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In Reply to: Re: Reductive - yes posted by excog on January 20, 2006 at 10:56:48:
If you read the comments in this thread, the view was not that Manson and Berg and Jones and Applewhite and some Corporation leaders and the leader of the Church OT2 just wrote about are not similar and don't have collective damage including death. The family has accumulated more deaths than Manson imo, but in a very different way. That was expressed in something I wrote rather than your gathering that I implied the family was different because there was no fatal fallout. I never said or implied that and in fact said the opposite.
I was just saying that there are differences as to what people were exposed to when joining the family, largely anyway, and what people saw that got drawn to Manson. If a person got invited to the spahn ranch to see Manson they would have been introduced to a obvious sex and drug cult led by a megalomaniac.
when I joined the family I met youth on the sts talking about Jesus and about their life, living communally -no sex implied or included at that time for most but in fact quite the opposite- with a vision to reach the world for Jesus. I certainly didn't know a megalomaniac was behind it, nor did I even know what one was HAD I seen him. I found that out over time.
The family changed a lot over time as secret doctrines became forefront. I think largely there is misunderstanding due to internet message board writing and not sitting down and having a fluid conversation. Semantics tend to get in the way due to the limitations of message boards.
So I will continue to be "defensive" if I feel something comes across as offensive until I know different.
