Selah

"Selah" describes secrecy, or the practice of being secretive. Taken from the Bible - selah meant "silence".

There are many layers of secrecy wrapping and protecting the core leadership. Some examples of "selah" practice:

• Disciples were given "Bible names" and were not allowed to know each other's "system name", so as to be able to answer authorities and accusers in honest ignorance.
• The group's policy of not disclosing what their true beliefs were, in order to avoid "persecution". Members show outsiders a facade, while leading very different lives and adhering to radically different beliefs on the inside.
• WS (World Services) units which handle publications and finances and operate in secrecy, even from most other members of the group.

Secrecy

A consistent trait throughout the history of The Family has been their aversion to government oversight and extreme secrecy surrounding leadership and finances. World Services (WS), the central administrative wing of The Family, continues to operate in complete secrecy, with very few members of The Family actually knowing their whereabouts or the identities of the members of those offices, most of whom operate under psuedonyms instead of their more commonly known "Bible names". Many of them have also legally changed their names and some sources have indicated that they have used fake passports in the past.

Senior leadership also typically still attempt to keep their legal names from common circulation, although this has became more difficult through the second half of the 1990s, due to legal action in many countries. In particular, a major court case in England brought to light many formerly guarded names of senior members

In The Family's publications, printed photographs of WS members were typically "censored" by means of a rudimentary pencil drawing pasted over the persons face. It was not uncommon in Family-produced art for David Berg's head to be replaced with that of a hand-drawn lion.

Following the death of Berg in 1994, all members of The Family were finally allowed to see up-to-date photographs of the organization's late founder. For many members this was the first time they had ever seen a photograph of his face. In recent years, Steven Kelly has carried (nude) pictures of Karen Zerby with him on travels to show members, since most have never seen a picture of their spiritual leader prior to this.

Although, by now, most of the group's members will have seen photographs or video footage of Karen Zerby and Steven Kelly, their identities and location are still heavily guarded by those members working closest to them. Recent photographs or video footage of Karen Zerby, Steven Kelly, and most WS members are not readily available even to fulltime members of The Family.