This is what I have to say about the recent events and the stance some are taking towards the malicious behavior that was manifested.

There is a story about a discourse between a university professor and his student.

The professor asked this question “Did God create everything?”

A student answered “yes He did!”

The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”

The student was quiet while the professor boasted to the rest of the class about how he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student then raised his hand and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”

Scoffing the professor replied “Of course it exists. Have you ever been cold?”

The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero is the total absence of heat: all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature.

Cold does not exist of itself. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat".

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”

The professor responded, “Of course it does.”

The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

Now uncertain the professor responded, “Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”

To this the student replied. “Evil does not exist sir, or at least does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”

The professor sat down.

My name is Tory Perkins. I am 18 years old and was born and raised in the Family. What I have seen and heard about recent events has been sickening and infuriating.

First a completely inhumane and PRE-meditated act of violence was committed against an innocent woman that I have never met, but which I have heard from individuals who have lived with her, worked with her, been taught by her or simply met her, that she was a wonderful person who “wouldn’t even hurt a fly.”

This first act of terror was horrifying, especially to someone like me who has been raised in an environment that is diametrically opposed in every single way to what was enacted. The fact that the individual who perpetrated this act had also been raised in the same environment, and was exposed to the same mores and morals, added to my shock and horror.

However, what I saw unfolding shortly after almost took my Christian graces to the limit. I saw individuals rallying together and speaking out. Not against the horrible crime, but instead, unbelievably, against the innocent victim of this gross action. Persons who had supported Ricky Rodriguez, his sentiments and even violent intentions while he was still alive, were now supporting his violent actions and even calling for others to do the same.

This disturbed me.

I guess I’m just not into extreme premeditated violence.
I hope that doesn’t make me abnormal in anyway.

It didn’t stop there though. These very vocal and vehement individuals began to place the blame of this crime on a missionary movement that both the murderer and victim were formerly a part of. A movement of which I am, and hope to always be a part of, The Family.

That’s when I began to hear large accusations being made against the Family, those that I live with or have lived with, those that I love and that love me. These things were being said by people that I couldn’t tell you who they were if you shoved them in my face, and who also don’t know a great number of the people they are including in their bold accusations, or as I rather fancy calling them….lies!

There are statements being made by those who used to be a part of the loving Family that I live in, but whose bitter and hatred filled characters are hardly recognizable. I have talked to friends who personally lived with and were very close to the individuals who are bringing these exorbitant accusations, and they are shocked and hurt by what they are saying.

I have been hearing that there are thousands of children in the Family today who are methodically abused. I have heard us compared to Charles Manson. I have heard the people I love being slandered and accused of horrible, horrible atrocities. Things that go on every day in the world at large, but which are very much unheard of in The Family. Come ON! Don’t insult my intelligence while at the same time showing me how lacking yours is. If I needed someone to make an uneducated guess about what my life and the lives of my friends are like, I would say so, and you excellent fibbers would be the first on my list to call! Other wise…let me speak for my SELF! If I saw something that was wrong or hurtful going on, there is no way I would be able to stay quiet about it, just as I am not able, right now, with this.

But still it seems I have to struggle to keep from being swept under these proverbial blankets that I and thousands of other members of the Family like me are being forced under. Well, here I am, one of the many faceless people that have been unwillingly brought under the Godzilla sized accusations (lies) that are being so boldly flung about us. I am not going to let myself be pulled under their false overgeneralizations. Take your slimy, smothering covers off of me! I refuse to be silenced while the very thing that I am living and breathing for is being slandered.

Guess it must be the BOLD-FACED lies I just can’t handle.

God’s on my side and we’re taking the blankets!

We are a family of love. I have always felt loved, secure, safe, protected, and like there would always be someone there to help me, and I know hundreds of fellow members of the Family who also feel this way. I don’t know every single member of the Family as there are thousands, but I have met enough, heard enough and seen enough to know the Family is a safe and awesome place to be. If someone is sick, they are given time off and someone covers for them in order that they might recover. If someone has a debilitating disease, the other members pull together to help them get the needed care. If someone has children and needs help, there is always someone there to pull together with them so that the children’s needs are met and they are given the best of care.

I have scoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine) that is at times very painful. I have gotten more support and care then I would have gotten anywhere else, and I get all the help, kindness and concern that I would ever need. This is what I have seen from my 18 years in the Family, and this is what I have heard from many others that were born and raised here.

If there have been mistakes or wrong things done in the past, they have been apologized for, and the needed rules were put in place in order to prevent them from happening again.
I don’t know how many times we need to reiterate this before it starts registering in some poor folks’ overly dense skulls! What is it that keeps you from hearing us? Poor diet? Abdominal gas? Do you think you could maybe fix the problem so we can get past this?

With all the horrible things that have been said I had to wonder what would cause those who had grown up in The Family’s love-based communities, given all the best care, and helped to the best of our ability when they chose to leave and live a more secular lifestyle, to then turn around and blame an act of horror on the very thing that had been a source of good in their lives. Not only that but viciously trying to maim and hurt their former brothers and sisters, and destroy their lives.

I came to the realization, that this recent act of terror along with the bitterness and hatred that a few of these former members of the Family are feeling, were not a result of their unusual yet excellent upbringing, but rather a result of their rejection of this upbringing and all the goodness that it stood for. It wasn’t a result of the good that was afforded them in their lives, but rather a result of the absence of it.

Just as cold does not exist of itself, but rather is a word that describes the absence of heat.
Just as darkness does not exist, but is a word that describes the absence of light.
So is this bitterness, hatred and evil that these people have a result of the absence of love and the God of love in their lives.

To blame this murder of Angela by Ricky Rodriguez on the Family would be like blaming darkness on the presence of the light. When in reality, the darkness is there, because of the absence of light.

To those of you who in your rejection of the love that was given you in your life are given more and more over to feelings of hate and revenge. Please realize that the path you are on can only result in pain as it did for Ricky. Just as the end result of no heat is cold and cessation of movement. So the result of the path of evil, hatred and revenge, is pain for you, those you love and who love you. Here is my hand if you need help turning on the heat and the light, but then please, SIT DOWN.

Tory Perkins is a second generation member of the Family International.