View source for Christianity Today: Accused ‘Family’ Members Released

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'''ARGENTINA'''
==Accused 'Family' Members Released==

[[:Category:Press:Christianity Today|Christianity Today]]/[[1994]]-03-07<br>

By Joe Maxwell

Twenty-one members of [[The Family|the Family]], an aberrant sect formerly known as the [[Children of God]], were released from custody in December after an Argentine Federal Court of Appeals ruled they had been wrongfully arrested.  Sixteen men and five women had been seized along with more than 100 children in September [[Legal Case Argentina, 1993|raids]] ordered by federal Judge [[Robert Marquevich]].  But an appeals court said Marquevich had operated out of his jurisdiction.  Similar raids on Family communes have occurred in [[France]] and [[Australia]] in the past two years.

Evangelical [[cult]]-watching groups say the Family's long-held policy of free sex among members has created potentially abusive situations for children ([[Christianity Today: Sex Abuse Charges Disputed|CT, Oct. 25, 1993, p. 93]]).  The Family admits that in the early [[1980s]] some communes experimented with sex between adults and children.  

Marquevich asserted that the inspections of children taken in the seizure revealed that 9 of the 137 showed signs of being subjected to "cruel and atrocious mistreatment,"  including [[:Category:Sexual Abuse|sex abuse]]. Bu Family spokesman [[Nigel Nelson]] says "appointed forensic experts examined the children and testified that they were absolutely free of any signs of abuse."
 
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