In Reply to: This is mind-boggling posted by wc on August 05, 2003 at 17:59:33:
You said so much that I agree with.
Rocky once said something along this line -- that the whole question of what God will count as service to Him and what was serving man or other motives, will be sorted by Him. When we come to a Gordian Knot like years spent in the Family, a conundrum that seems hopelessly tangled and that we can't untangle, we want to do like Alexander the Great did, pull out his sword and slice it neatly in half and say, "Now I've untangled it." It's not that way when you're dealing with complex situations and human lives, instead of rope.
As confusing as we find all these issues, I think God is able to rightly divide. I don't think anyone posting here argues with the fact of the abuse that happened, or how what good was in the beginning turned out to be largely controlling, abusive and adrift from the Gospel. The question seems to be:
Do you believe that the Spirit of God remained with the corporate body known as the COG/Family, or was He only with individuals?
I cannot believe the Spirit of God was allowed in on many decisions re: doctrine and policy after 1973. He certainly didn't get a vote in when Berg proclaimed that Gabriel was Jesus' dad, or that Jesus was having intercourse with the prostitute Mary Magdalene and caught VD from her. The Holy Sprit wasn't inspiring Abrahim's debauched drunken prophecies. I do not believe the Holy Spirit was allowed to participate--or did have any part in--ANY prophecy that ever came out of David Bergs' mouth. Not a single one.
And as the years went by and David Berg's personal cancer spread downwards throughout the entire Family experience, we all became contaminated. The Bible was dissed, Jesus became a less than divine bastard, God the Father became a pimp, God was cursed as more unjust than Satan himself, the Holy Spirit became a large breasted woman having sex with Berg at the Throne of God, God became a genii in the bottle at our command, ancient gypsies possessed our minds and spoke through our tongues, children were sexually molested, Victor camps drove people to the edge of sanity, VD was spread all over the place, members died of AIDs, wives became prostitutes, lying became blatant accepted policy and on and on the list goes as true Christianity was smothered and extinguished by the spread of Berg's mental illness.
Yet God remained with individuals. I sincerely believe that. Even in churhes in Revelation that Jesus severely rebuked, He said, "Some shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." But it was not with the Family as a corporate unit. That was something to flee, not serve God in, especially past 1973 when personal witnessing was canned in favor or raising funds and distributing Letters full of Berg's rambling madness.
Even before 73, the Law of Lust and "sharing" had already been enacted and proclaimed (then temporarily canned by "Sin in the Camp"), Abrahim was possesssing Berg, Berg was screwing young girls, smuggling and fleeing with children had already happened, pride and exclusivism had elevated us for a fall, sincere Christians were damned as systemites. Even in 1971 and 72, if the FULL facts had been disclosed openly, sincere Christians would not have joined. The attitude of total obedience was the whole foundation for mind control and the myriad abuses that were to follow.
Mind you, good was accomplished back then before the paralysis brought on by Berg's poison had slowly seeped through the movement. The heresies and sexual and abuse and controlling policies were ALREADY there behind the scenes. And whenthey became slowly public the yeast had already worked deeply through the dough and we were half-poisoned as we continued to try to sincerely serve God.