Dad
May 23, 2003
—For Friends & Supporters!DO 169712/83
—Family, Please Carefully Design It for Same!
—From a Leadership Discussion of New Pubs!
1. PTL! HALLELUJAH! TYL! THIS IS A LITTLE CHAT ON, I MIGHT SAY, [EDITING] THE FNs‚ the new-style FNs‚ the 32-page signature format which we're trying to design as much as possible for DFO. You folks who are familiar with our designations, that means "Disciples & Friends Only"! This of course means anybody who's a friend, whether they're relatives or friends or fish or whatever.
2. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER YOU CLEARLY UNDERSTAND JUST EXACTLY WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO DESIGN THIS FN FOR OR NOT, DO YOU, SON? You're the primary editor who selects the material, you present it to the Editor-in-Chief, she approves of it & then she passes the finished product to me for final approval‚ right?—Including any possible corrections, whether they be by you or her or Family or friends or whoever.
3. NOW YOU FOLKS IN THE FAMILY WHO SEND IN THESE ORIGINAL ARTICLES must try to remember that the Family News now is designed, or should be designed & we're trying to design it, primarily for a DFO designation, which means "Disciples & Friends Only." By the way, we do not have an FR designation, we only have a DFO designation or GP, one or the other, because the DFO includes family & friends, other relatives & friends‚ etc.
4. WE'RE TRYING TO DESIGN THIS LITTLE MAGAZINE SO THAT IT CAN BE LOANED OR PASSED OUT OR EVEN GIVEN TO VERY GOOD FRIENDS & SUPPORTERS OF OUR FAMILY, WHETHER THEY BE LOCAL FAMILY OR OTHERWISE, so as to let them know just exactly what we're doing & the tremendous extent & impact of our Worldwide Ministry!—To let them see all these beautiful happy faces & people & their amazing activities in nearly a hundred countries around the World by something like 120 nationalities in 50 languages!
5. THIS IS OUR NEWS MAGAZINE, FAMILY NEWS MAGAZINE‚ ABOUT FAMILY ACTIVITIES AROUND THE WORLD. The GN or Good News‚ the little pocket-sized magazine is my newsmagazine containing my articles & Letters. The WND is our Family newsmagazine of outside World News gleaned from the newspapers & the media.
6. BOTH THE GN & THE WND NOW HAVE BEEN HIGHLY-CLASSIFIED FOR FAMILY ONLY, absolutely Family Only, & must not be loaned to friends or relatives or outsiders whatsoever. These contain inside information & interpretation of the news & articles‚ etc.‚ strictly for our Family. That means live-in, TRFing Family, not even outside Club Members or anything like that. The GN & the WND in particular are strictly for TRFing Live-in Family Members.
7. NOW THERE MAY BE SOME OUTSIDE MEMBERS‚ AS WE HAVE INDICATED BEFORE, WHO ARE IN FELLOWSHIP, constantly attending your meetings, witnessing‚ distributing literature & faithfully tithing, even though they may not live in. In other words, they are good, solid, TRFing, tithing, witnessing, litnessing, genuine Family Members, even though they do not live-in. So we have eliminated that particular distinction, providing they fulfil all of these other qualifications, including regular Family Fellowship & attendance at regular Family Meetings.
8. IN OTHER WORDS, PEOPLE THAT YOU TRUST ENOUGH TO HAVE IN ON YOUR FAMILY BUSINESS MEETINGS, ELECTIONS, INSIDE INFORMATION, INSIDE ACTIVITIES, WHO ARE REALLY IN THE HOME AT HEART, although perhaps not living in it, those we count as genuine, full-fledged, TRFing, tithing, litnessing, witnessing, fellowshipping Family Members, & I think we've gone over this before & made that distinction. So I hope you're getting the distinction in the greater tightening of our security on our literature which we have been trying to do lately.
9. SON, I'D RATHER YOU JUST LISTEN RATHER THAN TAKE NOTES EVEN AT A TIME LIKE THIS‚ because you're going to get this in writing & therefore you don't have to bother with notes. I want you to get the full impact of what I'm saying to you. It's a funny thing, ever since the very beginning I never liked people taking notes while I'm talking, I'd rather you look at me & listen & really get the message & the spirit of it! Praise God? If you have a question or something that you're wondering about & you don't want to forget it, then jot that down rather than interrupt, but sometimes it's almost better to interrupt so that it can be recorded & put into the text.
10. WHEN I SAY INSIDE FAMILY MEMBERS, IT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THAT THEY LIVE IN THE HOME if they fulfil all of these other qualifications for membership which we have dealt with two years ago. People that you really know & have confidence in, genuine Family Members received into your Home & your hearts & everything, that's Family!—TRFing, tithing, litnessing, witnessing, fellowshipping Family Members, whether they live in or out‚ & the GN & WND are [private], strictly-limited publications only for them.
11. WE HAVE RECENTLY RAISED THE ANTE ON THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ALLOWED TO GET THOSE PARTICULAR PUBLICATIONS so that we can be sure that they are confined to fairly reliable people that we can be fairly sure are genuine Family Members. We have raised the minimum tithe on the GN, etc., & we have also tightened security on TRFs to make sure that the Reporting Offices read those TRFs very carefully to make sure that they are made out in full & every single blank filled in with something, whether it be a number or a zero or a name or a comment or whatever!
12. WE NEED TO TIGHTEN [UP] ON THESE VERY IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS SO THAT WE DO NOT SEND THEM TO POTENTIAL OR POSSIBLE ENEMIES, because the GN & the WND are not for enemies, they're not for outsiders, they are not for just plain relatives or casual friends, they are not for anybody but absolutely 110% or at least 100% genuine TRFing, tithing, litnessing, witnessing, fellowshipping Family Members living in or out! Now that is the law, period!
13. THE SAME THING GOES FOR WHAT WAS ONCE THE SPECIALS MAGAZINE BUT IS NOW KNOWN AS THE FAMILY SPECIALS BOOK!—Because it is book-size & published nearly every month or at least once every other month. That also is strictly inside Family News for inside Family Members, classified as [private] material for Family Members Only!
14. SO HERE THE FAMILY HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE IN THE INSIDE INFORMATION FROM ME & THE LORD & WORLD NEWS & ITS INTERPRETATION‚ AS WELL AS [PRIVATE] FAMILY NEWS which we do not want outsiders to read because it might be offensive to them & cause us trouble. So we have these top‚ classified publications now, strictly for the Family only, the GN‚ the WND & the Family Specials Book. Maybe we can think of some shorter abbreviation for that because I don't know how to pronounce "fsb"! But we can shorten it to the FSB‚ Family Specials Book.
15. THAT IS WHERE YOU PUT ARTICLES WHICH ARE [PRIVATE], the kind of stuff that just doesn't go over with the System & outside Systemite friends & would be offensive to them, could even be dangerous to us & which we do not want them to read & we are doing our best to keep them from reading, by highly restricting & limiting the circulation of these publications—the GN, the WND & the FSB!
16. ALONG WITH THESE THREE TOP CLASSIFIED NEWS MAGAZINES—which is what they are, two of them small news magazines & one a strictly inside Family News Book—along with those to genuine Family Members who are in the minimum tithing category qualified to receive all of those, they also receive all of our literature, all of our Books, all of our publications, posters, calendars, diaries, maps & God knows what‚ everything!—Flannelgraph books, children's books, True Komix books, everything we publish. We are supposed to be sending those only to genuine, full-fledged, 100% Family Members tithing the qualifying minimum whether they live in or out, is that clear?—And they are never to get out of our hands into the hands of any outsiders whatsoever no matter how friendly they may seem to be, even if they help support the local Home & Family. They are not to receive the GN, the WND‚ the FSB nor any of the Books or other publications whatsoever which we have, at all, period!
