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In Reply to: Some answers posted by Thinker on October 24, 2002 at 10:04:47:
Why did we join The Family?
I was not religious at all but the answers I was given showed me that politics and social change came through individually changing hearts. I had known that for some time but the band of willing volunteers looked promising. I eventually learned the reality of God and faith in Him has kept me since them. Leaving The Family didn't affect my faith in God.
Why did we stay in The Family?
I kept my idealism for many years and I was lucky that the problematic personalities I encountered never stayed in my life for long. When Kohoutek came I realized that David Berg was not a prophet but what kept me in was the idealism of the willing volunteers who stayed in. The ones I talked to and I didn't stay to follow a man other than Jesus Christ at that time. We still wanted to change the world.
When more and more news started coming out, even the FF and Arthur letters were marginal but I didn't feel like I was being pushed into anything as happened later on. By then, I had already seen too many inequalities among classes of people to stomach and was fedup with the priviledges of the few - even me. That was the boiling point.
Did we stay in The Family long after we found out that it wasn't for us? Why?
I did. I found out there was something wrong when the so-called visiting servants were asking people in their region for money so then can go and visit them. So much against the directives from the letters. I wrote a letter to Berg telling on them; their reward: promotion to oversees of the whole continent (I found out that many many years later, last year).
Eventually all the small things I had overlooked became too large to avoid - even by the letters' standards they were wrong. Those in high positions did as they please. I was in Southamerica and saw how Faithy and Juan developed their empire into a real cultic-business operation. That was too much for me who joined to denounce just that kind of empires.
Why did we leave The Family?
Because of the letters that started to pour in about blatant pedophilia. I had two children at the time and even though I had comfortable position I could not see myself in the mirror and say I was doing the right thing for me and for my children.
At that point I had realized step by step that not only Berg wasn't God's prophet (first stage) but he was not even a prophet (second stage) but an egotistical drunk with an over bearing personality (third stage). I was able to somewhat deal with all of that because of the quality of people I was lucky to work with but then when those letters started to come out and I decided that it was not possibly Christian (fourth stage), it took me very little to decide on my departure (fifth stage). That was, at that point, an irreversible decision nobody would have been able to modify in me.
Under what circunstances did we leave The Family?
I was part of the translating team living in Lima, Peru. Orders were passed onto me from Juan/Faithy to never contact my family, even though I had cousins living 2 blocks from our home. I accepted their order as a nice good boy (and plenty stupid, I should add). The last straw was when they denied me a ride to go to vote. Vote is mandatory in Peru and non-vote carries a hefty penalty, of which Juan knew (he is Peruvian like me). That was around November of 1983 and took me a few months to plan and execute my scape.
How did we leave The Family?
Broke but at least with some family who took us in. The nice guy who was running the outfit had a total surprise when I told him and a few days later without hardly any money they took us to a bus station. A few days later they sent out a notice to the homes nearby to ignore us if they ever met us. What a family!!!
We never looked back but it was sad to see people whom we love have such bad judgement as to what is right and what is wrong. Jim of Shirley was the exception when I met him and John in Lima later that week. I'd like to think that perhaps others would have not followed that hateful directive and would have come to talk to us but we'll never know.
Towards the end of '84 I had started a small publishing business but I doubt it would have gone too far. I also went to visit the inlaws in Texas when I was offer a job with a contruction site first and then with a computer company. I eventually went to school and have a great job right now.
It was very hard because of the cultural changes we all underwent. We had to start and continue saving every little penny because we didn't have any financial help. I got some money from financial help but it was mostly through sweat and tears. I told my wife upon graduation that half of that degree was hers because she put lots of hours bringing in the bread.
