Marolyn Rawat can not of course be excused her responsibilities for maintaining the whole charade of the 'holy family' - still I find a certain sympathy for her that I can't find for the other main players. More than any of the honchos and PAMs I think Marolyn was and probably still is, completely out of her league - a bit like some home town girl with dreams of stardom who gets eaten up by the Hollywood machine.  The Rawat cult's very own Francis Farmer.

I sympathize with Marolyn up to a point about that and other exes have vehemently disagreed with me about this point in the past -- I also understand their points.  But, my attitude is that cult member or not, belief-system or none, big league power base or not that's working against a woman -- a mother's first responsibility (always) is to protect their children from harm.  That's what a mother is supposed to do, and that's her job. I'm not saying Marolyn Rawat isn't a good mother, either, I'm just astonished by her cluelessness. 

A good example of women not protecting their children in a cult is the "The Family" (Children of God) cult where so many children were abused and some of their parents did nothing, and worse, even fostered the abuse.  Being in a cult may be an explanation for why the mothers did nothing, but it's definitely not an excuse. It's important to understand that distinction.  I'd argue that point vigorously, and the laws in my country back me up, as well as the army of advocates who dedicate their time to protecting children and preventing child abuse here.  One has to question where a parent's protective or survival instinct went.  They allowed people to prey upon their children, and that tells me that they put their children's needs last. 

Where I'm coming from, however, is the point of view of someone who grew up with a very weak-charactered mother, someone who always put her own needs first (without exception), who always protected herself first, and actually, had quite a lot of power, even in the face of extreme domination and abuse by my father towards her children.  When she wanted to have some power and protection for herself to meet her own personal needs, she was astonishingly powerful and strong.  All this has come to light, of course, in retrospect, from the individual and collective recollections (and an enormous amount of discussion over many years) of my siblings and myself about this.  Their points of view are the same as mine, and they are all mothers. 

So I'm definitely biased about this subject, there's no question about it. I don't deny it.