Posted by Lone Wolf on July 26, 2006 at 19:55:42
In Reply to: Re: Cultic Studies Review article Pt. 4 posted by Lone Wolf on July 26, 2006 at 19:54:25:
[continued from previous post]
Conclusion
Early in this article, I commented on the wide range of research findings on COG/The Family, specifically the contradictory conclusions that sometimes emerge. As this article illustrates, however, despite the different research focuses, many concordant findings have surfaced also. In the following section, I address some areas in which there is consensus, and others where there is not.
Williams’ (1998) autobiographical account is a detailed description of FFing, a component of the movement’s history that all researchers acknowledge. Coupled with Chancellor’s (2000) analysis, a semantic puzzle emerges. Did FFing constitute prostitution or not? Clearly, Williams suggests that it did, while Chancellor remains unsure. Injecting a structural analysis, I suggested that, despite the religious framework and the women’s rationalization of the activity, the exchange of sexual activities for payment (both in cash and in goods and services) does indeed constitute prostitution, albeit for religious ends.
Williams Boeri (2005) speaks to this issue and others in her overview of the sexual socialization processes in the group. The process of socialization extends to members of the second generation—a particularly important part of the movement, given that they were born into the group; thus, they did not choose to live in this high-demand environment.
While Chancellor (2000), Kent and Hall (2000), and Kent (2004) recognise the severity of some of the disciplines and sexual abuses that the second generation endured, Chancellor’s account involves those who chose to remain in the group, while Kent and Hall’s covers the experiences of those who left. Despite the exodus of many of the second generation and the drop-out of first-generation members, the movement has survived. Shepherd and Shepherd (2005) describe and analyse the processes that have ensured the group’s continuance, one being the inclusion of the second generation in the decision-making hierarchy. From a combination of these readings, one can appreciate the variety of experiences of the second generation (both in the past, and at the present). It appears that although the movement has evolved such that the needs of the current second generation are being met, still deficient from the group’s history is adequate care and consideration for the traumas that some former members endured.
In 2002, long-time members of The Family, Lonnie Davis and Claire Borowik, presented a paper titled “The Family—1992–2002: A Decade of Transition” at a CESNUR (Centre for Studies on New Religions) Conference. They outlined aspects of the movement’s history, including the recent organizational changes that Shepherd and Shepherd (2005) analyse; and they paid specific attention to some of the problems that these changes have engendered, particularly the struggle to achieve balance between individual autonomy for members and commitment to core group doctrines. Included too is a description of attempts by The Family to reconcile with former members, and a brief mention of the group’s “apology” to former members. Woefully absent is an explicit discussion of what the apology is for. Absent, too, is an adequate understanding and empathy for what some second-generation members endured and the consequences that have remained with many of them.
Prominent in Davis and Borowik’s (2002) presentation is their discussion of the series of raids that occurred in several communities of The Family around the world. Bainbridge (2002), Chancellor (2000), and Melton (2004) all discuss these raids in some detail, outlining their effects on members and their children. The mismanagement of the investigation into The Family homes has led many academics to strongly criticise them and to reveal some of the abuses they produced. Less evident is a discussion connecting COG/The Family violence against its own members to the ensuing raids, although Kent’s (2004) discussion does address this issue within the context of his discussion of second-generation defection from the movement. The raids had a great deal of influence on COG/The Family dynamics. Shepherd and Shepherd (2005) investigate what changes have occurred, and to what degree those changes have succeeded in directing The Family toward a viable future. Note that The Family conceptualizes the raids as part of the suffering one must endure as a dedicated follower of Christ (Davis and Borowik, 2002).
Bainbridge (2002) too has detailed the current characteristics of the group, although his conclusion that the group’s members are not that different from the general population is discordant from many of his own findings, and it does not concur with Maria and Peter’s goals for the group according to Shepherd and Shepherd’s (2005) analysis of current family objectives and strategies. Together, however, these two works provide an abundance of new information on the group, but both fail to adequately acknowledge prior abuses.
The Story of Davidito continues to generate different conclusions. Is this work largely a benign piece of childrearing literature, as Melton (2004:30) asserts, or did it sanction and encourage child adult sexual relationships, as Chancellor (2000:138) and Williams Boeri (1998:220-221; 2005:170-171 ) maintain? These different findings are part of a larger history of divisive scholarship on the group. For example, Zablocki and Robbins (2001b) suggest that policy considerations and legal testimonies act as polarizing agents among academics of NRMs.
Before Ricky Rodriguez killed Smith and himself, he made a video stating why he felt compelled to direct violence toward his abusers. Discussing his childhood sexual abuses and the anger he felt toward those who had molested him, he articulated his need for revenge, not just for himself, but also for all the other children who suffered because of the group’s policies. His estranged wife commented on his torment, citing that the many years of pain had left him unable to cope. At least 25 members of the first wave of the second generation have taken their own lives in the past 13 years (Goodstein, 2005). The Children of God/The Family has generated a good deal of negative popular press; but as this article shows, one must consider the many facets of this movement to come close to understanding the whole. Although more than two decades of research have brought to light many features of COG/The Family’s history, as Chancellor comments, The Family as it exists today is still a “secretive community” and “it may well be that there are yet secrets of Family life hidden from this study.” He adds to this observation, “What could they possibly be?” (Chancellor, 2000:xxii-xxiii).
Perhaps some former members are able to reveal some of these secrets. The Website movingon.org offers a space in which ex-members can both stay in touch with one another and offer each other support and advice. On this Website, additional accounts unheard in most academic literature emerge. Yet other ex-members likely remain silent, perhaps too embarrassed or ashamed to discuss their time spent in the movement. Some ex-members may simply want to put their past behind them, not wanting or not able to discuss the abuses they suffered. Yet others may have had positive life experiences in the group and merely left because they moved on to other things in life; perhaps they missed the freedoms of the outside world.
Like the scholarship of previous years, contemporary research on COG/The Family likely shall remain conflicted on certain issues. Some recent research provides evidence of change, though: Despite some shortcomings, Chancellor’s (2000) book alone examines the movement in a way that no other recent researchers have. [xxvii] Navigating both the positive and negative facets of the group’s history, Chancellor has produced a more complete single analysis than any other academic. (Of course, journal articles and book chapters by their very nature typically focus on narrower topics.) Researchers of COG/The Family need to accept that the voices of the abused are just as important as the voices of those who experienced no abuse (or were abused, but managed to work through their pain to find new meaning in the group). Academics should consider that each person’s experience is different, that not all disciples were abusers, and not all children were abused. The group’s future, however, is not completely discrete from its past—and the movement’s past was at times highly abusive, leaving a legacy of pain and emotional turmoil for some former (and perhaps some current) members. The structural conditions of the group have at times encouraged and facilitated these abuses; but as some researchers have shown, these conditions have changed and continue to change. How the movement responds to the problems that Shepherd and Shepherd outline remains to be seen. The Family’s future likely shall continue to engage the interest of those scholars who have already dedicated much of their time to studying it. For new researchers to the field of NRMs generally, and to COG/The Family specifically, I hope this article helps to bring together some of the central themes of study thus far.