SDI No. 7 - City of Winchester, Virginia
"PMC UNDER ATTACK" - Opposition By Anti-meditators - Religious Bigots
From 1976 to 1994
The Attacks
An in-depth report covering "Spiritual Warfare" that erupted at Winchester Virginia in 1991 was the subject of a one-hour television documentary called "Kaleidoscope For Tomorrow." The report was produced and presented for television audiences in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area by Honora Finkelstein at Channel 10, George Mason University as a result of controversies that arose in the City of Winchester, Virginia. For many years and throughout much of the twenty-year history of the Pentagon Meditation Club (PMC) there was overt and covert opposition and a long trail of deception aimed at Edward Winchester and the Pentagon Meditation Club (PMC). The opposition arose from misunderstandings, false allegations and mis-leading reports by the so-called "Religious Right' in books, videos and on TV. The opposition characterized efforts to introduce meditation, even Christian meditation, as a New Age phenomenon that had to be eradicated. This was particularly true in the City of Winchester, Virginia.
Attacks In Winchester VA.: In Local Newspapers: Winchester Star and Northern Virginia Daily. On Video: Sold by various local Christian churches and others. Also video sold in front of the local Walmart store at the time. At Library Forum: Gathering of town people held at Handley Library - controversy on Ed and video shown. Major controversy and attacks fueled by PACE (Public Awareness Coalition for Education) - group of local ministers who disseminated newsletters and literature, appeared in local video.
Attacks National Wide: In Books sold nationally: Texe Marrs and others. In Videos sold Nation-wide: Pagan Invasion videos produce by Jeremiah Films. TV: Pat Robertson and the 700 Club, CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network. National and local networking by Christian affiliates: Capital TV (Christian TV News), Inc. in Alexandria, VA. Also in various other Christian TV news publications, magazines etc. and in an array of websites.
Sacred Summit leads to peacemaking
Spiritual warfare arose from misunderstandings, ridicule, and abuses tby clergy and religious conservatives, including Bible groups at the Pentagon and uninformed critics both inside and outside the Pentagon Opposition came from people across the country, and became more focused in the City of Winchester, Virginia. Opposition came mainly from people who misunderstood the purposes of transformation projects initiated by Ed Winchester and application of transformation theory at the level of organizations and communities. This was seen by many as a threat and dubbed "New Age -- satanic". Virulent opposition to Ed Winchester's transformation work amounted to a witch hunt, that led down a "trail of deception" that started in New Zealand in 1976, gained momentum at the Pentagon, and ended finally with peacemaking gestures from certain opposition leaders and what Ed Winchester refers to as "Sacred Summits" with local clergy and members of the Winchester Ministerial Association.
Who Is Edward Winchester?
A close look reveals that Edward Winchester is a deeply spiritual man, whose roots are in Christianity. He is a former Viatorian Brother, a Catholic teaching brother with the order of Clerics of St. Viator. That is where he began the daily practice of meditation and prayer. He worked in the office of the Secretary of Defense for 21 years, was a U.S. Presidential Interchange Executive, and received the Dept. of Defense nomination of the ten outstanding men in America. He founded the Pentagon Meditation Club and lead several Spiritual Defense Initiatives to bring spiritual renewal at the Pentagon and to help reduce stress for hundreds of military and civilian employees there. He taught meditation at a number of other government agencies and devoted a number of years to a meditation project at Lorton Prison. He is a former member of the Winchester/Frederick County Ministerial Association in Virginia. His unique ministry has been to provide instruction in the practice of meditation and centering prayer for anyone who asks. He teaches meditation on the "Holy Word" based on Christian contemplative practices handed down from Christian mystics and saints. He also teaches a form of secular meditation, called Clinically Standardized Meditation" endorsed by the National Institutes of Mental Health for health and well-being.
More than a decade ago, Ed Winchester inaugurated the first and only Transformation Day in the City of Winchester, Virginia to mark the dedication of a Peacemakers Monument at Shenandoah University. However, the event lacked much of the unity called for among different elements of the City. What follows here is a detailed account of significant events leading up to that event.
