Overview

*An NPR Best Book of the Year* A PopSugar Best True Crime Book of 2020 ""I can't imagine a more important book.""--Jeff Guinn, New York Times bestselling author An explosive investigation into Word of Faith Fellowship, a secretive evangelical cult whose charismatic female leader is a master of manipulation In 1979, a fiery preacher named Jane Whaley attracted a small group of followers with a promise that she could turn their lives around. In the years since, Whaley's following has expanded to include thousands of congregants across three continents. In their eyes she's a prophet. And to disobey her means eternal damnation. The control Whaley exerts is absolute: she decides what her followers study, where they work, whom they can marry--even when they can have sex. Based on hundreds of interviews, secretly recorded conversations, and thousands of pages of documents, Pulitzer Prize winner Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr's Broken Faith is a terrifying portrait of life inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, and the harrowing account of one family who escaped after two decades.

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9781335266750

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Reviews

Broken Faith is a gripping, meticulously reported account of a cult leader's grip on a small southern community. It is also a prescient story of systemic abuse where the victims seek--and fail to find--justice from the very institutions that were meant to protect them. --Ethan Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Murder in The Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8? A tour de force of investigative journalism and storytelling. This is the kind of book that inspires the next generation of journalists and reminds working reporters why they do the job. --Kevin Maurer, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of No Easy Day In light of current events, I can't imagine a more important book than Broken Faith by outstanding investigative journalists Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr. Their chilling description of North Carolina's Word of Faith Fellowship and professed Christianity gone horribly awry is unsettlingly parallel to events involving Peoples Temple and its demagogic leader Jim Jones. Much credit is due to the courageous former Word of Faith members who share their shattering stories in Broken Faith. If you care at all about religious abuse and the destructive means by which charismatic leaders exert despotic control of their well-meaning followers' lives, read this book. --Jeff Guinn, New York Times bestselling author of Manson and The Road To Jonestown ...Fascinating and deeply researched... Compelling in its evidence, this shocking narrative examines the bonds of family, the limits of endurance, and how far people will go to save their souls. --Booklist STARRED review A compelling examination of a Christianist cabal whose crimes are evident but whose power seems, for the moment, unbreakable. --Kirkus Reviews A fast-paced, harrowing expose...transfixing. --Publishers Weekly A page-turner for any fans of the Wild Wild Country Netflix series... will leave a lasting impression on readers for years to come. --PopSugar Those interested in cults and true crime will be enthralled by this account. --Library Journal A harrowing picture of faith gone horribly astray...Broken Faith makes for compelling drama, with a vision of healing and renewal at the end. --StarNews

Author Information

Mitch Weiss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist for the Associated Press and the coauthor of numerous books, most recently The Heart of Hell: The Untold Story of Courage and Sacrifice in the Shadow of Iwo Jima. He lives in South Carolina. Holbrook Mohr is an award-winning investigative journalist for the Associated Press. He has covered natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, judicial bribery schemes, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and mass shootings. He lives in Mississippi.

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