Something that all cults are aware of is that previous members of other cults are much easier to recruit if they have not done much work on the 'how' and 'why' they were recruited into the first cult.

The general principles of cult dynamics are much the same across all cults--which is not to say that all cults are the same--but that the how and why of recruitment has distinct similarities across the spectrum.

When a cult leader dies with no firm line of succession established, as in the case of Osho and the Maharishi, there is quite a scramble amongst other cult leaders to adopt and absorb the bereft members---and any remaining cult assets and spoils---as it is recognised that very little persuasion is required with an existing cult member as opposed to the careful cultivation employed on a 'cold' prospect. The first cult has already done that groundwork and heavy lifting.
Its the same in sales, an existing customer is an easy sell compared to the time and cost required to snag a brand new customer.

I would venture that as one reason that Davejc is focusing on this site, perhaps in his dreams he thinks of this a fertile recruitment ground?
His constant M.O. seems to be that any publicity is good publicity, and this site gives him a unique opportunity to pose as the heroic, one true saviour of humankind, fighting against the forces of darkness (RRI) that are ushering in the apocalypse. (due anytime soon at a venue near you!)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2010 10:50PM by Stoic.

This song from my youth is for Glenn, who I don't know from Adam but he uses a line from the song as his email sig.

[www.youtube.com]

Just want to mention to Glenn that we have been on the eve of destruction for the whole of my eventful life--and yet the world keeps turning, the trees grow and the flowers bloom. Scars heal and so does Ol' Mother Earth, who could shrug us all off in an instant, like so much detritus, should she so choose.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2010 10:58PM by Stoic.

I got maybe through one third of the Davidito book, and couldn't read any more, I was so sickened.

I'm not saying Dave had any knowledge of this, but even if he knew about anything regarding the direction the COG was taking, he should have stepped away from them and reported to them to the authorities for abuse. Cherry was right all along, and the minister who was trying to give her comfort was right too.

How Dave could take on all the teachings of this sick Mo creature "Minus the Sex" is beyond me. I am appalled, sickened and shocked by what I have just read.

And for Dave to become an apologist for these outrages, by saying that they are nothing more than what the Catholic Church has been confronted with, is really beyond the pale.

This is the worst child abuse I have ever read about, and to make apologies for it by comparing it to the abuses of other religions is really beyond the pale.

All abuses are not to be compared with each other. They are abuses, that is the bottom line. And this one is disgusting. How anyone could offer some apologetic by comparing it with other abuses just shows how deep the abuse goes, and how deep Dave's ultimate loyalty to what David Berg did is.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2010 05:38PM by Blackhat.

'and we know by his own admission he left because of their sexual practices, but if he had any knowledge of the shocking abuse, he should have reported it. I wonder if he actually knew about what was going on? He was in receipt of the Mo letters, and that should have alerted him..... '

I am leery of accepting any reasoning proposed by Davejc as being truthful. So did he leave because of their sexual practices or was that just a handy and acceptable justification for something--moving on to set up on his own--that he intended to do anyway?
The moving on appears to have been seamless, no period of time for reflection or rethinking of what he had just experienced in the COG, just straight into building his own version.

He clearly didn't find the sexual practices-- an article of faith in the COG and mandated by his leader 'Moses' David Berg as the moderator said--- so shocking as to be repulsed and so leave.
He didn't find those practices to be shocking enough to be reported to the relevant authorities, because the victims of those practices, and their sufferings, were not important to Davejc--just as the problems of the members facing life without a kidney are not important to Davejc.
Only Davejc is important to Davejc. The only thing worthy of Davejc's attention is what is ultimately going to benefit Davejc.

I think Davejc was fully aware of the sexual practices mandated by the COG and would have gone along with them in order to get what he wanted had his wife, Cherryjc, not put her foot down. Thank god she did.
Davejc just couldn't work the sexual practices--sexual abuse of children--into his own, newer cult model and still hang on to his wife. No matter, there are other ways to f*ck people up and take control of their lives, I'm sure Davejc studied other models as well as 'Moses' David Berg.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2010 05:29PM by Stoic.

Cherry is to be commended for putting her foot down. But where is the report to the authorities about what is going on with child abuse?

There is a Duty of Care principle which seems to have been ignored by both Dave and Cherry at this time.....

Again, I caution about applying this too stringently, as the climate of the time, and awareness of the nature of abuse was not as it is today.....

But given that cultural time-frame, I am appalled that what happened to Davidito could happen at all, and should have been reported by those who knew about it, even in the abstract.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2010 05:49PM by Blackhat.

I am inclined to agree with you Stoic. The matter of what was going on with child abuse seems to have been last on the list for Davejc at the time. It seems to me he just wanted to establish a cult with himself as leader, with a ready-made apocalyptic theology, and where that sexual element was transmogrified into masturbation, never mind those children already being abused....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2010 06:11PM by Blackhat.

Just as an addition, Cherryjc and his children were Davejc's building block, his foundation on which he was going to build his cult, his expanded family, so Cherryjc and the kids were not particularly important, as individuals, to Davejc, IMO--they were important only as artifacts that he could use in making his glory dreams real and concrete.

I'm not attributing any other, more altruistic motive-- than calculating how to hold onto and increase his power over his little group-- to Davejc's wish to hang on to his wife and kids.

This actually ties in psychologically with the dynamic of those men who slaughter their wives and children rather than be exposed as being less than the god-like power figure they have attempted to project over their tiny private fiefdom.
Not suggesting that as a possibility here, but the will-to-power dynamic is similarly motivated in both cases.

[thelastpsychiatrist.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2010 06:28PM by Stoic.

I got a PM from Verity on the X site. She had been reading the Davidito book, and she too couldn't go on reading it. She also noticed the Ha! at the end of a statement, the way Dave does it. Now she's Canadian, and I'm Australian, but we both clocked this funny thing which we have never encountered before in writing, even in US writing.

So two women, one from Canada and one from Australia, reluctantly reading something neither of us wants to continue reading, both notice a use of Ha! at the end of a statement for emphasis.

And we both notice that Dave uses the same strange use of Ha! at the end of a sentence.

The stuff we have decided to discontinue reading, because it is so disturbing, is classic COG material, of a VERY disturbing kind.

Now the fact that both of us noticed this quirk of written language that we had never seen before, apart from in Dave's postings, makes us very unsettled about how close Dave was to Mo, in that he should continue with a written quirk of using Ha! at the end of a statement until this day, which seems to have its origins in the COG material....

For anyone interested in the personal dynamic at work in typical cult leaders there is a further rumination from 'the last psychiatrist' that covers identity and how important the fabrication of false, blameless identity is to a narcissist:

[thelastpsychiatrist.com]

Quote

Now the fact that both of us noticed this quirk of written language that we had never seen before, apart from in Dave's postings, makes us very unsettled about how close Dave was to Mo, in that he should continue with a written quirk of using Ha! at the end of a statement until this day, which seems to have its origins in the COG material....

Or not. Maybe both writers have a strange coincidental connection to an Appalacian school to which neither Verity or myself have been exposed....