Maria's Memory: cognitive deficit or cognitive dissonance?

On August 1, 1992, Karen Zerby said "It's almost unbelievable now, but it just shows that even that short time ago we had had no reports or no indication that there was any problem with this legally.I guess we were pretty naive because it must have been on the books worldwide at that time as well."

I also find this "unbelievable." Here is an excerpt from a Family publication dated September 1978 that clearly provides both a "report" and an "indication" that "there was a problem with this [adult-child sexual contact] legally."
In David Berg's own words: it is "illegal and can land you in Jail!" and "All kinds of laws against it!-Can even be called "attempted rape", "child molestation", "sexual assault", "contributing to delinquency of a minor", etc etc. NO, NO, NO!"

The Family of Love! NEWS -BY YOU!
Vol 3. No. 6
Copyright September 1978 by The Family of Love, C.P. 748, 0100 Rome, Italy
excerpt from pages 2 and 3
UNDERAGE SEX? - BEWARE!
Letter from Spain's V.S. 's, Dave and Carmen-With comments bv Dad!
Dear Dad,
God bless you! We decided to write you a note about a policy that some feel is unclear and about which we have had a lot of questions. We were wondering if there is any way it could be cleared up!
It concerns sex and catacombers and underage disciples. We felt the "Happy Rebirthday" quote made it pretty clear, but some have asked for more explanation. The following was written by the temporary servant in one city:
"We need some help for the Catacombers here who have some questions about FF'ing and sex. They had been helping each other out sexually, co-masturbating but not intercourse, and some of the girls started getting sexually involved with the people they were witnessing to. Sara told them today to stop all sexual activity, as she said they had to wait until they were of legal age. She may be right, but I am inclined to disagree as I haven't found anything in the FF Letters which says that minors cannot enjoy sex, other than this quote:"
"NO MINIMUM AGE FOR FF'ERS!-Unless sex is involved! Then they must be of legal age fc sexual involvement..." and "FAMILY SEX: 1. NO PERMISSION NEEDED FOR SEX!-If legal and, with mutual consent. No Servan, need to be consulted. " (Parts X2& XI: 1 from "Happy Rebirthday!" No. 663).
This Servant's letter continues: "So it seems that coitus would be ruled out in all cases, as the systen would call it illicit. But what about preliminary and non-coital activities? Should they necessarily be ruled out?" (DAD: All kinds of laws against it!-Can even be called "attempted rape", "child molestation", "sexual assault", "contributing to delinquency of a minor", etc etc. NO, NO, NO!)
Well, Carmen and I feel that an underage sexual activity is very dangerous in our Homes (DAD: Amen!) because of the legal and political situation. There has been quite a bit of it going on from what we'v heard, and aside from the "danger” involved, a lot of the kids who were getting involved in it had sort of a pleasure-seeking spirit and weren't really proving themselves in witnessing and litnessing.
This particular letter is from a city where we have an unending stream of bad publicity and there is an active anti-Family parents group out to get us.—And one of their main gripes is our sexual activities. This topic is really a touchy one with the catacombers, so any word from you would be greatly appreciated. We love you, Dave & Carmen
P.S. Sometimes a catacomb couple will come to the Home, occupy the room privately for sex and then leave—with very little involvement in normal Home activities or witnessing. (DAD: -Very bad!-Should be absolutely forbidden in Homes!-& was in Quote above! IILEGAL! What they do outside Homes is their responsibility, but allowing it in Homes is absolutely prohibited! It is illegal and can land you in Jail!)

images of pages 1-3 are at http://www.frouman.net/folnews-v6n4/

On August 1, 1992 Karen Zerby said:

"I'm listening to "The Last State" Letter now, at least a part of it & I see that in Pipi's [Sara Davidito] introduction she says, "Mene no longer drank wine, had regular dates or watched adult videos." And then later it says, though, that when she was with us she had regular dates with Dito [Rick Rodriguez]. Looking back now I guess it pretty much shocks us to see that we talked so openly about a child of under 11 having had regular dates with the men in the Home where she had been. It's almost unbelievable now, but it just shows that even that short time ago we had had no reports or no indication that there was any problem with this legally.I guess we were pretty naive because it must have been on the books worldwide at that time as well, & I guess we were thinking that somehow these Letters would never get into our enemies' hands. I don't know really what we were thinking of. Do you know? But nevertheless, we can be very thankful that the Lord brought us here when He did so we could get quickly & fully informed on what the world situation had become. Anyway, I'm sure the Lord allowed it, so we can't cry over spilt milk. We were sure living in our own little world & not at all conscious of the big bad world out there evidently."
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http://www.xfamily.org/images/3/3c/The_Maria_Monologues_4.pdf