An Iconoclastic
Revolutionary
While David instilled in his followers the basic truths of the Christian faith and doctrine, he also advanced some tenets that were by any standards quite shocking. David knew that promoting such beliefs would virtually guarantee that both he and the Family would remain a source of controversy, distinctly separate from mainstream Christianity. However, he was by nature an extremist and iconoclast, and if he was convinced that God was leading him in a certain course of action, nothing could deter him. He would write:
"In heart and mind and body I am a non-conforming non-traditional iconoclastic revolutionary rebel who needs freedom of every kind!"
I'm not a reformer. I don't want to just change things, I want to
turn them upside-down and inside out! [1]
I like the shock treatment! I like to shock people, challenge them,
stir them up, arouse them, awaken them out of their lethargy, even cause them to explode over
something I’ve said—at least get them to do something to spur them into action one
way or the other.[2]
The [Family] did not begin with our trying to please people and
giving them only what they were able to believe and accept. [3]
I don't care if I make everybody mad and all of you mad too, as long
as I make God glad and I preach His Word! [4]
Father David taught the Family that sex, when practiced as God ordained, designed, and intended between consenting adults, regardless of marital status, is a pure, needful, and beautiful wonder of God's creation. He contended that God designed and created sexuality not only for human procreation, but for human enjoyment and pleasure.—It is a gift from God.
God's first commandment to man in the first book of the Bible, first
chapter, the 28th
verse, is "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth!"—or, "Thou shalt have
sex!" Think of that! Sex was God's first commandment to man!—And to have sex was man's
first obedience to God!
There is nothing wrong with our bodies and nothing evil about sex and
nothing catastrophic about masturbation! All are perfectly normal, necessary‚ natural and
God-given physical functions. The only evil or wrongdoing would be if our bodies were abused or
misused or overused.—Or exposed or used in such a way as to offend or hurt others.
God created sex to be the most beautiful physical experience on
earth, but before we can really fully enjoy it, we must first experience Him and His Love.
Otherwise sex just won't satisfy and you'll feel something is missing, because you're not
complete. But if you know Jesus and are filled with His Love, "you are complete in Him" (Col.2:10) [5], the Bible says.
Father David later retracted some of his more radical theological speculations and writings regarding sexuality, and he had these removed from circulation in the early 1990s. Any such writings were officially and categorically renounced by the Family International, and have no part in Family doctrines, literature, or beliefs.
His writings underwent an expurgation process in the late 1980s and early 1990s to remove comments that were not in line with our current policies on a number of issues, including child protection policies. Not only was such literature removed from circulation and expurgated, but it was officially renounced and has no part in the Family International's doctrine or practice.