In Reply to: Re: before I contact him posted by exJPA on June 23, 2003 at 17:15:50:
my theory is that he did not realize what he was stepping into until it was too late. By that time, the fam. had a stronghold on the membership and had dispersed them hither, thither and yon.
For Berg, there was never room for more than one ultimate leader. The best way I know how to answer what you said is to compare it to when I was separated from my kids in the family. I knew that to rebel openly while within would cause me to lose them on the family's underground railroad. (They each had their own passport, and no one ever questioned kids crossing borders with adults that didn't have the same name.)
It is heartbreaking and horrific, and would lead to a sense of abandonment in the child. And it was, but in my case, and possibly his, it was not a voluntary abandonment, but a forced choice in that the consequences of "rebelling" could result in losing them altogether.
I know for a fact that leadership was purposely and with intent biding time with most of those leaders in order to separate and absorb their followings. Still, I think it would be a very good thing for you to e-mail him and tell him exactly how you feel (or felt) and ask him directly.
With my kids, they were angry for yrs at me. But as they got older they understood what all it took to manage to get them all out with no safe place to land, no references, no resources. At first I had to, and wanted to acknowlege their feelings of abandonment and apologize to them for that without any explanations. Then later it was possible as they became more ready to talk, for me to explain. It was a process! Hope you pursue your communication with him.