Persecution and deceit

I was thinking about one word overused by the family: persecution. I was rebuked twice for allowing myself to reveal my association with the family in situations the all-knowing leaders thought it was a security lapse. Nothing terrible happened as a result of my "indiscretion". When the dust settled and time had gone by, I asked a few of the participants of that episode about their opinion, which to my surprise was not too close to the party line. They told me that I had done the right thing to prevent further problems for myself and even for the family. I asked myself, why them had I been told to lie?

Those conversations stayed with me for years as I had to confront situations were it was my choice to either be candid or sly. I use these words purposely because it is not a matter of choosing to lie. Family members normally don't lie but use common understanding and good faith to use words that make people think some things when their real meaning is something else. Some examples will be when asked about their beliefs.

Q: Is it true that men share their wife with other men and that Women share their husbands with other women? A: Sex outside of marriage is not part of our doctrine. Translation: Because we are all married one to another, we enjoy total sexual freedom and they are not bound by marriage, which is a doctrine of men not of God.

Q: Was Berg a drunk pedophile? A: He liked Sherry and would sometimes over do it but all men are sinners and there is no one perfect. Q: What about pedophilia? A: Like I said, for all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God, including that Sara Davidito and her teachings. Translation: We don't want to talk about that.

Q: How come you hate Jewish people? A: We don't hate Jewish people. We love them. Most of our leaders are Jewish, including our founder David Berg. Translation: We have a few token people who look Jewish (or national natives) to cover ourselves.

So many of the family teachings directly contradict the Bible that would be impossible to list them all here. It is yet another family doctrine that the words of David Berg, as their self-proclaimed prophet of the end time, supercedes Jesus' teachings making the Gospel of little value to the members' daily walk.

What is interesting is that persecution was defined to the Family as whatever is done against the group, or against a certain particularly individual. Persecution in the family has a very specific meaning. It is family doctrine that persecution is whatever others (the enemies) do to prevent the members from doing what WE (the leadership) want them to do.

They overlook what Jesus himself taught about persecution, that it is supposed to be for righteousness sake not stupidity (and even Berg wrote once about this). They equate persecution to righteousness without contemplating whether there was or not at least one righteous deed. Lack of self-critique goes rampant in the family ranks. Although people should learn from their mistakes, it is taught as doctrine that lower ranks cannot receive any revelations or directions from God that contradict those upper ranks receive.