New Zealand Study
Ed Winchester is currently retired and living with his wife Loretta near the City of Winchester, VA, where the two met and were married. Before his retirement from the Pentagon, Ed was employed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, for over twenty years, and served there under eight different Secretaries of Defense. He began his studies of organizational transformation theory and meditation techniques while in New Zealand as a U.S. Presidential Executive Interchange Executive from 1972 to 1976. As a senior lecturer at Victoria University, he worked at the highest levels within the New Zealand government. During that time he completed a ground-breaking research study covering the subjects of transformation, meditation, and decision theory. Because of political sensitivity to his findings, the New Zealand Minister of Finance classified the report under the Government Official Secrets Act, so as to limit access to it.
The Winchester study opened previously unexplored areas of decision theory that are applicable to conflict situations and to dealing with terrorism today. Before being sent to work for the New Zealand Government Captain Winchester was principal action officer at the Pentagon for leading a joint military task force to produce departmental guidelines on economic analysis and program evaluation, including all cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit studies by military departments. The New Zealand study, which came later was designed to find new ways to promote “cost -consciousness,” with an emphasis on a deeper understanding of the term “consciousness.” The objective for the study was a search for innovative ways of thinking and for influencing behavior (transformation) within the context of management systems, and for finding techniques that could be useful for making more enlightened choices and tradeoffs in government spending programs. The study was critical of the way government made spending decisions and exposed causes for fraud, waste and abuse.
The New Zealand experience provided Winchester a rare and unique opportunity to introduce certain members of Parliament to his findings, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The reports he produced shook the foundations of the New Zealand Government, and the ideas later mystified even officials at the Pentagon. "What I learned through my investigations opened doors for me to present my findings on transformation to large audiences in major cities throughout the North and South Islands of New Zealand," Ed Winchester said. His studies in that country provided an academic basis for even further investigations of transformation theory, when he returned to the United States and to his former job at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Returning to the Pentagon in 1976 he found creative ways to test his ideas and to spark thinking about the need for transformation for the entire military establishment.
Pentagon Meditation Club and Prison Project
More than two decades ago in 1980 Ed Winchester started a transformation program for the U.S. Department of Defense called the Lorton Transformation Project. Transformation is a concept that was not quickly or easily incorporated into the management philosophy of the Department of Defense, but twenty years later President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld called on Military Departments to establish transformation programs. The Administration called for new ways of thinking, and today transformation has become a new way of doing business. This is how the Bush Administration intends to significantly impact the evils of terrorism and war. It is also the process that promises to transform the City of Winchester, Virginia into a model of peace and wellness.
Opposition began to emerge gradually at the Pentagon, when he established a Pentagon Meditation Club (PMC) by authority of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Welfare and Recreation) in 1976. In the years that followed Winchester personally instructed hundreds of people in the practice of meditation (about 1% of the Pentagon population). This was accomplished as an adjunct to his regular duties in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller). But religious people and some officials within the Pentagon strongly challenged teaching meditation.
Finally, in 1980 Ed Winchester persuaded his Pentagon bosses to authorize what seems to be the first Transformation Project ever initiated by the U.S. Department of Defense. A project was sponsored jointly by the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Management Systems and by the Director of the Department of Corrections for the Government of the District of Columbia. As head of a Lorton Transformation Project (LTP) he spent several years going inside prison facilities and into jail cells teaching meditation and stress management to convicts and prison personnel. The program successfully demonstrated a model for peace and wellness based on daily practice of interior silence and a stress management program. (A more complete story about the LTP can be found on this website at SDI - Transformation Project - Prison. )
Deceptive Television Program
The opposition and deception that began to intensify just the beginning of a long trail that led ultimately to the City of Winchester, Va. On one occasion Ed received a request from a reporter for CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network to do a program on the Pentagon Meditation Club. The reporter expressed interest in producing a special television documentary on meditation at the Pentagon for Pat Robertson's "700" Club television show. After obtaining the necessary clearances from the Office of the Secretary of Defense Ed Winchester authorized the CBN TV crew to enter the Pentagon to attend one of the regular Friday meditation sessions held in one of the Meditation Room established by former Secretary Melvin Laird.
