Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading (BAR) — internal publications by The Family International which were required (under threat of excommunication) to be completely destroyed.

An example of such a publication is The Story of Davidito.

Advisories were periodically sent out to all Homes with instructions on which publications to destroy. The following is one such advisory:

THE PUBS PURGE! —An Urgent Advisory to all Family Homes!

—From WS June 1991

Dearest Family,

God bless you! We love you and are so thankful for you and your continued faithfulness to the Lord and the furtherance of His Heavenly Kingdom in today's Hell-on-Earth World! As you are probably well aware, in recent months our bitter enemies have launched an increasingly vicious persecution campaign against us in a number of countries throughout the World. The common tactic that these unscrupulous foes of our Family have being employing is to besiege both the local authorities and media with a flood of lies and horrendous accusations against us, thus virtually forcing the police to raid our Homes!

Because the main false charge our enemies have been drumming up against us is that we are guilty of "child abuse," some of these raids have actually resulted in our precious children being temporarily seized, separated form their parents and detained by the authorities, where they have been subjected to all sorts of psychological, physical and academic examinations. Thank God, in every one of these cases (except the Barcelona case, which is still in progress, but it looks like we’re winning it!–But please keep praying!) Our children have passed all of their inquisitors' tests with flying colours, and have repeatedly proven to be much happier, more stable, well-balanced, knowledgeable and better-adjusted than their peers and counterparts who have been raised outside of our fellowship! Praise the Lord! (Dan.1:15,17-20)—And as a result, our children have been returned to us and we have been cleared and declared innocent of all of the horrible false charges levelled against us by our bitter and disgruntled accusers!

As you know, some years ago we instructed all of our Homes worldwide to dispose of any copies they may still have had of the "Dito" book, as well as the "Adults Only" TK volume. We explained then that because of society's increasing hyper-sensitivity to any publications for or about children that could even be remotely construed as having any sexual overtones to them, the modern-day inquisitors and witch-hunters who are bent on destroying our Family and our work for the Lord are declaring that many of our Family pubs appear "evil" to them. (1Thes.5:22)

To our ungodly enemies and vengeful false accusers, some of our perfectly pure doctrines and views regarding God's Own natural and beautiful sinless creation are very "defiled" and "impure" in their soiled minds! (See Titus 1:15) In fact, they're so offended by some of our views (or their interpretations and misinterpretations of what they think are our views) and publications and pictures, that they seem bent on using (misusing) them to try to substantiate their very false and malicious accusations against us that we abuse our own dear children! So for this reason, we are now initiating an extensive "purge" of our publications. Thank the Lord, most of our publications will come through this purge with only a few pages missing.

We understand that a number of you have already felt the need to completely empty your Homes and libraries of many of your publications, due to persecution, investigations and bitter campaigns stirred up by our enemies in your areas. While implementing such policies of emptying your Homes of these publications has been a wise precautionary move, it has also meant that your Homes have had to totally do without many very helpful, inspiration and instruction and publications; which has been particularly sad in the case of our children, who sorely need good spiritually nourishing Bible-based publications. So for you who have already emptied your Homes of Family publications, this "lit purge" will not so much mean a loss or forsaking but a replenishing of precious pubs to your Homes and children! And though some volumes will now be missing a few pages here and there as a result of this purge, they will still provide you with a wealth of God's good Words and the Waters of Life which He has so bountifully given us, praise the Lord! So don't look on this "purge" as a loss, but as a means to now have access to many more pubs in your Lit Libraries.—Or at least a means of keeping those that are not so offensive to our embittered enemies!

For the sake of your children's well-being, as well as that of our entire Family, it is of utmost importance that you fully comply with the instructions and guidelines set forth in this Pubs Purge Advisory. For this reason, we are asking all of your Home Shepherd and Teamworks worldwide to make a complete inventory of the pubs listed in this advisory that are in the possession of your Homes' members Libraries. The few items that we have decided must be gotten rid of entirely should be burned as soon as possible. (Or otherwise totally destroyed. Please don't merely throw them away lest someone remove them from your Home's trash can!)

With the majority of pubs—those that need to have pages removed and destroyed, or portions blocked out with ink or white-out in the appropriate places—it's up to your Home Teamwork to decide exactly what will be the best means and method for your particular Home to tackle this project. But whichever method you decide is best of our Home, a responsible Home member such as one of your Home Teamwork members should be appointed to diligently oversee this project, to make sure that your Homes' Pubs Purge is done quickly and properly.

We are sorry to have to burden you with such an unpleasant task as burning and cutting pages out of our own books, but as "evil men and seducers wax worse and worse" (2 Timothy 3:13)—particularly our anti-Christ enemies–we feel that it’s definitely worth the time, trouble and sacrifice to "purge" these publications in order to do all that we can to protect ourselves and our precious little ones! Your help and cooperation is not only very appreciated, but is also very much needed, and in fact required, for the sake of your own children and their and your protection, as well as our Family's everywhere! So please do it now! So serious is this Pubs Purge that failure to comply with these instructions will result in your excommunication from our fellowship! We recommend that you complete the removal of all "offending" books and pages as outlines in this advisory within one week of receiving it, at the latest. Thanks so much!

"I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean! But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat...let not then your good be evil spoken of! Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace. For meat destroy not the work of God! All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for the man who eateth with offense. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. (In other words, if our meat is choking them, and causing them to choke us, we’re willing to let it go!) Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." (Rom.14:14-22)

"But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. (Many in the System, especially the Church System, are really weak!) Wherefore, if meat make my brother (in this case, the System) to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure: but even their mind and conscience is defiled!" (1Cor.8:9,13; Tit.1:15)

Love in Jesus,

Your World Services Family

P.S. Following is a detailed list of the books that are to be burned and gotten rid of entirely, as well as the specific pages that should be removed from within the remaining books and lit of your Homes' Library. Please fill in the appropriate boxes next to each of these listed items and return this list as soon as you have completed "purging" your Homes' literature.

(scan image of above document)

List of BAR Pubs

• The Story of Davidito

BAR Advisories

• June 1991
• March 1996