Joe Smith
Guest
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 Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:13 am Post subject: Larry King - Most Destructive Cult - So Like JWs! |
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http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/163381/1.ashx
Following is a transcript from tonight's Larry King. Synopsis:
this cult has much in common with JWs aside from the child free love
issues. This cult is only about 10K members and they got a spot on
LK. My point in bringing this to the forum is that it would be so
topical to have the JW story told on LK or Oprah or ...... See what
you think...............
Is it the most scandalous cult ever?
Our guests, former members, make some shocking claims after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Children of God were founded in 1968 in
Southern California by a charismatic Baptist minister called David Berg.
To the outside world, the family was a missionary organization spreading
their word from Mexico City to Manila. But behind the closed doors of
their communes, free love was their theology.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: OK. A strange story.
We begin here in Los Angeles with Davida Kelley, a former member of the
Children of God. It's now called Family International. She was raised in
the household of that sect's now dead leader, David Berg, whom she says
sexually abused her.
Also here is Amy Bril, a former member of the Children of God. She was
summoned to the household of David Berg as a young child and married to
him at age 13.
What -- where do we start here, Davida?
How -- you grew grow up in this?
DAVIDA KELLEY, FORMER MEMBER, CHILDREN OF GOD: Yes.
KING: Born in it?
KELLEY: Uh-huh.
KING: This was in Los Angeles?
KELLEY: This -- it was founded in Huntington Beach during the hippie
era. And David Berg was initially like just a possessed fanatical
pedophile that founded this entire cult.
KING: And you were raised in it?
KELLEY: Yes.
KING: At what age were you first tampered with?
KELLEY: I -- my first memories of being exposed to any kind of sexual
abuse whatsoever was probably as early as age five.
KING: Five?
KELLEY: Yes.
KING: What was the point of the cult, Amy?
What were they saying to attract members?
AMY BRIL, FORMER MEMBER, CHILDREN OF GOD: Initially, it started out
pretty innocently, as they were offering freedom from the church, the
religious system that people were disillusioned with. The hippies were
disillusioned with their families. They were dropouts.
KING: Offer you better things?
BRIL: Yes. And he was offering a way out, an escape.
KING: Did he have many members?
BRIL: It started out small, with his own personal family and it grew.
One of those members was my dad, who joined when he was 13 years old in
Huntington Beach.
KING: Your dad joined when he was 13?
BRIL: Yes.
KING: How big is it -- how big did it get?
KELLEY: I assume there's probably close to like between 8,000 and 10,000
members currently.
KING: Ten thousand members all over the world?
BRIL: Well, there's been all kinds of people coming through the group
for the last 30 years. People have joined, left, joined, left.
KING: Is it easy to leave?
BRIL: Not for those that are born in the group -- into the group.
KING: Do you agree with that, Davida?
KELLEY: It's very difficult -- to leave?
KING: Yes.
KELLEY: Oh, you're allowed to leave at any point, but you have
absolutely no support whatsoever when you leave, like because you're not
integrated into society...
KING: Because you're out there.
KELLEY: You're not intrigued into society whatsoever. You don't have a
formal education. So when you leave, you're just -- you're out there to
face the world alone and you have absolutely no options in life. And you
don't know where to start or how to begin your life or (INAUDIBLE).
KING: The children of God, now known as Family International, has been
on and off the public radar for decades. We did a show on it in 1993.
The January 2005 murder of a former member by the leader's son, Ricky
Rodriguez, and Ricky's subsequent suicide generated headlines around the
world.
Ricky, who had himself fled the group, made a video just days before he
killed a woman who had been involved in his childhood molestation and he
then took his own life.
We have a portion of it from a British documentary. A word of caution --
some viewers might be upset by this material. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICKY RODRIGUEZ, FORMER MEMBER OF CHILDREN OF GOD: This is Rick and I'm
making this video. I want there to be some record, my ideas, just who I
was really.
Rick was born into a religious cult.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He would tell me I just want to die, I'm just tired
of this life. I'll never be free from this pain and this past.
Rick was planning suicide and murder.
RODRIGUEZ: How can you do that to kids? How can you do that to kids and
sleep at night?
Within 48 hours, two people were dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, everything was backward, the way we were
going at absolutely everything. And everything that was wrong, we were
taught was right. Everything that was really evil and wicked and
perverted was done in the name of Jesus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And Ricky, Davida, he killed, what, the person who was his nanny?
KELLEY: Yes. She was one of many nannies who... KING: Tampered with him.