The TV crew held a private interview with Ed Winchester lasting over an hour in the Chaplain's Office, and then filmed Club members meditating. Ed was well prepared with a comprehensive presentation on Christian meditation and on the Club's transformational activities. This included a history lesson on the practice of meditation, and the ecumenical nature of an interfaith SDI prayer program he started at the Pentagon, called the "Spiritual Defense Initiative". That SDI was a meditation and prayer project inaugurated to encourage spiritual renewal and transformation in the military and at the Pentagon.
The program that eventually aired on Pat Robertson's television program, the "700 Cub," omitted the interview with Ed Winchester, and gave an utterly false impression of what was actually going on. The 700 Club TV show used clips of films with hippies, witches and satanic rituals. "They're even doing it in the Pentagon," Pat Robertson said. That presentation seems to have been a deliberate attempt to discourage the practice of meditation activities by anyone, and branded Ed Winchester as a new age advocate, leading people to falsely accuse him of evils attributed to new age, occultism, and satanism. That television program marked the beginning of a long trail of deception that years later was to capture the imagination of some people in the City of Winchester who also opposed Ed Winchester’s meditation work and his vision for Transformation Day at Shenandoah University.
Soldiers of Darkness
The Pentagon Meditation Club and Ed Winchester became targets also of a professed cult expert, Texe Marrs. One of Texe Marrs books called the "The Dark Secrets of New Age" devotes 2 pages to "Soldiers of Darkness, Subversion of the Armed Forces.” Marrs pointed to the evil practice of meditation. "New Agers,” he wrote "are already eagerly and enthusiastically enlisting in the Army of Evil. The signs are everywhere."
As evidence for Texe Marrs claim, he quoted a Nov. 5, 1987, memo from the International Affairs Division, Office of the Vice Chief of Staff of the Department of the Air Force. It said, "...military and civilians at the Pentagon will join with people in more than 100 countries praying and meditating for world peace in the Second World Healing Day. This activity at the Pentagon is part of the Pentagon Meditation Club's Spiritual Defense Initiative (SDI)." Texe Marrs noted that "Officials at the Pentagon have used that facility to conduct meditation services and even to participate in the Planetary Commission's World Healing Meditation." Edward Winchester was identified by Marrs as the Club's President responsible for this alleged evil subversion of the U.S. military.
It is noteworthy that in gathering data for his book, Marrs did not interview or contact Ed Winchester. Instead, Marrs method of research was to take information from another publication, a report of the Quartus Foundation about prayer and meditation activities around the world. But the Quartus Report did not say that this was an evil New Age subversion of the U.S. Armed forces, as Texe Marrs concluded.
A Pagan Invasion
Another marker on the trail of deception was a video on the evils of meditation produced by Jeremiah Films in Hemet, California as part of a series called "The Pagan Invasion". The Pagan Invasion series has been periodically televised nationwide on Christian TV networks. One volume in the series is on the evils of meditation and shows dancing witches, hippies, and satanic rituals. References to the Pentagon Meditation Club in this context suggest that the meditation work of Ed Winchester and the Pentagon Meditation Club are also evil. It portrays Ed as the author of a “ludicrous idea” of designing a global "PEACE (prayer) SHIELD," an idea picked up years later by Pat Robertson as “Operation Prayer Shield” during the war in Iraq. Producers of the video neglected to contact Winchester to check their sources of information. Had they done so, they would have discovered that the "PEACE SHIELD" idea was based on the use of a simple prayer prescribed in the Bible for defense: "If you will call on my Name...I will surround you and cover you as with a Shield" (Psalms 5:11). The Pagan Invasion video production is used as further evidence implicating Ed Winchester as a leader in the new age movement.
Trail of Deception Leads to Winchester, VA
According to Texe Marrs an Antichrist will come disguised as a great deceiver, as a Peacemaker. Books written by Marrs and the "Pagan Invasion" video series scare people. Who are the deceivers and who are real Peacemakers?
