Posted by on May 22, 2011 at 04:23:03
In Reply to: Re: Gordon & Gary Shepherd discuss their new book on the COG posted by Perry on May 05, 2011 at 15:36:44:
I agree that the so-called academics were not generally neutral, even if they thought they are.
I had a lot of personal contact with Roy Wallis when he was gathering material for his book.
He was definitely outside of Family "control" per se. But rank and file members were never really free to say what they felt in his presence (it was my job to make sure of that).
And he was surrounded by keepers like me and by leadership most of the time, so his understanding of the family was filtered through them.
Nearly all of the various academics tended to accord the cult far more legitimacy than it deserved.