The dark side of the light chasers

from Eva St John - Monday, November 21, 2005
accessed 2216 times

Benz and Lisa wrote me comments below the ‘FBI Investigates Coast Sex Cult’ article which I ended up replying to and addressing at length, and realized it would be best to post it as a separate article. It’s about the concept of ‘not fighting TF’ but ‘just living and letting live’, and Paul and Joy Hardington (TF leaders/spokespersons) apparently being ‘nice people’.

Benz’s Comment:

ESJ,

I know my comment is going to draw disapproval from whoever but I think it's only fair to say that Paul and Joy Hardington took my sister in when she had nowhere else to go and had just given birth to my niece & for that I'm grateful. I'd also like to say I do think on the whole that Paul & Joy stand out in TF as good parents to their kids.

Whilst I don't agree with what they believe and I have to deal with the trauma of growing up in TF I am able to separate my past experiences from the behaviour and attitudes Paul & Joy do show to their own kids.

I wish Paul would take a further stand against Berg and Zerby etc, & I do think that things should improve in the sense that they should assimilate more into the community, but to me the fact is there comes a point where we have to live & let live & I wonder whether fighting extremism with complete rejection is really going to achieve a positive outcome.

I know that without the persecutions and raids TF would have never changed in the past, us kids who went to victor camps etc owe alot to people like you who spoke out. I just wonder if there is now a possibility for other ways of achieving success and eventually justice, if people like Paul were willing to talk without feeling attacked would that change anything? - Maybe I'm wrong to think this way, I don't know.

My Reply:
‘Paul & Joy stand out in TF as good parents to their kids’.

I’m sure Paul and Joy genuinely love their children as most parents do, and that they are capable of acts of kindness toward others, otherwise they would barely be human. (The question begs to be asked: Why was your sister giving birth all alone with nowhere to go in the first place, hmmm?) I’m sure the Hardingtons also believe that they ‘sincerely mean well’ in their deluded state. Many despots that have gone down in history as humanity’s greatest criminals have also been loving and doting fathers who were generous and considerate towards those they favored (or deemed ‘worthy’ of their favor), and yet they were also capable of committing horrific acts against, and ordering the mass torture and slaughter of, those they deemed ‘unworthy’. Hitler even considered himself to be a good man who was just misunderstood by those who were ‘less enlightened’.

As human behavioral scientists have proven through countless psychological tests, this is the inherent danger in the concept of ‘self-generated and self-informed sincerity’ and the notion of ‘exclusive entitlement’. It is the poison pill of all religiosity, cultural pride and fixed ideology – (Christian fundamentalism included). The idea being that if an individual believes absolutely in their chosen deity, guru or ideology, and they feel totally genuine and sincere in their own ‘good intentions’ and ‘well-meaningness’, that this somehow ‘entitles’ them and makes them ‘more worthy’ than others who are deemed ‘less enlightened’, ‘less sincere’, ‘less saved’, ‘less blessed’ and therefore ‘less worthy’. Then, no matter how much they may intellectually agree with ‘equality to all’, etc, this subtle sense of exclusive entitlement will inevitably cause them to justify engaging in – or standing by and allowing – the use of any means deemed necessary to arrive at a hoped-for ‘righteous’ end, even if it means lying, deceiving, conning, abusing, exploiting, manipulating, bullying, preying upon, slandering, etc. This is the dark side of the light chasers.

I’m sure P&J are also generally a ‘good sample’ as far as Family parents go, otherwise they wouldn’t have been placed in the position of ‘frontmen’ and spokespeople for TF. – I mean, for goodness sakes, they’re ‘getting paid’ to be a ‘good sample’, so to speak. And I’m sure they are likable enough people under favorable conditions. This doesn’t change the fact that they are also acting as con artists and liars - and are virtual avatars of the art of ‘deep denial’. For many years now they have been knowingly and blatantly lying and conning the public, the media, the courts, academics, child welfare authorities, their underlings, their own children, and themselves in regards to just how all-encompassing, manipulative and conscience-numbing Berg’s and Zerby’s indoctrination was/is, and how widespread these ‘few isolated cases of abuse’ were/are, and how incredibly damaging the kind of upbringing Berg and Zerby have condoned for TF’s thousands of children truly has been.

“I wish Paul would take a further stand against Berg and Zerby etc”.

Huh? When have they ever taken a stand against Berg and Zerby? If they truly had, they certainly wouldn’t be in the position of ‘leaders and spokespersons’ who are quite literally standing in place of Berg and Zerby to the public as their ambassadors and representatives. If nothing else, they are guilty of conspiring with, representing, aiding, abetting and covering for a global religious crime ring (clothed in a lofty ideology) which is being led by, and is harboring, pedophiles and child abusers. And as such, they must be inwardly ‘in sync’ and in sympathy with these perpetartors, otherwise their own conscience would prevent them from continuing to conspire with them, cover for them, and hide their crimes. So no matter how ‘genuine and sincere’ they may personally feel or act towards those in their favor, the bottom line is they are still ‘sweet, smiling predators’ under the psychic control of an external ‘commanding entity’ whom they have given over all their power to.