17. THEY MAY RECEIVE SELECTED DAILY MIGHTS, SELECTED DAILY BREADS, ETC.‚ & A SPECIAL KOMIX BOOK WHICH MARIA DESIGNED ESPECIALLY FOR DISCIPLES & FRIENDS ONLY, DFO, to be loaned out or even given to those who are genuine outside friends & supporters even though they be not full-fledged Family Members. We do not yet have a DM book designed for outside friends, but I think we should have one. It would make a very lovely little gift for outside friends & supporters, a nice little Daily Devotional Book designed strictly for them. I think someone should cull through the DMs & try to select those things which outsiders would understand, Systemites would appreciate, even Church people & whatnot, & who could agree with those principles & inspirationals. (Maria: Many of the Family have put together some of those in 32 pages.)
18. AS MARIA'S SAYING, MANY OF THE FAMILY HAVE DONE THIS ON THEIR OWN & PUT TOGETHER NICE LITTLE 32-PAGERS OF THIS VERY THING, but I think we should help them, & when you have time I think it would be well to select such Daily Mights to be used strictly with outsiders, friends, even relatives, supporters & people that we're quite sure are friendly & friends, even though they may not be actual Family Members. In this category‚ I would say that a good deed could be done by some editor who could select from the Daily Bread the articles which would be particularly appropriate for outside friends & relatives, etc.
19. ARE YOU GETTING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THESE VERY [PRIVATE] PUBLICATIONS & THOSE WHICH WE ARE TRYING NOW TO DESIGN FOR WIDER DISTRIBUTION, not amongst the public, but just outside friends & relatives who are friendly? We actually have three classifications in our Family to which our publications have all boiled down: One is DO, Disciples Only‚ & that means GN, WND, FSB & all Books & other publications.—Except now this newly–designed FN which we're publishing in little 32-page signatures, that & the LIN & the Kidz can go to outside friends, or we hope it can. LIN & Kidz we can send to almost anybody, we consider those GP material, & also the various Komix & literature selected by actual Family & regions & Homes on the field which they themselves reprint & publish for street distribution & general GP distribution.
20. SO WE HAVE THREE CLASSIFICATIONS: DO‚ that means "Disciples Only," full-fledged, 100% Family Members only, whether they live in or out, which I've already explained. DFO, which means "Disciples & Friends Only." In other words, these go to the Family but also to outside friends who are very friendly & perhaps supportive, fish & maybe relatives, parents & home folks who are favourable & friendly, not people who are just enemies & gonna find fault & pick it to pieces & deliberately criticise & who already don't like us.—And GP lit goes to the General Public.
21. THE LIN & KIDZ ARE GP, BUT THE FN IS NOW BEING ADDED TO THE LIST OF DFO PUBLICATIONS DESIGNED FOR FRIENDLY & FAVOURABLE OUTSIDERS & RELATIVES.—Not unfavourable ones‚ not critical ones, not those who are downright opposition & enemies, but strictly those known & proven to be favourable & friendly such as fish, those who respond to provisioning & those who frequently give & support.—They give materials in provisioning, they give money for support, they are very friendly & have a favourable attitude toward us & the Family, & therefore we can trust them with general unclassified Family News, the FN.
22. THIS IS THE DISTINCTION WE'RE NOW DRAWING TO TRY TO GIVE A WIDER AUDIENCE TO OUR FAMILY NEWS ACTIVITIES AROUND THE WORLD, & actually, one of the things which precipitated this crisis & acted as the catalyst for this, as God often uses such cases‚ is some personal situation. For a long time I have wanted to send some Family publication to my brother & my sister to give them some comprehension of our Worldwide Ministry. So it came Christmas & as I was going down the list of Family publications it was a little bit difficult to find anything suitable more than LIN & Kidz which they already receive.
23. THEY ARE, OF COURSE, BOTH FULL-FLEDGED SYSTEMITES, CHURCH MEMBERS, TYPICAL AMERICANS & AT ONE TIME WERE TYPICALLY CRITICAL OF US & OUR WORK. Now after years of love & generosity & plying them with good will & good works, they have come full circle around & are quite favourable & quite friendly, but they are old bottles. They still could not understand some of our extreme doctrines & practices.
24. THERE'S NO USE SLAPPING THEM IN THE FACE WITH THESE THINGS WHICH I KNOW THEY WON'T RECEIVE & IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO RECEIVE. Jesus Himself said they can't receive it‚ it's impossible! Where did He say that? (Fam: "You cannot put new wine into old bottles.") Exactly! And how else did He illustrate it?—You can't sew a new piece of cloth as a patch on an old rotten garment else it'll tear the garment. I tried to do that, I oughtta know! And you can't put new wine into old bottles. (Mt.9:16,17.)
25. OF COURSE THESE WERE NOT GLASS BOTTLES NOR PLASTIC CONTAINERS HE WAS TALKING ABOUT, HE WAS TALKING ABOUT THE TYPICAL GOATSKIN & SHEEPSKIN BOTTLES OF THE DAY MADE OF LEATHER. New wine, as you know, still is not fully fermented & causes gas & expansion, so if it is an old bottle that is already stretched to the full of its capacity & cannot stretch any more & you put new wine in it, new wine expands & the gas expands & breaks the bottle & it's all lost.
26. I'M TALKING ABOUT THESE SYSTEMITE OLD BOTTLES LIKE MY BROTHER & MY SISTER, God bless'm, who love the Lord, are good Christians, well-behaved, church members, respected members of their community, who now after years of working on'm & kindness to them are changing their opinion about me & our work & are now actually friendly & favourable!—Whereas once-upon-a-time my brother used to say I belonged to the underworld of religion & my sister used to practically throw my literature & my doctrines & sermons back in my face & would write lengthy diatribes & treatises tearing apart my particular theological doctrines & revolutionary practices, etc.
27. SO THEY OF MY OWN FAMILY‚ RELATIVES, BROTHER & SISTER, WHO WERE ONCE ALMOST BITTER ENEMIES—my sister more than my brother, my brother not such an enemy but just more or less indifferent & not favourable—have now been almost won over by constant dropping of water on the hardened stony hearts. But there are still some things they couldn't possibly take or stand, so I don't try to force it down their throats or cram it in their mouths or sock'm in the face with it! They have to save face. They have to stand by their old-bottle convictions & old-line doctrines & old conservative practices, their old habits that they'll never change. It's going to take probably the whole Millennium for us to change some of those people & persuade'm to God's way of thinking & our way of practising.
28. SO THAT IN LOOKING AROUND FOR SOMETHING TO SEND'M FOR CHRISTMAS OUT OF OUR PUBLICATIONS, THE LIST WAS IN QUITE SHORT SUPPLY, because most of our pubs are designed strictly for Family Members & are full of things which would be very offensive to Systemites & old bottles & old relatives & even old friends who may still love you but hate your religion & hate your leadership & hate your doctrines & practices but still love you.
29. WELL, I'D ALREADY SENT'M BOTH COPIES OF THE DM EVEN THOUGH SOME OF THOSE THINGS ARE STRONG, but my brother liked it so well he asked for more copies that he could sell in his bookstore‚ so I sent him a boxful. My sister just never said anything about it, I think probably some of it was a little too strong for her. She's a very ardent, red-white-&-blue, flag–waving‚ hard-steel-hat church member, you might say almost radical in her faith as being a radical conservative, far-right, hyper-anti-Communist, & she used to think I was all the worst, Communist & everything else. Now she knows differently, & if nothing else, at least she knows I love her & therefore there must be something good about me & maybe our organisation isn't quite as bad as people say it is.
30. BUT IN SEARCHING AROUND FOR MATERIALS TO TRY TO GIVE HER A LITTLE MORE FOUNDATION FOR SUCH FAITH & HOPE THAT MAYBE WE'RE NOT AS BAD AS PEOPLE SAY WE ARE, it was a little difficult to find any of our publications suited for such old bottles as my brother & sister, both in their 70s & good Christian Church members, staunch community leaders‚ both with big families & lots of children & grandchildren‚ even great grandchildren, & who have a lot of influence.
