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The "Children of God"
Cult
Later known as
"The Family International"
ARTICLES:
Sex
Abuse and Mind Control:
Raised in a Cult
YouTube Links
Sex Abuse and Mind Control:
Raised in a Cult
Montel Williams/2005-10-24
HOST: Montel Williams
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Montel Williams, Diane
Rappoport
MONTEL WILLIAMS: To look at Caryn and Don, you would never
know that they grew up virtual prisoners in a twisted
cult.
There
was sexual abuse
of other children.
CARYN (Says She Was Abused By a Cult Known as
The Family):
It was rampant.
WILLIAMS:
They tied your sister to the bed, they raped her repeatedly.
On the next
MONTEL, for the first time anywhere, two people brave enough to talk
about the cult they escaped.
DON
(Says He Was Abused By a Cult Known as The Family): It would have
been kinder for them to put a gun to her head and pull the trigger.
WILLIAMS:
What they have to say is beyond belief. SEX ABUSE AND MIND CONTROL:
RAISED IN A CULT, that's what's coming up right now on MONTEL.
Welcome, and thank you so much for joining us today. You know, the
video
that you are about to see made
national headlines.
A young man describes in detail a murder he's about to commit, and
why. I want you to take a look at this.
(Excerpt
from videotape)
WILLIAMS: Ricky Rodriguez
wanted revenge. He was determined to kill his own
mother.
Mr.
RICKY RODRIGUEZ: My goal is to bring down my sick...(censored by
network)...mom and Peter.
My own mother. How can you do that to kids? How can you do that to
kids and sleep at night? Hopefully, in the end, whether they rot in
jail, or whether somebody blows their...(censored by network)...head
off, slits their...(censored by network)...throat. Hopefully,
somebody will do something.
WILLIAMS:
Ricky was born and raised in a cult called The Family. He and other
children suffered years of physical and sexual abuse.
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: My mom's going to pay for that. She's going to pay
dearly, one way or another. A lot of these girls--I can't even
compare my stories with yours, because it's not about that. There's
so many other kinds of abuse that went on that, to some of us, were
just as bad. It doesn't really matter. It should never have happened
at all to anybody. You know, anger does not begin--does not begin to
describe how I feel about these people and what they've done.
WILLIAMS: Ricky's plan was to get his former nanny,
Angela,
to tell him the whereabouts of his mother, and he was prepared to
torture her.
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: I only have a small window of opportunity to get the
information that I need out of this person. I'm not trained in
torture methods, which is why I'm going to have to make do. I got my
drill here. I got gags. I got a crude implement. I think it'll work
wonders. This is my weapon of choice. The KA-BAR knife. I only want
it for one purpose, and that is taking out the scum, taking out
the...(censored by network)...trash.
WILLIAMS:
The years of pain Ricky suffered from his mother in the cult finally
became too much.
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: I tried so many things, trying to--trying to somehow fit
in. Somehow to find, you know, a normal life. So I just figured that
I just figured that--I'd always still think about suicide, and I'd
to push it away. Be successful for a while. It would always come
back, started coming back more frequently, those thoughts. And--and
I just--I just wanted it to end.
(End of
excerpt)
WILLIAMS:
He just wanted it to end. Well, I'll tell you something. After that
tape was made, Ricky Rodriguez murdered his childhood nanny in an
attempt to get information on his mother, and then went on to kill
himself. What you're hearing today will be a first, because a lot of
the people who have gotten out of this cult that's called The Family
had never had an opportunity to speak out. And the reason why they
haven't is because they've been afraid of the retribution from the
cult. And today, we have a very brave couple of people who've come
by to talk to us. Please welcome Caryn to the show.
Caryn,
thank you for being here.
I--I--I want
to go back to what your earliest memories were of childhood. But
before we do, you looked at a piece of this tape. That was Ricky
Rodriguez.
CARYN:
Yes.
WILLIAMS:
He's explaining to everybody for a second who he was. Ricky
Rodriguez was the son of the two leaders of the church, correct?
CARYN: Yes, he was the son of the
founder.
WILLIAMS:
The founder and the current leader of the church.
CARYN:
Correct.
WILLIAMS:
He was picked as being some special, almost God-like, child,
correct?
CARYN:
He was--he was the prince.
WILLIAMS:
The prince, the chosen one.
CARYN:
Correct.
WILLIAMS:
To take over the church when...
CARYN:
When they died.
WILLIAMS:
When they died. You were born in the cult, correct? Your mother was
probably carrying you when she entered the cult.
CARYN:
Yes. Yes.
WILLIAMS:
Now, what's your earliest childhood memory?
CARYN:
My first memories was living in a big commune.
