To Dr. Phil and Whom It May Concern:

I am appalled and deeply sadden by your extremely slanted show. I have been in the Family since I was born, that’s 23 years, I was never subjected to the abuse that the LaMattery’s say happened. The notion that it’s going on to this day is completely absurd. I am married and have a daughter who’s two years old and believe me when I say if such abuse was happening I would have left the group long ago.

I, like everyone else, want a safe environment for my daughter to grow up in but in addition to that I want a Godly environment. The Family provides that safe and Godly environment.

The Family has rules and regulations set in it’s Charter that forbid any such abusive actions and in the 20+ countries I have lived in around the globe I have never encountered the abuse that your show states happened. Read the accounts at www.myconclusion.com , which I started so that folks could hear the other side of the story, seeing as it rarely gets published in the main stream media.

Jim LaMattery states: “They took away all of our contact with the outside world.” I’ve never had that contact taken away. I have 2 brothers and a sister who are no longer part of the group and I regularly communicate with them. In addition to that I am in regular communication with others who have had nothing to do with the group but who are my friends. From skiing and snowboarding in Germany to fishing on a yacht in Japan I get plenty of contact with the “outside world". In fact with my daughter I encourage her to have contact with the outside world on a regular basis because I believe that socialization is vital to her upbringing.

As for the statements of control and being “beaten into submission", we have discipline that is more lenient than most Catholic schools, and definitely not on such an extreme scale of being “beaten into submission". Our children are brought up in a caring environment, where good behaviour is encouraged. If anyone laid a hand on my child in such a manner I would be the first to kick them out of my house.

Emotionally charged statements definitely sound better, but if you are gonna report a story, at least do so fairly with the other side fairly represented. I doubt you will give the Family a fair showing as that’s not what makes headlines, but for the sake of honorable reporting I would appreciate if you published this rebuttal.

Sincerely,
Dan Johnson