31. THEY'RE HEADS OF TRIBES THEMSELVES!—My brother's is a smaller tribe having had only two children, but my sister's is a very large tribe numbering now in the scores because she had five children & they all married early & they've got children & grandchildren. So she is quite a great grandmother of a grand tribe of which she is the grand matriarch, & she still wields quite a bit of strong matriarchal influence over them all & keeps in constant contact & communication with all of them, is constantly sending them literature & all kinds of things, including even support for the poor members who are often in financial difficulties as children & grandchildren & now great grandchildren often are.
32. SHE‚ AS THE GREAT MOTHER & MATRIARCH OF HER TRIBE‚ TRIES TO KEEP'M ALL AFLOAT & answer all their problems & questions & solve their difficulties, of which the more kids there are the more they have. She reared them to be Christians & in church & she's a strong, fundamental Evangelical who believes the Bible to the jot & the tittle. She is a Pharisee of the Pharisees as far as being a Scribe & a Pharisee of the church & being a strong believer in everything the church teaches & the Bible teaches. Well, as you know‚ they don't exactly agree with us, in fact, most of them disagree & are some of our bitterest enemies! At least she's gotten a little bit more liberal, at least enough to feel that there must be something good about me, as I say, & therefore maybe our organisation isn't quite so bad.
33. BUT I WAS THINKING I'D LIKE TO SEND HER & MY BROTHER SOMETHING TO SHOW THEM WHAT A GREAT WORK WE'RE DOING, to trot out my samples & give'm a taste of the pudding for the proof that we have a tremendous Worldwide work & we are very active in 100 countries around the World in about 120 nationalities. You talk about an integrated work force, we've got it! And we are all shades & colours & backgrounds & former religions & everything. We come from all races‚ creeds & colours but now we're all one in Christ Jesus & that is a miracle in itself!
34. WE ALSO ARE DOING A SUPERNATURAL, MIRACULOUS, MONUMENTAL, STUPENDOUS ... give me some other Hollywood superlatives... (Maria: Magnificent!) Magnificent, gigantic... (Fam: Far–reaching!) Yes‚ far-reaching, Worldwide witnessing work, & I would like to show'm & tell'm! But in groping around through our literature, I could find hardly anything really suitable. I'm not talking about the General Public, but friendly relatives or outside friends or those who are either fairly favourable or at least not antagonistic, not actual opponents, maybe they're even sort of hanging in the balance. Maybe thus far they're sort of uncommitted‚ they don't really know whether we're right or wrong & they'd like to have a little proof, a little evidence‚ "show me that you're doing good," & a little weight on that side of the scale might tip it in our favour if we had something to show them.
35. THEREFORE I WAS GREATLY BURDENED WITH THE URGENT NEED OF SOMETHING BROADER, something more comprehensive for use with this particular intermediary category of friends & relatives between the General Public & the actual Family itself, & it seemed that we were woefully lacking in such material.—Material for which we designed the LIN, of course, but the LIN can even be given to the General Public. We usually send it just to friends who send in donations, along with the Kidz, which almost any parents would agree with, like & be helpful & they would appreciate it.
36. BUT THERE IS A VERY LIMITED AMOUNT OF LITERATURE FOR FRIENDLY OUTSIDERS, for fish & kings & queens & even supporters, donors, to show the marvellous, amazing, Worldwide work & good that we're doing. We have not really had a good "friendly relations" magazine or literature which we could feel free to loan to outside friends or even give away as the occasion warrants. I can't say PR material because that means Public Relations, & this is not for the General Public. I'm not talking about that.
37. WE CAN USE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC MATERIAL THAT IS [EDITED] & DESIGNED FOR ANYBODY, outsiders, even enemies, like the GP Komix, etc., which are distributed on the street. In fact, we're recommending & have recommended for a long time that on the streets they distribute only True Komix & only the ones designed for the General Public‚ & that they're doing by the hundreds of millions of copies! Our circulation is amazing!
38. AND OF COURSE WE HAVE A TREMENDOUS VOLUME OF FAMILY LITERATURE STRICTLY FOR THE FAMILY who are inside the Family & wholeheartedly Family, trustworthy Family, who understand our language‚ our doctrines & practices & believe them & agree with them & practice them themselves, & these groups are poles apart, Family & General Public.
39. BUT IN THE FIELD OF LITERATURE FOR THE IN-BETWEEN GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NEITHER FAMILY NOR GENERAL PUBLIC WE'VE HAD VERY LITTLE TO OFFER & THERE'S A DIRE NEED FOR IT, much wider than just a simple little LIN or Kidz or GP Komix. Now since you're the FN Editor, I have to give you the vision, the burden & the idea of what we're driving at, & as I say, this came to a crux over my own brother & sister whom I would dearly love to give a little more information about us but found little or almost nothing of use with them.
40. ABOUT THE SAME TIME DEAR MARIA HANDED ME THE NEW 32-PAGE SIGNATURE-SIZE FNs which we're going to get hot off the presses as fast as they go along, just move'm right along, designed for just general Family News.—Not the Family Specials Book & the inside news, but more or less general news. And as I read these I realised how marvellous they were‚ the wonderful testimonies, the glorious victories, the worldwide Work, the Salvations!
41. HERE'S HINDUS & MUSLIMS & BUDDHISTS, ETC., GETTING [SAVED] & PEOPLE GETTING HEALED & MARVELLOUS [SALVATIONS] & TESTIMONIES! It's tremendous! And it's just a shame that we're not telling the World & we have nothing with which to tell our friends & even supporters, something we can give them to read about our work, to show what we're doing without offending them, without hitting them in the face with something they can't take, without giving the new wine to old bottles.
42. SO AT THIS SAME TIME—IT WAS OF COURSE THE LORD—I BECAME GREATLY BURDENED FOR SOMETHING TO GIVE MY BROTHER & SISTER, & as I thumbed just at that time through her new FNs for general distribution in the Family, even to a lower category of subscribers, you might say, below the GN, WND & FSB & all the rest of our pubs, I thought, "What a wonderful little Magazine this is!"—Especially thumbing through all these gorgeous photos of these beautiful faces & smiles & obviously happy children, I thought,
43. "WHAT A WONDERFUL TOOL THIS WOULD BE WITH OUTSIDE FRIENDS & PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY FAVOURABLE & EVEN SUPPORTERS, people on your mailing lists who are steady givers, people from whom you get regular donations or in provisioning a regular supply of goods‚ something to give them or at least show them. If you're afraid to give it to them lest they read everything & there may be something too much for them, you can at least thumb through & show it to somebody you're trying to provision from. Show'm all the pictures & say, "Look, we've got a magazine, look at all we're doing here, look at all these happy people, look at all these children! We've got a Worldwide work, we are somebody, we are doing something to help the World & change the World! Look‚ here's the proof, here it is‚ believe it or not!"
44. I THINK IT WOULD BE A TREMENDOUS INSPIRATION & ENCOURAGEMENT TO THAT KIND OF PEOPLE WHO ARE SORT OF IN-BETWEEN. Some of them are sort of on the fence & they don't know what to believe. They've heard all kinds of things pro & con, they meet you & they're very happy with you & pleased with you, but then they hear some other horrible stuff in the news against us, etc., & they don't know what to believe. Well, let's show them something positive!
45. OUR ENEMIES HAVEN'T FAILED TO PUBLICISE & PUBLISH ALL KINDS OF ROT & SHIT & LIES AGAINST US‚ SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, WHY DON'T WE PUBLICISE THE GOOD WE DO! Why don't we publish something that will show the World all the good we're doing, at least those who are inclined to be friendly & favourable‚ & maybe even those who are sort of undecided, on the fence & need a little help, to bring'm around & tip the scale in our favour.
46. SO I IMMEDIATELY SAW THE TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL OF THE FN, THE FAMILY NEWS MAGAZINE! It's small, only 32 pages & coming out so frequently you'll have so many copies that once the local Family has read'm you can feel free to pass'm on to good friends & supporters.—I mean friends & supporters who already know us & know something about us enough to be friendly & favourable & supportive. I'm not talking about people you don't know & you don't know where they stand & you don't know whether they're unfavourable or favourable or opponents or enemies or what.
