"On a more personal level, Donny, were you Christian before joining the fam? After getting out, did you have much support? Actually, I would be interested in answers to these questions from as many as want to answer. And for any that were born into it or their parents joined, just the latter question and maybe where your faith is at now."
Yes, I was a Christian before I joined, but just a new baby Christian. I really knew beans so the Family with its "radical Christianity" was very appealing and I had almost zero knowledge that there were "Christians" out to deceive and suck the life out of me.
When I left, yes, I had support from my family and from other Christians. Of course, it helped that I was able to recognize quite soon after leaving that the Family was a cult, so it wasn't like we were on two totally different pages. Mind you, it freaked me out about a week after I left the cult that my younger brother said, "Face it, you were in a cult." I was so freaked out that I went for a walk for several hours and he thought I wasn't coming back. A month later another brother and I were talking and he used the word "cult" in relation to the Family. I said, "I have difficulty using the word cult about the Family." He replied, "I don't," to which I replied, "Oh, so you go around telling everyone that I was in a cult?" He had the wisdom to remain silent.
All in all, after I was able to recognize the Family was a cult, I had little trouble agreeing with other Christians about where it was at. But of course, even two years later a couple of them were very insenstive. Two were talking with me present about Satanists and one asked me, "Were the COG Satanists?" I said no, but the other guy said, "COG, Satanists, all the same." By that point I wasn't offended, just amused at their ignorance.
One other bad experience I had was when I had been out only two weeks and I tried to do a PR snow job on some Christian friend by saying that the Family's doctrines were basically a mixture of Alliance and Pentecostal teachings. (Cause they were pentecostaly and Berg had been an Alliance preacher.) Well, another guy hit the roof. He knew about the COG and he went to the Alliance church and he was very quick to set the record straight. I felt so hard done by and thought it was one of my worst experiences I'd had. It goes to show that re-entry into the sane world is never going to be easy until we come to terms with the fact that the Family was/is a cult.
I was fortunate I had a family who was there to help cushion my landing. And my mother gave a good talking to everyone before I returned, telling them to go easy on me and not criticize me. I'm sure that helped. I'm only sorry that you pretty much had to manage re-entry on your own, Jo, with arms full of kids and no relatives to help.
That's a big reason my wife and I want to help those who leave the Family from Brazil -- because if they don't have relatives who understand them (if their parents are still in), or no one to help cushion their landing, it'll be a lot rougher. We want to help make the transition as easy as possible for whoever we can, and since we have some extra rooms, we can do that. We were helped when we came out and now that we can help, we want to.