A New Start

[Uncle Buck]

Had the opportunity last night to meet with 6 former assembly members who were in the assembly before, during and after my involvement. It was encouraging and a good time. People have moved on and God is meeting their needs.
 Testimonies were shared. It was not a George or Leadership bashing time, but an honest time of open discussion about the error of our ways, Georges ways, Leadership ways and Assembly ways.  I feel blessed to have been able to do this.
Maybe for some this is'nt your cup of tea, but for me it was worthwhile.

Uncle Buck

[brian]

Testimonies were shared. It was not a George or Leadership bashing time, but an honest time of open discussion about the error of our ways, Georges ways, Leadership ways and Assembly ways. I feel blessed to have been able to do this.

it sounds really nice. i have enjoyed a few of those sessions as well, often with my family. i wish this bb could be more like that, and occasionally it is, but i'm not sure how to keep it there. for one thing, people that have moved on may enjoy discussing these topics for an evening or a few days but not all the time. i know i can get tired of talking about it pretty quickly unless i am really in the mood. also, there is the additional element of this bb that wants to ensure that george doesn't rebuild, which requires a more aggressive approach. and sometimes people that are just angry. these things are difficult to keep in balance without being overly heavy-handed. an evening with old friends sounds much more pleasant

So that's how these men in responsibility could sleep at night - they simply told themselves that George's problems, and David's problems, weren't their problems. After that meeting, which really saddened me, I knew I needed to leave.

yeah, thats not how i was raised, and i don't buy it as an excuse either. when you know a woman is in that kind of trouble you don't just turn a blind eye. sometimes there isn't much you can do, but often the only thing a woman in that situation needs is one person to believe them and show them how to get out of it. at least, that has been my personal experience.

brian

[just me]

Brian, you are lucky.  Maybe Midwestern boys were raised differently than California boys.  In California the men all sucked up to the leadership, so really leadership could tell us anything and we would do it.  And a lot of the leadership in California treated women as complete slaves (thanks to Betty's teaching on "Other side of the Garden").  The marriage relationships of so many leading brothers was disgusting. (Mark Miller, Jim Hayman, Jeff Lehmkuhl, Jim McAllister and on and on) You are absolutely right about the necessity to believe a woman when she claims she is in an abusive situation.  They speak up at great personal cost. 

Have you read the new story on GA.com from a guy who was a campus worker?  He tells how Scott Testa confronted one of George's accusers at this guy's wedding and called her a liar!  How absurd is that?  What woman would go around ruining her own reputation and supposedly tring to protect others by telling such a ridiculous story of an affair with a man 50 years her senior?  What could she possibly gain?  But after years of giving up our reasoning abilities, claiming others could hear God's voice, following men who were already compromised, beilieving in the need to be subject to the authority of elders and LBs -- we no longer could respond correctly to things that would alarm most people. That is how we all slept at night, "God knows.  God told George.  We trust in the leadership, therefore we are protected.  Blah. Blah. Blah."  Sick!
Me.

[brian]

In California the men all sucked up to the leadership, so really leadership could tell us anything and we would do it.

oh there was plenty of sucking up and obediance in the midwest as well, and there is much that i was a part of that i am not proud of. but the way wives were treated sometimes really bothered me, and the first time a woman came to me for help with an abusive situation in my early twenties i knew exactly what i had to do to help, starting with believing her. how these older men in positions of leadership could so horribly mishandle such tragic situations is incomprehensible to me. i mean, i knew almost nothing about life, but that was a pretty obvious one.

You are absolutely right about the necessity to believe a woman when she claims she is in an abusive situation. They speak up at great personal cost.

this bears repeating. the percentage of false abuse accusations is miniscule. women who report physical or sexual abuse generally have much to lose and little to gain from going public. so especially when more than one woman accuses the same man of crossing sexual boundaries, such as george, all doubt is removed from my mind.