47. I'M TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE THAT YOU CAN BE FAIRLY SURE THEY LOVE YOU, they help you, they write favourable letters, they are friendly, they even perhaps donate goods, services or money to help your local Home or you, even perhaps real good heavy supporters on your mailing list, who although they're not Family Members‚ you'd like to send them something once in awhile to show what our great Family is really doing!
48. IT'S ASTONISHING, IT'S ALMOST DUMBFOUNDING & ASTOUNDING TO SEE WHAT WE ARE DOING AROUND THE WORLD! This was originally one of the purposes of the Family News, believe it or not, even the earliest publication‚ the New Nation News. It was not only just to tell the Family about what we're doing, but even to tell outsiders.
49. WELL, WE HAVE BOILED THOSE CATEGORIES DOWN NOW TO WHERE WE GROUP THE WORLD INTO THREE CATEGORIES THAT I'VE ALREADY EXPLAINED: Family, Friends & General Public—even though they may be enemies. We have oodles of materials for the Family, they're almost glutted with literature, we have millions of pieces of literature for the General Public, but we are woefully lacking in literature for our Friends!
50. AND AS I FACED THIS PERSONAL FAMILY PROBLEM OF MY OWN WITH MY OWN RELATIVES AS TO WHAT TO SEND THEM FOR CHRISTMAS, THERE WAS SO LITTLE TO SEND'M I WAS ALMOST ASHAMED! They've heard of the Family, they've heard all the stories about me, they've even had personal contact with some of our bitterest enemies who have been enquiring of them about us & telling them all kinds of dirty stories about us. They've heard it all. They've heard the bad mostly, & sad to say, they've really heard very little of the good. Because who's going to tell'm the good unless they meet some Family Member personally?
51. I THINK MOST OF THE FAMILY MEMBERS HAVE BEEN KIND OF AFRAID OF MY RELATIVES & SHYED AWAY FROM'M BECAUSE WE'VE HAD A FEW PROBLEMS ALONG THAT LINE. We had one bitter enemy coming to my brother pretending to be a friend & getting him to loan this man pictures, etc.‚ of us, which he promptly wanted to put in his book which is a tirade & blast against us, & which my brother later demanded he return them or told him he was going to sue him! And I told him we were going to sue him, the enemy who wrote the book. I think my brother finally got the material back but it was too late‚ he'd already made copies & put the pictures in his book, etc. My brother apologised & he bawled out the guy who did it, but it was too late.
52. THESE GUTTERSNIPES, THESE SNAKES-IN–THE–GRASS WHO COME AROUND PRETENDING TO BE FRIENDS JUST TO GET INFORMATION, HAVE DONE THIS BOTH WITH MY BROTHER & MY SISTER, PRETENDING TO BE FRIENDS! Others have come as outright known enemies to blast them & give them all the dirt & the smut & the lies & the shit that the Systemites are telling about us, so they've heard the other side. In fact‚ I'd say most of the World from which we came & the System from which we came & our relatives & our former associates & acquaintances & maybe even friends have heard the other side. It's been well-known & publicised in the newspapers & the magazines & books & all kinds of things. But how much have they heard from us outside of little personal letters trying to defend us & trying to say what was good?
53. WHERE'S THE PROOF? WHERE'S THE PUDDING? WHERE ARE THE SAMPLES? We really have not been able to trot out the samples except personally in some cases‚ & this did not have too much coverage & many have been a little afraid to even witness to their relatives. They've been afraid to even say much to them for fear of offending them, infuriating them or whatever, & a lot of people just stopped writing their relatives altogether because they never got anything but negative reactions, etc.
54. WE NEED SOMETHING THAT IS A LITTLE CLEARER TO SHOW THE GOOD SIDE so they could look on the bright side & see the favourable side of all the good we're doing in the World & all the people we're helping & changing & bettering & bringing new life & happiness to, etc.‚ & that is what I want the FN for from now on.
55. ANY FAMILY NEWS WHICH IS‚ SHALL I SAY, MORE PRIVATE & INTENDED FOR YOUR EYES & EARS ONLY OF THE FAMILY SHOULD BE RESTRICTED STRICTLY TO THE NEW FAMILY SPECIALS BOOK which is published in book-size & book–length & book-weight & book-postage about every other month at least. It has been published more often than that but we can't afford to publish it more often after this.
56. BUT MATERIAL WHICH COULD BE BENEFICIAL IN PUTTING OUR BEST FOOT FORWARD & SHOWING OUR HAPPY FACE—not to the General Public, but to people we know already are friendly, slightly favourable‚ even supportive, something we can give them to read even if we only loan it to them—this is what I want the Family News Magazine to be from now on!—The little 32-page FN-size News Magazine, no cover, no binding, nothing fancy, just the news articles just like the Family sends'm in.
57. ALL FAMILY CONTRIBUTIONS ARE TO BE SEPARATED & SEGREGATED INTO THOSE TWO CATEGORIES FROM NOW ON: Number one, those which are for the Family Only & good only for the Family, with all your nudity & girly pictures & FFing & triple-mating & all that sort of thing, which are strictly for the Family insiders, not for outside friends or relatives, & certainly not for the General Public! So these articles have to be separated by you according to your judgement & what you think is good only for the Family & what you really think would be good for outside friends. Do you get the point? PTL!
58. SO USING MY OWN BROTHER & SISTER AS SORT OF A YARDSTICK & CRITERION TO MEASURE WHAT I THINK THEY COULD TAKE & WHAT I THINK THEY COULDN'T, now even in their friendly favourable attitude‚ I was trying to think, "Well what could I send them?" And I was thinking that the FN with a little bit of censorship & polishing & segregation could be beautifully designed to actually thrill them with the work that we are doing!—With a little bit of culling here & there, a little bit of omission, change of wording, change of terminology, in a few cases change of pictures & change of testimonies. In fact, we simply have to completely weed out testimonies or pages which contain too much material that is for Family only‚ for your eyes only.
59. BUT ALSO ON THE OTHER HAND, THAT WHICH WE FEEL IS QUITE SUITABLE FOR THE FN—Family News for friends as well as for the Family but not classified material, not offensive material‚ not security risk material—we have found many of the articles with the very slightest of changes can be made very suitable for outside friends & relatives to encourage, inspire & thrill them with the marvellous work we're doing.—Friends, supporters‚ kings, queens, donors & even relatives.
60. THIS NEW FN IS TO BE DESIGNED TO BE DFO, FOR BOTH DISCIPLES & FRIENDS ONLY—not GP, not outsiders that we know little or nothing about & they're quite questionable, but those which we are quite sure are already fairly favourable, fairly friendly & even supportive. But we cannot use material where we have to make too many changes, & we cannot make too many changes in the material that we receive, even material that we think would be very good otherwise for outside friends.
61. SO FIRST OF ALL WE'RE GOING TO ASK THE FAMILY TO BE MORE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU SEND, WHICH YOU THINK COULD BE GOOD FOR OUTSIDE FRIENDS.—Something that you wouldn't be afraid to distribute to your own provisioning friends, those who give you provisions or give you donations & services, kings‚ queens, fish & people who perhaps even understand that terminology. [W]e don't want to give'm material that's going to [be] too strong for them. That kind of medicine is too much for them. That kind of new wine is going to break their bottle & there's no reason just to waste it & offend'm & drive them into the other camp.
62. SO LET'S TRY TO SPARE THEM FROM THINGS WHICH ARE OFFENSIVE & which they just couldn't be expected to take or receive in their old bottle & which would almost be insulting to them, perhaps‚ to expect them to receive. It almost doesn't even give them room to save face, something they couldn't possibly show to anybody else because they know it would be offensive, even though they themselves are willing to tolerate it.
63. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND WE DON'T WANT TO GO OVERBOARD IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. For example, I don't think you could find a friend or a relative who hasn't heard—if they're connected or have any contact with the Family whatsoever—all the bad publicity or a lot of it, or at least haven't already known that there is something strange about us regarding sex & our sexuality & our nudity & our strange doctrines, etc.
