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In Reply to: My answer to David D. posted by Sam Ajemian on August 06, 2003 at 20:17:02:
hey sam, i was wondering about your thinking in this post. my guess is that it is addressed to a much wider audience than david d. , as he did not ask the Question here, and i didn't see the answer under his post. maybe i missed it. anyway, the thrust seems to be to convince people the family remains dangerous. i doubt there is too much need to convince the reg. posters i've heard here. if it is to convince family leadership, this may be a more quixotic quest than i can concieve of. if, however, it is to present the case to any recent departees who need more information to be disabused of their illusions, or perhaps help turn on a light bulb for a current member that might be searching for answers or information, than i have a few questions about some of what you said.
i do not doubt that zerby , peter, and perhaps a few of the most totally committed insiders still believe that adult-child sexual contact is acceptable in God's eyes.( i personally doubt that even they are crazy enough to still practice it.. having seen the consequences.) but, i would question the statement you made:"What is wrong with the family today is that they still very much believe all these things( sharing, childsharing, teen sharing, incest, ff'ing, child ff'ing, teen adult sex, lesbianism, etc.etc.,) are within the parimeters of what the law of love allows." wow. do you really think so???
i do not have a lot of contact w/ fammems these days, but when i do, i do not believe ANY of the folks i meet believe that, or anything close to that. what i do believe is that most fammems would see such a statement as patently untrue, and inflammatory. personally, i think this type of statement serves only to reinforce their impression that critics of the family are untrustworthy, and motivated by something less than a sincere search for truth.
personally, i believe that the sexual doctrines and practices are not the real CORE of what make the family dangerous. these things have surely sown untold damage in so many lives,but even if m&p got a prophecy tommorow saying it was all wrong and repented, it would still be a dangerous organisation. their beliefs and practices concerning spiritual authority, revelation, and approach to scripture would lead to some other equally destructive manifestation, imo.( heaven's gate were celibate !)
but, in my opinion, it may counterproductive to make statements that at the very least cannot be substantiated, and, at least in my opinion, do not reflect reality.
back in the early days, one of my close friends to whom i'd been witnessing (tim concerned, in fact) was considering joining, but had some doubts. then someone gave him a jesus paper w/ an article about us that said we'd been kidnapped, lived in caves, and were starved while being brainwashed, or some such nonsense. he knew that was a total lie, and reasoned if we were being lied about like that it must mean that we were being persecuted for our radical service to God. he jumped on his cycle and drove to atl. to join. can you see what i'm getting at?
what do you think, sam?
