From Perla Wells to Houston Press:

Shame on you, part two: When I read this last article about “Family Ties,” I felt angry and voiceless. I’m a second-generation Family member, and I work as a volunteer missionary in Eastern Europe and teach courses about the Bible and active Christianity for no reason other than “The love of Christ constrains me.” And I am personally very proud of my profession as a full-time volunteer missionary for Jesus in the Family. I gave up a lot to do it, and it’s probably the best choice I ever made.

By your comments, you make it sound like I (not some faceless entity, but I and others like me) am some dumb, robotic idiot who brainlessly follows orders. If you knew me, you’d know how impossible that is.

I’m in the Family not because my parents raised me this way but because I personally made a choice to serve Jesus full-time when I was 17, and I found the Family to be the best place to do so. I take exception to the very biased and unfair representation of the Family by people whose only goal appears to be to tear down, vilify and lie about one of the most active and dedicated missionary outfits in the world.

Have you ever lived in a Family home? Have you read all of our literature with an unbiased mind? Have you visited our Web site, the Web site of contented and happy second-generation Family members? If not, what are you afraid of, the truth? (Visit Myconclusion.com.) The Family has been vindicated in courtrooms around the world and never found guilty; hundreds of children were examined by certified professionals and found free of every type of abuse. Can you say the same for society at large?

Have you done your research, or are you just picking on a small, defenseless religious group and sensationalizing its past to raise the sales of your newspapers, and basing all of this on the tales of a few disgruntled and bitter ex-members?

I second the opinion of the “Shame on you” letter [November 24]. Speak the truth for once. Your last article definitely didn’t. To see more literature from the Family and the reason why I’m personally a very happy and committed member, and also to see for yourself why so many attack and vilify us, visit www.thefamily.org.

“For all that live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution!” – 2nd Timothy 3:12 (King James Version)

A proud second-generation member of the Family International,

Perla Wells
Houston