Posted by CB on January 24, 2011 at 08:30:24
In Reply to: Re: Long road since leaving in 1972 posted by Alias Hannah on January 23, 2011 at 12:55:57:
You might have known my exhusband, Urim, at the Kentucky Farm colony or at the Cincinnati Colony. You may also have known Kenaz in Cincinnati. Kenaz has left and comes around to post on this board from time to time. If you want to get in touch with him, I could help with that. I could probably help you get in touch with my ex, too, but it might freak him out to hear from someone he knew in the COG. I think he likes to pretend it never happened.
I was in the Washington DC colony in the summer of 1972. That was where the shepherd tried to initiate me into the doctrine of sharing while his wife was off having his baby. I joined in New Haven, Connecticut, and was exposed to the more liberal sexual teaching of COG almost from the beginning. That's because of the influence of what happened at the Ellenville, NY, colony. Remember "Sin in the Camp"? Problem there was not so much that they (the leaders trained at TSC) were engaging in sexual liberties, but that they were doing it BEFORE Berg was ready to give everyone in the group a green light.
In any event, I was exposed to the secret doctrines Berg taught the leadership cadre at TSC, a group that later attempted to put those teachings into practice at Ellenville. It became a scandal that Berg felt the need to address in "Sin in the Camp" because of the NY Attorney General's investigation into COG goings-on at Ellenville.
One of the first questions I asked when I joined COG and was exposed to a Mo Letter was, "What's the deal with Mo & Maria?" First I was told, "She's just his secretary." But when I said, "Seems like a little more is going on there," I was given "Old Church, New Church" to read. I was coming out of the free love movement at the time I joined and was looking for a safe haven in which I could practice celibacy. Which I did. At the same time, I was an ideal recruit to be taught the secret sex doctrines, because I was so sexually experienced. Even though I was aware that there were different rules for the leadership, I was able to say "I don't have faith for that" when the DC shepherd hit on me. That was before "The Girl Who Wouldn't" came out, and Berg said "You gotta give whenever asked."
Finally, one more story from the early days. I was at the Boston Colony when we were trying to figure out how to get money for passage to Europe. That was the time of "The Great Escape." So I pipe up with, "To the pure, all things are pure. Therefore, if it serves the Lord's purpose to use me to preach the gospel, I should be able to turn tricks to earn the money I need." Later on, two brothers took me aside and kindly instructed me in my error, that I was now "a new man in Christ" and must "put away the old man." I needed to hear that, but I also thought they were naive about the Family.
When I was taught the sex doctrines, it was given to me like this: "Many people are still old church, old bottles and aren't ready for the new wine."
Fortunately, God spared me from making it to Europe and falling into a closer orbit with the top leadership, or I certainly would have become a flirty fisher, as I am certain I was being prepared for that eventuality. Berg, Maria & Company were "pioneering" FFing in late 1973 & early 1974. I think it helped that I wanted to change my free love lifestyle for something different, and I knew enough about Christianity to be skeptical about what COG leadership was teaching and doing.