Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2008, Page 52
She lives her childhood with a malicious stepfather who enforces strict rules on his new
stepchildren and seems eager to follow Berg‘s and Zerby‘s directives on sexual activities
with children.
While her mother is often bedridden with difficult pregnancies, Kristina is sexually abused by
her stepfather. The abuse began when she was three years old and he performed oral sex
on her as she lay on her top bunk bed.
As he continued with similar sexual behaviors along with increased physical abuse, other
men in the group forced Kristina to engage in sexual activities she detested but endured in
silence. Kristina‘s molestation is conducted mostly in private. She is forced to have sex in
secret with relative strangers as she travels among small missionary homes in India and
other Eastern countries. For example, her stepfather hides his sexual exploitation of Kristina
from her mother. Kristina describes her mother as living in a trance while in The Family, and
it appears that her mother is not cognizant of her children‘s abuse until she is finally out of
the group.
Kristina‘s accounts of sexual activities with adults appear to be more hidden that those of
her sisters, yet one might wonder why she does not inform anyone of this behavior. Recall
that Kristina has read The Family literature in which the group‘s leader and prophet
endorses adult sex with children, so she has no reason to report this behavior as abuse to
her mother or other group members who should have protected her. She also knows that
whatever occurs in The Family is not to be revealed to those outside the group, and she
learns to live a ―double life‖ when she is around ―systemites‖ (those living outside the
Family). Yet the most redeeming characters in Kristina‘s story are in fact those systemites
she comes in contact with throughout her travels. It is by observing the differences between
the behaviors of systemites and the behaviors of adults in The Family that Kristina is
encouraged to testify with her mother in a court case involving child-abuse accusations.
Unfortunately, their testimony appears to garner less respect than that produced by the
scholarly experts with their theoretical alleged insights. It is two other systemites, her
grandparents on her stepfather‘s side, who defend her when a teenaged Kristina is trying to
force an apology from her stepfather (their son) for the sexual abuse she suffered as a
child. Overhearing the girl‘s plea, the elderly couple storm into the room, condemning their
son for the accusations they were loathe to accept previously.
In my mind, the support by Kristina‘s grandparents represents a dilemma we find in
academia. This incident is symbolic of how academics seem to find it difficult to accept
stories of abuse as valid until the stories hit home in a personal way. This may be why
scholarly research, which is biased toward producing findings that support the reigning
paradigms, ignores the anecdotal evidence in favor of dissenting theoretical views.
Regrettably, the popular theories on cults (new religious movements) have too easily
dismissed the stories of child abuse in cults as ―atrocity tales.‖ Only those scholars who
listen to stories such as those written in this book have honestly examined the issue of cult
abuse. And these scholars are typically not published in the academic journals that would
allow their theories to receive attention on a broader scale. Thus, the issue of why, how,
and which cults engage in this type of abuse, and how to stop it, is rarely addressed in
academic circles.
In Not Without My Sisters, the apologist scholars are subtly exposed as naïve or misguided.
In their brave effort to provide an honest account, the sisters reveal how the experts are
too easily convinced of The Family‘s innocence, the blamelessness of the leaders, and the
extent of the abuse. The authors suggest veiled deceit on the part of the academic expert
witnesses.
In contrast, in the book Jesus Freaks, Lattin does not engage in subtleties but explicitly and
intentionally exposes the apologists‘ agenda by devoting an entire chapter to their scholarly
She lives her childhood with a malicious stepfather who enforces strict rules on his new
stepchildren and seems eager to follow Berg‘s and Zerby‘s directives on sexual activities
with children.
While her mother is often bedridden with difficult pregnancies, Kristina is sexually abused by
her stepfather. The abuse began when she was three years old and he performed oral sex
on her as she lay on her top bunk bed.
As he continued with similar sexual behaviors along with increased physical abuse, other
men in the group forced Kristina to engage in sexual activities she detested but endured in
silence. Kristina‘s molestation is conducted mostly in private. She is forced to have sex in
secret with relative strangers as she travels among small missionary homes in India and
other Eastern countries. For example, her stepfather hides his sexual exploitation of Kristina
from her mother. Kristina describes her mother as living in a trance while in The Family, and
it appears that her mother is not cognizant of her children‘s abuse until she is finally out of
the group.
Kristina‘s accounts of sexual activities with adults appear to be more hidden that those of
her sisters, yet one might wonder why she does not inform anyone of this behavior. Recall
that Kristina has read The Family literature in which the group‘s leader and prophet
endorses adult sex with children, so she has no reason to report this behavior as abuse to
her mother or other group members who should have protected her. She also knows that
whatever occurs in The Family is not to be revealed to those outside the group, and she
learns to live a ―double life‖ when she is around ―systemites‖ (those living outside the
Family). Yet the most redeeming characters in Kristina‘s story are in fact those systemites
she comes in contact with throughout her travels. It is by observing the differences between
the behaviors of systemites and the behaviors of adults in The Family that Kristina is
encouraged to testify with her mother in a court case involving child-abuse accusations.
Unfortunately, their testimony appears to garner less respect than that produced by the
scholarly experts with their theoretical alleged insights. It is two other systemites, her
grandparents on her stepfather‘s side, who defend her when a teenaged Kristina is trying to
force an apology from her stepfather (their son) for the sexual abuse she suffered as a
child. Overhearing the girl‘s plea, the elderly couple storm into the room, condemning their
son for the accusations they were loathe to accept previously.
In my mind, the support by Kristina‘s grandparents represents a dilemma we find in
academia. This incident is symbolic of how academics seem to find it difficult to accept
stories of abuse as valid until the stories hit home in a personal way. This may be why
scholarly research, which is biased toward producing findings that support the reigning
paradigms, ignores the anecdotal evidence in favor of dissenting theoretical views.
Regrettably, the popular theories on cults (new religious movements) have too easily
dismissed the stories of child abuse in cults as ―atrocity tales.‖ Only those scholars who
listen to stories such as those written in this book have honestly examined the issue of cult
abuse. And these scholars are typically not published in the academic journals that would
allow their theories to receive attention on a broader scale. Thus, the issue of why, how,
and which cults engage in this type of abuse, and how to stop it, is rarely addressed in
academic circles.
In Not Without My Sisters, the apologist scholars are subtly exposed as naïve or misguided.
In their brave effort to provide an honest account, the sisters reveal how the experts are
too easily convinced of The Family‘s innocence, the blamelessness of the leaders, and the
extent of the abuse. The authors suggest veiled deceit on the part of the academic expert
witnesses.
In contrast, in the book Jesus Freaks, Lattin does not engage in subtleties but explicitly and
intentionally exposes the apologists‘ agenda by devoting an entire chapter to their scholarly