KELLEY: Yes, when he was a child.
KING: Did you know Ricky, Amy?
BRIL: I did.
KING: Did you know this was coming?
BRIL: Well, I met him about six months before this happened. I was able
to actually spend some time with him reuniting. And he was very
troubled. And those of us who knew him at the time were deeply concerned
about his state. He was very disillusioned with the fact that his
mother, a current leader of the family, had never apologized or made
amends with those that she had had a hand in abusing.
KING: And he couldn't just leave? He couldn't just leave?
KELLEY: Yes. You're allowed to leave at any time, but with no support
whatsoever.
KING: What's...
BRIL: He did leave, in fact.
KELLEY: Yes.
BRIL: He did.
KING: He did?
BRIL: He tried.
KING: Davida, what's the story of Davidito Berg (ph), Davidido (ph) or
whatever that is?
KELLEY: Davidito Berg?
KING: Davidito Berg.
What is that?
KELLEY: It's a series about the upbringing, how we raised as children
and it's like a volume. But it, you know, just explains our lifestyle
and kind of depicts it. And it's like a sort of a catalog or a standard
by which the rest of the family members were sort of expected to live
by.
KING: It was like your bible?
BRIL: It was a sort of a child care bible put out by Berg and Maria to
teach the current members at the time how to train and bring their
children up.
KING: And the cult, again, is trying to tell people they're benefiting
them by doing all this, is that right?
BRIL: Oh, everything that came out or was published by David Berg or
Maria was considered to be the word of God. So, of course, it was
considered to be instructional and something that would liberate them
and teach them how to live better lives.
KING: Were there orgies, as well, Davida, many men and women together?
KELLEY: Initially, yes, during the first generation that both myself and
Armandrita Berg (ph) grew up in. Yes, that was a policy by which
everybody was expected to, you know, abide by and participate in.
KING: Where was this done, in homes?
KELLEY: In the communities. In the communities...
KING: In the communities where they lived?
KELLEY: Yes.
KING: You mean they would live at home and then go to this place?
KELLEY: No. This happened in the homes, in their own communities. Like
there's many, many communities -- hundreds of communities all around the
world. And communities just meant like different families -- several
different families all living together communally in a commune.
BRIL: It's a commune -- like a commune or a community of believers who
(INAUDIBLE).
KING: We, of course, by the way, invited Family International to take
part in tonight's discussion. They did not respond to that request.
However, they posted a lengthy statement about all this on their Web
site already and we'll get to some of that later.
Some of our guests have relatives that are current members of the Family
International.
Are they in danger?
They'll tell us, ahead on LARRY KING LIVE.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (singing)
KELLEY: This is all done in the name of God. You were raised and
disciplined to be a Christian. And to find out finally that Jesus had
nothing to do with it, it was really the sick mind of a pervert and a
pedophile who just used it to manipulate an entire cult to believe in
him and support him and his beliefs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That was the infamous late David Berg, right?
Davida Kelley remains with us. So does Amy Brill. We're joined now here
in Los Angeles by Juliana Buhring, a former member of the Children of
God and co-author of "Not Without My Sister," a first-hand account of
the sexual, physical and mental abuse she and her sisters suffered. One
of the executive directors of Rise International, which works to protect
children from abuse in cults.
And in London, Celeste Jones, a former member of the same cult. She and
Juliana are half sisters. They have the same father. She's co-author of
that book, "Not Without My Sister," a project worker for NCH. That's a
major children's charity in the United Kingdom. She's also a director of
Rise International.
Juliana, did you grow up in this cult?
JULIANA BUHRING, FORMER MEMBER, CHILDREN OF GOD: Yes, I was born and
raised in the group.
KING: When did you start to think something was wrong?
BUHRING: I don't think I ever truly believed in the doctrine. I always
thought that something was wrong. But because we were told that
everything that we felt was our wrong or evil was our problem or our
fault as opposed to the doctrine's fault. I thought that I was the one
that had a problem with it, therefore I was the one that was wrong, not
the doctrine.
KING: When were you sexually abused for the first time?
BUHRING: From the time I was born, sexual abuse was all around us. My
earliest memories are watching adults in orgies, being paired up with
other children my age to being taught sex by adults.
KING: At what age?
BUHRING: My earliest memories are 3-years-old. So it would have been
from three on that I remember that.
KING: And the benefit, this was explained to the group, was what?
BUHRING: OK, David Berg came out with a doctrine called the Law of Love
where he believed that everything done in love was good and fine. And he
reasoned that because children could orgasm, therefore they should be
able to participate in sex. So then he started his experiment on Ricky
Rodriguez, the son.