The Peacemakers Monument Project was another SDI sponsored by Ed Winchester and the PMC . Ed became project manager and custodian of an 8 ton Peacemakers Monument created in duplicate by the late California sculptor, Frank Hendler. The Monument commemorates the handshake between Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachv at a December 7, 1987, summit. Entrusted to him also were two 25-pound miniature copies of the Peacemakers Monument. One miniature was eventually designated for Dr. Elaina Bonner, honoring her deceased husband, a great Russian scientist and dissident ,Andrei Sakharov. The other miniature was presented to the New Zealand Foundation for Peace Studies in 1995.
The U.S. State Department and the U.S .Department of Defense were asked to participate in finding a suitable site in Washington, D.C. for the Peacemakers Monument. Initial plans called for it to be situated on the military parade grounds adjacent to the Pentagon, but a decision was reached at the Pentagon during the Persian Gulf War that the monument should be placed on private property. The site Ed Winchester selected ultimately was Shenandoah University. In April, 1992 Winchester offered The Peacemakers Monument to Shenandoah University, with no strings attached. After the University president accepted the monument Ed arranged to have it transported from Bolling Air Force Base to the University campus at Winchester, VA. The University received detailed drawings, a documented history of the Peacemakers Monument Project from 1988 to 1992, and a written proposal to inaugurate a peace research and studies program.
Two months before the announced date for the dedication ceremonies, Ed Winchester set up several committees comprised of volunteers drawn from around the City of Winchester, Virginia, people who were inspired by the vision of this symbol of peace. Their function was to plan a full day of activities (lectures and speeches, art displays etc. and an evening Candle Light Prayer Vigil) to augment a 30-minute dedication ceremony planned by Shenandoah University for Oct. 7, 1992. In planning for Transformation Day Winchester and his team of volunteers interacted with different segments of the City of Winchester community. They conferred with local clergy, the Winchester Ministerial Association, city, county, and state officials, the Winchester Medical Center, and the public school system, the White House, National Security Council, and the Soviet Embassy. The day for dedication ceremonies was originally named Transformation Day, but later changed by the University to coincide with International Day, which is celebrated annually by foreign students on Oct. 22nd. Throughout the entire project University staff maintained tight controls over all aspects of formal dedication ceremonies, including activities planned by Ed Winchester’s committee of volunteers. When the dedication ceremonies for The Peacemakers Monument took place, a number of other activities took place, including a breakfast program hosted by the Winchester Chamber of Commerce, a public "Forum on Peace and Wellness" at the Byrd School of Business, and an evening prayer vigil at the Monument site on the University campus.
The quest for peace and wellness was the theme for a public forum that day. Speakers urged attendees to start a conversation in all segments of the community about what causes transformation of consciousness, i.e. changes in thinking and behavior needed to remove barriers to the realization of peace. They were invited to think about and discuss what it takes to empower people to achieve their highest aspirations. At that forum the suggestion was made that the City of Winchester could become a model of peace and wellness by the year 2000.
The fundamental question posed by Ed Winchester for discussion on Transformation Day was whether the City of Winchester could become a model of peace and wellness, and to identify exactly what causes transformation. On that day the turn out was small and attendance low. Instead of a peaceful celebration and constructive dialogue involving the entire community, the medical profession, teachers, students, and church groups, opposition grew that caused a major furor. Conservative Christians came out en mass to protest and oppose the peacemakers. The result was a mean spirited debate that spread throughout the local community.
The drama happening in the City of Winchester in 1992 was a real life "witch hunt" spearheaded by three self-appointed, ultra conservative and self-ordained clergymen intent on making a name for themselves. At the suggestion of possible opposition to the Pacemakers Project Ed Winchester identified and contacted the ring leader “Rev.” Fretwell for a private meeting. Fretwell arranged for the other churchmen to be present ostensibly to talk about their issues, and to pray and fellowship. The three churchmen, Rev. Stephen Fretwell, Rev. Bruce Snavely and Rev. Gordon Shinkle, were present for the meeting. They were the vicious instigators of all the opposition to the Peacemakers Project that followed. Those individuals saw in this project the work of the devil. They had read some of the misleading literature on new age cults and challenged Ed Winchester to cease and desist, or they would expose him as a new age leader. Ed was surprised to be interrogated intensely and to come under intense scrutiny, and disappointed at the opposition to plans for a day of celebrations at the University.
