A Call to Arms!
GN 357 - A Call to Arms! — (5 pages, 1.4MB)
A CALL TO ARMS!
Guard Your Children!—And Attitudes!
By Paul Papers 9/88
When I was in India, an incident happened during the time of the evacuation. We had been sending out advisories & encouraging all of the shepherds to make sure that everybody had their papers all in order & got their passport requests submitted in plenty of time before their visas came up etc. etc. but lo & behold, we heard of this couple with just a few days to go before they were supposed to exit India requesting clearance to come to the capital, Delhi, in order to get a passport for their baby. As it turns out, when they went down to the Embassy, there was a big thick file on them, including a lot of FreeCOG material & a bunch of derogatory crap from their 10:36 parents, & the Embassy was not going to issue a passport until they could verify that all of their children were actually with the parents & not sent off to so-called "teen prostitution centres in the East" which FreeCOG was falsely accusing us of!
Well, of course, what made it very sticky was that one of their daughters had just left India for teen training, & their second oldest one was just about to depart when this incident happened! Well, thankfully they got out of the situation after we had real desperate prayer, but after I heard about the situation I got a chance to talk to them & they were just so wishy-washy about going in to the Embassy & standing up for their rights that they were complete push-overs for the System, so I gave them a little pep talk on this.
On top of it all, we found out they'd been actively writing their 10:36 parents faithfully & regularly over the years, & were therefore unwittingly continuing to supply them with all sorts of information about their whereabouts, number of children etc.—Like they were almost encouraging an attack! Even after the Lord miraculously supplied the passport for the baby—through an official oversight—without all of the children having to be present, the next thing that happened we heard the father had lost his passport & was going to have to go back to the same Embassy, & the mother also wanted to make one more trip into the Embassy for some other legal matter that wasn't at all necessary!
And on top of it all, they were planning to fly back to their home country where their very actively involved FreeCOG parents could have very likely been waiting for them, as of course the parents obviously had been in touch with the Embassy in Delhi & were probably quite aware by this time that they were going to be flying out in a couple of days, & therefore it would not be such a big deal to nail them right at Immigrations when they arrived!—Of course, it was a very serious situation since by this lime their 2 eldest daughters would not be with them (as the grandparents had feared), as they were in teen training centres in the East, & it could have very much jeopardized that whole Teen program because they'd shown so little wisdom, or even conviction.
Well, anyway, that was the lime that I ended up writing an open letter to all of the parents of teens who very valiantly, & with a lot of faith in the Lord & Family, had sent their kids off to teen training centres while they themselves would be returning to other fields in the West etc. The main thing I tried to do was encourage them to not tell their System relatives everything that was going on, or if they had to say something, at least to present it in such a way that it was understandable to a Systemite, such as, they were staying with their other teen friends, or with another couple temporarily etc., & not just left halfway around the World in God knows what dangerous Third World country, doing God knows what, at least as interpreted by their System relatives!
I was actually quite surprised to hear reports back that hardly any of the parents had even thought about these matters, or the potential serious consequences.. One couple had just told their System parents, "Oh, yes, we left our girls in India, & so-&-so is going to be taking care of them, flying to the East to a Family teen training set-up, & no, we don*t have their address yet. All I can tell you is the city they're in so far & we're not sure when they'll each be back." etc. LHus!
At this moment I guess I'd better stop & point out that I'm not try ing to be overly critical of our wonderful Family members, who have really given their lives for the Lord & the lost in many difficult mission fields around the World. It actually brought me to tears several times when I saw the utmost faith that they manifested, to first of all agree to forsake their children & let their teens go to these teen training set-ups when they themselves had to head back West due to their visas not being renewed in India. And I know it was with great pain & sacrifice, but above all, faith in God, that they just obeyed what Dad had said in "It's Almost Over" about heading back to the West, leaving a very loved mission field, & then on top of it all, committing their teens to the Lord.—Teens that they not only loved very dearly, but who were also some of their main helpers in their personal family unit, since most of these families were large with 5 or 6 younger children to take care of.
So if I am coming across critically at all I hope that it is in a constructively critical way, in that it seems that we just need to really be more aware of these things & not be such sheep that we don't realise that we're sheep in the midst of wolves, many of whom are dressed up in sheep's skin & motivated by the Devil to try to rip off our little lambs! (Dad: AMEN!) It seems to be a combination of factors in many ways. For one thing,al though we did all generally hate the System when we joined, we were nevertheless immature teenagers. & I think some of us have retained this not-yet-fully-mature attitude about things, or perhaps have not realised how a System parent or grandparent may react to things which to us seem very normal & straightforward because, thank the Lord, we do have the light of His Truth & they don't.
And then a whole other factor seems to be as a result of a persecution complex.—That because we are subject to criticism & outright persecution by those who don't understand the righteousness of our cause, when people do seem to react favourably, we immediately label them as a "real sheep" & we are often very gullible & naive, although our motivation might be very pure in that we really want to bring different people into the Kingdom & feed God's sheep etc.
