TIGHTEN THE FAMILY!--QUALITY, not QUANTITY!
DO 1730
1/84
--The TRF, Stat & Tithe Revolution!
(The specific time requirements of 6 months & 12 months for GP & DFO lit as stipulated in this Letter have been superseded by the Babes' Basic Course. However the spiritual principles behind "Tighten the Family!" still apply, & therefore we thought it worthwhile to condense this Letter.)
1. IT TAKES SOMEBODY WITH A LITTLE GUTS & CONVICTION & a little sense of the righteousness of God & His chastising Love, tough parents to crack down with the rod. It's tough on parents to crack down, as well as tough on kids!
2. Let me tell you, I am not going to send one GN or one WND or one FN, or as far as I'm concerned, not one piece of lit to people who are critical, I mean skeptically critical, if you know what I mean. Why should we send them anything? We don't owe them a bit! I don't give a damn how much money they send! The money is NOTHING! God has got plenty of money & He can supply some other way, & I'd much rather see it come through the blessing of God's people who are loyal & faithful & diligent & obedient & doing their job & filling out their TRFs & giving their minimums than all the rest of these unreliable people! Those people are not Family!
3. What did they think I meant in that Letter, ML #888, "No Blank TRFS!" Huh? What do you think I meant? "NO BLANK TRFS" meant NO BLANK TRFS, no blanks!--Blankity-blank!
4. I made it very clear that MONEY was not enough to get the lit! Apparently this CRO had the idea that as long as the Homes send enough money, well, don't worry about their TRFs. The reason for our tightening TRFs, not only tightening now but from the very beginning, was for security, & I tightened the TRFs when I said that years ago in April 1980, in ML #888! I said "NO BLANK TRFS!" Nobody was going to get lit without a completely filled-out TRF! Another main purpose for it was I don't care about sending lit, wasting lit at any price or any amount of money or any minimum, on people who don't care & don't obey & are untrustworthy! I don't care how much money they send! I'll throw it back in their face, & that is exactly what I'm about to do!
5. We want a Gideon's army who are obedient, who DO what they're supposed to do, who OBEY God! Good riddance of bad rubbish! That's the way I feel about it & it's past time, OVER time as far as I am concerned!
6. We want stats to show they're an active Family Member! Also the requirements for membership are & have been specific for at least four years! These which now stand have virtually always been the requirements. The only difference we made in these same requirements is that now a few Members are allowed to live out on their own if they meet these same requirements, which is virtually, in other words, having another Home, their own Home, that's all.
7. Membership requirements for the live-ins aren't any different than they have been for many years: SAVED, number one. Two, they must WITNESS or LITNESS. Three, FELLOWSHIP! Don't tell me anybody who doesn't ever fellowship & doesn't want to fellowship is in good standing! Obviously some of these people either didn't want to fellowship or the real Family Members didn't like them, could smell a rat & saw that they were not our kind & didn't even want them to fellowship! They should have thrown them out & reported it to us long ago!
8. Four: Support, MINIMUM TITHES, & five, TRFS IN FULL! Right?--These are the absolutely irrevocable, unchangeable Laws of the Family, requirements for membership & the rules for receiving lit! And NOBODY has a right to vary them, NOBODY has a right to make them more lenient, NOBODY has any right to change them without direct authority & approval from us personally, & I don't think I'd ever give it for anybody, ANY kind of a case, & I've made that pretty clear, haven't I?--In spite of the many appeals that have been made to me.
9. People who do not fill out TRFs in full are not Family members & they do not deserve the lit, ANY of it! I'd hesitate to even send them DFO lit! I don't care how much they send. Well, maybe we'll send them back a LIN, that's all. We send LINs to ANYBODY who'll send ANY kind of a gift. So they want to send a hundred dollars for GNs?--OK, we'll send them a LIN if they DON'T want to FILL OUT A TRF & DON'T SHOW by the WAY that they fill out the TRF that they ARE genuine Family Members!
10. I want to tell you, we didn't get to where we have gotten by my being soft & a pushover & easygoing! I have been too soft sometimes but we are still here & we are still an Army & we're still fighting & we are still winning because I have been tough & I have kept a tough grip on things, & we are going to get tighter than we have EVER been! We've GOT to do it!
