In Reply to: Is exposing heresy "religious persecution"? posted by Donny on August 27, 2003 at 11:20:35:
I absolutely do not support the Family's religious beliefs, but I find it uncomfortable to try and stir up legal problems for them over it. If you have democracy and freedom of belief and religion, it MUST extend to those beliefs you do not personally support, else you become a dictatorship. Freedom has to work in more ways than just your own.
However I fully support legal prosecution for illegal activities. And those are defined by the laws of the society you are in.
I think what I've seen are a lot of people who are very hurt by the group, its policies, and perhaps confused or condemned because of their own decisions to join such a group, angry at themselves at their own gullibility, as my both my husband and my father are, and at the moment of the anger the Family is viewed as an evil group that needs removal. But as time passes you can put a balance on your experiences and realise that mostly you are hurt over the bad treatment, the brainwashing, the manipulation, and you realise that the group has a right to exist and the members in the group have a right to be there.
A definite separation needs to be made between what is religious and what is illegal, and if any attacks are made on the group, it should be made from a legal standpoint, and let their God sort out their religious problems.
As Jo or Miguel said, their religion is their own worst enemy. They have created a close to 100% second generation of enemies through their religion, this speaks very loudly against them. And as their members depart and begin to realise to what depth they've been used, lied to, manipulated and coerced, they create more enemies, or perhaps not enemies, but they lose supporters.
I feel it more important that a person or group is exposed over their own stupidty or mistakes rather than me trying to egg on the exposure (as in viciously stirring up trouble whenever I can). But it is a matter of detaching myself emotionally from the situation so that I don't care whether that person/group is ever exposed or not, I simply do not care. I am reaching that point with the Family now, I just really don't care, but I hope to be available to departing members if they ever need to talk and work out the confusion that comes on when they first exit the group.
Of course I don't mind speaking out when asked and telling my own story as I saw and experienced it.