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Makestraightpaths.com examines the teachings of the religious group
variously known as “the Family,” “The Family International,” the “Children of
God,” or the “Family of Love,” and evaluates these teachings from a Christian perspective.
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 and 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 a document known as the 'Charter,' first published in 1994.
This is a detailed set of rules explaining the rights and responsibilities
of individual members, of Homes and of collective areas. The Charter 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 in
addition to the regulations set forth in the Charter. Further, all Home
decisions should be aligned with the
directions given by the latest official internal Family publications. These publications give detailed instructions regarding
spiritual and practical matters, and cover almost every conceivable topic.
For
example, 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 instance,
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 these are mandatory requirements 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 in the Charter about such a transfer of power.
A mandatory 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).
© 2009 Make
Straight Paths
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