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In Reply to: Re: A concern posted by OT2 on November 29, 2005 at 11:08:18:
Oops. I suppose I forgot to mention my main feelings, Observer, regarding your statement where you stated that "I suggest removing any reference to the Star Family singers & focus just on Stephen & his past."
Here they are:
I'm not for hurting anyone, unnecessarily, but believe that adults should get what they deserve, within the law.
The original "penitentiaries" were created in the US by the Quakers, who tried to make it possible for cons to do nothing but become disoriented toward literally everything except considering their ways, changing their hearts and making practical and economic amends when and if they got out of prison.
The history of jailing & punishing goes back to stoning, hanging, drawing and quartering, debtors' prisons and so forth--much less humane than the Quaker vision for criminals, and even the current US/Western European pens are better than that.
The earlier ways were a lot cheaper, and the single dead perpetrators never did wrong again as they were dead; which was considered effective enough at the time.
Pens are a money-making concern now, and the system encourages recidivism and corruption.
However, another part of law enforcement, CPS, or its equivalent in countries other than the US, could not possibly be worse than leaving such children in TFI, IMO.
I'm for unrepentant former abusers to be punished within the full extent of the law, even for repentant members to pay their legal dues, for full public exposure of TFI and the difference between its public and private doctrines, and for legally disallowing the so-called parenting of current full and/or “part-time” abusing TFI members (which is how I’d term Stephen and his poor and pitiful family), as well as those who can't turn from the practices of those same offenses, or intentionally deceive the public in order to dishonestly mooch food, goods and/or services from them in a daily "short con" as religious grifters, which is all they'll EVER be, in direct proportion to their sanctioning of TFI practices, whether past or current.
So, number one, I am for exposing the religious grifters, and feel strongly, myself, that allowing them to continue to steal would be wrong, and to NOT expose them would be a disservice to the public they consistently have stolen, and are stealing, from.
Most of the exers on this board & other ex-Fam boards, are FOR such exposes, with Gen eXers being mostly of one type of objector to non-exposure.
A minority here, for instance, myself as a “still-Christian-in-spite-of-the-cult-experience”, feel that Eph 5:11 says what we should do; that is to “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather EXPOSE THEM”.
Number two, the innocents should have, I feel, as much exposure to the outside world as possible for obvious reasons, so that they might understand the difference between normal life and cult life.
They are literally the cash-cows of the abusing parents, and should be removed from them in a legal and compassionate manner. This would make necessary, among several free-will choices, the obtaining of real jobs by the adults, and their own exposure to the general non-cult world and thought life actually unlike their indoctrinated group-think.
Number three, I don’t agree that it is literally possible to actually "ONLY focus on Stephen and his past", since it is highly likely that the abuses continue in private; what reason would there be for there NOT continuing, at least in secret, where such actions/crimes can do the most harm to the children and young pre-adults?
Number four, in conclusion, I strongly support FULLY exposing ANY “half-in/half out” group. This kind of group IS PRECISELY the very problem in regards to the deceiving of, and thereby conning and stealing from, the general public.
And the Star Family fits THAT description, NOT a non-specific hopefulness that Stephen and his ilk will even be ABLE, as the proverbial leopard, to “change [their]/its spots”. Social pressure and removal of illicitly-obtained funding can and will.
Berg is fully honored by members of the Star Family; that is the PRECISE religious con that caused me and most FGs to join the cult in the first place, and the pretense is that the so-called wisdom, some GP Mo’ Letters’ deceptive trash, actually proceeds from JMB’s mouth; it’s just another short con, on a dialy basis, and becomes the long con as long as the lies continue to be told; simply “follow the money”.
Otherwise, IMO, it’s true to say that “when all is said and done, there is almost always much more said than is actually done”; these boards serve the desirable and even noble purposes of dissemination of anti-TFI information so as to persuade current members, former members, the general public and the appropriate legal authorities as to the ACTUAL truth about TFI’s ACTUAL doctrines and practices, so that something purposeful and effective IS actually DONE.
I am not saying, Observer, that you don’t feel the same way. How do you feel, and what is your motivation for not literally exposing the so-called “Star Family”?
I can get nothing, no sense of actual accomplishment, out of just re-hashing information about a very unfortunate past I share with the other exers who read and post here, and then just going my merry way without actually contributing to a course of corporate and/or individual action which can actually effect social change, if not true spiritual change.
Respectfully,
OT2 (OldtimerToo)