According to the three churchmen "there was a clear trail of deception" from evidence they had gleaned. According to them the deception was by Ed Winchester. That small band of rebels began mobilizing other clergy and local citizens, and spread mis-information about Ed Winchester and the Peacemakers Project far and wide. Their stated goal was to discredit him and at the very least to minimize attendance at dedication ceremonies for the peacemakers monument on Transformation Day. In this war scenario they fingered Ed Winchester as the enemy. They did not buy the idea that transformation is a scientifically based phenomenon, which occurs regardless of one's religious beliefs, or that transformation can occur as the result of experiencing interior silence by meditating.
Their false allegations were that: the project was being staged as part of a national new age conspiracy headed by Ed Winchester; and that he had successfully duped local City and County officials, the president of Shenandoah University, in fact the entire community. They said that he was introducing and supporting new age religious philosophies teaching those ideas as a faculty member at Shenandoah University. They claimed also that his wife owned and operated a new age bookstore and that Ed Winchester was guilty of a conflict of interest in referring students to purchase books at the bookstore. Those allegations were to say the least distortions of the truth based on the erroneous information they had gleaned from litter on the trail of deception. It all added up to a declaration of war.
Adversaries of this event, made good their threats to do whatever they could to discredit Ed Winchester. They apparently intimidated University officials by making telephone calls concerning Ed Winchester’s work for the University and questioning the University's connection with the alleged New Age movement. Those crusading defenders of faith asserted at public meetings and in the local press that The Peacemakers Project was a subtle scheme of the devil to deceive people and they accused Ed of leading a satanic movement. They complained that advertising for the dedication ceremonies and Transformation Day failed to acknowledge the Christian belief that, "There can never be true peace in the world, unless everyone accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior." They failed to acknowledge that this was to be a day only for dialogue about principles of transformation and celebrations for the general public, culminating with a prayer vigil led by a Christian minister. Rev. Bruce Snavely offered an opinion to sum it all up: "The evidence he said, sends a strong signal of a new age satanic influence to Christians in the City of Winchester and in this community." He said that he had warned Mr. Winchester that "he would do everything in his power to stop The Peacemakers Project at Shenandoah University and to prevent the spread of this new age occult influence in the community."
One theologian from Shenandoah University got into the act by organizing a program to increase public awareness. He presented a panel discussion on the subject of new age sponsored by the University. At that event the pastor of one of the largest churches in the area referred to the Bible as a “manual for military warfare.” Quoting the gospel of Matthew (10:34), "Think not that I have come to send peace but a sword." Shaking his fist at Ed Winchester in front of a large audience he avowed “Brother I will fight you every step of the way.” None of the opposition present seemed to care that that there are at least 45 Bible verses on the subject of peace and peacemaking. The "real issue" as one of those ministers saw it was "New Age conspiracy versus Christianity." Furthermore, they opposed having their congregations participate in any aspect of the dedication program or the prayer vigil. Another minister took the position that interfaith and ecumenical activities are dangerous for faithful Christians, because such things are also of the devil.
PACE-MAKING Instead of PEACEMAKING
Two of the churchmen who opposed the Peacemakers Project saw an opportunity to start a new political action group in the City of Winchester, known as PACE (Public Awareness Coalition for Education). They aggressively spearheaded a so called, "Christian grassroots political movement," that presumed to speak for all Christians in the area. Their aim was to expose (attack) whatever and whomever they considered to be a New Age influence, and they continued their slanderous accusations about Ed Winchester and his influence in the community. PACE also attacked the Frederick County superintendent of schools asserting some connection with an underground conspiracy and new age influence on public school policies and management. The timing of that controversy coincided with attacks being made on the Peacemakers Project, making it appear that Ed Winchester in some way influenced public school policies. PACE’s issue with the Superintendent, however, was over the elimination of references to "Christmas," "Easter," and prayer in Frederick County schools. Those allegations were of course false.