I guess still another factor is that in many of the mission fields where we have lived or are living, we are guests there, & in a sense we have to tread softly & be aware of PR, & especially in the case of countries of the East, to relate to the people & do PR, we have to be very soft-spoken & easy-going & can't be too pushy or demanding. And in many ways, this is a real good balance to our otherwise aggressive Western nature. However, the real problem is that when we do come up against those from the aggressive Western cultures, again, it seems we're not really able to switch gears back & relate to them & consider how they think. In other words, we've "become one" with our mission fields too much!
If a legal matter does happen or a backslidden mate takes some of our children or some legal hassles occur affecting our kids, as to why we don't really pursue these things & fight with all of our might to get the kids back or whatever, again, perhaps we go too much to the extreme of being willing to "forsake all for the Lord". In other words, in a case where a backslidden mate like Barz' wife comes & rips off his kids & takes them back to the States, it s almost anathema to consider going back to the States to get them, or at least a tremendous step of faith to leave the mission field.
It's kind of like our attitude at this point is if the unbelieving depart, let them depart, or even if the unbelieving rip off little believers, well, we just tend to sort of accept it as the Lord's Will. (Dad: BAH!) Now, I guess there is a time & place for that, & especially you have to console yourself that the Lord is in control when there is nothing that you can do, but obviously there is a lot we can do that we don't do because of some of these passive attitudes. (Dad: Right!)
Another improper attitude has to do with "not looking back" regardless of the situation, or "you can't risk the whole army for just one or two soldiers". It seems we can easily take this counsel to the extreme and fail to defend the sheep or situations we are responsible for.
Now in most cases the answer is definitely to stay one step ahead of City Hall & try to avoid confrontations, & to flee to another city or country if we're persecuted. I guess this was easier when we were younger & more foolhardy, so to speak, but as we became older & our families increased & each move cost a lot more & we had the financial responsibility of our own personal families etc., I'm sure this has affected our willingness & readiness to flee. But even with the flee tactic, it's like you can have the vision of staying on the move but go to the extreme in applying "never looking back" & "there are bound to be casualties but we've got to keep fighting on". Again, in its proper context it's all very true but I'm just suggesting another possibility or reason as to why, when children are taken by authorities, our Family members might be inclined to not go on the attack to get them back.
I have heard of some parents who have tried legal confrontation to regain their children, like Andrew in India. I think his ex-mate Rapha left the Family & took all of the kids back to the States, & at the time of the RNR or thereabouts he had gone back to the States & attempted through legal means to get them back. I think his father is quite well-to-do & he paid for the lawyer costs & all. I don't know all of the details, I don't know if it actually came before the court or if he decided to return to the mission field while this was underway or what. But I think we're hearing of other cases like that, where people have perhaps attempted something with the courts, but not hearing of any positive outcome, sort of categorises it as a "closed door" in one way of thinking. In a sense we're still quite teen-like in our outlook on life, & if things don't happen right away it's like we consider it a sign that the Lord isn't in it because there aren't instant results. In other words, we don't quite have the patience to take things to court & get all involved in the System, it just seems like too big of a thing to us & therefore we don't actually consider it as an option. (Dad: I think no means is too great to rescue our poor little lambs from the wolves! "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep!")
One other factor, again using Andrew's case, is that he was an experienced leader who was now single & at that point he was asked to join FC, & I think that maybe is another element of it—Is that when it does happen, a lot of times, singles in a sense get gobbled up. There is a great need for them. That's the practical facts of the matter & obviously it is the Lord's plan to allow them to work in certain situations. But if this happens to someone, to try & kind of comfort themselves perhaps they wishfully conclude, "Well, maybe the Lord allowed all of this to happen so I will be able to join WS or maybe I'll be more greatly used." Again, it's kind of hard to talk about this as being a negative influence when it might very well be true in some cases, but I'm just trying to point out different reasons why our parents have had rather fatalistic, passive unfighting attitudes about some of these kidnapping cases.
Of course, if throughout the years everyone had gone home with the intention of getting their kids back should their ex-mate take them, or for that matter gone back to get then ex-mates back in the Family, & ended up getting tied up in a bunch of court cases & deprogrammers & lawyers etc., there wouldn't have been much of a work force left to establish the Lord's Kingdom around the World! And perhaps it is true that now is the time for a new phase in the Family. (Just like we're not trying to necessarily get everybody to join the Family fulltime—in fact, we're even discouraging it somewhat with the AIDS guidelines & all.) But now it seems the time has come for it, & especially with this recent wave that's apparently rising up again, if we don't show ourselves strong & we don't show that we're going to fight for our children, then our enemies are going to come in all the stronger. (Dad: Right!—And this is the start of such a drive!—20/20!)
Of course, this is nothing new because Dad warned us about this very thing well over 4-&1/2 years ago in the Letter "Guard Your Children", in which he said, "Of all the things the Devil & his people would like to get us on & the one which would arouse the most irate, incensed rage with which it is easy to whip up public sentiment, it's the child sex issue. They've tried everything else in the past as part of their campaign against us, but now they're really whipping up this child sex business. You could hardly touch a more sensitive nerve in most of the Systemites to enrage them to have them want to lynch you on the spot than to bring up child abuse & child sex, child pornography & all that kind of rot!—Which of course we're not guilty of!" And he warned us right then that I'm not trying to frighten you, but I'm just trying to warn you how careful we must be & that there are certain measures we'd better take to protect ourselves!"
