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| | From : [deleted]
To :
CC :
Subject : Your web site
Date : Fri, 5 Apr 2002 07:08:13 -0800 (PST)
Dear WC, Achieck, Mike, Meshach and coordinators of ex-family.org,
Greetings. We have recently run into and perused your new web site, and felt led to write you about it. We can see that you and
those you are working with are investing much time and energy in your web site. Pardon our not knowing who to address this to, as it seems
that everyone on the site is going under a pseudonym, unlike most bona fide anti-cult or Christian apologetic organizations who do so with at
least one legal name, and most with a board of directors, addresses, contact information, etc. We also tried to contact you via the
information given to register the site, but found it was also not reliable information.
As you know, the Family has taken great pains to reconcile with former members and we are truly sorry for any hurts or bitterness
that any former member may have, yourselves included. We believe that Peter and Maria have extensively apologized for any incidents from
their past that they have grievances about. We also respect and understand the rights former members have to air such grievances on their
chat board, as long, of course, as individuals are not slandered. We believe Barney, for example, has taken great pains to recognize the
rights of all individuals on his site, and we commend him for that. We believe Family leadership and members have shown a willingness to
dialogue and a sincere concern and interest in the feelings and welfare of individuals who at some point in their lives were attached to the
Family in some way, great or small.
However, it is important to recognize that current Family members are also individuals with rights and the Family as a fellowship has
rights, just as any other church or organization has. Although we are willing to do what we can to make amends and help former members
who have grievances, we also must protect the rights of our fellowship and individual members. Unfortunately your site infringes on our legally
protected rights, as you have posted and are in the process of posting some of our copyrighted publications. We imagine that in doing so you
are not familiar with the law that protects copyrighted materials from being used on the Web by people who do not hold the copyrights (in
this case yourselves). A good referral would be the federal decision in favor of the Latter Day Saints vs. Tanners (that is, the Mormon
Church vs. their most vocal group of apostates, the Tanners), in which the court ruled that the Tanners had no right to publish internal
copyrighted publications of the LDS on their web site. Because a person or persons no longer adhere to or agree with the publications of a
group, does not grant them the right to in effect bypass the group's rights and post their copyrighted materials. Actually, according to this
ruling, you are not even allowed to provide links to the material or make it available off your web site. (Civil Action No. 2:99-CV-0808 C)
As Christians, we believe that our duty is to attempt to settle this amiably amongst ourselves, which is why we are writing to you in
good faith that you are unaware of the infringement and will remove the “MO Letter List” and Letters you have posted (“The Christmas
Monster”, “IRFers Beware”, “Old Church, New Church” and “Mountain Men”). We in general attempt to be tolerant of such anti-Family
activities by former members as much as we can, respecting people's feelings, unless they infringe upon our rights. While respecting the rights
of others, we must also protect the rights of individuals in the Family.
We believe that your allegations that the Family promoted or engaged in: child pornography, adult-child sex, prostitution, adultery, libel,
kidnapping, larceny, evasion and political meddling is libelous and we know of no court of law that has found The Family guilty of these
crimes (of course some of the listed are not crimes). We would suggest that the horrendous suffering that over 200 innocent children were
subjected to in Argentina due to outright slanderous libel from former members, most of whom did not even know these children or have any
knowledge of their lives, may serve as a lesson to the ill consequences of unfounded accusations presented as fact, and truth twisted beyond
recognition, to the point that judges have to proclaim such testimony as perjury.
Also, in another section of your site, you state: “Another major purpose is bookkeeping and tax benefits - by redistributing funds
internally and writing them off as expenses or gifts to other charity projects - they declare themselves non-profit organizations - and thus
benefit from subsidies and tax exemptions designed for bona fide charity work. By registering themselves as NGOs (Non-Governmental
Organizations) they may also infiltrate countries closed to proselytization activities. These names were collected through primary sources. It is
difficult if not impossible, to stay up to date - members uproot frequently and adopt new names to avoid detection. They do however, use
recognizable common themes in their literature, activities, style and presentation.”
We assume by this that you mean that Family members have no right to run a charitable organization legally, due to the fact that they are
Family members, aka religious discrimination. We don't believe this premise would hold up in a court of law, rather each individual project
(which is just that, an individual community endeavor and not “The Family”) undertaken by a community is responsible before the law to
represent their charitable works in a legal fashion. We're sorry if you seem to believe that in order to carry out a local charitable operation it
must be under the name of the Family, but actually that is no more required than that any other religious charitable endeavor hold the same
name as their church. This is perfectly legal and legitimate, and in fact, the practice of most churches. We don't know of a charity called “The
Catholic Church”, or “The Seventh Day Adventists”.
So we reserve the right as every other church, to have local organizations under our umbrella that are oriented towards a social gospel, in
other words, charitable works. Our publications do state that such organizations should be clear about their affiliation with the Family, which
in most cases, except in countries where Christians are persecuted, is quite straightforward. This seems again a case of holding Family
members to a standard that society does not expect from its members. We do not feel that we owe an accounting of the charitable work
carried out by current members to you, nor do we believe that you have had the opportunity to become familiar with the charitable work
Family members do around the world. Therefore, it is not honest to say that such local endeavors are not “bona fide” organizations. Perhaps
the law as to what constitutes a “bona fide” charity would elucidate this point further.
Thank you for your prayerful consideration of this letter, we believe that what we are presenting is only fair and legal and we hope
that we will not find ourselves obligated to seek legal recourse.
Sincerely,
Public Relations Office for The Family | |
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