Thanks. It was weird hearing his voice again afer so many decades. Sounded very feeble and not fully coherent. Maybe if he sounded that way back in the day not so many of us would have become followers. QuotePninaruthQuotemarvinWhat are the dates of these sermons please. Thanks Marvin, It says '01
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What are the dates of these sermons please. Thanks Quote Pninaruth]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyOEf6petsg Here is some more of his coherent and awe inspiring words (please note the sarcasm) No Fear Folks!
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I am so terribly sorry about what happened to you. I wish there were a way to punish the people responsible for what happened to you and to make you feel better about yourself. You are an innocent victim of other people's cruelty and sickness. I find it so sad that your family knew about what happened and was able to be paid for their silence. I pray that someday you can find peace and happi
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Amen brother. SO much energy seems to be spent by some posters on this board attacking others and not doing anything constructive but venting anger and hatred. This shotgun approach has no value here. Moderator can you please intervene against abusive and inflamatory statements made with proof or evidence. This board seems to becoming a soapbox for a few and not serving the good of those who seek
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Hang in there Lightdancer7. There are many of us on this board who want to support and encourage others. If you have read my posts you know about me. I still cannot belive I was blind to what was happening until "Sunday bloody sunday" as one of our other posters put it. Please feel free to reach out to me if you want. I still carry around guilt over my blindness.
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Happy July 4th to everyone. We live in a country where each of us is free to learn the truth about all our leaders and then uase the brains we have to make decisions for ourselves. We are all free now from the brain washing of cults and let's hope we stay that way. Living and surviving a cult experience only made each of us stronger in the end.
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Sallie you sent me a Private message which I responded to. However your mailbox is full and I received a message stating the one I sent could not be delivered.
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Sallie I am not trying to "control" any conversation. I merely joined this discussion group to try and reconnect with old friends who I have not seen in decades. I was shocked and am very disturbed that people I looked up to and felt love for have been found to be involved either directly, indirectly or had knowledge of horrible things being done to others. I am thinking of just not log
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Sallie. Wow talk about narrow minded and defensive. All I asked was why you chose to use my name in your post. Answer or don't answer, do what you want. At least I have the courage to use my real name on these posts, unlike so many others who hide behind screen names. I don't know what I did to offend you but I did offer an olive branch so to speak. So nice to have it smacked back in my
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Sallie since I think you have for some reason added me to a group of people who have had involvement in the past with abuse I am curious why you would do that. Your play on my name in the leader of the ficticious group you put together makes me believe that. What have I done to lead you to even think I have that in my past. If I am wrong then accept my apologies. If not please explain yourself.
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Thasns Concerned. I guess as with all of us, sooner or later the truth will be found about intentions. It is just so disturbing to hear of abuse in that household. I have so many good memories of Don and Alise and their children when they were young.
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Concerned, Sorry about your skeptisim but this is not my first post. I have been on this site for many months now. My only concern was for the children. I was very close with Don and Alise and their children and I was shocked to hear even an allegation of abuse.
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Thank you for clarifying that. False allegations are wrong to spread around and should be stopped.
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Not sure what it is that you are vehemently disagreeing with me abiut. Can you please clarify that. Thanks Also the examples you give about the psychological effects of "community life" can be applied to any radical religious or cultural group that has made a decision to live among society but not within it. My concern is for the children and young people living within that community a
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What was that about one of the Smestad grandchildren being abused?
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Concerned I can hear the emotions in your posting. This is a tricky area but one that should be addressed. We need to be careful and not become what we don't like in others. Just because our beliefs are not the same as others, even those who still follow JH's teachings, does not give us the authority or right to tell his followers they are wrong. There are many, many religious groups in
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I agree with dkj17 without even knowing who she is. These things happened a long time ago and so many of us have moved on with our lives and grew and prospered. Certainly the first several years, or even decades, were tough on many of us. Some of us went through terrible times with our flesh and blood families who could not accept or understand what we were doing. My own parents and immediate fam
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I've been following the dialogue between Surfer54 and Exfollower with interest and some concern. I have already stated a few times that I was an elder for the last few years of the family before everything broke loose. There was definetely a militaristic theme to some teachings that focused on the "end times". We were taught to be prepared for surviving in a world that would be vio
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I'm guessing TBC = To Be Continued.
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Welcome to this group and thank you for your kindness and offer to help people who seek it out. My advice is to be very careful and alert if anyone contacts you. Members of the fmaily that have existed for tjis long must be skilled in hiding their identities and beliefs. Please be careful and do not offer to meet anyone unless you have friends with you.
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Thank you for doing all the research and posting these articles. I am saddened to find that even after 30 years the family is still active and growing.
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I am so sorry about what happened to you. Don was a good person at the time I met him, 1792, and was always there for me in good times and bad times such as when my father passed away. he actually married me and my ex-wife in the old Christ Lutheran church. Both my ex and I are born Jews so we were treated very well. I eventually was elcted as one of the family elders and stayed as one for the la
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Can you tell me when he died. I checked the Newsday obit notices and it does not come up. I checked under Bob and Robert gross. Thanks
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Sally you sound as if you know a lot about what's going on even today with them. Details like the name of a course Gary teaches, diet style and what's this about alien talk. This is so far out that it would be amusing if it weren't so serious. Based on my own experiences "back in the day" I would venture a guess that you are right on when you say Judaism and Kabalah are f
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Sally I wish I knew what drove them to do what they did. I'm not an expert on cult leaders so I can't say how they operate. From what I do know is that they take a kernel of truth and then grow it into something they can use for their own means. That way the people listening to them say "that sounds about right let's hear more". All part of a subtle brainwashing until you
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All I can comment are is based on my understanding of Judaism and a smattering of even some Kabbalah. The "passing of the seed" is a vile and disgusting concept if it is done as some sort of mutual masterbation practice. It has no basis what so ever in anything even remotely related to Torah observance. It is nothing more than a sexual act disguised as a religious practice to an innocen
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I would like to hear from others who were in the same situation I was years ago and hear how they are now doing. I was very close to a lot of people and am sorry that so many were hurt by JH and his folloers. I am upset that I was not aware of what was going on even when I was an elder in the family. Things were kept from me that if I had known about I would have left and notified the authorities
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I don't need to ask around. If it happened then it happened. If it happened between adults that is one thing. If minors were involved that is another situation entirely.
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I agree they should speak out if they have first hand knowledge of abuse. No question about that.
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Sally there is so much mystery and secrecy about what happened in the house JH lived in as far as the "passing of the seed" that unless someone comes forward who witnessed it no one will really know. When I was involved to the degree I was involved, which you know was fairly deep, I always thought that term was symbolic of the passing of spiritual knowledge and understanding. I never on
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