64. SO THEY'VE HEARD THAT SORT OF THING , but let's not give them such strong medicine & such strong comments & words & testimonies that it would be hard for them to receive & hard for them to explain away to their friends if they wanted to show it to them or it fell into their hands. Let's not give the opposition any ammunition in our own lit. That's where much, if not most of their ammunition has come from, the wrong people got the wrong lit & therefore they wrongly publicised it & it was used to our shame & to our condemnation.
65. SO LET'S BE SURE THERE'S NOTHING IN THE FN THAT'S GOING TO OUTRIGHT OFFEND THEM , but let's not go to the extreme where we're afraid to mention anything that might just faintly sound like something but isn't necessarily that thing & they couldn't prove that that's what it meant. If it's a double entendre, if it has an ambiguous meaning & they could take it one way or the other, let's not be afraid to use it. In the case of the lies of the Enemy & the criticism of enemies, when I said to dear old Fred Jordan‚ "Why don't you stand up & fight & tell'm off & tell'm the truth!" He said, "My friends don't need an explanation & my enemies wouldn't believe it anyhow!" Keep that in mind!
68. SO LET ME GIVE YOU THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES ON THE MATTER OF [EDITING] THIS MATERIAL. [M]aybe I should say weeding out the strong meat that might be too much for them. One man's meat is another man's poison—it may be our meat but their poison. First rule, we need to cull through & change only those things which have to be changed & don't change anything that doesn't have to be changed, & for God's sake, pray that He'll help you to know the difference! Because you can be too particular. On the other hand, about some things you can't be too particular, you must be very particular. So we must have guidelines & basic principles.
69. Look at that statement & ask yourself whether they could actually go to court with it & say that that proves we do so–&-so & proves we're guilty of this & that. If it's an ambiguous statement, has double meaning & they couldn't prove that it meant this or that, it might be something else, so leave it alone!—Even with the pictures. It's a strange thing about the System, they will accept classical nudity, beautiful‚ fairly conservative nudity you might say.
70. AND THERE'S A VERY ODD THING WE DISCOVERED PARTICULARLY WHEN WE WERE IN SOUTH AFRICA BUT I'VE NOTICED EVEN BEFORE & SINCE, even in our extremely conservative churches such as Maria & I were brought up in. Sometimes we were shocked as young people at the kind of movies the missionaries brought back from the mission field of virtually totally nude natives! Men & women dancing around their fires shakin' the bacon & the blubber‚ & all was acceptable in ultra-conservative churches where you weren't even allowed to wear short sleeves or shorts or jeans or thin clothing! As long as it was natives, foreigners, non-Whites, pagans & heathen it was okay, you could expect that of them of course!
71. SO WHAT I WOULD CALL NATIVE NUDITY, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, IS NOT OFFENSIVE TO MOST SYSTEMITES‚ EVEN CHURCH PEOPLE‚ & you'll find in many of their publications actual pictures of such natives dancing around virtually nude. I've been shocked sometimes when I walked into churches & saw missionaries advertising pictures of these almost totally nude men like some of the Aborigines, with nothing but their penie wrapped up & not much at that, & some of the women virtually stark naked! They had nice big glossy 8-x-11 black-&-white prints plastered all over the walls & the bulletin board: "Come & see & hear this missionary tonight who's going to show you movies of these people!"
72. WELL, IT WAS GOOD ADVERTISING! EVERYBODY TURNED OUT, ESPECIALLY THE MEN, & I'M SURE THEY WERE CURIOUS & INTERESTED! Even if they wouldn't admit it, a lot of those church people enjoyed those pictures anyhow‚ because they certainly weren't allowed to see much in church with their own women or men! But it was perfectly acceptable in these ultra-conservative, narrow-minded churches for the missionaries to show the natives in this condition in their native habitat.
73. WELL‚ WE'RE DEALING WITH A LOT OF NATIVES IN THESE FIELDS, & TO THE SYSTEM CHRISTIANS, ANY OF THESE PEOPLE ARE HEATHEN, they're all pagans, they're all natives whether they be Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asians‚ Filipinos, Indonesians or whatever! If they're even a slightly darker shade or they have slanty eyes or they look a little bit foreign, they're natives! So of course you might happen to see them in such a slightly undressed condition, because you couldn't expect the natives to abide by such conservative rules as us. Therefore this is a little more legitimate & this is to be expected & tolerated of these poor, ignorant natives who don't know any better than to show a naked thigh or a beautiful leg or a well-rounded bosom or a little more nudity, believe it or not! But your own missionaries, people who obviously look like missionaries, should look like White Western missionaries & not be too raw in the raw!
74. WE CAN'T VERY WELL HIDE OUR BEAUTIFUL MISSIONARIES ENTIRELY & OUR BEAUTIFUL MISSIONARY WIVES & BEAUTIFUL MISSIONARY GIRLS & THEY ALREADY KNOW THAT OUR FAMILY IS PRETTY SEXY! If they didn't know it, once they see the picture of Heaven they'll sure know it then! They've already heard tales & stories & I doubt if there's a person in the World who's heard of the Family who hasn't heard that we're sexy! Therefore they would expect something, & if they didn't even see any of it in our literature, they would figure we were covering up & trying to hide & really lie!
75. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT OUTSIDERS & GP‚ BUT EVEN SOME OF OUR GP LITERATURE IS PRETTY LIBERAL BECAUSE WE FIGURE THE GENERAL PUBLIC LIKES IT! We're not aiming at the churchified enemies. A lot of our GP lit is very sexy & has lots of nudity & they love it! Well, believe it or not, in private the church people & the Scribes & Pharisees & hypocrites love it too, especially these System newspapers that love to publish it. They love it, it makes news, they revel in it, they glory in it, they glut in it! The more smutty it is & the more muddy & dirty & seeming to be sexy & all that, the better they like it!—Although at the same time ostensibly on the surface & publicly they condemn it. I don't think I ever found a man yet that objected to female nudity, & a lot of women probably wouldn't object to it either if they weren't afraid it might lead their husbands astray! They may even like to see a little male nudity!
76. THE POINT IS, WE CANNOT COMPLETELY HIDE OUR NUDITY & OUR SEXUALITY BECAUSE THEY ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT. So don't try to go to the extreme of trying to cover up everything & think that you can just completely hide it‚ they already know about it, they've heard about it. As long as the language is not too raw , leave it alone.
77. AS LONG AS THE PICTURES ARE FAIRLY MODEST, FINE! The World is used to seeing girls in bikinis & whatnot‚ & we've had to draw quite a few of them on our pictures. I don't know why they're so afraid of those things, but anyhow, they are. They are pretty powerful weapons in the wrong hands. Usually I like mine in good hands, & I'm pretty handy with theirs too!
78. BUT WHAT I'M SAYING NOW IS NOT THE KIND OF STUFF YOU'RE GOING TO PRINT & STUFF YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE TO GENERAL PUBLIC OR FRIENDS. This little talk is designed strictly for the Family so I'm not afraid to say some pretty raw things. But even outside the Family, outside friends & supporters, they've heard, they know‚ or at least they think they may know, & some of'm are pretty well-acquainted with our sexuality & our girls.
79. SO DON'T TRY TO COVER UP TOO MUCH, DON'T TRY TO HIDE TOO MUCH‚ DON'T TRY TO CHANGE TOO MUCH, PLEASE, BUT DO TRY TO KEEP THOSE MODERATE LIMITATIONS IN MIND so that we don't make things too raw, too obvious, too evident or too clear as to be so offensive, that they actually offend some people, & though other people might like it they couldn't save face by looking at it or admitting approval, certainly not to show to their friends. Let's be temperate & moderate in all things. (Phil.4:5; 2Pet.1:6)
80. WE'VE GOT LOTS OF PRETTY GIRLS & WE GET LOTS OF NUDE PICTURES, OR ALMOST-NUDE PICTURES. Okay, they know we're sexy, they know about it, they've seen worse than that‚ & they've got lots worse than that in their own publications. So I'm not going to hide our pretty girls in all of them‚ but I'm just not going to show unnecessary nudity as to be offensive, even to the point of illegality! Some things have got to be changed & modified, some pictures touched-up & dressed–up a bit, some ambiguous terminology used in preference to something that's a little too raw.
