Steve Sanchez on the SRF Response

Steve Sanchez has generously contributed this observation to the response by SRF.

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The letter by SRF to Mike and joy has a suffocating quality to it, no doubt especially for someone like myself who was in the cult.

The reason being this: the letter demonstrates how they insulate themselves in superiority. They never deny anything that has been said about them; that is beneath them. They communally wipe away all of the abuses of Bill and themselves by saying that any negatives towards SRF are the projections of those who left.

With this thought they can and will deny anything and everthying. As lame as this sounds to anyone on the outside, they really believe this; they must believe it to survive. They are completely unprepared to engage in a genuine dialogue, because communally they are dominated by their shadow to the point that they have become it, and will do everything to protect it.

This is why professionals are educated in ethics in all fields, such as psychology, ministry, and teaching. The study of ethics helps a person to see their own needs and other's needs. It helps a person to see a situation in its whole context, and the consequences that a particular situation has for all who have a stake in it. This is studied in the light of what it means to be faithful to God, and how we can be of service to one another.

The SRF version of ethics according to this letter goes something like this: All of you who have left SRF must deal with the consequences of your projections, but we are above that. We are inviolable and everything negative that has happened is the failure of the others.

Behind the facade of this letter is enmity and hatred. Swedenborg would even call it a deadly hatred. I say that because the lifers in SRF have allowed their anger and hatred to become trapped under an elaborate superiority that is actually all about denial. The SRF life is a constant process of scolding and abusing each other, and then doling out validation. This is very similar to the process of spousal abuse. Surface appearances are kept up, but behind it in their will, it is all about contention, conflict and hatred.

I say it is deadly because when this becomes the dominate motive in ones will that person begins to lose their soul. This is why Bill loved to, and was a master at, playing games with people's minds. He could get people to hate him, while they thought they loved him. He could get people to hate him, and be completely ashamed to ever recognise it. This is how he took peoples souls, which he so brazenly claimed to do.

Those who remain at SRF know these things, but, as demonstrated by this letter, are unlikely to ver recognize it. Those of us who have left SRF have had to deal with and face all of these feelings as I have written about before. It takes courage and self reflection. It is sinister to be instrumental in causing the trauma of people and then turn around and say that it is all their own doing. Their intent is to avoid their own pain, and compound the pain of others. The only way to do that is to insulate themselves in superiority and blamelessness. be This is what the SRF letter is all about.

I remember the abhorrence I had when I realized that to be part of SRF meant to be superior to others. I was inwardly terrified at the spiritual consequences of this. I remember one day after Harpreet had been berated all night by Bill for trying to get back with his wife and kids. I was standing with Angela at the Russell street property. She was going to escort me into the woman's house in the back to fix something, and we were waiting for them to be ready. She included me as her buddy for the moment, and was laughing at harpreet (who lived in the front house on the property) and giggled, "He is probably masturbating right now wishing he could be with Debi.That is why he is late".

She held him in deep disgust, and delighted in is pain and misfortune, when, in fact, the man was actually trying to fight to be with his own kids. She was probably repeating some crude comment of Bill's, but she forgets her own shadow.

She is the one that chose to be with the man who raped her own daughter over being with her abused daughter. I tell this story at the end of my book Spiritual Perversion. Angela's daughter, Angie, spoke to Rhondi years later about this and never forgave Angela for it.

In my book part of my purpose was to thoroughly expose my own shadow and that of SRF with painstaking honesty for the sake of understanding and helping others.

Mike and Joy have done a great service for all of us by further exposing SRF and showing them that they are not above the law. In fact SRF's denial blinds them so that they have very little self awareness of how foolish they are.


Steve Sanchez

Paradise Recovered Premieres!

The premiere is here!  Paradise Recovered will premiere at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, IN Saturday October 16, 2010.

Here's the Facebook page with tix information.

And on October 21, 2010, Paradise Recovered will be screened at the Austin Film Festival.  Woohoo!

I've gone on a lot about this film.  So I'll just go on some more:

This is a great film about discovering the beauty of the real world after being secluded in a highly controlling religion.

The filmmakers did an excellent job of telling the story of a young woman recovering her love of life and finding that paradise is in the world around her.  The film is beautifully shot and unlike too many indie films, the acting, the writing, and the production are all amazing.

Go see this film when it comes to your town or DVD.   Part of your ticket will help those who need to recover from a cult experience afford treatment and besides, you help support a great group of filmmakers, artists, actors and crew who made a tremendous film.