And then Dad goes on to point out different safeguards. For example, the first thing would be to head to the mission field for a starter, because when you're not in your home country there's less of a chance of them doing something to you, & thank the Lord, a great deal of our Family apparently did obey this counsel. Although there have been a couple of situations where the arm of the law & the deprogrammers reached out into the foreign field, God only knows how much it has helped discourage many other attacks. I guess the problem now is that a lot of our Family is back in North America & Europe, on their home turf where enemies are stronger & more organised, & subject to the laws & ordinances of Man in their home countries, all the more reason for us to get fully prepared & psyched up for this now. (Dad: Amen!)
Dad also talked about the need to be legal parents, legal custodians, & also to just generally tighten up our security & legal papers & tighten up the protection of our children. In other words, just stay on guard, stay aware of what could happen, & apparently that's where we've gotten a little lax. But hopefully we can now learn from these few scattered incidents & if the poor children have to be martyrs (Dad: Why?—We need to be the martyrs trying to save'em!) for the cause, so to speak, as sad as that may seem, at least Lord help us to learn the lessons from this so it doesn't have to happen again! (Dad: Amen!)
I read through some of the different accounts of deprogrammers, & of children being seized by backslidden ex-mates from those listed in the PUBDEX, & in trying to glean some of the lessons that different ones testified of afterwards, it's quite obvious that the warning is already there, but we, as Family parents, perhaps just have been too unbelieving, lax or naive about the possibility of it ever happening to us personally.— A false sense of security which we need to shake if we're going to wake up to the Devil's devices & protect our lambs from his vicious wolves!
I know from being in the States a few years back, the System's influence is very cleverly deceptive, it's not always obvious outwardly, nor does it seem to back up all that Dad has said about the States, the Great Whore, etc.—Especially when you start receiving the "benefits11 of welfare & a relatively much easier life-style physically with all of the different conveniences etc. that you do sometimes have to sacrifice on the mission field,Fm sure it's easy for your convictions to wane & doubts begin to creep in. But even if your children aren't actually physically ripped off by Ted Patrick & crew, I can certainly testify of the terrible fruit & how the Western System—including its absolutely anti-Christ schools, peers, television, Satanism etc.—has devoured our children spiritually, especially teenagers! Their time spent in the American System, from my time in the States & then later at the Mexican TTC, I must say was a major turning point for the worse in the lives of most of the teens I've met! Sad to say, unless it manifests itself physically, most of these influences aren't even recognised if our guards are down until it's almost too late to rectify them. All I can say is a hearty "amen" to all that Dad has ever said about the States, & therefore those there have got to stay doubly on their toes or they're already on the serving plate to be the Devil's next meal. (lPet5:8)
I also read through the Letter "Contend for the Faith", & it's very clear what we as shepherds should do when we are confronted with System wolves trying to rip off our sheep, or in the case of our children, our tender little lambs. Dad specifically states that "obvious weakness only invites attack", & when we're these naive little believing trusting sheep we really are setting ourselves up for an attack. He said, "Remember, force or at least a show of force or the threat of its possible use by your forces on behalf of your Home or one of its sheep is the only kind of language some wolves understand.
"We are at war, brethren!—And it is not altogether spiritual. We don't like violence & we don't believe in violence!—But our enemies have made it violent, so you have to use the threat of violent defence to prevent their violent attacks!...If they're only slapping ^you, taking your coat or asking you to walk a mile, you can let them do it if you want to! That won't hurt you much! But if they're breaking & entering & violently attacking your sheep, it's time to defend them! ...You are shepherds, responsible for your flock, & you owe it to your sheep to protect them from wolves, even by force if necessary! Jesus used force on the money changers on 3 separate occasions! Jesus said that the good shepherd is willing to lay down his life for the sheep!—But the hireling fleeth when he sees the wolf coming!" (Dad: AMEN!)
"The worst mistake you make in this sort of thing is to let them get away with it scot-free without any resistance, encouraging both them & others to repeat this performance on later occasions; & every time you let them get away with it, they & others will be back for more! If the wolves can invade the fold easily & make off with the sheep without resistance, they're going to pass the word along to the rest of the wolf pack & you're apt to get mobbed if they find out you're not going to resist them! Wolves are usually notorious attackers of the weak, cowards who are afraid to attack the strong! ...Even the World will admire you if you stand up & fight for your convictions, even if they don't agree with you." (Dad: Amen!)
Well, I'm sorry I got so much into this but it really does seem that this situation with Barz' children getting ripped off is a real call to arms. & although it is something that we have let our guard down on for a number of reasons, despite Dad's warnings, thank God for this chance & counsel from Dad now to help us all get back on track in order to protect our little ones. (Dad: AMEN!)
God bless you! I'm so thankful & proud to be part of this wonderful Family! Love you very much.—Paul Papers (Dad: TTL! GBY!—Tx!)