81. I suggest that virtually all textual corrections in the FN be made by black fine-point pen or white-out or both, because we cannot take time to try to find the same type of typewriter print, take the page out, stick it in the typewriter, position it exactly & hit the right letters in the right place. Impossible! Forget it! If the word has to be changed‚ then do it by white-out & pen, if necessary.
82. I WOULD SUGGEST WE COMPLETELY ABANDON THIS EXPRESSION OF "INVASION," PARTICULARLY SAYING "CHURCH INVASIONS." FROM NOW ON, LET'S CALL THEM VISITATIONS OR CHURCH VISITATIONS. That's a nice word even the churches use themselves, visitation is a part of their ministry. Well‚ visiting churches is a part of our ministry. In literature for outside friends & certainly the public‚ we're never to use that "church invasion" expression again! That's just my shocking, rabble-rousing, revolutionary diction designed strictly for the Family & to stir you up & tell you what I really mean, but it is certainly not the kind of diplomatic language you're to use , because it's anything but diplomatic! The church invasion immediately arouses their ire that they've got to rise up & defend themselves & resist!
84. IT'S FUNNY, ISN'T IT, HOW IF YOU MARRY TWO WOMEN LEGALLY ON PAPER, THEN YOU'RE GUILTY OF BIGAMY‚ OR IF MORE, EVEN POLYGAMY, strictly against the law in most countries, even in some countries that allow all kinds of other things. It's against Federal Law in the United States & they'll put you up for 20 years for bigamy or polygamy! But you can just live common law with as many women as you want to, no problem, as long as you don't sign a marriage contract & get a license & make them legally mates, husbands or wives. So this can be done freely without problems as long as you don't do it legally on paper & as long as you don't do it too publicly & advertise it too much.
85. Put your FF testimonies & your FFer's victories in the Family Specials Book. That's for your eyes only & not for outside friends who couldn't take it. It's too strong, it's new wine‚ it would burst their bottle, it would offend them, & even if they would like to accept it they can't save face.
86. THEREFORE I'M TRYING TO SORT OUT THESE LITTLE IDIOSYNCRASIES & LITTLE JOTS & TITTLES SO THAT YOU DON'T GET SO NITPICKY THAT YOU'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT OR THAT YOU GET TOO BROADMINDED & YOU LEAVE TOO MUCH IN! (Maria: What about "sexy"?—Sexy dances, sexy girls, etc.) Well, that's a little strong. (Maria: What would you use in its place?) Well, give me time & I'll think of something. Sometimes they use "exotic" or some other term that's not too strong. You dropped that bomb on me right this minute & I haven't had time to think & pray about it. "Lovely" is a nice word. Lovely, beautiful, pretty, you can say a lot of things besides saying sexy or exotic.
87. THERE ARE ALSO MATTERS OF [PRIVACY] WHERE YOU CAN BE TOO NITPICKY & GO TO THE EXTREME. We can't remove [every detail], that's their hazard—the Family who sends the article in.
88. WE'VE GOT TO TRUST THEIR JUDGEMENT & IF ANYTHING HAPPENS, THEY'RE THE ONES THAT ARE GOING TO SUFFER FOR IT. We cannot just expunge every single little initial & reference to friends' jobs or positions.
90. NOW‚ WHAT ABOUT TEXTUAL TYPOS, PUNCTUATION, MISSPELLINGS & THINGS LIKE THAT? As I have said & said again & again & I've told you in proofreading, & again I say it‚ we are certainly not in the business of correcting Home typographical & textual punctuation mistakes! That's their fault & obviously their fault! It's obvious they wrote it & we didn't. So they're to blame, we're not to blame, & it's not our duty to correct'm.—Unless you think it would be an indication to the people who read it that we're pretty dumb & ignorant & don't even know how to spell or punctuate! If it's so simple it can be corrected with a stroke of the pen or a stroke of the white-out brush, it's so easy, it doesn't have to be retyped, it doesn't have to be re-fitted & all that & it's so simple we can do it, in that case you can suggest them‚ but I may not always approve of them.
91. MY STANDARD HAS BEEN—& I'VE EVEN TOLD YOU THIS WITH THE GNs IN YOUR PROOFREADING—DON'T CORRECT UNLESS YOU HAVE TO, ESPECIALLY PUNCTUATION. Our punctuation may not be perfect, but as long as it's understandable & they can comprehend it & it's not completely incomprehensible, then leave it alone. We don't have time to make all these corrections, particularly when they cause an actual changing of the formation or the size of the statement or the paragraph. Thank God it's easier to do now than it used to be, but it's still difficult. Try not to make corrections that are too difficult, even in my material.
92. WE TRY TO TEACH THE FAMILY TO SPELL RIGHT IN MY MATERIAL, BUT WE'RE NOT OUT TO TEACH SPELLING FROM FAMILY MATERIAL. However, in such a simple correction as they put in the word "cothing" when it's obviously "clothing," you can just stroke in the "l" by pen between the "c" & the "o" & you've got clothing! A hyphen where there should be a hyphen or shouldn't be a hyphen‚ you can put the hyphen in or white-out the one that doesn't belong there. But since it is Family material & they know they're reading something that somebody else wrote & WS is not responsible for it, I would say don't correct spelling, typos or punctuation at all unless you can't even understand it, or unless it's so easy to do you can do it with a stroke of a little fine–point black pen or white-out.
93. UNLESS WHOEVER CORRECTS IT DOESN'T HAVE TO USE A TYPEWRITER, DOESN'T HAVE TO RE-TYPE, STICK ON‚ PASTE & ALL THAT, FORGET IT! Only in the most serious cases where we have to change the word completely are we going to go to the bother of retyping it to size, to fit, & try to stick it in. And in some cases I'd say just use white-out & a black fine-point felt–tip pen. Some places it is impossible to squeeze it in unless you use a pen, you couldn't possibly type it in. And we just don't have time to re-write these whole paragraphs to make space for words that are too long. Try to think of a word that fits.
94. IF YOU MUST CHANGE THE WORD AT ALL‚ ASK GOD TO GIVE YOU A WORD THAT FITS & THAT IS CONSISTENT WITH THE MEANING OF THE PARAGRAPH & euphemistic with it, a synonym of some kind, if possible, that means virtually the same thing or something in context with the material. (Maria: Since we're going to use these so extensively now, I wonder if it would be good to have a little by-line somewhere that says: "Contributions from the field used as is.") We certainly need to have that, maybe right on the front page in the masthead! I think that's an excellent idea & it looks to me like there's room underneath that verse to put it in very fine print there in parentheses: "Articles written & contributed directly from missionaries in the field." That's a good thing, let's work on that!
95. AND OF COURSE ANYTHING THAT'S AN OBVIOUS MISTAKE WHERE APPARENTLY A NUMBER WAS STUCK ON BUT FELL OFF‚ like on that third paragraph here on page 2 where you wrote in the 3, well yes, of course. That's a simple thing‚ just write in the 3.
96. AMAZING AS IT MAY SEEM TO YOU ON PAGE 4, I WROTE A LITTLE NOTE HERE: "NATIVE NUDITY IS USUALLY TOLERATED BY THE SYSTEM!"—And she's obviously a native, she looks like a South Sea Islander! It's a beautiful picture, the most offensive parts are legally covered & she's got as much on as most girls have on the beach. So I don't see any reason for blotting that out‚ especially as it's not our own picture but a contribution from the field.
97. (MARIA: DO WE WANT TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT DAD & MARIA AT ALL?) I think references to us are almost inescapable in many cases. The Bible says "give credit where credit is due," & anybody who's a good enough friend to hand a piece of this literature has probably already heard about us or is going to hear about us or even want to know about us. So I don't think we can completely expunge our names off of the literature. We even use the name "Father David" on the GP lit! You don't want to have so many corrections that it's going to be an interminable task to try to make them all & make yourself a lot of work that's unnecessary. What's wrong with Dad & Maria? What are they going to take us to court for, for saying Dad & Maria?
