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In Reply to: Does this advice apply to Sara D. too? posted by Jules (reposted) on February 16, 2004 at 19:40:57:
When I gave testimony in Pearl's case in late 1995, we decided that I would admit that Mene had told the truth. We were not taking the moral high ground, but rather cooperating with the inevitable. Lord Justice Ward believed her, so if we continued to maintain that she was lying, we risked losing the case. Peter also privately agreed to apologise to Mene.
A few months later, an opportunity arose to make this apology. Sara Davidito was visiting Texas, and an intermediary asked Mene to come to Texas, so Sara could apologise on behalf of Maria and Peter. But what was the apology for? Maria and Peter directed Sara to say, "We're sorry that we did not get you medical help sooner." I remember thinking, “My God, what about the sexual abuse, the beatings, the confinement, the emotional abuse, the demonizing in Family publications and the media, the denials, the cover-ups, the lies?" It was not Mene's fault that she was born into the Family and suffered so much. She was a child. As it turned out, Mene refused to meet with Sara.
Maria and Peter never apologized to Mene. In GN 653, they offered apologies to children and adults who may have been hurt in the Family. Well, what about Mene? If Maria and Peter were really, truly sorry, wouldn't they have run to the one child who they had personally harmed and beg for forgiveness? And then, seeing as they had publicly demonized her and lied about her to the Family, wouldn't they have told Family Members the truth, to set the record straight? Wouldn't that have been the Christian thing to do, if they really wanted to make amends?
