What is real charity?

Several months ago, someone named Tim had been promoting the good works of the The Family, a.k.a., The Family of Love, a.k.a., The Children of God. a.k.a, Family Care Foundation. In one article, an organization going by the name Side by Side International is delivering goodies to starving Cambodians it seems. On top of that, they distribute more Family propaganda in the form of Treasure Attic videos. This is supposed to make us rejoice at the good works of The Family and what good they have wrought on the world. But let’s define good. As for me, I would not put a Treasure Attic video in front of any children I know. Perhaps they are harmless, perhaps they are not. I still see the damage in my children with the “harmless” Life with Grandpa stories and other The Family propaganda designed for children that they were raised on. So with that in mind, the promoting of Treasure Attic videos on an unsuspecting population is a minus rather than a plus.

Then on to the next matter. Knowing full well how the Family functions, we know for a fact that some good-hearted person or organization has donated supplies through it’s cover organization, Family Care Foundation, to the Family to distribute. The Family then takes the supplies (pilfering off what they need first) and make a photo-shoot out of it. I saw that first hand with Barzali and shoes being donated to refugees in Thai refugee camps. We all used that photo shoot. I also heard this from a stepdaughter who stayed with us for a short time.

Not long after this PR blitz was published, I noticed an obscure article in the back page of a newspaper. In an Associated Press article titled Thai Community takes new tack on AIDS war, Vijay Joshi reports on the problem of AIDS in Thailand. In Thailand, it is common knowledge that there is a major problem of prostitution with young girls being shipped off to the city by their starving farmer parents to earn an income through prostitution. In fact, Thailand was one of the first countries to get hit with the AIDS virus. (I’m sure the Family’s distribution of such Mo letters as Sex works, Flirty Little Fishy and Mountain Maid weren’t much of a help to curtail this sexual promiscuity.) The article goes on to talk about the dilemma of the spread of AIDS due to a lack of education, lack of condom use and lack of prevention. A project, started in 1991 by the Mae Chan Community Hospital, campaigns to tame the spread of the AIDS virus. “Volunteers spread the word about AIDS, promote condom use, care for patients in their homes, provide herbal medicines, give spiritual guidance and counsel the depressed, and sometimes they are simply friends to the dying.” The article goes on to state that Mae Chan is home to 120,000 people; the northern Chiang Rai District, the AIDS capital of Thailand, is home to 1.25 million people and accounts for 10 % of Thailand’s AIDS cases. Nearly 1 million people in Thailand have been infected with HIV, of them, 300,000 have died. “Health Experts think at least 200,000 lives were saved by a successful condom-promotion campaign in 1990-91 that is estimated to have brought the infection rate down by 80%.” Head director at Mae Chan’s community hospital has cleared a room in the hospital where 50 monks now take turns giving sermons every weekday. “Somsak also set up a day care center at the hospital where HIV patients talk about themselves, not unlike group therapy. A youth group - Making Dreams for New Future - holds regular puppet shows in schools and community centers to talk about AIDS, unprotected sex and drugs. One key aspect of the program is village meetings involving people with HIV infections or AIDS itself, including former prostitutes, who tell their stories to educate others.”

Now, if I saw an article like this on the Family or Family Care Foundation, or SBSI, and they were actually doing this, then I would consider that worthy of the attention of the article posted glorifying the Family Care Foundation’s efforts with visits from prominent dignitaries, even the former Prime Minister of Japan, because someone donated some goods to them and they passed them on. It makes one wonder if some of these people were FF’d by the Family’s Heavenly Whores.

The obscure article by Vijay Joshi clearly shows the efforts of volunteers and the Buddhist clergy paying off in actual lives saved and health restored to a segment of the population that could be dying a horrible death. Ironically, Christian charity is being displayed from Buddhism more than from a Christian based organization. If you think these statements are harsh, let’s examine a related issue.

The Family in Thailand has orchestrated a rather successful singing and dancing troupe with some of the children born in the group. These members have mastered the ancient art of folk song and dance called luk tung and have become the darling of the local people and the media. However, according to one journalist, the singers, Kristy Gibson and Jonas Wadenholm, have denied to him in interviews that they come from a Christian organization. In fact, a CNN story with Jonas on tour was about music and not a word about The Family or the COG organization. In the July issue of Metro Magazine (a city guide magazine for Bangkokians), British journalist Andrew Drummond writes a short article about a meeting with Kristy Gibson. He was FF’d in Spain in the 1970s by a Dutch girl and relates that event while writing about the Family in Thailand and Kristy. What a good way to get media protection. The journalist I spoke with claims that in all his meetings with Family members in Thailand, they advised him they are NOT a Christian organization.

It’s nice to know that the many hours of prepping the children as little tykes has paid off in terms of stage presentation and musical abilities. But what are they doing for the Thai people? I think they should take a lesson from the Buddhist monks and poor country folk who have taken up arms in their community to fight such a devastating and evil disease as AIDS. These are the same country folks they tantalize with fancy footwork and cherubim like voices. That’s nice and I bet it’s a boon to the local The Family’s economy as well as a way of protection against any likelihood their true beliefs be found out. Even I am amazed at how far the Family has gone in practicing their “Deceiver’s yet true” doctrine. They have gone to the point of denying they are a Christian based organization and left the original roots of being a witness about God’s love. Yes, they’ve changed, but is it for the better? I don’t see how you can improve by topping off deception with more deception.

©Acheick, 2001