“..to me the fact is there comes a point where we have to live & let live & I wonder whether fighting extremism with complete rejection is really going to achieve a positive outcome.”

The only way we’re going to be able to heal ourselves and our world is to ultimately, on a very personal level, completely reject all human-contrived, ideological extremism. ‘Personally rejecting’ though, is quite different from ‘fighting’ extremism. “Fighting extremism’ is just another form of extremism. But I don’t see what we are doing here as free-thinking, free-talking ex members as ‘fighting TF’, as some do. Telling the truth publicly isn’t ‘fighting’, it’s just ‘being honest in public’. It’s just that the truth happens to have a very destructive quality when it comes up against delusion and deception. That can’t be helped, but it doesn’t consist of ‘fighting’. One only needs to fight when one has something to defend. Telling the truth is not ‘defending’ anything, it’s just telling the truth. TF has to ‘fight’ because they have so many illusions, and lies, and denials, and perpetrators to defend.

I don’t ‘hate’ TF members. I understand why they are the way they are and why they’re in such denial. Mind control is real, no matter how much TF and other cults and their few uninformed, duped academic cronies deny it. It’s been studied, written about and practiced at length on the masses by the CIA and many scientists, governments and corporations for the past 50 years. TF is just a concentrated microcosm of the macrocosmic sickness that is the global ‘pecking order culture’ of ‘power over others’ that we have today.

And whilst privately rejecting extremism in terms of endeavoring not to be personally influenced by it, on the philosophical level I’m completely okay with other people believing whatever they want to believe - just as long as it does not entail harming, exploiting, misleading and deceiving others. I’ve had many a fascinating conversation with extremists and fanatics of all kinds of ideologies and beliefs, and am quite happy to ‘live and let live’, knowing that ‘fanatic belief’ in something is just a stage in the evolution of individual human consciousness. But when you know of crimes being - or having been - committed against innocents in the name of some ideology, it is one’s duty as a human being to speak up and tell the truth about it - and to keep telling the truth about it in the face of all their denials, attacks and avoidance tactics - so that ultimately the perpetrators will be forced to face the facts, clean up their act and change, so that no more harm is done.

I am also all for not becoming vengeful or letting all this stuff take over your life. The most important thing is self care, self healing, getting on with your own life and – as you said – ‘living and letting live’ as much as possible. I am so not interested in TF or its future. There are so many other amazing things in this world to be interested in. I’m only really interested in balancing out all their lies and denials by telling the truth, for the sake of all the victims who have been damaged because of them.

Lisa’s Comment:
“I grew up with Paul and Joy and they have always treated me, my friends and family very well. Even once we left they where still supportive and helpful. I thought it took a lot of Paul to say, David Berg was wrong, and I know for me it meant a great deal. They were there when I was abused by one of the boys in our home and they stood up and made sure he was dealt with.”

I’m glad Paul’s ‘confession’ meant so much to you. It definitely represented a big rent in the TF’s ‘whitewashed façade’. But it might be wise to balance this out with the fact that he did say it when he was well-and-truly cornered, and the rest of the time he was still reeling off TF’s fabricated ‘party line’ on everything else.

Another very important point is that I have personally heard P&J publicly state that they have never seen or known of any instances of the sexual abuse of children in TF. And yet like every other FG in the 80’s, they too would have had their own copy of the Davidito book and ‘Heaven’s Girl’, and would have watched the strip-tease videos with little naked girls on them, and would have studied the ‘Last State’ and ‘Zac Attack’ letters and the hundreds of other missives which were quite literally institutionalizing the abusive treatment and exploitation of thousands of innocent children and teens in TF.

And now here you are saying that Paul and Joy Hardington were personally involved in ‘dealing with’ your own sexual abuse which was obviously happening directly under their noses as Family supervisors.

So this proves that they are publicly lying and covering for themselves and TF and its twisted teachings. The fact that they knew how to ‘act lovingly’ while going into ‘damage control’ and doing a bunch of ‘counseling’ and ‘praying’ and possibly punishing or moving the perpetrator elsewhere, does not let them off the hook as being co-conspirators with, and condoners of, the ultimate perpetrators of all these crimes against the SG’s, their beloved Berg and Zerby.

Tell me, did they report your abuse to the Police or the child welfare authorities? Are you aware that if they didn’t, that that is a crime in itself? If the perpetrator was a minor, was he taken to any form of professional counseling outside TF? Were you offered any form of professional counseling? And did P&J investigate thoroughly where this SG could have learned such behavior, and dig deep into the source of the problem? If they didn’t do all these things then they were guilty of gross dereliction of duty as supervisors in anyone’s books.

Remember, Australia’s Governor General was publicly sacked for having not reported a sexual abuse case in the past while he was a church clergyman. He instead ‘dealt with it internally’ and then ‘covered it up’. This act is considered a crime. Why? Because it sends a message to abusers that they will only ever get their hand slapped if they’re caught, so they continue with their abusing. I would be interested to know if the boy who abused you has re-offended since. It would not be surprising.