I dream the dreams the world says are impossible
I do the things the world says cannot be done
I hear the voice the world says has been silenced
I run the race the world says cannot be run

I believe in things the world considers insane
I love the ones the world has given up hope on
I believe my King is coming to reign
And with His coming a new day will dawn

Who are you? You might ask.
What is it that you do?
Whose voice is it that you hear?
What races have you been through?

I am the true revolutionary
The one most never hear about
I’ve given my life to my King
And His love I’ll never doubt.

I run the races He’s prepared me for
To His voice I’ll always heed
I’ll do the things He’s told me to
And dream the dreams He’s conceived

Though my journeys are often painful
And the battles rather scary
I’ll still go where he directs me
For I am a true revolutionary.

My name is Rebecca Brennen-Smith. I am a second-generation member of an organization that recently has sparked some controversy: The Family.

The reason I am writing this is because it seems that there are a few people in the world who would seek to do away with my way of life. Using the excuse of supposed past grievances and wrongdoings these insidious few are seeking to malign and destroy the lifestyle I have chosen, and the people I hold dear. I don’t take this lightly, in fact, I am going to do something to stop them. I’m going to stand up and rebut the lies that they have sought to spread. Let me tell you my story, and maybe from this, the other side or the story, you’ll begin to see the facts from the fallacies.

First off, I’d like to inform those of you who have been told that children in The Family are mistreated and abused that I have never been subject to any type of abuse, whether it be emotional, psychological, sexual, or physical. No one in my life has ever sought to harm me in any way, and I have never met anyone else in The Family who has either. Our parents and teachers took great care to see that no harm came to any of us children. So, out with that Lie.

Second, to those of you who have been told that children in The Family are undereducated I’d like to dispel that lie as well. By the time I was two I could read, by age three I could write, at four I was well into what most children in public schools would be learning in first or second grade. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a score lower than a B+ in any of my schooling, most of the time I got an A or an A+. I took a school test (required by the state I lived in) every year from the time I was 8 on to ensure that I was being well educated and never once did my test scores fall below above-average. When taking a year-end test in 6th grade my mother was told that I was too smart to be put into 7th grade so I was moved up into 8th grade. When tested at 14 for reading and comprehension levels, my mother was told that I scored at the level of a second-year college student. At 15 I was told by the public school teacher who was testing me that I would be eligible for a college scholarship if I so desired. I’m not saying all of this to boast about my intelligence, but rather to simply dispel the myth that Family children are undereducated. From the time I was young my parents and teachers poured a lot into my education, and today I am a confident, educated young woman. So, out the window that lie goes.

Third and last, to those of you who were the perpetrators of these accusations and lies, I’d like to dispel the myth that Family young people are mindless zombies who will simply sit around and let fools like you walk all over us and our beliefs. I suppose your purpose in spreading these falsities was to discredit and destroy the organization that some of you once called your own. I’m supposing that your end goal in all of this was that the Family would disband, be broken up, everyone would leave, basically just that the Family, as a whole, would end up non-existent. I’m supposing that in your quest to “free the young people of the Family” that you somehow believed that the young people of The Family actually wanted to be “freed". I’m supposing that you didn’t count on people like me, second generation young people of The Family, to actually stand up to you, and NOT let you take away our FREEDOM to live the way we wish to live. I’m supposing that you didn’t count on the FACT that not all young people in the Family are truth-hating, back-stabbing, self-absorbed, lie-spreaders like yourself. SURPRISE. You’ve gone and failed at all those things that I supposed you were trying to do. As long as one person is still in the Family, as long as one person is still fighting for what’s right, as long as just one person is still trying to win the world as a missionary, then you will have failed in your goals. I am one person, but I am not the only person. You still have a long way to go to destroy us, and you will not be able to do it as long as we are still breathing. So, destroy the Family? Over my dead body.

Oh, and by the way, if you were truly seeking to “save” someone, go find someone who actually NEEDS to be saved. Don’t go messing with other people’s perfect lives just because you’re miserable and have no life of your own. We are perfectly content where we are, if we weren’t, WE WOULDN’T BE HERE. So, all that to say, I’m perfectly happy where I am, I’ve chosen my vocation in life, I’m doing what I love as a full-time missionary who helps better people’s lives, and if you don’t like my life, since you are not the one living it, GO GET A LIFE OF YOUR OWN, and leave the happy, fulfilled, perfectly content people alone. Thanks.

Rebecca Brennen-Smith is a second-generation member of the Family International.