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In Reply to: One mistake: sharing venereal diseases posted by Reposter on February 14, 2005 at 03:17:32:
I felt that it would behoove me to write you and clarify a few points about your sister.
I don't do this to hurt you or try to tear down the opinion you have of your loved one. But I thought it important that you should know some facts about her life, before you continue to defend her.
I joined the group that she leads in 1974, because of that choice and my belief that David Berg was a true prophet and her role in it, (this cannot be minimised, not just a second wife, but a recorder of all his prophecies.)
Looking back of course I can see how naive I was, as not one prophecy came to pass, and I'm sure you understand as a Christian, that the Bible is clear, if it doesn't happen then don't believe that person is sent from God.
But let that pass, I joined the group, and because of that, I spent the next 15 years, "getting out the Word". This of course was not the Bible, but Mo letters (David Bergs words, his take on the Bible) I don't deny that I did quite a lot of good. But the shame of what else was promoted in the group, denies me any sense of fulfilment in those good works.
Because of directives straight from David Berg and following your sisters example, I offered myself to men sexually as way to win them to Christ. Because of my belief in what David Berg wrote, I became a prostitute for God. It is with deep shame I talk about this, while I was in the group, I did not believe I was doing anything wrong, in fact I thought I was living the ultimate fulfilment of God's love. I was willing to do anything to show people, how much God loved them, and that included sex. This I must tell you was NOT something that was practiced by only a few. David Berg directed every female member to participate otherwise we were not allowed to stay in the Family.
This was of course led by your sister, who your nephew was the direct result. I too have a son who is from a different a father.
When your sister had "Davidito" as he was called in the Family (Children of God) your sister published a series called the Davidito Book. These were explicit counsel for us to follow on the best way to raise a child.
To my horror, now and shame, it was explicit in the sexual abuse of your nephew. It showed many graphic pictures of Him being fondled and given oral sex. To my shame, I did not run to the police as I should have. But to this day I am thankful that I did not practice those things being promoted on my own children.
Your sister oversaw her own son's abuse every step of the way. Your nephew should have been protected and sheltered from abuse, instead he was used as a sexual example of how much children enjoy sex, and how free and loving we should be.
How can you defend your sister? My own daughter at 11 years old was sexually abused by a man in the group that used the "words of the prophet" to justify having sex with a child. This is the fruit of your sister. I don't deny my own accountability, I should have protected my daughter, but I myself was going "retraining" (this also initiated from your sister and her husband) and had no input into what was happening to my own children. I have told the Family what happened to my daughter, they have never replied, (as I only found out after I left) and as far as I know, the monster who did it, is still in the Family.
I know this must be hard for you to hear these things, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on about the terrible things that did happen.
But what is also appalling, is that your sister, never has seen what happened as abuse. Here are your sisters own words:
(Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_God)
Although the group has publicly renounced former policies and doctrines that condoned or encouraged sex between adults and minors, in their internal publications there has been no such renunciation. Evidence of this is represented by the following quote from Family leader Karen Zerby:
"This [sexual contact between adults and minors] is about the only subject where we're really going along with the System, we're playing along with them, we're acting like we believe what we did was wrong, because we have changed, and stopped doing it . . . We need to somehow explain to our [teenagers] that love and loving affection is not wrong. As it says in [Berg's writings], if it's not hurtful, if it's loving, then it's okay. Of course, having actual intercourse with a child wouldn't be okay as it wouldn't be loving, but a little fondling and sweet affection is not wrong in the eyes of God, and if they have experienced the same in the past they weren't 'abused.' . . . We need to explain to our [children] that any experience they may have had along these lines, if it was loving and if it was desired, was not wrong. We need to show them that even if in some case the experience for them wasn't so great, that by comparison to what goes on in the System, it still wasn't 'abuse.'" --[Karen Zerby], Summit '93, Mama Jewels #2, 1992. p.19. [2] (http://www.geocities.com/magicgreenshirt/downloads/sj_pg19.gif)
As you can see I cannot find it within myself to believe that she was sorry when she doesn't even consider what happened as wrong, but only loving.
Also to answer your statement as to why the Family children have good manners. We exist on the communities goodwill. We train our children that not smiling and being a good "sample" is failing God. If a child performs well then they are praised and "shiner" rewards are applied.
The children are not allowed to complain (not even among themselves). If your nephew had complained in the group, his 'friends' would have reported him, and he would have been called in for retraining. Or told to leave the group. The pressure on him to perform must have been enormous.
I hope this letter is a help, I know how hard it is to think clearly past what you have been shown to your face all these years.
For me I almost died of shame, when I left the group and realised that sex outside of marriage of wrong. (duh) And that Jesus NEVER required me to make sexual sacrifices of any kind. (just the opposite, that it was forbidden)
If you have any questions please let me know.
Sincerely
