Remember the victims

Like KG, I have been deeply impressed by The Family's survivors--they are truly amazing, resilient people. But I also feel a need to remember and honor those who didn't survive and those who are (at best) failing to thrive.

These are the ones who are dying from drug overdoses and those who appear to be on a downward spiral into chemical dependency hell. These are also the ones who have committed suicide and those who have repeatedly attempted suicide. These are the ones who have been in and out of psychiatric hospitals, as yet unable to stabilize their symptoms and functioning. These are also the ones who died of natural causes very young in life, largely because their diseases failed to yield to superstitious prayers of deliverance and healing.

I think these martyrs of Family ignorance and social pathology should be remembered and honored for what they have suffered. Some continue to suffer and some have died because of David Berg & Karen Zerby's self-serving need for temporal power and control. And rather than take a good, hard look at her responsibility for the carnage, Zerby continues to preach a doctrine that blames the victims for their failure to survive the inhumane demands of Family discipleship.

But blaming the victims is not enough for Zerby--she also uses their stories of suffering to leverage control over those who remain trapped in the Family's web of lies and fear. It is a shame and dishonor to those who have suffered and died--particularly in the case of those who have repudiated David Berg & Karen Zerby as false prophets and spiritual fascists--to be "resurrected" as a Family "spirit helper" by a exploitative control freak.

When Zerby envisioned the blood-sucking Vandari, she was surely looking into the mirror of her soul. It is pure vampirism to suck bloody object lessons on obedience to God (i.e., Family leadership) from the lives of Family members who have suffered and died.

If I were in the Family business of ripping off fantasy artists and writers and claiming they were my own prophetic visions, I would "see" Zerby as Shelob, the great she-spider of Cirith Ungol. Then I would describe how the Lord showed me this repulsive she-spider paralyzing her victims with a poisonous, damnable lie about the inner voice of conscience, reason, and conviction.

Jesus Speaking: It is NOT a false light and fallen angel that causes Family members to doubt and question teachings that feel wrong, contradictory, or go against reason and logic.

If I were in Shelob's business of raising the dead to curse the living, I would surely bring a thundering Martin Luther from the grave to denounce the rotten spew of Family doctrines on obedience.

Martin Speaking: Here I stand--I can do no other but crush the venomous, fanged head that paralyzes the primacy of personal conscience.