couldhave been.". •

Abouttwoyears ago,she toldher hus-band that the entire structure of their DAVID CRUMM is the Free Press reli-marriagehad to change, andJimagreed giQn writer.

Upfront

IWAS BAPTIZED AND REARED IN THE said, pointing to the unscathed Bel Air.And asCatholic Church, but I was 8 years old be- she described to my father the timelyIf-turn thatfore I had my :firstgenuine religious experi- had taken us out ofdeath's path, it seemed a rea-ence, and it took place not in the musty sane- sonable enough conclusion:

tuary of St Pius X Church but in the , Confronted with the evidence thatfront seat ofmy family's '61 Chevrolet God had intervened personally toBel Air. spare my life, I eagerly awaited fur-

My father had taken the bus to ther instruction. I was familiar, bywork that day, then hopped a second ' then, with the general prescriptions

, to the funeral home where the moth- and prophecies set forth in the scrip-er of a co-worker had been laid out tures, but after that afternoon straightMy mother had agreed to pick him up , out of the Book of Revelations Ian-on yet another bus route that passed ticipated more specific, personalizedby the funeral home and ended about Dickerson direction. Surely a Heavenly Fatherfivemiles from our house. who had taken the time and trouble,

And so it was that she and I found ourselves on a planet bustling with tens of millions of ve-parked on a shadyside street late that August af- hicles, to remove one from harm's way must'ternoon - the engine shut off, the car windows have some pretty urgent mission in mind for that.cranked down -;- waiting for my father's bus. I car's youngest passenger;don't remember what we talked about, but I do This is essentially the same sense of height-recall that the bus was late, and that we had been ened expectation, Ithink, with which thousandswaiting for some time when my mother abrupt- of people in this country flocked to the Chris-ly turned the key in the ignition, looked overher tian charismatic movement in the late '60s andleft shoulder, and made a cautious U-turn to the early '70s,and specificallyto the Ann Arbor reli-opposite curb so that our car would be facing gious community whose astonishing saga Freehome when my father arrived. Press religionwriter DavidCrumm relates in to-

We heard the runaway car before we saw it day's magazine.The roar of an accelerating engine, a horrible When Crumm first'outliiied the story !Q mescreeching of tires, and itwas upon us - a§hinY~~C".,hist~rin~,~olGny'hea:din disbelief-But I dosedan that careerelLwilEllyv.tJif't:lJ:e'-', ~.' ee~ not dismiss those Ann Arborites who believedJumped the far curb precisely where we had they heard God speaking to them, nor the in-been parked minutes earlier, and crashed into tense spiritual hunger that fueled their expecta-an ancientoak not 20 yards behind us. tions.

When my father arrived just a few moments Twenty-seven years have passed since mylater,he confronted a scene of surreal horror: an mother made that providentialU-turn,andIhaveinferno of acrid fumes, a burgeoning crowd of yet to hear God's follow-up instructions. Buthelpless onlookers, and the spectacle ofhis own sometimes.in the hours between darkness andwife and child clutching one another in abject dawn,Iwake in my bed; and before Irememberfright, unable even to tell him what had hap- who or where Iam, I realize that Iam listeningpened. . still. •

My mother was the :firstto recover the powerof speech. "God was in that car with us," she BRIAN DICKERSON

In This IssueDaVe Bany The Secrets ofShaving 4I Just Don't Understand YouBlack and White 5Letters .20DetJarbnent of State In Grand Haven 21.-,At Home Treasures of the Heart .22Why Things Are Infectious Diseases 23Diversions Crossword 23

On The Cover, A quarter century

,!.Ii l'li' • th lit f Ann. ~m' e· eo anArbor religious com.munity that con-vulsed thousands of 'families 4Cover design byClaire Innes

,.JBriaR DickersoO, Editor; Lany &tOe" Associate Editor; Andrew ll1art1ey, Art Director; GeraIymLama, Production IEditor; Deborah WiUtey; Design Director; Antoinette Martin, Sheryl James, Jobnette Howard, Staff Writers; StevenR. ~Nickerson, Staff Photographer.

EdIariJI,222-S559; Mvriin& GalWysodd,222-2580; BackCopies,222-6876. Address all correspondence to Detroit Free PressMagazine, 321 Lafayette Blvd., Detroit 48226 '