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In Reply to: Re: Supporting Documentation posted by Oldtimer on August 31, 2004 at 17:34:32:
I don't think more than a handful of top Family leaders have actually read this book and understood the implications of what's in it. Among other things, there is a long, revealing interview with the mother of the child involved in the British civil court case in which she agrees with Justice Ward's conclusions. There's another really emotional interview with a repentant mother who admits to having exposed her daughter to the Family's alternative sexual socialization (abuse). There's another interview where he documents a mother who says she sees no problem with "Heaven's Girl," and it's clear Chancellor sees a problem with it.
However, the book also does not question the leadership's BS about officially banning sex with children in 1986 and making it an excommunicatible offense. In other words, the author assumes that the pedophiles were identified and excommunicated by the leadership and that no 12-year-old girls were routinely put on the sharing schedules after 1986. That lack of skepticism is a failing of the methodology used in this study that the researcher should account for, but doesn't. Among other things, the author doesn't document any distinction between the frontline missionary and PR homes where he has access to members and the WS homes where the leaders cook the books and construct the Family's alternative reality.
I think the leadership promote this book because it's a fairly reasonable representation of the life in ordinary Family CM homes where people are primarily engaged in missionary work.
Plus, I don't think top leadership has much insight into how they come across to systemites. There's a chapter where Chris Smith (Peter Amsterdam in the book) reveals the Loving Jesus Revolution to Chancellor that's absolutely priceless. Chancellor makes very few editorial comments. He doesn't have to. Peter comes across as a clueless fool. I can see why so many FG WS folks left after he took over and put out the LJR.
