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In Reply to: The last drop posted by Ethics police on September 23, 2006 at 07:03:54:
Thanks for taking the time to spell all that out, and just to let you know, I agreed with almost everything you wrote. But I disagree on your closing statement where you say, "What gets me is that both greed and fear are not part of the cult's explicit doctrine, but it is in there as part of the natural human condition"
Greed was certainly not part of the cult's "official" doctrine, especially when you think of Acts 2:44-45 and the "all things common" doctrine. But fear certainly was an integral part of all things, keeping people in line with the "fear of God," or keeping them from leaving the Family for fear of falling into the hands of an angry God. Control through fear was one of the biggest control mechanisms that I can think of and Berg knew exactly what he was doing.
Berg would often say, "You're free to leave. There's the door" but he had ALSO spelled out again and again the kind of judgment and suffering and death that awaited "backsliders".
