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b"If you haven't listened to The Prophet series, start here:\\nhttp://pretendradio.org/the-prophet-word-of-faith-fellowship-revisited/\\n\\n\\nWhen I first started this podcast, I reported on a secretive church located in the foothills in western North Carolina called the Word of Faith Fellowship.\\n\\nThe church is accused of being a cult and separating families\\u2014forcing them to break ties with non-believers.\\n\\nOne teenager named Matthew Fenner pressed charges against five church ministers because he said they beat the gay demons out of him.\\nAnd that's just the beginning. Several former members reported being forced into isolation in what is known as the lower building. Some male congregants say they lived in this makeshift storage unit for over a year. But perhaps they're best remembered for their signature style of prayer. It's known as blasting. As you can hear in this secret audio recording, blasting is a form of deliverance meant to cast out the devil.\\n\\nIt has been said that crying babies were often held down and yelled at until the devil released its grip on the child.\\xa0I've experienced blasting first hand. In 2018, I was personally invited by the church's leader,\\n\\nJane Whaley, to spend the day at the Word of Faith Fellowship. While interviewing her in her office,\\xa0Jane Whaley looked me straight in the eyes, opened her mouth, and began shouting. It was terrifying. To this day, I still get chills.\\n\\nIt's been 2 years since I finished my 11-part series on the Word of Faith. Since then, I've been flooded with emails asking me to give them an update. They want to know, have there been any new allegations of abuse?\\n\\nHave any of the church leaders faced any criminal charges? Is Jane Whaley still running the church?\\xa0Today, I plan to answer some of these questions.\\n\\n______\\n\\nStory idea?\\nIf you have a story to share, email Javier at javier@pretendradio.org.\\nFor more episodes like this, visit pretendradio.org.\\nTo get early releases and bonus episodes, go to pretendradio.org/donate\\nToday's episode was written by Javier Leiva and edited by Logan Castrodale\\n\\n\\nReference:\\n\\nCovid-19 Timelines:\\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_United_States_(2020)\\nhttps://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus\\n\\nThreats against Word of Faith church over coronavirus rumor\\xa0https://www.charlotteobserver.com/article242307531.html\\n\\nWord of Faith church in NC received a PPP loan amid COVID https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article244084852.html\\n\\nLotz International LLC v. Burnette:\\xa0\\nhttps://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17404523/lotz-international-llc-v-burnette/\\n\\nCase against Facebook commenters moves to state court:\\nhttps://www.shelbystar.com/story/special/2020/09/23/case-against-facebook-commenters-moves-to-state-court/43180133/\\n\\nFormer Word of Faith member charged with breaking into minister's home: https://wlos.com/news/local/former-world-of-faith-member-charged-with-breaking-into-ministers-home\\n\\nWord of Faith member reaches plea deal in fraud scam:\\nhttps://wlos.com/news/local/word-of-faith-member-reaches-plea-deal-in-fraud-scam\\n\\nTrump March:\\nhttps://youtu.be/yxUksEHZGag?t=350\\n\\nTrump Rally:\\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7VJtRZBy-M\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices"