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In Reply to: Re: forgiveness, accountability and responsibility posted by my thoughts on December 09, 2002 at 11:30:27:
What you said rung true on both a common sense and on an emotional level. I very much agree with the fact of women being kept in place by a mindset and doctrinal boundaries that sanctioned violence at times. I remember one mother in a public room asking her husband to go get something their child and the Shepherd asked loudly and publicly, "Where are the real Bible Women?" and the poor mother immediately apologized and went and got the item herself.
Maria later made a point of appointing women leaders and I don't think she was trying to rectify a male-chauvinist mindset as she was simply attempting to extend her control while Berg was still alive (more or less). My impression from meeting some of the women leaders that were appointed in the later years was that they were pretty beaten-down women who were basically yes-men (or "yes-women" in this case) and their main overriding virtue was that they were totally loyal and dedicated.
Berg and Maria seemed to discover that it was important to have top leaders that did not think independently so they began beating them down mercilessly. If you've ever taken one of those knobby-headed hammers and tenderized tough meat you get the idea of what was happening to some of those top leaders. They were generally dominant personalities which made for ""good"" leaders except they had selfish traits and independent thoughts so their brains were beaten and tenderized until they became quite brainless. Well, not brainless. I think maybe 20% of their brains (the parts on how to deal with finances and deal with sheep on walkie-talkies) were left intact. But the restof their brains were pretty much tenderized to the point where they could then be pounded in a round hole, a square hole. Hey ANY old kind of hole will do now that Jonathan DavidLove and Mary Submission have been through retraining.
I'm sorry I got so off the point here. You had a powerful post on how women were beaten down andmy intent was only to thank you for that and say how true that rung with me.