KING: Who killed himself.
BUHRING: Who killed himself. And in this manual, the book which he
showed, it showed or told adults how to do that. And then adults
followed those instructions and it propagated to all the children in the
group.
KING: Celeste in London, did you grow up in the same circumstances as
your half sister?
CELESTE JONES, FORMER MEMBER, CHILDREN OF GOD: Yes, I did. I grew up
with Amy as well. We grew up as children together for many years.
KING: How did you get out?
JONES: It was difficult. I know they're saying you're free to leave at
any time, but the psychological barriers are huge. And they keep you in
as a virtual prisoner. The fear is the main thing you have to get over.
Because all your life you're told that the outside world is scary and
bad and that if you left, you would be struck by lightning, you would be
killed. There is this mistrust placed from I can remember. And so I
think having to break that fear was huge.
KING: Other than maybe adults looking for sex, Celeste, what's the
attraction of this group?
JONES: I wish I could say because I was born into it. So it's not like I
ever saw any attraction. I was told what to think and what to feel. And
I found it difficult after leaving and being an adult myself now
thinking, what was the attraction for my parents?
I don't think I can answer that for them. It's very difficult. Actually
I remember thinking as a child, and definitely as a teenager, if I was
never born into this, I would have never joined. And that was a thought
I always had.
KING: Were your parents in the group?
JONES: Yes, they joined in England. My dad was a hippie, he was looking
for sort of alternative religion. He ended up taking drugs, he dropped
out. Yes, so I think he was ripe pickings for the Children of God when
they came over from the states to the U.K.
KING: Cult leader David Berg exhorted his followers to his words,
glorify God in the dance. This resulted in video tape performance of
nude or scantily clad women, teens and girls.
We have a tape showing a very young Celeste Jones, our guest. Again,
some may find this disturbing even though it's been edited well for
content. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Were you eventually nude there, Celeste? What's the point of this
dance?
JONES: Yes, well, I think they were told us that come -- all the adult
women were doing it. And so we watched it first of all. Then do this
dance for Davidito, who was David Berg's son. However, it was really for
David Berg. And those tapes were circulated to all the communes and all
the adults watched them. It's very uncomfortable for me to see that
because there's an innocence there, but also I was really exploited. And
that was very, very troubling for me. That wasn't the only dance I did.
I did nude dances all the way up until I was 12-years-old.
KING: Can't the law do anything about this, Davida?
JONES: I wish they would.
KING: I'm asking, Davida can't they do something?
KELLEY: I'm not sure because for instance, they don't practice it
anymore. They do not sexually exploit and abuse their children anymore
because they can't. Those of us in the first generation have alerted the
authorities and alerted the media and drawn attention to this abuse that
happened in our generation. So it doesn't occur anymore. And the statute
of limitations might have run out, however the pedophiles that have done
this to our generation are still in positions of leadership to this day.
KING: That's terribly damaging.
Celeste, thank you very much.
By the way, as we said, we invited the Family International to respond
and here's what they say: "The Family International has a zero tolerance
policy in regards to the abuse of minors. The family will immediately
expel and excommunicate any adult member deemed guilty of physically or
sexually abuse behavior towards children. Family members are advised to
conduct themselves in conformance with the laws of the jurisdiction in
which they live and to cooperate with the justice system of the land.
The family's policy for the protection of minors was adopted in 1986. We
regret that prior to the adoption of this policy, cases occurred where
minors were exposed to sexually inappropriate behavior between 1978 and
1986."
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would think that somebody would say in the
family, well, something is wrong here, our children are killing
themselves. And the only response we get is well, they weren't all
suicides, some of them are still alive or they're inflating the numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people need to pass way before something
happens? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the consequence of what they've
reaped upon us. So I don't know how this story is going to end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That clip is from an HBO documentary. And by the way, when I read
that disclaimer from the group, that was not sent to us. That was on
their Web site today.
Our panel remains with us. And joining us is Miriam Williams Boeri.
She's a former member of the Children of God. She joined the sect rather
than being born into it. She's author of "Heaven's Harlots: My 15 Years
as a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God." She's an assistant
professor of sociology, Kennesaw State University.
Why did you join?
MIRIAM WILLIAMS BOERI, FORMER MEMBER, CHILDREN OF GOD: I was hippie,
18-years-old, 17 when I first heard about them and they were a Christian
commune and I think you might have been around at that time. You know,
the period of hippies were looking for communes, they were looking to
change the world. There was the Vietnam War.
