My vote depends entirely on the definitions of 'for' and 'against'.

If the poll is on whether or not I support the Family's right to exist and believe whatever they please so long as no one is harmed, then my vote is 'for'.

If we are voting on the topic of supporting the Family and its current leadership financially or morally, my vote is 'against'.

From what I've heard and read, it seems to be sexually based and derived. That is essentially harming people. If it's driving so many people to die, then why should it excist?

I don't think it should have the right to excist with it's current priciples.


I hope I understand what you mean because I'm a bit confused.

I, personally, do not accept the Family as representative of Christianity, rather they are an aberrant group, preaching a false version of Jesus Christ, a false version of the Gospel regardless of the many apparent "charitable" works they may do.

The Family's current principles, while not perfect, are far better than those they had 15 years ago. Perhaps you're basing your emotions in this matter on the Family's past exclusively, as opposed to their history on the whole--hence the confusion.
Just because they don't adhere to one particular flavour of Christianity is not reason enough to demand that they cease to exist.

Well, I was watching a TV show about a woman who left the family and that's when I started searching around about this. I'm not sure what's true and what's not.

I found this article:http://www.rickross.com/reference/family/family41.html

Any truth to it? Is it outdated?

The article that the link refers to is about Ricky Rodriguez (Aka Davidito). His murder of Angela Smith, and subsequent suicide, happened this year.

My vote would be a nay vote. Even if TF has cleaned up its sexual abuse that was going on in its heyday, the underlying premise is still a sexual liberty that somehow will get down the pike to the children. Besides that, there is the deception that TF uses to get people to fund their group. I've often said, if they'd quit lying and own up to who they are, a sex cult, it would be alot easier to let them be. But they know if they did that, they'd lose members and they'd lose pretty much all of their support, so the deception continues and that's what is so wrong about them. It is not fair to the general public and to the people they bring into their group who do not know their true beliefs. And not only that, just what are people supporting? All their good works are trumped up and with their well trained ability to lie and deceive, they get companies and businesses and everyday people to fund their living expenses when people think they are doing all this good work. In the last few months alone I've talked to 3 people who nearly got swept up into the deception. All I can say is, thank God for the internet.

I can't stand the lying and the deception. I used to hate it when I'd go out to the little shops in some 3rd world country and tell them to give me a donation so I can help... (fill in the blanks)... none of which was true. We barely did anything but witness to people and ask for money, that was all we did - all the rest was exaggerated and embellished beyond recognition. And then where does this money go to? Besides the average home's living expenses, there's the tithe money that goes to that wicked Maria and her entourage who have been living off the blood of the lowly members for some 30 odd years now. That has simply got to stop. I see no reason to give them a pass on anything. The poor lowly members would be a 100 times better off to be loosed from the yoke of Maria and her doctrines and continue on with what they are doing and maybe able to actually get more accomplished without having to obey her edicts. Yeah, so I definitely would love to see the group, as a group, not exist.

Yeah, but it also has stuff about the family.

I meant to quote evan.

yes it does, I was confirming that the article is up to date.

OH! Thank you. I'm sorry, I'm a bit dense. ^_^;

http://www.rickross.com/reference/family/family43.html

Shows an even more up to date report.

Do we think the family cleaned up it's act in the 1980's?

Read:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/family/family36.html

Anyone who has done their research will know that the Family's attempt (if it can be called that) to clean up their act, first began with the BI court case in 1992 when they would have lost the case had they not at least appeared to have done so.

Prior to that, their clean-up attempts were more along the lines of destruction of incriminating evidence.

My vote is a resounding "against".

TF's leadership (Berg, Maria and their accomplices) have exploited, offended and destroyed so many people, while pretending to be "servants of God." How TF presents themselves is only a facade, very much the way Acheik described. They prey on individuals who are searching for something better; those seeking a higher goal, then they make a mockery of them and their genuine effort, with their deception, contortions and perversion of the truth. They are nothing but hucksters and liars riding on the backs of good intentioned, however misguided followers. I look forward to the day when Maria and her cronies are dethroned, and those of us who have been victimized by TF see some kind of justice for our sorrow.

against THE FAMILY
i think who ever did that is fucken sick and they all need to die, everyone that was involved with this. It makes sick that these people would put gods word in with this shit . i sware whoever out there that is in charge of this cult should be brutely killed. i hope the person knows that when they die theres no hope for them ur going to hell. your sick you bitch ass mother fucker.

