Exposing the Family Leadership on SA

I am very new to this discussion board, however, I have spent a lot of time in the last 8 months reading what exmembers--particularly Ed Priebe--have to say about the injury that was done to 2nd gen members during the sex abuse (SA) investigations of the early 90s.

TF's experience of SA investigation in the early 90s was not really unique, as there was actually quite a lot of hysteria and witch hunting during the late 80s and early 90s around child sex abuse allegations. Even if you were in TF at that time, perhaps you heard about the notorious cases involving alleged abuse at day care centers in the US? Many innocent people were hurt by these allegations and improperly conducted investigations.

Even in the best of circumstances, it is extremely difficult to prosecute sex offenders who incest family members. Trust me on this one. I've participated in investigations of childhood SA. Kids have a very difficult time stepping forward and dealing with the stress of a criminal investigation and legal prosecution. As a clinician, I've always held that it's OK if the kid chooses forgo seeking justice. Self determination is the important issue for childhood SA victims. What adults around them would like to see happen is secondary to that.

During that same era as the day care SA witch hunts, some very serious allegations regarding SA of minors by Catholic priests were substantiated through well executed investigations and legal proceedings. The Catholic hierarchy, however, did not pay heed to the writing on the wall with those cases, so that 15+ years later, they have had to pay the piper BIG time.

When I read comments by Sam A. in his newsletter that Faithy should be arrested and tried for sex abuse of minors, I cannot help but wince at his apparent naivete. To begin with, the most successful prosecution of institutional sex offenders (i.e., Catholic priests) has come as a consequence of adult survivors choosing to step forward in massive numbers. Some of the young people at MovingOn are looking into this approach, and I say, more power to 'em. They appear to have a fairly good idea of how difficult getting their case(s) into a courtroom will be. There's a major question of jurisdiction.

The only individuals who have any business "exposing" Faithy on the issue of childhood SA would be those young adults who were actually abused by her during their childhoods. Research shows that adults have a wide range of interpretations and psychological responses to their childhood sexual experiences--whether or not the SA victim chooses to label their childhood sexual experience with an adult as "abuse" depends on a complex array of factors.

I am concerned about Family fronts that involve street kids and orphans. Many, many of the kids in this population are sexually precocious--meaning, they're already sexually experienced with adults. It's how they've learned to survive. I know from having worked in residential treatment programs with such kids that as an adult caretaker, whatever your unresolved issues (regarding sex) may be, they'll come out in spades when working with kids who have an history of SA.

So, second gen members might be very well intentioned and believe they have rejected Berg's sex teachings, but they cannot have grown up in TF (or any almost other family for that matter) and NOT have unexamined issues around their sexual experiences as children and adolescents. Well-intentioned people without appropriate training in the area of human sexuality and abuse who work with the kids in this population are potentially very dangerous. I've worked in this field for 13 years, and I know what I'm talking about.

Imagine, for a moment, that a campaign gets started to expose Love's Bridge as a Family front. Knowing absolutely nothing about the state of SA investigative technology available to child welfare and law enforcement authorities in Perm, Russia, I would never be one to get on that bandwagon. The situation could easily become South America and the persecution all over again.

On the other hand, we shouldn't be blind to the fact that very vulnerable institutionalized children are at risk of re-abuse by their caretakers. So what if these are street kids and throwaways? Ask yourself this question: Would you want your grandchildren under the care of the folks who run Love's Bridge?