Word of Faith Fellowship (Jane Whaley)

Word of Faith Fellowship began in 1979 as a small congregation in Spindale, North Carolina, founded and still led by Jane Whaley, and grew over four decades into a network of related congregations, including a large branch in Brazil, along with several member-connected businesses in the Spindale area.

Former members interviewed over many years, and a landmark 2017–18 Associated Press investigation drawing on interviews with more than a hundred ex-members and on North Carolina court and police records, described a tightly controlled environment inside the church: children disciplined through hitting practices that former members and some records characterize as abusive, congregants directed into unpaid labor at businesses connected to the church, marriages and other major life decisions requiring Whaley's approval, and a practice known within the group as 'blasting' — loud, sustained group prayer and shouting directed at individuals believed to be under demonic influence. Former members also described severe pressure to cut contact with relatives who had left the congregation, alongside a strict dress and behavioral code governing clothing, entertainment, and personal conduct that reinforced the church's broader authority over daily life.

The AP series prompted renewed law-enforcement attention, including a federal grand jury inquiry and an investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and, separately, led to federal fraud charges in 2018–19 against several congregation members over an unemployment-benefits scheme; the earlier 2013 beating case resulted in criminal indictments against five members in December 2014. An earlier case, from 2013, saw church members charged over the beating of a gay congregant. Outcomes of the various state prosecutions have varied; Whaley was convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2004 over an earlier incident, though the conviction was overturned after a five-year appeal, and she has not been convicted in connection with the AP's child-abuse allegations. She and the church have denied wrongdoing and disputed the former members' accounts.

Word of Faith Fellowship remains active under Whaley's leadership today. A 2024 New York Times report described members of the church volunteering in political campaign activity, noting the group's continuing ability to mobilize members for outside-facing work despite the earlier allegations. The case illustrates a recurring pattern in this catalogue: a single founder-pastor retaining unchallenged authority over decades, extensive testimonial and documentary evidence of harm to children and dissenters, and a legal process that, even after sustained investigative journalism, has produced only partial and contested accountability.