99. OH MY GOODNESS, LET'S NOT STRAIN AT A GNAT OVER USING THE WORD "SYSTEM"! My Lord, even the System uses the word System! On page 9, somebody crossed-out System & wanted to put in "commercial"! That I think is just going a bit too far with your being afraid that they'll find out that we're a little anti-System & we call the System the System! If they know anything about us at all by this time, they know we're the Jesus Revolution, somewhat opposed to the System! So for God's sake‚ let's not be that nitpicky!
100. BESIDES, THESE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE OPINIONS OF THE PEOPLE IN THE FIELD, NOT NECESSARILY THE OPINIONS OF THE EDITOR! Maybe we need to add a little note like they put on some publications: "The opinions of these contributors are not necessarily all the opinions of the Editors or Management." How would that be to take us off the hook?
104. NOW ON PAGE 14, SOMEBODY QUESTIONED A COUPLE OF PICTURES HERE OF PRETTY GIRLS EXPOSING PRETTY LEGS, PICTURES 25 & 28. What do you think about those? (Fam: Personally, I like'm!) Well, I like'm too! (Maria: They're fine, the whole System does that.) Yes, & they know we're sexy, they know we dance. I would say that even some churches & Catholic churches would probably have pictures in a youth publication like that. So I wouldn't worry about a few girls having a few little leggy "cheesecake" pictures, they know we're at least that sexy. As long as we're not completely exposing any prohibited illegal parts, I wouldn't be so nitpicky with the pictures.
105. ALL RIGHT, LET'S GO TO PAGE 16—THAT WAS A TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR OR MISSPELLING‚ the word "clothing" which we already mentioned‚ so of course when all you need to do is draw a little "l" between the "c" & the "o" to change "cothing" to clothing, do it! But if the misspelling is bad yet comprehensible but too difficult to correct, don't even try. That's their mistake, not ours.
106. WE TRY TO TEACH OUR KIDS GOOD SPELLING BUT THEY MIGHT KNOW THAT WE'RE GOING TO GET SOME STUFF FROM OTHER PEOPLE WHO DON'T SPELL SO WELL! And you can't blame them, especially when three-fourths of our people are non-English-native-tongue people, think of that! They're speaking native tongues, mother tongues or other languages & they're trying now to write in English. So don't blame'm for a few little mistakes grammatically, don't try to change the grammar, & even if they make a few little spelling mistakes, forget it, as long as you can understand the word. "Cothing" was a little difficult & it only takes one little stroke of the pen to change that, so that's not bad.
107. I AGREE WITH YOUR SUGGESTED CORRECTION ON PAGE 19, I DON'T SEE WHY IT'S NECESSARY TO GIVE SUCH A DIFFICULT ABBREVIATION FOR UNIVERSITY AS TO CALL IT A "UNI"! I know that's a popular expression with Aussies but we don't use it & most Americans don't use it. I don't even think the British use it‚ so a lot of people wouldn't know what you were talking about. Maybe you're talking about a eunuch or something! But there's plenty of room there to either put the abbreviation for university, "univ.," or even in this case to spell out the whole word!
109. WE HAVE EXPLAINED IN FULL IN BOOK–LENGTH TREATISES EXACTLY WHAT WE MEAN BY FFing, SO THEY KNOW WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY FFing & THEY CAN PROVE IT FROM OUR WRITINGS. So let's not make it too offensive & slap'm in the face with it, friends who would like to kind of be able to save face.
110. HERE'S ANOTHER PRETTY GIRL IN PICTURE 6 THAT YOU DIDN'T CORRECT & I'M GLAD, BECAUSE SHE'S VERY PRETTY! And even though she's showing quite a bit of bosom, she's not showing too much. However on this picture 5 caption I think you're stretching it a bit to say there's any illegal inference here or anything offensive. They can interpret that in any way they want to. It says beautiful Sonya now has a newborn, & later very plainly says that she's still single. Well, there are lots of unmarried mothers in the World, oodles of them!
111. WE'RE NOT TRYING TO DRESS THIS UP FOR CHURCH ENEMIES‚ THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FOR FRIENDS‚ PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY FAVOURABLE & therefore already must know something about us & be familiar with some of our doctrines & practices. We just don't want to make it too raw where we rub'm the wrong way & pour too strong wine into their already fairly old bottles. Let's just try to tone it down a bit, Folks, please, but not too much.
112. NOW ON PAGE 23‚ THIS BUSINESS OF TRYING TO CHANGE THEIR ALREADY PRETTILY-WORDED TITLE, A TITLE WHICH THEY CHOSE & THE KIND OF OLD ENGLISH LETTERING THAT THEY CHOSE, DON'T YOU THINK THAT'S NITPICKING? (Maria: It was funny, I didn't understand it.) I understood it the moment I saw it! Maybe I understand Old English better, I used to read Chaucer. (Maria: I could understand the "G" & "B" but I never could get the "Y"!) All right, well let'm figure it out. There's nothing offensive about it, nothing that's going to hurt anybody or offend anybody. It's not even necessary for them to understand "GBY" if they don't understand it. But my Lord, if they know the Family & they've read any of our lit by this time, they certainly know what it means. So forget it! God Bless You!
114. (MARIA: WHAT ABOUT "REEL IN THE BIG ONES"?) So what? We've talked about fishing a lot! They've even got an AOFG organisation the churches call the "Apostolic Gospel Fishers of Men" or whatever it is, & they talk in fishing terms. Jesus said, "I will make you fishers of men!"—What's the matter with "reel in the big ones"?
115. IF THEY'RE WRITING IT ORIGINALLY THEY COULD SAY FISHERS OF MEN. (Maria: They could even put a reference.) That's very good. That's a good expression. We've got to think of some good alternative expressions to use. But in this case where we're having to correct their already written & printed material, there's not room & we're not going to rewrite the whole line or the paragraph or reprint the whole page! We are just going to try to make it fit in the simplest kind of a correction!
116. NOW IN YOUR ORIGINAL WRITING‚ YOU FAMILY MEMBERS OUT THERE CAN TAKE THE POINT WELL, I BELIEVE THAT YOU COULD SAY FISHERS OF MEN.—However, sometimes it's Fishers of Women! (Fam: I was wondering about the phrase when they say "my fish did this," should that be changed?) Why? Why? We're fishers of men! We're trying to catch fish!
118. (MARIA: WELL, I WOULD SUGGEST THAT WE ELIMINATE "FISH" IN THAT CASE TOO & WE COULD JUST CALL THEM "FRIENDS.") How about souls? Friends won't fit in the same four-letter space as fish. (Maria: I mean when the original article's being originally written. If people want to talk about their fish, why can't they just say their friends?) All right, but I'm talking right now about the corrections that a poor editor has to make. Now on your original text, dear Family out there, please do try to change your terminology so we won't have to make these corrections.
119. ALSO IN THE SECOND PARAGRAPH, SECOND COLUMN‚ I CERTAINLY THINK "INVASION" SHOULD BE CHANGED TO "VISITATION." Both of these corrections were very well taken. Although they suggested "canvassing‚" I think the word "visitation" is far more understandable by most people. Canvassing is only understood by some people & churches who canvas.—Again the same thing on page 27, change "invade these Catholic Schools" to "visit these Catholic schools." On page 29‚ obviously that first word should be "congratulate‚" not "congragulate," so they can just pen in in black a letter "t" over the "g" just like you did without any trouble so we don't look too stupid.
120. PAGE 30, I THOUGHT THAT WAS A CHANGE WELL-TAKEN TO BE SPECIFIC ABOUT THE COUNTRY UP THERE IN THE ID BOX OF THE PAGE. Why say Latin America when you can put Chile? The whole article's about Chile. I like these page IDs in these little boxes to tell what country you're reading about. I often had difficulty trying to find out what it was about or where it was.
121. WELL THAT'S IT, THAT'S ALL OF MY SUGGESTIONS & I HOPE I HIT MOST OF THE SNAGS & STRAWS & PROBLEMS THAT YOU'RE GOING TO FACE IN [EDITING] THE FAMILY MATERIAL THAT'S SENT IN. And what I would suggest most of all‚ dear Family, is that you out there who send in these contributions check your own contribution when writing it & before sending it in so that you try to avoid using objectionable‚ offensive terminology & pictures. OK?
