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In Reply to: Re: Questions for critical thinking posted by Potzreebee on July 27, 2005 at 16:23:09:
"I brought this up because I've been thinking about the dialog between 2nd & 1st gen that goes on around an adult who "chooses" to join an abusive cult versus an adult who is brainwashed into acceptance of abuse."
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I haven't seen much dialogue,(dialogue being FG and SG discussing the past) but I would like to. For that to occur, people would have to, from both sides, be willing to step into the others shoes and imagine what life was like for each generation. People that are truly abusive by their own nature and not by what the group taught, won't even come to discuss, because if that is their character they will not want to examine the past in light of the present.
This is how I see it. And since we are talking about adult survivors talking with adult survivors of each generation, for a dialogue to take place there would need to be respect and consideration of each generation as being ex-members and adults rather than generalized accusations and scathing judgements.
"Question is, how much responsibility does an adult have for promoting and participating in a crime if s/he is brainwashed into accepting the crime as normal or even desirable? With brainwashing, we can argue that the person's judgment has been impaired. We might even say the person doesn't know something is a crime because s/he has been tricked into believing it isn't really a crime. Nevertheless, ignorance of the law is not a defense that will stand up in court"
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Judgement, imo, was not impaired in the cult. It was pounded out of the person and replaced with the cult personality. Berg first taught conversion to Jesus then set himself up as the mouthpiece of God. The downward slide into deviant and criminal doctrine was a course set over time. For many anyway.
I can't say it was the same for those who were products of FFing in that they joined the cult as a result of the sexual conversion to Father David's cult replacing the witnessing conversion of the COG which lead people to "Jesus" without using sex at all, or even flirting. It is important to me that people realize there was a time period that was like this in early COG.
I would say that Berg's version of control was similar to Mao's cultural revolution. People can be herded and controlled by the mob under a dictator. That is how I see the family looking back. Especially as doctrines began to go downhill.
As FG, I think each person that wants to reconcile the past, has to look back individually and ask themselves some serious questions about personal involvement in any of the criminal aspects. This could actually go for anybody.
For some, I think the extent of responsibility as first generation is simply to verify doctrines that existed, express regret for having been a part of the org, regardless of what was known or not known and offer support in whatever ways one can.
For others, there are likely more personal things to resolve and I have seen some do that here: Facing the past and discussing how they personally participated in ___________(fill in the blank) and regret it.
Some have filed affadivits. Some are unable to without having first hand knowledge or info needed to do so.
The ones who need to answer the most are likely in hiding or surrounded by attorneys.
What do you suggest?
