Hi, I’ll start Speaking Out by saying a little bit about my life. You have the right to believe what you want after this, but in my opinion making a well rounded decision or forming a well rounded opinion is; hearing BOTH SIDES of a story first and only then voicing and making my public opinion.

My name is Andrew Harder I am 22 years old born in Brazil. My dad is American and my mom is Brazilian. I was born in the group currently known as “The Family International” and I lived in it till I was 7 years old, which was when my parents decided to take a break from their full time service in The Family and move on to a place of lesser commitment currently known as the FM (Fellow Member) Family.

According to what our bitter former members allege, we young people are in the Family because we don’t know any better, that if we could “only see” what life outside the group is about, we would choose other than to dedicate our lives to such a horrendous group and cause, which believes in dedicating themselves fulltime to helping others and spreading the love of Jesus.

I have a lot of vivid memories of my childhood in the Family up until the age of 7 and can affirm with all certainty that I was not abused either physically, sexually, or emotionally, neither have I heard or seen any of my friends suffering any kind of abuses. I know several Family members and former members around my age (which according to some, is a generation of abused kids) who can all attest to the same thing. What I think of when I hear these stories and lies is, “What the hell is wrong with these people?”

Why not get real and move on with their lives and trust that we, “the abused generation", are happy in the Family and that if we were in an environment where there were any kind of abuses either to us or to our kids, believe me, we wouldn’t be here. Now, since there isn’t any of what they speak of (I say that with all the conviction in the world) I’ll just stay in this missionary group where I’m happy and fulfilled. My hope is that those of you, who are trying to destroy our way of living, will SOON find a place where you are happy and fulfilled as well.

Well, after I left the full time missionary service with my parents, my 6 brothers and sisters and I lived a life that you would call normal in society’s eyes. We joined a regular school, (rather than the home schooling we had in the Family) adjusted well, and made pretty good grades. One of my sisters who had been home schooled the first 8 years of her life won, “Best Student of the Year” in her class for 4 consecutive years. Surprised!!???!?

During the time I was out of fulltime service, I was able to “get to know what life is all about” and for the next 8 years of my life I did and went through a lot of things which made it possible for me to make a well rounded decision of what I wanted to do with my life. To make a long story short I’m back in The Family, I made that decision of my own free will when I was 17.

Every day that goes by I am more and more convinced that this is the life I want for myself and for my future family. Sure, life sometimes is hard, isn’t it? I know that we are not perfect and never will be. But one thing I can say for sure, we live in love-filled communities, our kids are well taken care of, and we who are in The Family and many of those who have left are thankful for the Family and for a place where you can learn so much and do the work that God has called us to do.

For those of you who are responsible for the information that goes around in the media, I ask only one thing: when writing or airing anything about our group, please do try to get both sides of the story. We as a group are open to give any information you want and our homes are open for visitation at any time. Presenting a well rounded story is your responsibility, as far as I know, and I hope the you all can respect the public by doing so.

To you who try to destroy our lifestyle I have a few things that I would like to say:
In addition to the verse which you have probably heard a lot from us lately:

Acts 5:38, 39 “If this work or this counsel be of men, it will come to nought; But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” I would also like to add the following verse:

Psa. 31:18 “Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.”

I seriously hope that you all can come to your senses and realize that you all had a part in the horrible atrocity committed by Ricky. You can say what you want, but what you do and say influences others, we weren’t the ones instigating violence and murder, you were. And when it finally happened by one of your “disciples” you dare blame it on us? What the hell?

My prayers go out to all of us who are fighting to keep our discipleship and our way of life. My condolences and prayers go to you, Mama and Peter, and all the ones who personally knew Ricky and Angela. I hope we can all move on with our lives and I know that good will still come out of this whole situation.

Take care ya’ll,
Andrew Harder

Andrew Harder is a second-generation member of The Family International