Deceptive News Coverage
As it turned out the challengers to Transformation Day were themselves affiliated with national groups, which monitor cults and activities of people associated with new age. When people hear lies often enough, they begin to believe them. Following a paper trail that was supposed to substantiate their claims of officially sanctioned duplicity and subversion by Ed Winchester, PACE campaigners began stalking their new enemy like witch hunters. They invited a film crew from Capital TV, Inc. in Alexandria, VA. to the dedication of the Peacemakers Monument. Their covert mission was to produce a television documentary on the “New Age Movement” that had been uncovered in the City of Winchester, VA.
Capital TV's reporter questioned Ed Winchester with a vengeance asserting that he had ties to new age organizations and was a leader of a national new age conspiracy based in the City of Winchester. This "special investigative report" by Capital TV, was a collage of bits and pieces of dis-information put together to make it look like Ed Winchester was leading a mover and shaker for the new age movement, and an organizer of an underground conspiracy that had successfully duped prominent government and University officials. The head of the Winchester Ministerial Association referred to the documentary “as a slick piece of work to discredit Ed Winchester.”
On film the investigative reporter says, "All this despite a federal investigation, from which they concluded New Age teaching as being worthless and even dangerous.” The federal Investigation to which they referred was a survey made by a special committee of the National Research Council (NCR) for the Army covering a number of so-called New Age techniques. The committee report concluded that claims made for most new age techniques did not withstand scientific scrutiny, and warned against substituting personal experience and marketplace popularity for research evidence. But, on the subject of meditation the committee report pointed to the need for better experimental designs in the study of meditation and noted that new brain scanning technologies may elucidate what happens in the brain during meditation. With respect to meditation the NRC report says, "More attention should be paid to the medically-relevant claims for the treatment of anxiety, pain, and disease, as well as the medical implications of sustained attention" (from the practice of meditation.) The NRC committee report for the Army Research Institute cites the work of Murphy and Donovan (1988) that reviewed more than 1,200 meditation studies. The NRC survey did not discredit or invalidate any of those studies, nor did it come up with any analysis or data showing that published findings from any of those studies were erroneous or misleading.
The video documentary by Capital TV accused Edward of duping Shenandoah University about his interest in meditation. That was far from the truth. He had the approval of the Dean of the School of Business at the University to introduce material on the subject of “meditation for managers”. The subject of meditation and Ed Winchester's course work for the Graduate School of Business, however, seems irrelevant because it was not brought up at the dedication ceremonies for the monument or at the public forum held at the University. The Winchester new age video was extremely unfavorable to Ed Winchester. It was premeditated character assassination shown on public television in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. The documentary was shown to area clergy and at churches and sold to the general public by PACE. Literature was disseminated in front of local stores and at other locations to get out the message and to encourage sales of the video, and to advertise PACE's other activities.
The slanderous attacks on Ed Winchester and TV documentary hurt his reputation and standing in the community, as well as his associations with Shenandoah University and elsewhere. To some people it appeared that his teaching contract with Shenandoah University was not renewed because of the controversy, and there are other repercussions from that spiritual warfare to this day.
Capital TV Targeted Mrs. Winchester's Business
The documentary produced by Capital TV, included footage showing Mrs. Winchester's bookstore, which the reporter erroneously and blatantly referred to as a new age business. He asserted that the business was tied to the so-called new age conspiracy that her husband was supposed to be leading. There were accusations of conflict of interest with his teaching job at Shenandoah University. A book list displayed in the film was one Ed used only for a course on Centering Prayer, and not for teaching at the University.
The Winchester new age video falsely identifies The Book Shelf as a new age business and as a satanic influence in the community. Mrs. Winchester owned and operated The Book Shelf (now under new ownership) for 10 years before she met and married Mr. Winchester. The fact that the couple was married is the only connection Ed Winchester had with the bookstore business.
The Capital TV film crew entered The Book Shelf under false pretenses, telling an employee in charge that Ed Winchester sent them to check out the store. Another falsehood was their claim that the owner could not be contacted for comments. Mrs. Winchester contacted Capital TV twice by phone as soon as she learned about the filming at the bookstore. Ed Winchester also sent a protest letter to Capital TV, Inc., which was not answered. While the TV crew was inside the Book Shelf store they filmed close up selected merchandise items, such as covers of cassette tapes, books and gift items. The video presentation was a deliberate attempt to mislead viewers.