122. LET'S TRY TO DESIGN THE FN MAGAZINE AS A MAGAZINE WE CAN BE PROUD OF & THANKFUL FOR, which we can freely & fearlessly distribute to genuine friends & supporters without a qualm, without a worry that they might misinterpret something or be offended by something, but something that'll do us good & do us credit & cause them to be even more friendly & more supportive. Amen? This will fill a great need which we've had for a long time of more literature in this area for outside friends & supporters.
123. JUST REMEMBER, THEY MUST BE FRIENDS & FRIENDLY, AT LEAST, BEFORE YOU LET THEM READ THE FN! The FN is not for the General Public. It is not for people you don't know. It is not for people you're not sure are favourable & friendly, but it is certainly for friendly, favourable outsiders & particularly for outside supporters to whom you can hand it without fear.
124. WHEN YOUR FAMILY & HOME ARE FINISHED READING IT, YOU'LL BE GETTING ENOUGH COPIES THAT YOU'LL HAVE A FEW ON HAND WITHOUT HAVING TO REPRINT THEM FOR DISTRIBUTION. This has always been the problem about this type of literature, not enough of it was needed & it was usually so bulky that it would have been impossible for the Family to reprint it for distribution for such a purpose. Now we are printing these little short 32-page, signature-size FN leaflets, little Family News Magazines, in such numbers & in such quantity of supply with enough variety that every Home is going to receive enough copies, each one of a different kind, that they can not only share them & distribute them in the Home more equitably & give everybody something to read as they come in two or three copies at a time‚ but when the whole local Home & Family are finished reading them, it is not the kind of thing you necessarily need to keep or to file or to make a book out of, but you can pass them on to your good friends & supporters.
125. SO LET'S PLEASE TRY TO KEEP IN MIND WHO THESE NEW FN MAGAZINES ARE FOR! They're not only for the encouragement & inspiration of genuine Family Members themselves, but after you have passed them around & everybody in the Family has had a chance to read them, then take these & pass them on to very good friends & supporters of the Family who will be thrilled with reading them—if you'll be sure that they are well-[edited with no] material which might be offensive to them or too strong for them or which their old bottle might not be able to take or hold. Amen?
126. I WOULD SAY THESE ARE THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES WHICH I HAVE LAID DOWN, & THAT IS PRETTY GIRLS & MODERATE NUDITY ARE TOLERABLE, especially to most Worldly people & outside friends & supporters. I'm sure there will be certain of your narrow–minded relatives & church members who would still object, but so what? We're not trying to reach them anyhow. They're hopeless cases, most of them, & it wouldn't matter what we did, we couldn't please'm. We couldn't walk across the floor & please'm, they'd find something wrong with us! We're trying to reach people who are potentials & potentially favourable & friendly & even supportive.
127. SO MODERATE NUDITY, PRETTY GIRLS‚ DANCING & A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF SEXINESS ABOUT OUR LITERATURE & ITS NEWS IS QUITE TOLERABLE. [The] Family Specials Book [is] the place for really extensive‚ descriptive FFing testimonies. You can talk a lot more freely in the Book designed strictly for 100% Family Members, the Family Specials Book.
128. PLEASE WRITE THE DESIGNATION ON EACH PAGE OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION AS TO WHETHER YOU THINK IT WILL BE SUITABLE FOR THE FN OR THE FSB. Is that clear, Family? I'm talking to you folks out there who send in these contributions. If it is for the FN, please design it & word it & illustrate it for the FN. If it's strictly for the FSB‚ almost anything goes.—But it should be, of course‚ particularly inspirational, encouraging, lesson-teaching & edifying even for the Family, especially for the Family! But you have a little more freedom there to use more specific & descriptive terminology‚ & you have a little more freedom in the kind of pictures you use & the stories you write & the subjects you choose in the FSB.
129. BUT PLEASE DO TRY TO BE CAREFUL IN THE FN & REMEMBER WHO IT'S BEING PUBLISHED FOR—OUTSIDE FRIENDS & SUPPORTERS WHO ARE NOT YET FAMILY MEMBERS & MAYBE NEVER WILL BE‚ LIKE MY BROTHER & SISTER. Thank God for this Christmas season & the incident which arose which made me have to face the problem & find a solution. And it was certainly of the Lord because I think this has been a much-neglected area of our publications & an extremely needed tool for witnessing to our friends & supporters outside the Family, publicising & advertising all the good we do & all the people we're helping & how we're really changing the World for the better! Amen?
130. SO MAY GOD BLESS & HELP YOU TO HAVE THE GOOD SENSE & THE WISDOM TO KNOW WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE FN & WHAT IS NOT, & FOR GOD'S SAKE TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE! Amen? In Jesus' name‚ amen! (Maria: And just to clarify about the Family Specials Book, the type of articles that we've had in the recent Family Specials Book is the type that they should continue to write, there's no change necessary there on that kind of article.) Very good. That's a word from the old mare's mouth herself, who is the Editor of both of these publications.
131. SINCE I'VE FINISHED A LOT OF MY MAJOR PROJECTS I'VE BEEN TAKING A LITTLE CLOSER LOOK AT SOME OF THESE & in our austerity measures we've been making some modifications & I think a lot of improvements in spite of some cut-downs. And certainly this new FN was almost a revelation & I think a genuine improvement in our literature publication, to fill a gap which has long been neglected. PTL?—That's a good name!—New Family News!
132. SO PRAISE GOD! DON'T REFUSE IT, USE IT! And make it a good tool in your witnessing to friends & supporters & people from whom you're provisioning, etc. You could carry a few copies in your pocket. Even in new provisioning to perfect strangers to whom you're going out provisioning, you could pull out a copy & leaf through it quickly & show'm the pictures of all these happy people & children & good folks. They probably don't even speak the language or read English anyhow so they can at least look at the pictures & see that you really mean business. And even if they can read English, there should be nothing offensive in there.
133. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT CAN BE A VERY GOOD PROVISIONING TOOL & VERY USEFUL, I would say, in encouraging provisioning & support & to really show what you're doing‚ giving evidence of what the Family is actually accomplishing around the World & what a tremendous work we are actually doing Worldwide. So may the Lord bless & keep it & use it all for His glory & to encourage friends & influence people for the best & for the good of the Family & the Lord's work, in Jesus' name, amen! Amen? PTL!
134. ALL RIGHT, NOW I THINK YOU'VE GOT A LITTLE BETTER IDEA, I HOPE‚ OF HOW YOU'RE TO [PREPARE] & SEGREGATE THIS MATERIAL THAT YOU'RE EDITING FOR THE FN! PTL? And of course there may be a few pages that are not good for either one, not important enough for the FSB & yet not safe enough with too much in it that you just couldn't change it all & edit it all for the FN. So you may have to even cull out a few pages that are not good for either one‚ especially if it's really poorly done & unclearly typed with poor pictures. We don't want to publish too much really poorly done material, stuff that is just not good at all in any way for either publication. So I hope the Family will try to improve the quality of your material in both the clarity of the print & its subjects & texts & terminology, as well as the quality of the pictures & their contrast & content. In Jesus' name, amen. PTL!
135. OKAY, I THINK THAT WAS A PRETTY NEEDED SUBJECT & I HOPE THAT WILL BE A HELP TO YOU FROM NOW ON SO THAT YOU'LL KNOW WHAT TO DO! I can't blame you—if the rules aren't clear, it's not your fault if you don't know how to keep'm! (Maria: These were a collection of everybody's suggestions, not just his.) Yes, yes‚ yes‚ & this is also a talk for everybody, us & every Family Member in the whole World! So now I think it ought to be clear what we want, & let's hope this gets to the Family as soon as possible so they don't make these mistakes, so you don't have to correct them! Amen? PTL! GBYAKY & the FN good for your friends & supporters!—In Jesus' name, amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family