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The
Family International
About
Make Straight Paths...
If you have stumbled on this site
from somewhere in netspace, a brief word of explanation. The Family is a new
religious movement founded in America in the late 1960’s. It has been known as
‘The Family’, ‘The Family International’, ‘The Family of Love’, ‘The Children of
God’ and other names. While it purports to be a Christian movement, it has
attracted a great deal of controversy due to its radical interpretation of
Scripture. It is that radical interpretation that this web site examines in
depth.
For more general information on the Family, you could read
the entries in Wikipedia,
although as Wikipedia is public domain, the entries tend to favour the
most recent editor. There is a
detailed history of
the Family here, and an even more detailed, although
unfinished history here.
Both histories are hosted by
exFamily.org.
A note on Family
government
As an organisation, the Family walks an uneven line
between autocracy and autonomy. An autocracy is defined as a system
whereby ultimate authority rests with a single individual, and an
autonomy is a system when individual people or groups are
self-governing.
The basic unit in the Family is the ‘Home’. This is a
group of Family members who actually live together. They have chosen to
live with each other and have agreed to put the welfare of the Home in
which they reside above their own personal desires. The Home has a
degree of autonomy in that it may choose the particular ministries it
engages in, it may choose its own leadership, Home members vote to
accept or reject people who want to join their Home, they vote over
certain financial matters, they vote over matters of discipline and
punishment for infractions of the rules.
However, the autonomy each Home enjoys is severely
limited in that all Home decisions must fall within the boundaries set
for it by the Family’s Charter, and should be aligned with the
directions given by the latest internal Family publications. The
Family’s Charter of rights and responsibilities outlines numerous rules
and guidelines governing almost every aspect of daily, weekly, monthly
and yearly life in a Home, and any person who wishes to join a Home must
agree to abide by and uphold these regulations, as well as any
Home-specific rules that the Home members choose to put into place. The
internal Family publications give detailed instructions regarding
spiritual and practical matters, on almost every topic conceivable.
Therefore, although a Home may choose its own ministries,
those ministries should fall within those approved by the Family’s
administration, ‘World Services’ (WS’). Although a Home may choose its
own leadership, those Home leaders are subservient to area leaders, who
are appointed by WS. Whatever financial decisions a Home makes must
agree with the financial rules as outlined in the Charter. For example,
a Home may decide whether or not to purchase a new computer, but they
may not decide whether or not to send their
tithe money to WS on a particular
month, or how much to send, as that is a mandatory requirement detailed
in the Charter.
Ultimate authority in the Family, therefore, lies at the
top. The founder of the Family,
David Berg
(known to current members as ‘Dad’ or ‘Grandpa’) instituted the
autocratic nature of Family government. After his death in 1994, full
authority passed to
Karen
Zerby
(known to current members as ‘Maria’ or ‘Mama’). In the event of her
death, leadership will pass on to those designated by the Family’s
Charter. There are numerous details about such a transfer of power.
A condition to Family membership is obedience to
leadership. Any person who wishes to continue as a Family member agrees
to obey his or her leaders, whether they are the leaders of the Home in
which he or she resides, the leaders of his or her area or country, the
corporate authority of WS, or the person at the top (Maria/ Zerby).
A point of clarification is necessary here. As stated in
the introduction to this site, it is not the purpose of the authors to
attack any Family member personally, including past or current
leadership. This site does not and will not contain testimonies
denigrating the founder of the Family or anyone else. Information
regarding Family individuals is available on other sites, and there are
some links
posted here. There is a detailed article on
Wikipedia,
although it must be qualified by the knowledge that as public domain,
the article may be edited by anyone who wishes to add their own bias,
whether positive or negative.
This site does not address the issues of politics, power
and control. It does not examine the balance between autocracy and
autonomy found in the Family, or analyse the degree of dominance that
leadership exerts over members. It does, however, look at the
biblical
foundation for the autocratic nature of the Family,
including the principles of obedience to leadership.
About this site
This site does not as yet
provide extensive information about the Family, its history, founder,
current leadership, methods, or even explanations of its doctrines. The
authors of the pages published here have written with the assumption
that the general readership will be those who are familiar to some
degree with Family beliefs, practices and lifestyle. Most will have
spent or are considering spending time as a Family member.
This site will not be used
as a means of launching personal attacks against any current or former
Family member. The focus will be exclusively on the truth or error
contained within Family doctrines, when measured against the Word of God
in the Bible.
This site is not
intended and will not attempt to be a general catechism for believers. It will
not give you a well-rounded grounding in Christianity, because its purpose is to
investigate specific Family doctrines and interpretations to see ‘whether these
things be so’ (Acts 17:11). Therefore if you are a new believer, this site will
not suffice for your general walk with the Lord. Indeed, no matter how long you
have been a Christian, it is your responsibility to gain a thorough
understanding of the Bible, and this site will not accomplish that goal.
However, if you are interested in the scriptural backing behind various Family
doctrines, or if you wish to understand how Family members interpret the Bible,
this site may be of great assistance.
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