Have you read the new story on GA.com from a guy who was a campus worker? He tells how Scott Testa confronted one of George's accusers at this guy's wedding and called her a liar! How absurd is that?

you're kidding! where is this story? i couldn't find it on the ga website.

brian

[just me]

Brain, here's the link
http://www.geftakysassembly.com/Articles/PersonalAccounts/IssueOfControl.htm

[Margaret]

Just Me--

Would it be ok to post anonymously the following quote in the comments section of the article," An Issue of Control"?

Scott Testa confronted one of George's accusers at this guy's wedding and called her a liar!  How absurd is that?  What woman would go around ruining her own reputation and supposedly tring to protect others by telling such a ridiculous story of an affair with a man 50 years her senior?  What could she possibly gain?

Brian--

Could we also quote you from below?

this bears repeating. the percentage of false abuse accusations is miniscule. women who report physical or sexual abuse generally have much to lose and little to gain from going public. so especially when more than one woman accuses the same man of crossing sexual boundaries, such as george, all doubt is removed from my mind.

Margaret

[just me]

It's ok with me Margaret.

Me.

[brian]

Brian--
Could we also quote you from below?

sure, quote away. i consider whatever i write on here to be public domain anyway.

and here is another quote you can add to that article if you like:

this is EXACTLY how MOST relationships were managed in the assembly. i have heard about and seen this exact story over and over growing up in the assembly. so the fact that the author didn't use anyone's names (except for a few higher-ups) really strengthened its impact on me, because it comes across as a kind of everycouple's retelling of how they got together in the assembly. one common and particularly tragic deviation from this oft-repeated drama was when a reluctant sister was pressured into marrying an especially loyal brother.

i enjoyed reading about how they found happiness together anyway. love conquerors all, eh? 

brian

ps this scott testa character sounds like quite the socially awkward bully. i mean, what kind of a person would pull a stunt like that at someone else's wedding??

[Jem]

"ps this scott testa character sounds like quite the socially awkward bully. i mean, what kind of a person would pull a stunt like that at someone else's wedding??"

Brian, where you went wrong with the above statement was thinking it was "someone else's wedding." Weddings were assembly meetings so fell under the domain of leadership to cooerce and control what goes on. The assembly required you to surrender your wedding, and for some who you married, your children, your money, where you lived to "the will of God" as interpreted by leadership. Scott, being a loyal, leading brother was just doing the only kind of dancing allowed at weddings.

[Oscar]

Folks,

Many years ago I joined the USAF.  Our nice uncle, Sam, sent all that day's take from the Los Angeles Induction Center down to Texas on the train.  For two days we had a grand time.  A bunch of 18-19 year olds out on our own w/o any supervision.  We hooted and hollered, played practical jokes on each other, ordered stuff from the snack bar, (and sometimes the other bar) sent to our compartments.  A teenager's dream.

When we arrived at Lackland AFB the Drill Sergeant appointed one of the guys as Barracks Chief...a sort of boot camp Sondercommando that was responsible for the guys in the barracks and had delegated authority from god, in the form of Sgt. Clark.

This kids name was Bruce (I forget his last name).  Suddenly, we had a Hitler clone in our midst.  Bruce was transformed by his new-found authority.  A completely new personality emerged!  Actually, it had been in their all the time until Sgt. Clark's "annointing" had fallen upon him. 

I knew Scott Testa many years ago when he lived at Steve Iron's house.  He was  a very sincere Christian, but very naive.  What GG said was taken as true, w/o question.  Nothing new there.

I think what you see today is the same personality developed and solidified. 

Regarding the Sondercommando within, in the assembly you saw this come out in almost every person place in authority.  Sad, but true.  Not the whole story, but definitely part of it.

Blessings,

Thomas Maddux

[Margaret]

Jem, would it be ok to post your reply to Brian along with his at the end of the Control article?

[Jem]

Margaret,

Yep.

Tom,

I remember Scott's sincere and naive days too. I remember mine. Lord have mercy on us all.