Nina Moore, 29, North America.
(Second-generation member of the Family International.)

I’m Nina Moore, a 29 year old mother of three and a member of the Family International. I home school my children. They have school five days a week. As a mother I am very concerned about every aspect of their lives, emotional, educational, spiritual and social. My whole life revolves around my children. I spend hours planning their school. I have almost no time to myself, as my children are my life. I have organized a Kids Club where, once a week all my friends with children get together and have Bible studies, games, activities, sports and more. My children are part of the local community soccer league. They have a lot of friends, birthday and dress up parties and do all the normal things kids enjoy doing. I am on the Childcare and Parenting board in the Family where we have board meetings to discuss how we can meet the needs of our children.

My eldest daughter, who is eight years old doesn’t even know what “sex” is. She thinks you get pregnant by getting married. She wants to know how babies are born but I tell her that when she’s older I’ll explain it to her. She is probably more innocent than most eight year olds that go to public school when it comes to sex, and most other things. She doesn’t dress like Britney Spears—she doesn’t even know who Britney is. I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t approve of the way society is growing up our little girls, too fast for me.

Growing up in the Family, I have to admit that our parents were a lot freer sexually than I am. But they never abused me, ever. I did get abused one time in the Family and this is what happened: When I was around 8 years old, I went over for a sleepover to one of my friend’s homes. Her father was a single dad. He wanted us to sleep with him so we did. I did get sexually abused that night. The next morning when I went home I told my mom right away. She freaked out and told Family leadership in our area. The abuser was excommunicated right away, and my mother never let me have a sleepover again! All my life I was a little bitter about the fact that I couldn’t have sleepovers, but now, as a mother, I understand, and if it were me I might have done the same thing. That was the only time I got abused. It didn’t damage me mentally, I’m fine. At the time I thought it was a bit weird, but that was it.

OK, so our parents were discovering their “sexuality,” and yes we did “catch them in the act” once in awhile, and we did see “naked” people. They were young, crazy hippies and had no earthly idea how to raise children. But never once was I tortured, or forced to have sex with some older man, ever! Maybe it did happen in some places, I have some friends who have told me their stories about what happened to them. But it was never the Family condoning it. The offenders were always caught and excommunicated when leadership found out.

I’m not going to say that the Family is perfect, and there are things that I maybe don’t agree with or things I would have done differently, but nothing to the extreme that “Davidito” (Ricky Rodriguez) was talking about. Maybe I’m just naive and innocent but I also grew up in the Family, I’ve been here for 29 years, I’ve been in some of the “communes” these ex-members grew up in, and it seems to me that they mix a lot of fiction with a little truth. I personally don’t understand why they would exaggerate so much and make it all sound so horrible, to the point of wanting to kill and murder. It seems so unreal to me, I can’t believe it even happened. The only thing I can think of is that “hatred leads to the dark side.” I just don’t understand. Angela was my friend; there was NOTHING sinister or evil about her. If anyone would get to know her they would think her a saint, she was one of the sweetest, most sacrificial, humble people I knew.

Although I do think there were mistakes made in the Family when I was growing up. There was also a lot of good. I wish I would have had more schooling, but when I think about it, I’m thankful for all the training I’ve received in how to be a good mother and teach my children, I’ve got a head start on most moms. I have a very good work ethic and am very organized and efficient. I have more friends than most people. When you grow up in the Family everyone is your friend and you feel a special bond with them and you can trust them, you know they’re not going to be some weird psycho. It’s almost like they’re all your brothers and sisters. I have a very good connection with the Lord, and my marriage is founded on the Lord and his Word. My husband has very good character, strong convictions for God and knows the Bible and loves God and I trust him completely. I believe I owe that to the Family.

There was some bad in the Family back in the day, and you can dwell on it if you want to, but there was also a lot of good. Look at all the good the Family has done. If you want to read about it there is no end to articles and testimonies of all the things the Family has done to help society around the world.

For the record, I would like to say that, there is absolutely no abuse in the Family right now, nor has there been for 20-some years. We have strict rules in place to make sure of that. Most of us “second generation” are conservative to the opposite extreme of our parents. We were never hippies and many of us are actually quite “straight laced” compared to them. We do have some rather shocking religious beliefs, and some of them are even hard for me to swallow. But this is America, where, as long as it’s not harmful to anyone, we’re free to believe what we want to believe even if it’s different from the norm.

I am a very simple, trusting person. My husband is more cynical, he says I’m way too naive. But I believe everyone has a good heart and wants to do the right thing. I’ve never met a bad person, people make mistakes and they do bad things for what they think are good causes, but I don’t know anymore. I don’t understand how people can do such horrible things. Does hatred and bitterness distort your view?? If you stray so far from God, do you turn to the Devil?? Do these ex-members really feel they are doing God a service?? Have they dwelt so much on the negative that they’ve lost their perspective on what it was really like growing up in the Family?? Anyone that knows us knows we’re just normal people who love and want to serve God. We’re not weird, we might be a bit odd or different but I think that’s OK. We’re not required to be like everyone else, it’s ok to believe what we choose even if it’s a bit different as long as it’s not harmful.

Well, these are my thoughts and feelings. I’m not an eloquent writer, but I write from my heart…

Nina Moore