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>>I wonder what´s really going on. They got power and >>money obviously but the third one.. sex? Didn´t notice >>anything but I wonder what´s going on at the celibate >>meetings. > >Individually, they do not have money, not in the sense >that we would normally think of it. The community has >a lot of money, but no single person has control over >it, so I would have to disagree with this impression. >Power, yes, they do have a lot of that, but again, >individuals do not use it for anything which we on the >outside would envy them; the point being that when >people talk in such terms about cults, ordinarily, >they describe the way that recruits have nothing while >leaders have wealth (flashy cars, expensive clothes, >etc) - that is not the case here. > >As for sex, while there are aberrations of behaviour, >it is not policy, and in point of fact, celibacy is >more commonly the leaders' ambition for the church. I >do know of cases of leaders abusing their power in >this particular area, but their fellow leaders will >regard this with disapproval, so again, I think your >characterising of the leadership is not really very >well informed. > >I think you are naturally looking at this from the >point of view of someone looking in - imagining that >perhaps the cult seeks the same things that people on >the outside would want. I do not think that is the >case. > >Power in itself is a powerful driving force, that and >the ability to have others in submission, rather than >themselves having to submit. > >I do not think that there is any single individual >person whose lifestyle (money, power or sex) is in any >way enviable for someone who lives a normal life. > >You make a lot of valid points and some of your >observations are very sound, but to be fair, you say >it yourself, they are based on very little contact (a >meeting and a couple of visits), and I wonder if your >discomfort with displays of singing in tongues etc >(which are not unknown in other churches), made you >inclibed to suspect "brainwashing" etc?
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