KING: This was this L.A. then?
WILLIAMS BOERI: No, I was actually in New York City.
KING: And there was a commune there, too?
WILLIAMS BOERI: There was.
KING: What did you think of all the sexual activity?
WILLIAMS BOERI: There wasn't that sex when I joined. In fact, we weren't
even allowed to kiss or hold hands.
KING: What changed?
WILLIAMS BOERI: Moses David changed. But one thing that I think should
be clear is that there were concentric circles around the leaders. And
the further away you were from those leaders, the less you participated
in the sex. All of us had some sexual activities that were going on that
would not be considered normal in mainstream society. But the further
you're away from the leaders, the more that you could choose for your
children what they would do and what they would not do.
KING: How long did you remain in the sect?
WILLIAMS BOERI: I left in 1981 for the first time. And then my husband,
who had been in the group, wanted to go back. But we always remained
again, these concentric circles, outside the furthest circle. We were
pretty much on our own, pretty much. And then I left again when people
came from, I was in Europe that time. And people came from India, where
some of these girls lived. And as soon as this family came from India
and they lived with us, I saw immediately that the father was probably
abusing his child and I left immediately after that.
KING: Juliana, you were saying that during the break when we read their
statement that it's not true. You think they're still practicing?
BUHRING: I think that because all the pedophiles from that era are still
in the group and because the group refuses to hand them over to the law
or to prosecute them, I believe that pedophilia is a sickness. And it's
not something that you do one day and the next you don't. It will come
back sooner or later eventually.
And these people are still protected within the group. The group does
not have a firm child protection policy. And in their charter, they
state that members want to go to the police, they have to leave the
group to do so. Which means that most people, if there is a crime
committed, I've heard of many cases all the way up into the early 2000s
where kids are still suffer some form of abuse, but they deal with it
internally like the Mafia, like the Catholic Church until they began to
be prosecuted.
KING: Amy, do you agree?
BRILL: I actually do agree that who knows what goes on in each
individual community. I think there's a big range, a difference between
the communities.
KING: Do you keep in touch with old friends in the group?
BRILL: I used to. Less and less now.
KING: You don't miss it, I gather.
BRILL: I do not miss it, absolutely not.
KING: Amy, we thank you and Juliana for being with us. Davida remains
and so does Miriam and we'll have more with when we come back. Don't go
away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Welcome back. Before we get back to our topic, let's check in with
Wolf Blitzer sitting in tonight for Anderson Cooper. He'll host "A.C.
360." How nice to see you when it's dark out.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Nice to see you, Larry. Thanks very much.
Coming up right at the top of the hour, finger pointing and pushing
back. John McCain is accusing Barack Obama of playing the race card.
Barack Obama says John McCain is trying to scare voters. You're going to
hear for yourself what's going on and you decide.
And the Muslim myth. Barack Obama has repeatedly said he's a Christian,
so why are there still parts of America where large numbers of people
don't believe him? And a mother's plea, bring my little girl home.
Heart-wrenching new developments in the strange disappearance of Ray
Starra Boss (ph) and her shadowy father. All that and large chunks of
sound from the two presidential candidates, sharing their thoughts on
what America needs to do about the energy crisis. All coming up on
"360," right at the top of the hour. Larry, back to you.
KING: Thanks, Wolf. That's at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific, hosted
tonight by my friend, Wolf Blitzer.
Joining us now is Rachel Bernstein, the psychotherapist and expert on
cults. She runs a support group for former cult members. And Stephen
Kent, professor of sociology, University of Alberta, writing a book on
child sexual abuse within the Children of God.
Rachel, what's your read on what we've heard?
RACHEL BERNSTEIN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Well, it's been very interesting and
unfortunately a very sad story. What you have people that have been
damaged, really terribly hurt by being exploited, by being in a
situation that was supposed to be a spiritual community but was instead
a place of great perversion.
KING: Why do people do this to people?
BERNSTEIN: Sometimes it's because they truly believe that this is
something that's useful for them, necessary for them. And other times,
it's just because they like the power that they are able to develop over
these people. And they like to have the people show them how much they
are devoted by seeing how much they are willing to do for them.
KING: They deny they are a cult, Stephen. What is a cult?
STEPHEN KENT, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA: The definition of a cult
varies. Some people just say it's a group that holds unusual beliefs. A
lot of people however talk about cults in the context of harm. A cult is
a group with an intense belief system that is often harmful to its own
members and also members outside of that particular group.
