Quote
caitQuote
Apollo
Thanks Stoic,
It can't be healthy going from one ''community'' to the next in such a short space of time.
perhaps it can be. I expect that some communities might be so toxic that they poison one to even the most positive community alternative, which would be a pretty unhealthy situation, however if you were to emerge from your community experience with some regard for the remaining community members, if not for the teachings they follow or the discipline they subject themselves to, you could certainly then benefit from entering a healthy community environment.
I think a number of ex-JCs have followed that pattern, with a healthy community alternative providing them with the breathing space and environment in which to re-build an independant approach to life with the support and familiarity of a (different) community structure. If you've successfully subjected yourself to stringent community rules and unreasonable demands on your time, energy and other assets for a prolonged period of time, then as with nicotine, removing the crutch brings the danger of severe physical collapse/damage.
Quote
Apollo
It's clearly a more reputable group than the JCs (which wouldn't be hard to be fair). They don't have to answer to a psychotic cult leader for a start.
quite.
Quote
Apollo
Perhaps they do do some positive work but they also appear very bitter towards society and that can't be a healthy environment for a 16 year old lad who really should be concentrating on his education rather than trying to ''save the world'', and no doubt getting himself a criminal record in the process.
Well, I know it's good not to argue about religion, politics or sex, and I don't plan to mention sex at all just now, but must say, while it can be easy to confuse activism with bitterness toward society, most activists do have society's best interests at heart: like a parent knows what is in their childrens' best interests better than the children do themselves.
If activism doesn't work with education, then God help all the uni students, because they seem to make up the core demographic of activists world-wide. Don't underestimate Dann's thirst for education either, or his parents' wishes for him to access it. And at the same time, don't forget the Gianstefanis have been an almost independant micro-community of sorts, within the JCs, going back a while now.
Did they not part ways with the JCs over disagreements on child-rearing? Do you think Dave was pushing for them to allow Dann more freedom of education? I imagine that more likely they took a stand in the face of his attempts to micro-manage their family and limit Dann's academic choices, and if that is so, I say bravo Sue, Rols and Dann!