Posted by Joseph on August 11, 2004 at 09:31:34
In Reply to: If the Family Changed posted by Mr. Don on August 09, 2004 at 17:23:29:
I spent a lot of time over the last few years learning about The Family. I was never in The Family, but I married someone who was in for a few years in the 70's. I was a Father to her two children bornin The Family (one passed away), and we had two more of our own during the 24 years we've been together.
Between 1980 and about 1994, we had no contact with The Family or ex-members whatsoever. Then, she established contact with some current memebers via the Family 800 line.
We became very close with these people, and met other people in leadership positions. I listened carefully to what they had to say about the past, and the present.
Then we began to meet former members via the Internet. Some seemed okay about their past, others were very angry. I listened carefully to what they had to say as well.
We met people who had been born into the Family. They seemed the most angry of all. I listened carefully to what they had to say.
In the course of all this listening, we travelled all over the country meeting people in places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Boston, Washington DC and points in between.
We also held a few Fellowships at our home that attracted a number of current and former members. One of them was attended by Grant Montgomery, the head of Family Care Foundation along with one or more people who would go on to become Coordinators of this website.
I'm not sure how many people I met, but I did do a lot of listening. I took a lot of photos, many of which are online at NDN, and wrote a lot about my impressions.
After almost five years of doing this, I have formed a pretty solid opinion for myself.
It is that the even if the Family did change, the past is so negative, that I don't think the organization could ever become trustworthy.
If the goal is to have true Missionaries, there are a variety of real missionary organizations around the world that have not institutionalized rape, prostitution, child physical abuse and child sexual abuse.
The fact that The Family continues to minimize and lie about the past is a good indication that any changes that have taken place are probably only cosmetic.
I think most of us have seen the "Summit Jewels" that is posted on the net where Maria basically explains that child sex was not ended because it was wrong, it was ended because the public didn't understand that it was right.