KING: Harmful according to society, but they don't think it's harmful?
KENT: They probably don't. But when you talk to people who have been in
and then come out, a lot of people's eyes get open about what happened.
KING: What are you doing now, Davida? Are you married?
KELLEY: No, I'm self-employed.
KING: Are you working?
KELLEY: I'm a fetish model.
KING: You're a what?
KELLEY: I'm a fetish model.
KING: What is that?
KELLEY: It's part of the adult entertainment industry.
KING: Oh, you appeal to --
KELLEY: Yes. Honestly, I didn't have much options when I left.
KING: You appeal to prurient interests.
KELLEY: Yes. When you leave the cult, you have a basic education and
you're not integrated into society. So when you leave, your options are
very slim, which is why so many children have committed suicide because
they don't have a college education. They don't have anywhere to turn to
and they don't have any options in life.
KING: Well said. What are you doing, Maria?
WILLIAMS BOERI: When I left the family, I went back to college as a
freshman with four kids. I was 38-years-old and I stayed in school until
I got my Ph.D.
KING: And you're an assistant professor. Are you married now?
WILLIAMS BOERI: I am married to someone that was not in the group.
KING: Children?
WILLIAMS BOERI: I have five children that were born in the group and
they are all out with me.
KING: What is post group like, Rachel?
BERNSTEIN: Post group is when people really are depending on their
experiences, are really suffering a lot of after effects.
KING: Do you need a rehab?
BERNSTEIN: Very often it helps to have a good therapist and a good
support system, either through your family or through other former
members who really understand the very singular and individual kind of
experience you've had in a group like this.
KING: Biggest danger in a group, Stephen?
KENT: Biggest danger has to do with the kinds of harm that people can
inflict upon themselves and upon their loved ones.
KING: As the boy who killed himself?
KENT: Sure. And with this group, there have been a lot of post- group
suicides or even some suicides of young people while they were still in
the group. And the issue that Davida brought up about what these people
do when they leave, there are countless stories about people leaving
this group and at least having to go through some forms of the sex trade
in order to get out, because they have little skills and they grew up in
a highly eroticized environment.
KING: Does it depend, Rachel, on a charismatic leader?
BERNSTEIN: If a group is dangerous in this way, yes. The leader has to
be someone people want to listen to and people feel the need to please.
And so if a leader is charismatic in that way, he can get away with much
more than he should.
KING: Are the former members religious in any way today? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAMBI GADDIST, CNN HERO: Here in South Carolina, HIV is a problem,
particularly among African-Americans. After 27 years of AIDS, we are
still combating a mentality of fear and shame. I'm Bambi Gaddist and I'm
fighting to stop the spread of HIV-AIDS in South Carolina. Our
organization has the only HIV testing mobile unit in the state. Our goal
is to be in the community, testing at a nightclub. We're there when
young folks are out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was my very first time, very, very first time.
I'm glad I did it. She takes time to explain things, actually break it
down.
GADDIST: Have you been tested yet?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did, I did.
GADDIST: And you're waiting on your results?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
GADDIST: You already got them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
GADDIST: OK, I sure appreciate you coming out. When it's my time, I want
my obituary to say that I made a difference for someone and that I saved
somebody's life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: July is the last month to nominate someone you know
as a CNN hero for 2008. Go to CNN.com/heroes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Davida, are you a member of my religion? Are you religious?
KELLEY: Oh, I'm absolutely religious. Yes, I still believe in God. I
still am saved, I still believe in Jesus. And I don't blame Jesus or God
for any of this. I'm agnostic, though.
KING: What about you, Miriam?
WILLIAMS BOERI: Not at all.
KING: Not at all religious. You had the idea for a foundation?
WILLIAMS BOERI: I think that one reason I'm here is in any way that I
can to -- Juliana has a Web site number. If people could donate to a
foundation and children that are coming out or adult children that are
coming out can either get some mental help, mental health service help
and also go back to college. I think all of these children could get
their GEDs and go back to college. America is wonderful because
everybody can get an education. That's why I came back here and I got
it.
KING: Do you know Juliana's Web site?
KELLEY: Isn't it Rise International?
KING: Rise International.
KELLEY: CIC.org.
KING: CIC.org.
KELLEY: CIC.
KING: CIC.org. Do you think this can help?
WILLIAMS BOERI: I think so. Anyone that wants to make a donation,
Juliana will make sure that it goes to the right children that are
coming out.