The Book Shelf always operated as a traditional bookstore (not a New Age store) selling new and used books covering a wide range of subjects. The store sold Christian books, Bibles, and crucifixes. It did have a little larger than average section of books on metaphysical subjects, that included Eastern, Western and Native American philosophies and a few New Age books, and ethnic merchandise from around the world. At the time this incident happened the business was regarded by many people, including local clergy, teachers and other professional people, and the general public as a valuable source of supply on metaphysical subjects and for educational materials that were unavailable elsewhere in the City.
The sad thing is that people often pass judgment, by reading about or listening to other people and without sufficient questioning or research. Because of accusations flying around the City of Winchester about the bookstore, some people were disrespectful to Mrs. Winchester calling her a “witch.” Some local Christian came into her store daily and put Christian literature in many of her books through out her store.
Several years later after all of the "controversy and deception and witch hunt" dissipated, Mr. and Mrs. Winchester were having lunch with some friends and a local minister. He told Mrs. Winchester that he had heard she was a High Priestess of Wicca, and wanted to know if this was true. Mrs. Winchester was taken aback and quite surprised by this comment and because that rumor was so ludicrous, she spontaneously started laughing because it was so outrageous. She reassured the good minister that she was not and had never been a High Priest of Wicca (nor had she been associated with it) and that she was a practicing and faithful Greek Orthodox Christian. From his statement, it sounded like another false accusation that had been spread around Winchester and in the local churches because this was the first time she had heard that. It was laughable, but living through the ostracism from so many so-called Christians was not funny or easy. Fortunately, the pastor and people at the Christian church to which the Winchesters belonged disregarded the gossip and the false accusations. But it was difficult to contend with being targeted in videos and books, and in articles that appeared in the Winchester Star and Northern Virginia Daily and even a controversy forum held a the local Handley Library. It was an awful time for the Winchesters. Mrs. Winchester became very ill and sick just after all of the attacks started. She continued to have medical problems until she and her husband Edward move away to Wyoming for a couple of years.
PACE aggressively escalated their campaign for a time and promised to bring in "the big guns" (the New Age cult hunter Texe Marrs already mentioned). Damage to reputations, especially the Winchesters and to the mission of the Peacemakers Project had already been done because of attacks, lies, and false accusations. .
What must seem particularly puzzling for non Christians is to see a minority of Christians, who profess love of Christ and for one another, attacking other Christians for any reason whatsoever. History tells us that Jesus brought a message of love and peace and was crucified for it.
In the movie “The Passion” religious leaders of Jesus’ time considered themselves to be God's appointed representatives. They rationalized that they had to get rid of the man. He was not a stepping stone for them to walk on, so they killed him for what he was teaching. There are some similarities to some people in the City of Winchester and the various Christian churches and groups who attacked us in books, video, magazines, on TV and even selling videos of us in front of the local Wal Mart store etc.). There are people of the same temperament in every city and town of our country, be they regular folks or religious minded clergy, so attached to narrow interpretations of the Bible, to their fears, and to their political goals that they attack anyone -- Muslim, Hindu, and even other Christians in the name of God.
End of The Trail of Deceptions
The Winchester family left the City of Winchester for several years, but eventually returned from their retreat in Wyoming. They have long ago recovered from their devastating and humiliating experiences in the City of Winchester. It was gratifying that two ministers who led attacks in 1991against the Winchesters apologized privately for their part in the spiritual warfare. It is all now part of the history of the City of Winchester.
"I will find the truth though it be hid at the center" (Macbeth). The center of all things (God) is where the trail of deceptions ends and where peace begins. The Peacemakers Monument as a symbol of transformation and peace was lost during the controversy that occurred at the time the time the City of Winchester was challenged to become a “model of peace and wellness”. But today the Peacemakers Monument stands as a reminder that transformation of enemies is possible and there is a process for transformation that can bring peace in troubled times. Perhaps the image of the Peacemakers Monument still inspires City and County officials, Shenandoah University, local ministers, educators, and local citizens to work toward transformation locally and globally.
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