11. Our wind-down, our austerity measures may be what we enforce on ourselves, just like Gideon did & Joshua & a few others. There are plenty of examples of it in the Bible. There were six million Jews that left Egypt, but God only let about 200,000 of them go into the Promised Land. He let all the old people die out there in the desert!--If you don't think God is tough! He only let the BELIEVERS enter in! The only OLD ones that went into the Promised Land were Joshua & Caleb, the rest were all the YOUNG people! Their mothers & fathers died in the desert. But with that handful of young people they conquered the land & the cities & God was with them & wiped out their enemies!
12. The same with Gideon. My God! He started out with 33,000 & wound up with 300, right? But he won the battle, he won a glorious victory which showed that God was with them! They didn't need NUMBERS, & nor do we, we want QUALITY! I don't give a damn about numbers!--As far as spiritually weak & sickly & invalid Family Members that are no good to anybody, in fact a drag, in fact a DANGER! I'd rather have a handful of real fighters, strong & faithful & firm & diligent & obedient & winners, than 10,000 failures! And that's how we got where we are at, because I INSISTED on people obeying God whether they liked it or not! If they don't like it they can lump it & go!
13. I'd say unreliable TRFers should be relieved of their GNs & WNDs, etc. What do you say? If they can't be trusted with it, they could've been giving it to hundreds of people! My God, we certainly can't trust them with it! (Maria: And as a result of their disobedience, that [area's] publicity has been all over the World, to Hong Kong & India & Indonesia & everywhere!) Of course! Absolutely, the World! They speak every major language there , & it spreads to all their language papers all over the World!
14. I consider this carelessness with DO lit has probably done us more damage than almost any other breach in the World right now! It was dangerous! It's the Devil's own channel, his own chink in the armour, breach in the wall, hole in the dike! And I just hope we can get rid of it peacefully if possible.
15. To get DO lit you have got to be on the mailing list with qualifying TRFs & the works for one solid year! (1988: Now you must have completed the Babes' Basic Course.) Now that is nothing new. That is the kind of rule we used to have when ALL MO Letters were DO, in fact they were not even DOs, they were LTS! (See No.124.) No God-damned [AC] lawyer is going to be smart & drop a hundred dollars in the mail & get all the latest dope for just one month & not have to do it EVERY month!--Weekly mailings, WNDs, GNs, FSMs & all kinds of stuff! (Maria: Well, normally new disciples join old established Homes, so what are they doing starting their own Home?--Becoming a disciple & immediately starting their own Home?--This is not usual.) No. Maybe I should give that limitation first.
16. Nobody gets DO lit no matter how much money they give until they have been filling out good TRFs & showing that they are really disciples & really fellowshipping & fulfilling ALL Membership requirements, EVERY Membership requirement for ONE YEAR before they get a single piece of DO lit! Until then they only get DFO LIT FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS & THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF THAT YEAR, THEY ONLY GET LINS & KIDZ! How about that?--Which is virtually GP lit, right? I don't care how much they give, they only get LIN & KIDz for the first six months. (DO lit now available upon completion of Babes' Basic Course.) They're there on trial, wherever they are. We don't trust them.
17. After six months of LIN & KIDz, no matter how much money they give, then we'll consider giving them DFO LIT on top of it for the NEXT six months!--GP lit for the FIRST six months, DFO lit for the SECOND six months, & only THEN, after ONE YEAR on trial, proving their faithfulness, sending good TRFs & minimum tithes, they'll also have to meet the minimum tithes for this lit as well, to get DO lit.
18. For the first six months we'll count them & classify them virtually as new disciples on trial, & for minimum tithes they're getting LIN & KIDz, or they could get the LIN alone for anything. After six months, we'll add DFO lit to it, & after ONE YEAR only, we will start sending them DO LIT, PROVIDING they have proven themselves as genuine disciples known to other people who can send REFERENCES, officers & other reliable Family Members in the area who have met them face-to-face, who have fellowshipped with them & know they are genuine, honest-to-goodness, honest-to-God disciples who can be trusted with DO lit!
