xFamily

Read Topic
Reply

New book on The Family by Sam Ajemian

xFamily
» Documents
» New book on The Family by Sam Ajemian

Get Email Updates • Email this Topic • Print this Page

New book on The Family by Sam Ajemian
Sam Ajemian, a former member and longtime outspoken critic of The Family/Children of God cult, recently contacted myself and others about a 300-page book on The Family he has completed (see www.samajemian.com for info and online ordering). While it seems this has just been made available, his site dates the book 2005.

Needless to say, I'm interested. Anyone who reads this book, please let us know your thoughts...

xFamily has an article on Sam Ajemian here.

Brilliant news!

Hope that it does well.

I've ordered a copy of the PDF version, and so far have only glanced over it. It consists of 293 pages (though the ToC [see below] indicates a few more) separated into 21 chapters, which are each followed by large collections of quotes on the topic from former member message boards. Sam also quotes a number of Family publications and other material which I'm now interested in seeing full copies of. It seems he has generally gone out of his way though to cite sources (Mo Letter numbers, etc.) of material.

Here's the table of contents, followed by the book's brief introduction:

Sam Ajemian wrote:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION - 5
1. INCEST - 7
2. THE BOOK OF DAVIDITO - 21
3. CHILD ABUSE CASES - 29
4. ADULT-CHILD SEX (1984-1993) - 49
5. REVOLUTIONARY SEX - 67
6. FLIRTY FISHING - 79
7. RNR â€“ NRS - 89
8. SHARING - 97
9. VICTOR CAMPS - 107
10. LYING, PURGES, & PERSECUTION - 123
11. ENGLAND, AUSTRALIA - 135
12. ARGENTINA, FRANCE - 155
13. J. GORDON MELTON - 177
14. OTHER EXPERTS - 195
15. DAVID BRANT BERG - 205
16. LOVING JESUS - 215
17. IS THE FAMILY FALLING APART? - 231
18. EDUCATION - 247
19. FAMILY CARE FOUNDATION - 255
20. SUNNY SIDE UP - 273
21. THE CHURCHES - 283
EPILOGUE - 291
BIBLIOGRAPHY - 295

INTRODUCTION

David Berg, aka Moses David, aka Mo, in 1968 gathered a
following of about 50 newly converted former hippies in Southern
California. By April 1, 1988, twenty years later, their numbers had
gone up to 12,879. They have gravitated for many years around the
10,000 mark. They live in tightly organized secret communities all
over the world and spread with zeal Bergâ€™s heresies.

Some of the most shocking practices of the Children of God
(COG), aka The Family, have included free sex, prostitution, sexual
molestation of children, incest, and â€œsex with Jesus!â€

From NewDayNews.com: Brief Review of Sam's Book.

Reader wrote:

I just did a speed-read of Sam's book. Roughly 1/3 of the book (7 chapters out of 21; 106 pages out of a total 295) covers sex: Incest, Dito Book, Child Abuse Cases, Adult-Child Sex, Revolutionary Sex, Sharing, Loving Jesus.

Like Berg, Zerb & Co., Sam knows that sex sells.

There are other chapters covering topics like the RNR, FCF, Kiddie Vidies, Churches, Deceivers yet True, England/Australia, Venezuela/France, Experts (Melton & Others) and a chapter about Berg himself (basically, what a pervert he was--so count this as sex chapter number 8 ).

Sam quotes anyone and everyone, including me. I find that a little surprising since I have no first-hand knowledge of abuse in TFI, only a good memory for what I've read over the years at various exer websites. So yes, Sam prints some hearsay, but more often than not, he quotes individuals who claim first-hand knowledge of events.

The book is poorly edited and repetitive. However, it brings home TFI's moral depravity in spades. I felt like puking after the first three chapters. Sam also hammers home his main point, and that is despite the PR campaign and claims to the contrary, TFI hasn't changed its core beliefs about sex, and children growing up in the group are at high risk of abuse.

I tend to agree with all of the points made about the book specifically.

I remember that in Spain and Portugal CoG was often accused of baby Trafficking.

As far as I can tell this was the only piece of lying propaganda ever about CoG.

FYI
Sam's manuscript appears to have the most information about the French raids & court case as any single source I've seen.

Sam Ajemian is a bit of a strange bird himself. I guess I've got to hand it to him for trying to do something, however.

To "one who thinks he knows"

One who knows wrote:

Sam Ajemian is a bit of a strange bird himself. I guess I've got to hand it to him for trying to do something, however.

Why do you need to make a comment like Sam being a strange bird? Who the hell made you a Judge? Maybe you're a strange bird in someones eye as well and should consider changing your signature to "One who THINKS he knows".

I went looking for the Sam site "CounterCOG" but it seems to be down at present - here's what I found . . .
"CounterCOG.com, a domain name once devoted to archiving critical information about the so-called â€œChildren of Godâ€

Mary Jane Henry wrote:

I went looking for the Sam site "CounterCOG" but it seems to be down at present

It's not down at all. Go to any one of the following links:

http://www.countercog.com/
http://www.countercog.net/
http://www.countercog.org/

However, the countercog.excult.org site is down.

The article at CultNews.com: Are cult apologists buying up domain names on the Internet to mislead the public? doesn't tell the whole story. In April 2005, I wrote a response to it in which I noted that the domain name simply expired and someone else took advantage of the opportunity to register it (apparently using mostly fake contact information) for other purposes. The person who helped Sam register countercog.com let him know far in advance when it was going to expire and what needed to be done to keep it but Sam let it expire. At the time some thought Sam just forgot but last year he told me that he intentionally decided not to renew it for reasons which, to me at least, made absolutely no sense.

In March 2007 the countercog.com, countercog.org and countercog.net domains expired again so I was able to register them.

xFamily
» Documents
» New book on The Family by Sam Ajemian

Read Topic
Reply

xFamily

New book on The Family by Sam Ajemian

Quick Links

My Account

able2know