Slowly unthawing from the Family's mindset

When I was deeply committed to the Family & Mo I even read an article strongly against the letters & it didn't faze me. But when I was very disillusioned with Mo & other leadership & was thinking of leaving then any little bit of truth that opened my eyes spoke volumes to me.

But even after I left the Family & felt so free & so glad I'd made the break I still could not accept that they were a *cult*. I could accept that they were a very controlling religious group, there was no doubt in my mind about that, but when my brother was talking about the Family & used the word *cult* I was highly offended & stomped out of the house & went for a 3-hour walk. Cult had all the negative thots of mass suicides in Jonestown.

The thing that helped me finally accept that the Famiy was a cult was when I thought of an old Mo quote from *For Gods Sake Follow God* where Mo said, This movement is not dependent on any man or any group of men. It's not a cult of the personality. It's leader is God. ---And for the first time I sat up and said, No, that's wrong. We really were a cult of the personality focused on Mo. See, it was alright for me to think of *cult of the personality* because that didn't have such negative conitations as *cult*.

Then once Id been honest enuf to admit that the Family had degnerated into a cult of the personality I could finally see that it had also finally be come a cult with all of the strange teachings. Id already admitted to myself that it was a controling group & now thinking of all the wrong & illegal things we'd done I began to see that yes, it was a cult. That was a huge break for me because Id been so hung up on it being a Christian group & missionaries trying to win the world that up till then I hdn't been able to see how a Christian group could be a cult.

I guess it's like the frog boiling in water. it wasn't just us as individuals that wereput in cold water & then the heat turned on. The entire movement was in the pot of water. Berg boiled & cooked Christianity itself, not just us frogs.