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In Reply to: Re: Irony of Australia Paying Compensation For Taking Children from Parent posted by Not so fast on March 17, 2006 at 22:35:50:
The original poster is referring to the financial and legal settlement between members of The Family and the Australian government. It is an undisputed fact and not a mere allegation that Australia paid compensation which was ostensibly for the benefit some of the children taken into protective custody during the raids. Some of the children who each received an amount of compensation have reported that they were allowed to keep the money and make a fullly informed and competent decision about its use. Others have reported that they were subjected to coercion and undue influence to donate the money to the organization.
It also an undisputed fact that The Family has never paid any significant amount of comspensation to the children and the families whose children who were kidnapped from their parents and then subjected to torture emotional, physical and sexual abuse, economically exploited for the benefit of the Family, deprived of a basic education, had many of their needs (such as proper medical care) neglected and their fundamental human rights flagrantly violated. The difference is that when a legitimate government such as Australia realizes that it may have made a mistake (even if the actual mistake was a legal technicality), it sometimes acts to correct that mistake by providing financial compensation. On the other hand, when a criminal enterprise such as The Children of God/The Family International makes "mistakes" like kidnapping, abusing and torturing children, it will never even consider doing anything to compensate the victims in any meaninful way or even make a sincere apology for its crimes against children and parents. There are many things The Family has done which no amount of money will ever fix. However, it would be a good start if they issued at least one real apology to each individual victim, permanently expelled or excommunicated every single person in its organization who has ever seuxally or physically abused a child and cooperated fullly with law enforcement agencies to identify the many abusers it has yet to remove from the organization. They may also want to start fully complying with the tax, fraud and immigration laws of the countries in which they operate. Hardworking taxpayers in any country in which they operate should not be forced to subsidize their organization simpley because they have decided to break the law. If they want the tax examption that some churches have then they need to apply for that and full comply with the law.
If Claire Borowik's repeated statements that the Family banned and made the sexual abuse abuse of children an excommunicable offense in 1986, then why haven't they permanently excommunicated all the child abusers? If almost every single one of Borowik's public statements were not blatant and obvious lies, then she, Karen Zerby, David Berg and many other people would have been permanently excommunicated in November 1986. However, no evidence (credible or otherwise) has been presented to indicate that these people were actaully excommunicated from the organization in accordance with the supposed policy. There are not only a multitude of witnesses to the sexual abuse of specific children but actual photographs, writings and videotapes that documents the sexual abuse and exploutation of specific children by specific indivdiduals.
A completely separate issue is whether or not Paul Hartingdon or anyone who is a member of the Family has received a grant for thr stated purpose from an Australian goverment agency. As of yet, no details or evidence (credible or otherwise) has been offered to make any conclusion about this matter. Hopefully someone in Australia will be able to carefully research the matter and determine if the story is based on the facts and provide specific details.
If it it true, it is certainly absurd and mind boggling. Using the same logic, Osama Bin Laden and Al Queada (sp) should also receive grants to research why they are being
"persecuted" If Mr. Hartingdon or any other member of the Family has allegedly committed any crimes such as child abuse, tax evasion, money laundering, fraud to obtain public benefits, perjury, etc. and cannot afford to pay a lawyer to defend himself during a prosecution or investigation, then it may be reasonable to expect the goevernment to provide him or her legal counsel at no charge or at a sliding scale rate he can afford in accordance with law in whatever jurisdiction such a person is subject to. But it would be absurd to give someone like him money to "research" why law enforcement and government agencies investigate alleged crimes by anyone (including criminal enterprises that prefer to call themselves "new religious movements"). If any research is nceccesary on the issue of why government and law enforcement agencies investigate alleged crimes then it should be done an independent third party professional with a high level of integrity and the apropriate experience academic and professional qualifications. Assuming that the taxpayer's money should be used rationally, it would be ridiculous and absurd to give Mr. Hartindon even one penny to investigate such matters. What The Family International needs to understand is that kidnapping, torture, terrorism, child abuse and neglect, fraud, criminal tax evasion, immigration fraud and other crimes are not religious freedoms and they have no right to commit such crimes.
