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In Reply to: Re: Interesting Gen-X article posted by CB on September 19, 2006 at 20:57:41:
I don't know when Acheick was recruited, but when I was, there were no mo letters yet. Then when they started, Mountain Maid from my memory came out in 72 or 73 because it was not out yet when my first son was born in the summer of 72. At least I did not see it until after 72.
I remember that shifts in doctrine occurred over time. From the beginning Berg and a handful of people were in an inner circle and people were aware on some level that Maria had moved in and Jane had moved out with Stephen. Then though it was "selah" it was hush hush but dots could be connected that Berg had other wives, like Martha.
There were special privileges for top leaders like taking people's personal effects as it pleased them. That is something people in top positions were taught to do. I can remember when leadership came through they went in closets and everything in a few places I was and took whatever they wanted.
I can't speak for Acheick but I am sure she knows in hindsight that a lot was going on around her and behind the scenes that she just was not tuned into because we were definitely given DOUBLE MESSAGES and were presented materials as if they were more symbolic like "Old Church New Church".
It was known that Berg had made Maria his number one and Jane Berg was with Stephen though it was not announced in early days. Funny thing is, at the homes in general I remember people being dealt with for having lustful thoughts in purging sessions at the time when berg was already boinking Maria.
Apparently he had others he had hit on or had sex with but this was pretty "selah" and was some sort of extra privilege the "Lord" had given him.
The point here is that I did not join a sex cult or know it had anything like that evolving or devolving behind the scenes because the initial overt message was quite Victorian in nature.
No holding hands or dating, and if someone was interested in getting together with someone else it was for a lifetime "so you better be sure" and yet in some cases people were put together. But relationships were monogamous except for those right around Berg and that was secretive. Very secretive.
It isn't news. It happens in churches, happened with Jim Bakker. But the big huge difference is that Berg, over time, made it doctrine and was never sorry. Instead it became edicts from God through him, the Lord's one and only mouthpiece for the day.
Lots of people are sucked into destructive cults like this or by leaders that are predatorial using their position to have their way with others or drain their resources and then spit them out.
Since you got out earlier than me, perhaps you did not see the progression over time. Did you ever pray that God would "take you away" [kill you] if you ever "left the gates" [the family]? If you did, did you believe it when you did it?
Did you believe it when you heard testimonies from returning "backsliders" who told of how someone very close to them that they left for or left with died and how they knew it was God dealing with them for leaving the family?
Do you remember that? Were you ever in any "purging sessions" where it felt like God would strike you dead if you did not confess SOME wrongdoing even if it was that your "mind wandered"?
When berg introduced FFing, he did it on a gradual basis for the Family at large. At first there were some big meetings and people were taught to use flirting and eye contact to reach people but there was no sex. Sure, no doubt Berg was doing it looking back at when it became doctrine to have sex for or be raped for Jesus.
There was a lot of preparation for introducing out and out FFing. After this was introduced, Berg wanted to cash in on it so now it was Hookers For Jesus. Make em pay.
This was extremely degrading and whether women got into it and tried to be shiners at it or resisted it and were shamers, it was degrading and humiliating.
THEN Berg started talking more about how kids should not be given a parent's bad attitudes about sex or feel like sex was dirty and that was why society had so many problems was hung up parents. So if kids ask questions or see you having sex, it is "normal". Then he would throw in how other societies had child brides etc. It was around this time that I left but I felt I was wrong.
I even felt like a hurricane that hit my city shortly after I left was God coming to kill us all. Yep. I believed the crap.
So I can't look back and say there was any clue that Berg was sexualizing the group at the time I was recruited because the outright message was one of Victorian purity and dominance of men over women. Just the latter makes me sick.
One thing people that get dragged into cults have in common, imo, is some sort of vulnerability. Look at the age group. With your psych studies, how much "judgement" does the average American teen have or a person in their early twenties? Can immaturity, vulnerability and poor options or a belief that the person is choosing the best option based on the line they are being given make them stupid for believing it or choosing it?
I know that people I knew beleived in, in their youth, the end time and all that rot that i am mature enough to know what that is about now. And I have been mature enough now for quite some time to know.
So why didn't I leave while I was in and getting older? I eventually left at age 30. But my emotional age was still pretty teen-ish. I don't think people grow emotionally while under the influence of cults anymore than they do when they are under the influence of drugs.
I have no problem with saying to someone that I may have hurt or offended in the past that I am sorry or to make restitution if I was a camp director or person who hurt someone directly in a criminal way.
I let horrible things happen to ME when I was in the Family out of fear of what would happen for refusing. I protected my kids and got dealt with like you wouldn't believe and was abandoned in a foreign country for it. I FELT WRONG. I had to get away from and out of the family mindset to realize how bad it was.
Please don't take this post as insinuating anything about how I perceive your views to be. I just don't know what they are. I hate what happened to youth in the Family who had to grow up in that hell hole AND I hate what happened to us that were sucked into it and treated like property..objects.
Anyway, I appreciate the dialogue. This is a subject that I hope gets talked through regardless of whether we agree with each other or not. I am sure we all agree that what happened to second generation within the family was terrible or what happened to second generation as the result of not doing the normal things like college and career while dropping out for Jesus affected our kids negatively.
That is one of the values of aging. EXPERIENCE is a teacher like none other.
