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In Reply to: Re: Cult Personalities / Normal Personalities / Question posted by Donny on October 29, 2002 at 15:10:59:
This is a difficult line to mark because when we are considering a new theory or idea we must examine it at some point. OK, we really couldn't do that outloud but that is the way our brains work. If we simply take something in without questioning it is because we assign a certain level of trust to the source and accept it by faith. At that point we don't have a will of our own. But between then and the earlier point where we didn't have that trust there must be some instance where we just simply say something like: "Man! These doctrines are so cool that from now on I am going to just take them in and never consult my advisor".
What I am learning out of this discussion is that I may be totally wrong in thinking that some people in the Family actually saw through the manipulations. I did see some, a few big time leaders, whom I couldn't differentiate from non-Christians. I used to think that some people in the Family were smart and having a continuing debate with themselves about leadership - I know I used to.
The big contradiction I had was that I didn't believe in the leaders or the chain of command. I saw them as opportunist who took advantage of their position. Even of MO himself. But at the same time, I respected him for his dedication (until I got convinced of his evil nature) and was totally convinced that the Letters were the leaders. It was not until at some point I could not stomach those letters anymore and their inherent evil was obvious when I left. I was sure many others were going to leave soon after. Almost 20 years later I have found out that those whom I thought would be strong enough to leave did not leave and I feel sorry for them. It was a long process, not an overnight decision but its execusion took a long time even when we knew we were on our way out.
So I must yield to the evidence and accept that not everybody had my experience and some people were blind in trust and were taken advantage of.
But if it was not peer pressure what got people hooked, what was it?
