In Reply to: Oh man! Now here's a can of worms!! posted by Donny on July 18, 2003 at 13:10:52:
The list with the deceased (that did not have time to "backslide..) I was shocked at the number of acknowledged deaths of youth and adults. So many of them treatable or preventable. I hope most of all that the youth now having kids get out with their kids as much as possible because the average life span in the fam is not too encouraging. People are expected to 'go by faith' in that group and trust God not medicines. Well when Berg had his throat thing, he sure as hell went to the Doctors. And so did Maria. In the meantime, Berg writes a letter telling people to go on infecting others with diseases and not take care of their own infected bodies by abstinence from the time of infection. Why? Because he was without conscience. Berg reminds me of the psychopathic serial killer in "The Night of The Hunter".
I realize that when I think about FGA's, I have thought of myself, but then again, I left the fam. at age thirty, and that is not comparable to people that have been in the fam. over 20 additional yrs. And there was so much to face then.
If the family doesn't eventually kill you, as others have said here, and as the pattern has been since the beginning, they will demonize you and or throw you away, or you will DIE unnecessarily and get added to their list of graduates...
People giving up their medications to trust God and then die slowly because of medical conditions easily treated and lived with, in remission, is a travesty. It is not of God in any way shape or form imo. I think a lot of groups call themselves Christians that depend on authority figures and not on building their own connection with God. And what do i think Jesus would think of that if he were here today, live and in person? Probably something similar to what he did when he entered the temple with the "moneychangers". After all, there are recognized "Christian" TV stations that ignore information on the fam. They choose to see the LIE of the fam, because of the potential cash cow of using the talents and projects of the family for their own gain, completely ignoring the wreckage just under the surface. They are accountable too.
I left the family when I saw the future coming with letters like "Marry Time" (or something like that) and letters on schools and taking kids away sending them to training places where they would be considered adults at 12.
I felt like I was wrong because of the family programming, and like I was weak because I just could not handle the idea of that happening.
I had to get out to realize it was actually a great strength that I had, to jump out of the fire into the unknown frying pan of adjusting outside of the family, (which I had joined as a teen), without support.