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Freeheartandmind
I was a member of NSA in Chicago during the 1970's. The only arranged marriage I knew about was between Pasqual Olivera and his wife. Pasqual was gay and that was not acceptable to the cult since he was so high profile. Not to say there're weren't others I didn't know about. I only attended one wedding between members and it was non-arranged and ill-advised (he was terribly abusive and a cult favorite).
I was briefly familiar with Pascual and his wife (very nice people). They did a lot of the show/dance arrangements for NSA, both domestically and for tozan in the motherland. Even as a teenager, it was plainly obvious to me that Pasqual, despite being married, was a gay man trying to live a "normal" life. So, even though it was for appearances, they weren't fooling anyone. I remember quite a few gay/lesbian members in the cult org.. In fact, I can still name a few that are still plugging away at the practice much like they were in the 80's (I don't know if they've ever officially come out of the closet by now, though.)
As far as cult arranged marriages, ... yep, they happened all the time. In fact, Ethan Gelbaum is a prime example. An asianophile with raging testosterone kept under wraps (barely) because he was a cult ymd leader. He was eventually hooked up with a larger sized Japanese member. She's now active on the East Coast and they have two kids. That's how it works. You sign your life over to the cult, acquire a cult sponsored spouse, then you eventually have to sign your kids' souls over to the devil as well. A very, very sad situation for the kids. (Do they even have a choice?) Ethan always was the kind of socially-physically challenged type of individual that western woman wouldn't give the time of day to (I witnessed it, first hand). I hate to say it, but so are the Japanese cult women who they get fixed up with (the kind that have a hard time finding a husband in their homeland). Sorry if that comes across as harsh to anyone, but ... I'm just say'n, that's all.
Yep, I've seen it happen often in the cult. Always the same pattern for the most part and saddest of all, the offspring who are indoctrinated and shackled to the gakkai cult for future generations. From what I understand, there are ever growing numbers in Japan of second and third generation adults who inherited the cult pseudo-buddhist religion by birthright and want nothing more than to break away, but cannot or find it very difficult to do so. It's akin to people born in the Mormon faith as a family religion and understandably want to distance themselves from the crazy beliefs and insanity of their parents. Hardcore gakkai cult members, who force their children into it, are as ignorant as any other fundamentalist religious zealots out there. Some of the children manage to make the journey from ignorance to knowledge and extricate themselves, some don't and become locked in to perpetuate the cult - repeating the cycle.