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In Reply to: Re: The family posted by Passing By on June 11, 2006 at 22:40:33:
It seems to me you're trying to articulate a nuanced position on TFI. One of the more frustrating aspects of this forum (i.e., internet BB's) is that it doesn't lend itself easily to nuance. The boundaries between black and white are easily articulated; defining boundaries between shades of gray take quite a lot of time & energy.
What I hear you saying is this: Members of TF are only human, with all that implies in terms of potential for good and evil. As a group, TFI is neither all bad or all good, just another group of deviants like many other fringe groups.
I would agree with that up to a point. The leaders of this particular fringe group--Karen Zerby & Peter Kelly--are bonafide sociopaths. That makes them inherently dangerous people who prey on fearful, vulnerable and gullible people. As sociopaths, they are like many others that you'll find in prison or society at large. What they learn from their mistakes is not how to avoid using and hurting people, but how to avoid responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
Mistakes are errors. When I post something with a typo, that's a mistake. I can go back with white-out or a text editor and fix my mistakes. Crimes are deliberate choices. TFI leadership have committed crimes, deliberate choices, that they minimize and discount as "mistakes." There is absolutely nothing in the charter that Zerby & Company from deliberately declaring some wacked-out doctrine like Be Sex Slave for Jesus--The BDSM Revelation! Well, TFI members are entitled to believe whatever crazy-ass thing suits their fancy, but it's not in the best interest of children to grow up in homes where the adults practice bondage, discipline and sado-masochism as a form of religious expression and group obsession.
Someone could argue that as long as the kids aren't involved in practicing the BDSM Revelation, what's the harm? Exactly this: The preoccupation that adults put into their sex slave games is precious time and energy taken away from raising their children. "Sorry I can't help you with your homework right now, honey, but I've got attend to a Whipping Jesus session in the upper room...oh, tee-hee, I meant the lower chambers...hee-hee!" Do you suppose little Josiah MIGHT have trouble concentrating on doing his long division when he has to listen to the whack-whack-praise-you-lord of Uncle Peter's paddle coming up through the basemen'ts heating and ventilation ducts from the home's Chamber of Loving Submission"?
