I was born into The Family in the early 80's and managed to leave when I was 16. Everything I recount here is FACT and I will be more than willing to stand up in court and testify about it.
Some Of My Earliest Memories:
I remember being under the age of 5 and being taken with members to rummage through bins outside a supermarket after closing hours. Around this time we moved to a commune where members disclosed to the younger kids that when you where the age of 12 you were considered an adult and there would be many things you would be allowed to do then. This was mentioned as if it was something to look forward to.
I remember being taken to a commune and given a bed nearby a boy my age who proceeded to let me know what kinds of thing he would do to me in the night. Being 5 by this time I remember feeling very nauseous and uncomfortable but also helpless as I understood that this was not something to complain about.
I regularly felt nauseous and uncomfortable about certain things and situations from this time until the age of 16 when I was able to leave the cult.
Through out the next 5 years I remember being stripped naked and beaten with a variety of implements sometimes in the presence of a number of people and sometimes only with the administrator of the beating. I call it beating because often I was not responsible for or even aware of what I was being beaten for. I was beaten with wooden paddles, fly swatters, slippers, thin sticks, belts, coat hangers and certainly other object that I cannot immediately recall. My scalp was scraped with keys and soap was rubbed on my mouth and left for at least half an hour before I was allowed to wash it off. I managed to use the toilet at that time and very quietly washed as much of it out as I could, using dirty baby bath water from the sink because that is how low I had to degrade myself, to ease the stinging.
One incident I do recall is being groped indecently and offered some nauseating remark which resulted me in pulling away from the man purely out of instinct as I knew only too well what punishment I would likely receive. Still I was bewildered by what followed. I was stripped completely naked and placed over his knees in a room full of other children. He proceeded to beat me not sparing his strength as I screamed, cried and begged for mercy. Periodically he would stop for a minute at a time (presumably for a rest) and then resume the beating for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, unable to breathe properly and aching from my ordeal he eventually stopped. By the end of the day my legs were badly bruised - something that did not seem out of the ordinary to me. I was 7 at the time.
Around the same time I watched two children of 5 being made to lick a floor from one end of the room to the next. The floor was cracked, black marble, rarely moped and in a double commune consisting of around 100 people.
I could continue but the incidents I witnessed and the emotions I felt as a child would probably fill too many pages. I'm writing this because I still wonder how people can be so cruel to children behind closed doors. Making them fill out practice sheets of pre-decided answers incase anyone came to rescue them. Oh how I wished as I filled out their forms, if only someone would. I wonder how people can be so cruel behind closed doors and smile as they ask for money to support their missionary work. As they all crowd around to take that one picture of them giving rice to an old man and remarking how it will really help them to fund raise in the future. How they argued over who was allowed to use what pictures to raise funds and how they pocketed all the best stuff for themselves when it had been donated for suffering people that had lost their homes and relatives in Earthquakes.
I wonder how people can be so cruel to the children they consider to be their family and yet still believe they can save the world. I owe it to the children still trapped in this cult and the people still unknowingly supporting them to write this. I owe it to Ricky Rodreguez and the girls I grew up with who are now dead as a result of the harm caused by this cult. They're blood is on your hands! I challenge anyone who was actually present at any of these incidents to call me a liar. And by supporting each other in your beliefs and failing to protect the children who were abused I'm sorry to say but in the eyes of morality you too are to blame - even if you think you never abused any children. Your actions have caused physical and psychological damage that can never be erased.
If indeed anyone would like to call me a liar I ask you what motive have I for recalling these facts that occurred in my childhood? This posting is anonymous and will prove to make me no money nor give me fame as this seems to be their usual argument. The Family on the other hand has many reasons for claiming these true stories are lies - they can't very well admit to it or they would all be arrested. For them its either a little bit of a rotting corpse or truely - nothing!
Thank you to the creators and administrators of this site. Its good to know there are still people out there who care and are still trying to do something about this whole tragedy. This is not the end of it - I will never walk away from my brothers and sisters.
