The Family Children of God by insidersChildren of God Family International
Home Chat Boards Articles COG History COG Publications People Resources Search site map
exFamily.org > chatboards > genX > archives > post #12235

Joseph, addressing your statments

Posted by Coodinator 2 on February 05, 2004 at 22:44:40

Joseph, it’s important to correct a statement you made:

“Back when the copyright issue that I've been asked not to talk on this board, was being talked about on this board... I was trying to warn peole that they might be opening themselves to a lawsuit. Some people basically said that if the Family wanted to sue them, they should bring it on. If that were the case, then why was it so upsetting when someone suggested the very thing people here seemed to be inviting, by ignoring the takedown request?”

Joseph, first and foremost stick to the facts. You say, “Some people basically said that if the Family wanted to sue them, they should bring it on.” No. That is not what happened. What happened was that the Coordinators of this board believed in the need to warn the public that FCF was linked to the Family, believed in it enough that they were willing to take a stand. Then you say, “If that were the case,” meaning, if that were the case that they were “basically saying, sue us”.

But Joseph, that was NOT “basically the case.” It appears that you are building paper tigers then knocking them down. Let’s stick to the facts instead of saying, “they basically said this,” and then “IF that’s so”. The end result of your argument is to justify Anneke’s actions as not so bad, but the truth is her actions WERE bad.

FACT: Anneke and Ron, ex-members of the Family cult, told Grant Montgomery, a Family member, former #3 man in the cult government, and head of FCF (a legal entity that raises fund to support Family communities and projects) she told Grant to sue the coordinators of this board for stating that FCF was linked to the Family.

FACT: Two of the coordinators once considered themselves PERSONAL FRIENDS of Anneke, yet Anneke urged Grant to play hardball with these two men so they wouldn’t “borrow trouble”. The pressure was so strong that both men resigned.

Let’s stick to the facts and stop trying to excuse Anneke.

The point you raised about copyrights does not apply. The issue of ML copyrights is a non-issue, we have information which leads us to understand that. Hence, your warnings, though well-meant were not necessary. What we are talking about HERE is a different issue: we are not talking about ML copyrights, but about the info blurbs on this site proving the links between FCF and the Family—-links which you yourself now acknowledge exist.

Grant Montgomery of FCF threatened to sue this board because we put up a permanent info blurb stating that FCF was lined to the Family. This link would appear in Google searches and could very well deter some donors from giving to FCF. And ex-members, Anneke & Ron, told Grant Montgomery a Family member, to sue this board. They wanted people to continue ignorantly giving to FCF. The "take down" order was Grant demanding we take down the info stating that FCF was linked to the Family.

The first case, ML copyrights, is a non-issue, as I said. In this second case, keeping up the info showing the FCF/Family link, it took time to evaluate the legal threat, which I believe was taken seriously by many, including you. In hindsight, we can all see Grant & FCF could not follow through for reasons you partially know.