Terry Cole-Whittaker

Terry Cole-Whittaker (born December 3, 1939, in Los Angeles), or Dr. Terry, is a New Thought writer and United Church of Religious Science minister,[1] and the founder of Terry Cole-Whittaker Ministries and Adventures in Enlightenment.

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History

She became familiar with what she calls the "principles of prosperity" through the actions of a teacher in high school. She enrolled in college, where she became the homecoming queen and president of the freshman class. She would later go on to enter the Mrs. America pageant, becoming Mrs. California and winning third place in the national competition. She later joined the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and became an opera singer. She would not stay with this position long, however. She went on to start a company, Success Plus, in which she became one of the first conductors of human potential seminars for corporations, becoming a successful motivational and inspirational speaker.

She went on to earn a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1973, and was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Religious Science in 1975, and became the pastor of a fifty-member congregation of that church in La Jolla in 1977. The church grew under her leadership, drawing numbers as high as 5,000 for Easter Sunday, and eventually expanded to include a grammar school, ministry school, and five teaching centers. She also began a television program in 1979, which at one time was syndicated to fifteen television stations in the country. Stressing that “You can have it all — now!,” she encouraged her listeners – mostly yuppies – week after week to seek prosperity, power, and abundance.[2] Among those she influenced was Gian-Luigi Ferri, the mass-shooter in the 1993 101 California Street shooting, who was influenced by her gospel of Success but eventually frustrated by his unsuccessful business ventures.[3]

In 1982, Cole-Whittaker left the United Church of Religious Science and founded Terry Cole-Whittaker Ministries. She continued to be popular, drawing over four thousand people to her weekly services and traveling as a lecturer and workshop leader. She provided her followers with newsletters and instructional videos.[2] She had many celebrity disciples, including Gavin MacLeod, Linda Gray, Lily Tomlin, and Eydie Gormé.[4] Despite raising $6 million in 1984 alone, her ministry raked in a debt of around $400,000 in 1985 (including $3,000 in back rent),[5] prompting her to cease production of the television show and leave her congregation on Easter.[6][7] By October, she had created a new foundation, Adventures in Enlightenment, which organized “spiritual” adventure tours allowing participants to meet with her one-on-one in exotic locations, e.g. Machu Picchu, the Himalayas.[6]

The Foundation later purchased land in Washington to build a retreat center and start an organic farm and started an ashram and library in India to teach Westerners traditional Indian religion.

Published works
  • What You Think of Me is None of My Business (1979).
  • How to Have More in a Have Not World (1983).
  • Inner Path from the Goddess Within
  • Dare to Be Great (2001)
  • Creating Your Destiny – A Remarkable Guide to Making Decisions that Give You Happiness and Prosperity
  • Every Saint Has a Past, Every Sinner a Future:Seven Steps to the Spiritual and Material Riches of Life
  • The Inner Path from where you are to where you want to be
  • Love and Power in a World without Limits
  • Live Your Bliss (2009)

References
  1. O'Shea, D. (March 2005) "When the spirit moves us," San Diego magazine. Vol. 57, No. 5. p 118. ISSN 0036-4045.
  2. Victor Bondi, ed. American Decades: 1980-1989 (Detroit: Gale Research, 1996), 392.
  3. "Baffling Portrait of S.F. Gunman Emerges: Violence: Some say he was polite and withdrawn, others call him strange and secretive". Los Angeles Times. 07/03/1993. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. “Abrupt Exit: The Rev. Terry Cole-Whittaker, Woman evangelist's goodbye”, Time Magazine (Monday, Apr. 22, 1985).
  5. Jenifer Waren, “Terry Cole-Whittaker Says Goodby to Her Congregation”, Los Angeles Times (Apr. 8, 1985).
  6. Armando Acuna, “Cole-Whittaker Tours: Ex-Preacher Takes Off on ‘Spiritual’ Adventures”, Los Angeles Times (Feb. 28, 1986).
  7. Lewis, James R. (1998). The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-222-6.

Further reading
  • Ronald Enroth. “Self-Styled Evangelist Stretches God's Truth”, Christianity Today 28 (21 Sept. 1984): 73–75.
  • D. Keith Mano. “Terry Cole-Whittaker”, People 22 (26 Nov. 1984): 99–106.
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