Why Did “Word of Faith” Members Give Over $85,000 to Politicians?
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
Jane Whaley’s 2004 assault conviction was the only time the legal system came close to holding her personally accountable. Five years of appeals later, it was overturned. And according to former members, the church learned it could outlast the courts. The pattern repeated across decades. More than forty former members testified to investigators in the 1990s — no charges. Inside Edition aired an investigation in 1995 — the church survived and allegedly used the coverage to deepen members’ distrust of the outside world. Social services opened child abuse investigations — the church sued the department and won. According to the AP, church leaders waged a cover-up strategy in which members were strong-armed into lying to investigators and recanting statements. According to WRAL, leaders and followers gave at least eighty-five thousand dollars to state politicians. The New York Times reported members volunteered at Trump campaign events. In Rutherford County, complaints emerged that the Republican Party had been taken over by people associated with the fellowship. Matthew Fenner’s case — stemming from an alleged 2013 beating — was delayed over eight years after a mistrial. By 2026, the cases had been transferred to a special prosecutor. The only criminal convictions secured against the church involved unemployment fraud totaling more than $250,000. Tony Brueski closes a five-part investigation with the institutional failures that former members say protected the Word of Faith Fellowship for over four decades.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Colts, Hidden Killers Investigates. Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:07.0 | In 2004, Jane Whaley was convicted of misdemeanor assault. A former member named Lacey Ween had described a blasting session in which a group of members screamed at her, followed by an alleged physical assault by |
| 0:21.5 | Whaley herself. Ween was suing the church for two and a half million dollars in a separate |
| 0:26.8 | civil case, but the criminal conviction was the actual story because it was the closest |
| 0:32.3 | the legal system had ever come to holding Jane Whaley personally accountable for what |
| 0:36.7 | former members say happened inside the Word of Faith Fellowship. |
| 0:40.5 | The conviction carried a message, even the woman who claimed to speak for God, was not above the law. |
| 0:46.3 | And then, after five years of appeals, the conviction was overturned. |
| 0:51.4 | Jane Whaley walked, and according to former members, the message that sent to the |
| 0:57.5 | fellowship was unmistakable. It was clear Jane in their eyes was untouchable. If a courtroom could not |
| 1:07.6 | make it stick, nothing could. That belief that the institution was beyond |
| 1:13.2 | the reach of the law has reportedly defined the next two decades. And whether it is true |
| 1:18.9 | is the question this final episode is trying to answer. This is part five of our five-part |
| 1:24.1 | hitting killers investigation to the Word of Faith Fellowship and Jane Whaley. |
| 1:28.7 | We've walked through the architecture of control, the alleged violence of blasting the children who were reportedly torn from their families and the pipeline that allegedly brought Brazilians to Spindale as forced labor. |
| 1:43.2 | This episode is about the system, the courts, the prosecutors, the politicians, and the institutions |
| 1:48.8 | that were supposed to protect the people inside that compound, and by almost every measure |
| 1:54.0 | available, reportedly did not. |
| 1:57.6 | The pattern of failed investigations goes back to the beginning. |
| 2:01.7 | In the early 1990s, more than 40 former members gave testimony to the Forest City Daily Courier |
| 2:08.4 | and other news outlets about their experiences inside the Word of Faith Fellowship. |
| 2:13.8 | The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations looked into the allegations, and according to reporting, no charges resulted in 1995 Inside Edition aired an investigation, featuring former members who alleged were alleged physical and emotional abuse, including footage of children being blasted. Keep in mind, this is 1995. |
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