The HomeARC Purge--Explained!
Latest News Flashes!--No.270 CM 6/98
By WS
The HomeARC Purge--Explained!
Question from Juan in El Salvador:
Thank you for sending the HomeARC CDs; they are a real blessing. I had a question: A lot of the old "political" Letters which were once considered our basics are not included in the HomeARC. Is this due to any particular reason besides the one found in the FAQ section of our member's only site?
Reply from the WS HomeARC team:
Dear Juan,
God bless you! Thanks for your good question regarding the missing older political Letters. Several others have asked similar questions. Astute HomeARC users may also have noticed that some of the older MLs have undergone a further pubs purge. The HomeARC library has, of course, undergone the same official pubs purge as the older printed pubs. However, it has been necessary for the older pubs in the HomeARC Library to undergo a further and more thorough HomeARC purge (which is still in progress) for the same reasons as outlined back in 1991 in "'The Pubs Purge!'--An Urgent Advisory to All Family Homes!"
Because electronic text is much more easily and thoroughly searched, some material could be compiled and used out of context if the HomeARC fell into the hands of those intent on causing the Family harm. Therefore, after prayer and counsel, WS felt that for the protection of the Family and their children, each older pub should be thoroughly studied. This work has been done on a majority of Letters, but it still remains to be done on the older Letters that are not in the HomeARC at present. It is a mammoth task and one we appreciate your prayers for.
The HomeARC purge is not screening items on the basis of controversy, but more on the basis of removing some text (as little as possible) based on the following criteria:
1) "Know your meat or get butchered": That which could be misunderstood by authorities in closed countries, causing the Family to lose their freedom to minister in those countries, or worse. Dad said, "Better not to give it at all than to give the wrong literature to the wrong people!" (ML #923:12).
2) "Let's just expunge it and wipe it out!" (ML #2928:11): In "The Un-Cursed Sons of Ham," Dad gave this order regarding previous teachings on this subject. The HomeARC purge simply calls attention to this Letter with comments in brackets placed in appropriate places in the older Letters.
3) "I can honestly say that I'm sorry that those Letters have been published publicly, especially that they have fallen into the hands of our enemies and that people who are unspiritual, who don't understand the things of God at all, are now reading them and using them against us, and they sound bad to them because of the way the world is conditioned mentally" (ML #2843:17). The HomeARC is an electronic republishing of past pubs. The editors reserve the right to act on Dad's wishes not to republish some material which he acknowledged could harm the work if misused. Mama writes that Dad "approved of our lit purges, which expunged all such literature [described above], no matter who it was written by, including his own. If we had known then what we know now, we would not have published this material" (ML #3016:27,51).
The purpose of the HomeARC is to preserve the pubs and make them more accessible than ever for the Family. In balancing an easy-to-use program with the need to maintain security for the Words, we are satisfied that we have found an acceptable balance in the HomeARC, thanks to the HomeARC purge. The alternative to the HomeARC purge would be to not include a substantial number of pubs on these CDs, due to their circulation being so widespread. In the HomeARC we are certainly not shying away from the abundance of controversial subjects such as FFing, sharing, politics, doctrine, sex, the Endtime, etc., but the few deletions made in the HomeARC version are to help ensure that material won't be taken out of context and used against the Family.
Of course, the Words will always offend the ungodly, and the righteous will certainly suffer persecution. The production of the HomeARC is evidence that WS and the whole Family are not ashamed of the Words, but are rolling the gold more than ever!
In many cases, the HomeARC preserves some pages which were "lost" in the paper pubs purge. For example, the words on the back of some "cut" pages are preserved in the HomeARC. Also, some pages which were entirely purged (because too much of the text or pictures would have had to have been blacked out and whited over) have parts of those pages preserved in the HomeARC.
Please pray for those going over the remaining hundreds of MLs which need to be examined before the next HomeARC is prepared--HomeARC '99! God bless you as you continue to reach El Salvador! We love you!
