Posted by Bree on September 20, 2003 at 15:24:59
I came across this site accidently...my heart skipped a beat when I thought "The Family" might be the group that I lost a friend to about 15 years ago. What I remember: My friend's group had her dressing in an almost Amish fashion: long skirt, kerchief, etc. That's not something I've detected in descriptions of The Family on this site. The doctrine of my friend's group included women's subservience to men. I recall that they called God or Jesus by another name, perhaps Jusef or something like that (don't think it was Yahweh) and they all changed their names to Biblical ones. Before she went off to live in a town controlled by this group in New England, and later France, my friend gave me a homemade magazine published by this group, which had terrible, hateful articles written in it. Among other things, they were very anti-gay (sort of an "even though we've had gay friends, they deserve to die from AIDS because they're evil," type attitudes.). The group had arranged marriages. The group also included a lot of former Grateful Deadheads, at least it seemed so. Almost like former hippies gone bizarre fundamentalist. Anyway, I've often searched for info about this group over the years, but have never been clear about the name. Does this sound like it may possibly be "The Family"? I keep hoping I may see my friend again someday.