KELLEY: For that matter, just for any children to know that there's lots
of children probably in the cult that would like to leave but don't have
any options or don't know where to turn or who they can go to. And if
anybody out there is a relative of any members that have family in any
kind of cult whatsoever, please reach out to them and like make sure
that they know that you can --
KING: You've had two sisters who left as well?
KELLEY: Yes.
KING: How are they doing?
KELLEY: Well one for instance is in Africa right now and she's trying to
come back to the U.S. but she can't even afford her own plane ticket.
And I can't afford to support her. I wish that we knew - could ask our
relatives.
KING: What's the other one doing? KELLEY: The other one lives in
Houston, Texas. She's a model. And then I have my two younger sisters
that are still in the family, in the Children of God.
KING: You were saying during the break that this cult is enormous.
KENT: Well, in the 1980s, it may have been the largest globalized
pedophile organization in the world. There are some other pedophile
religious groups, like the Devdasi Temple Prostitutes in India that have
larger numbers. But child abuse, child sexual abuse was the central
doctrine in this group's theology and the group was global.
KING: Any country that does not have any cults?
BERNSTEIN: I think they exist everywhere. I think the fact that cults
exist is because there is something about human nature that allows for
this to happen. And so --
KELLEY: Which is why relatives that have any members in cults need to
reach out to them and check in on them and make sure that they know if
they want to leave, that they have an option. Because a lot of these
children don't know that they have any options. They haven't been
exposed to society. So they have nowhere to go and nowhere to turn.
KING: You're raised trapped?
KELLEY: Yes.
BERNSTEIN: Raised trapped.
KING: You were a prisoner?
BERNSTEIN: Right and also in a system like this, your family who was
supposed to be protecting you typically are the ones who are letting the
monsters come in at night.
KENT: And one of the big issues now is as these monsters hit 50, 60,
70-years-old, they're going to go back to their second generation kids
who have left and made it in the world wanting help. Because they have
no pension system, they have no retirement, they have no Social Security
benefits. It's a real crisis.
KING: We're almost out of time. Are these people bright?
KENT: Oh, yes, very smart people. Many of the ones that I've talked to,
both current and former members. I mean, there's a range of course, in
any group.
KING: But it's not that this is appealing to the lowest common
denominator?
KENT: Oh, no, very talented, very smart people. KING: I'm very impressed
and we have to do more on this, thank you, thank you all. Juliana's
organization by the way, can be reached as riseinternational.org,
riseinternational.org.
IP: HREVx/m3pR3DWWNw
Re: Larry King - Most Destructive Cult - So Like JWs! 01-Aug-08 01:00
Hi Bizzybee, thanks for posting that.
It makes me so mad that there isn't more expose' programs on JW's. When
I think of the huge psycological damage that has been done to thousands
of people because of them, it makes me very angry. When are the media
going to see past the "respectable" facade the Society show, and get to
the real story?
The inherrent dangers of all cults should be exposed, including thier
recruitment methods, their information control and their hidden
policies. JW's in particular, for, along with the mormons, are
probably one of the more widely known and prolific, thereby, the most
dangerous.
IP: znIydmpm/gcuB5mf
Re: Larry King - Most Destructive Cult - So Like JWs! 01-Aug-08 09:13
The interesting point made and the strongest correlation with JWs, was
about leaving the cult:
KING: Is it easy to leave?
BRIL: Not for those that are born in the group -- into the group.
KING: Do you agree with that, Davida?
KELLEY: It's very difficult -- to leave?
KING: Yes.
KELLEY: Oh, you're allowed to leave at any point, but you have
absolutely no support whatsoever when you leave, like because you're not
integrated into society...
KING: Because you're out there.
KELLEY: You're not intrigued into society whatsoever. You don't have a
formal education. So when you leave, you're just -- you're out there to
face the world alone and you have absolutely no options in life. And you
don't know where to start or how to begin your life or (INAUDIBLE).
IP: HREVx/m3pR3DWWNw
Re: Larry King - Most Destructive Cult - So Like JWs! 04-Aug-08 16:01
I watched this Larry King show, the part about leaving sure does work
just like those born in the JW's. I too. wish the talk show's would
expose more of these religious cults. At least those who open their
door's to the JW knock have a right to know what their all about.
IP: Tk+0z4aFTLmBPjj3
Re: Larry King - Most Destructive Cult - So Like JWs! 04-Aug-08 16:09
isn't this the same group that the "messiah" of the group killed his
mother another person and then him self?
My understanding is that the son of the "messiah" made a video
explaining why, then killed his former nanny and then himself.
I believe he was in his early 20's.
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