19. Is that clear? I'm not just tightening TRFs!--We're tightening the whole Family! We're not just tightening our belts with austerity. We're not just winding down because of the international situation. We are going to wind ourselves down on purpose & tighten our belts as well, in order to take it! We'll not only tighten the TRFs, but we are going to tighten the restrictions on who gets what lit no matter how much money they give, & for how long they get it!
20. Nobody is going to get DO lit after this unless they are meeting every single Membership requirement, completely filling out verifiable, justifiable TRFs that deserve & merit it, & have at least two solid references of good Family Members that we know are officers who can recommend them, that now they are ready for DO lit!--How is that?
21. It is a test of their loyalty, it's a test of their devotion, it's a test of their desire for the Word! It's a test of their dedication & consecration, how much they are willing to sacrifice or even suffer to get the Word, even if that is above their actual tithe!--And let me tell you, it is a test! This is of course not foolproof but it is certainly going to shut quite a few weak people out, who don't really want it that much, so we might as well get rid of'm! I don't want people like that much either!--Certainly not getting DO LIT!
22. And the TIME limitation minimums are for new disciples & new Homes, I don't care how much they give, unless they are old Members who have been on the Mailing List, who may move from one place to another & be at a new location, but they are still a family who has been in at least a year & getting mail for so long a time. But new Homes, really new disciples, new disciple Homes, will only get GP LIT for the first six months. I don't think I can trust anybody to send them DO lit unless they've been in the Family at least a year. That used to be IT in the early days anyway.
23. I don't care how much they send, we're only going to mail them GP lit for six months & DFO lit for the next six months, and NO DO LIT until they have been on the Mailing List for ONE YEAR, sending in good reliable TRFs and all the rest, proving themselves, and then recommended by two signed recommendations by two officers that they're in fellowship. I don't care how hard it is to get there or how far they have to go to fellowship, even if they can only go to fellowship by train 600 miles once a month, they'll know what kind of person they are, right?
24. Let me tell you, anybody who really is sincere & the kind of people we want are not going to be sitting in one town all alone by themselves! They're going to find fellowship or make of their own, & the officers of the area are going to hear about them & know them personally face-to-face & verify them as trustworthy members now after a YEAR, ready to receive DO lit, & they will not get it without the MINIMUM & the RECOMMENDATIONS of two officers in their area--written, signed recommendations of two recognised officers!--Is that clear?--Officers who verify that they are good members, trustworthy & worthy to be trusted with DO lit!--No matter how much money they send!
25. Money is not our object!--Trustworthy disciples, obedient soldiers, genuine missionaries is our object, not money! We're not just selling lit! This is merely a method devised to try to screen out the kind of people we DON'T want for reliability & effectiveness, efficiency & fruitfulness, right? That's what we would rather have than money. Let me tell you, if we've got that, like Solomon & his wisdom, we'll get everything with it.--1Ki.3:5-14. If we've got the right kind of people, God will give us the right kind of money to support them, & He'll give them the right kind of support!
26. If we lose a few Homes over this, Gideon got rid of a lot more than that! He didn't get rid of 300 or 400 Homes, he got rid of 32,700 men! It was 33,000 to begin with & he boiled it down to 300. That's about 3 out of 300, about 1 out of 100, actually less than one per cent! He chucked out the other 99% & did the job with less than one per cent!
27. I believe it is going to do us ALL good! I think it is going to do us good in QUALITY & eliminate some of this chaffy QUANTITY!--And I think it is going to do us good FINANCIALLY! I think it is going to do us nothing BUT good & get rid of the bad & the evil! Frankly, that's what I believe. And I don't care if it costs us money. I don't care if it costs us numbers, people, families, Homes, population, if we UP the QUALITY of our people & their EFFECTIVENESS & EFFICIENCY & FRUITFULNESS, it is WORTH it all, even if it costs us money!--And I don't believe it is going to cost us money. I believe God is going to bless it & we will even be blessed more financially & so will they. That's what I believe. And we will be a lot better off in QUALITY of people & SECURITY-WISE, security of LIT. Praise the Lord? I believe it! TYL!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family