To find UP-TO-DATE information about "The Family International" visit:

http://www.thefamily.org/dossier/

How do you expect any of us to trust WS? Especially when they still laud David Berg and Karen Zerby?

Up-to-date about what? The Family's leadership structure? Its latest GNs and doctrines (i.e. the name of the latest demon they've discovered)? Its latest financial statement? Current membership statistics?

Does the Family's website provide links to media articles that are unfavourable towards them? Do they provide a full set of court documents to researchers?

The blatant lack of such data makes it obvious that it is not up-to-date.

But it's amusing that you, as a current member, think it is, leocon. Reminds me of myself when I was in the cult.

This question is an all-or-nothing thinking error. Please define what is meant by "The Family," because I'm not sure what I'm voting for or against.

If "The Family" means blindly following and protecting a criminal leadership, then I'm against it. Every time I hear about the things that were done to Merry Berg, I rededicate my personal commitment to get the statute of limitations for childhood abuse changed in the U.S. I am definitely against TFI's criminal leadership and anyone in the group that engaged in the criminal abuse and neglect of children.

I am particularly annoyed by the self-serving excuse that the worse Family abuse of children is in the past, so therefore the victims should forget it. Honest, hard-working taxpaying citizens are paying for Merry Berg's care in the California detention system. Without something akin to divine intervention, these so-called selfish systemites will be taking care of a severely damaged human being for the rest of her natural life. The people responsible for this damage are Berg, Zerby & Kelly, not the taxpayers of California. I detest the sociopathic rationalizations of Karen Zerby. Who is the selfish one? A person who pays taxes and cares for weaker members of society, or the individual who participates in the destruction of a developing human being and then offers nothing more than a weak apology for "mistakes"?

I also recognize there are many people in TFI who have not committed crimes, but are willing to take the heat for their criminal leadership as their portion of "godly persecution." I'm not against these people or their right to belong to a deviant Christian sect. If they want to believe they're some of the most effective, dedicated Christian missionaries on the face of the planet, it's their right to ignore the fact that they inconsequential gnats in the world of Christian evangelism. I'm sure this fact smacks SG disciples in the face every time they get out of their comfort zone long enough to interact with legitimate Christian missionaries.

I recognize that if TFI's criminal leadership were to disappear into the bowels of prison, many of these Family members would continue to follow them as anointed prophets, pretty much the same way Manson's devotees followed him. To the extent that they have chosen to throw in their lot with criminals, I would appear to be against them and their alternative society. When blind followers make the choice to remain ignorant of the facts regarding the life-long consequences of the childhood abuse suffered by people like Merry Berg or Rick Rodriguez, they also choose to believe I'm against them.

However, I refuse to let my position toward Family disciples be defined by their badly informed choices. My position is that members of The Family can live however they want as long as they aren't protecting criminals or engaging in criminal activity under the guise of religious freedom.

vote
Well said.

After experiencing the harm that came on myself, as an overly naive, trusting, idealistic young teen when I joined TF, and then seeing an even worse effect on my daughter, whose rights were most definitely not respected and her virginity stolen from her under the guise of "sharing" to "not be selfish", I cast my lot with the AGAINST. Also, with corrupt leadership in the form of Zerby - who had sex with her own 12 year old son, and Matthew - who topped the hall of fame of the infamous by impregnating a 14-year-old back in the 1980's (not to mention his numerous rapes and flagrant spreading of STD's among his conquests) - what choice can we have but for a resounding AGAINST.

I concede that people should have the right to believe whatever they want to provided they do no harm, but with criminals at the reigns taking unfair advantage of the innocent, good-natured idealistic people who join their group, TF currently does not fall into that category.