WILLIAMS:
And what country were you in? Because I should say this so that
everybody understands. This organization is called The Family now,
correct?
CARYN:
Yes.
WILLIAMS:
It was originally called?
CARYN: The Children of
God.
WILLIAMS: The Children of God. And they exist around--listen to
me--it exists around the world, in places from
South Africa
to Canada.
Every country on the planet, just about.
CARYN: It was born out of the era of, like, the Jesus people and
the hippie movement. And--and they kind of incorporated into their
Christian doctrine, doctrines of free love and--and sex. And they
even included children in--in those practices. And their
publications,
basically, developed the doctrines and how they would pick and
choose certain verses from the Bible, you know...
WILLIAMS:
To justify that.
CARYN: Exactly. There was a
book
written about Ricky's life by his--his parents and their--and his
nanny, and it documented, and even with photographic evidence, his
early sexual abuse.
WILLIAMS:
And wait. Talk about this so people understand. This is a nanny and
oth--multiple women who were performing sex acts on 15-month-old
little boys. Correct?
CARYN:
It started as young as 15 months.
WILLIAMS:
Fifteen months old. It--that young man that you saw on the tape,
from the age of 15 months old, was having sex with adult women.
Grown-up--and this was something for girls, I guess, for young
ladies in this cult. Little girls in this cult. You know, it's from
early--you said once that one of your earliest memories was being
passed around naked at about two and a half to three years old,
right?
CARYN:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
Passed--being--physically passed from male to male to male.
CARYN: Well, there was--there was two--there was multiple
aspects of the exploitation that--of children that occurred in the
organization. There was the sexual exploitation and then there was a
lot of the physical abuse.
WILLIAMS:
Let me take a little break. When we come back, we'll find out what
some of that was. We'll be back right after this.
(Excerpt
from upcoming segment)
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: I've seen how ugly humans can get. You don't want
to...(censored by network)...people over...(censored by
network)...little kids over. But, you know, none of us--none of us
rejoiced when that happened to her. Nobody--nobody deserved that,
especially not a kid that age.
WILLIAMS:
They tied your sister to the bed.
DAN:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
They raped her repeatedly.
DAN:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
Multiple, different people, but primarily the leader of the sect.
DAN:
That's correct.
(End of
excerpt)
(Announcements)
(Excerpt
from videotape)
WILLIAMS:
Ricky Rodriguez wanted the whole world to know why he wanted to kill
his mother. He wanted revenge for a lifetime of physical and sexual
abuse.
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: My own mother. How can you do that to kids? How can
you do that to kids and sleep at night?
WILLIAMS:
Although he never achieved his goal, the day after making this
videotape, Ricky murdered his childhood nanny and then killed
himself.
Ricky was
only one of thousands of children who were raised in a cult known
all around the world as The Family.
(End of
excerpt)
WILLIAMS:
First off, can you think back on and remember how many countries you
lived in?
CARYN:
Four.
WILLIAMS:
Four. Name them. What--where you grew up.
CARYN: I've lived in Mexico, I've lived in
Brazil,
in the United States,
all over the United States, and my passport shows that I was in
Uruguay
and Paraguay
as well, when I was very young.
WILLIAMS:
You got out--I want to backtrack for a second. You got out of the
cult when you were about 19, correct?
CARYN:
Seventeen.
WILLIAMS: Seventeen. With--what level of
education
did you have?
CARYN:
I just had a seventh grade education.
WILLIAMS:
Seventh grade.
CARYN:
That was the doctrine of the cult: a girl doesn't need more than a
seventh grade education to do God's work. That's what they told us.
WILLIAMS:
And God's work, for you, would have been pleasing men.
CARYN: And continuing to support the organization through the
exploitation of child labor. I mean, we--we were--we lived on
five-minute schedules.
We would get up very early in the morning and either we were working
in...
WILLIAMS:
What time, typical day?
CARYN:
Seven AM.
WILLIAMS:
OK.
CARYN:
And we were never allowed to have any time for ourselves. There was
never any privacy. It was always communal living.
WILLIAMS:
These are children.
CARYN:
Yes.
WILLIAMS:
OK.
CARYN:
It was much like a regimen of, like, sp--military special forces,
but they would use it on children, because they were fi...
WILLIAMS:
Children of--how--how young?
CARYN: As--as young as, I think--when I was in one school in
Mexico,
there were classes, like, the three and four year olds. Then there
was the five and six year olds. Then there was the older children,
who were the pre-teens, and then there was the teen-agers. And we
were all kept in separate classes, so to speak. We weren't actually
taught anything academic, though.
WILLIAMS:
And what were most of the teachings? Were they just meanderings?
CARYN:
They were--they were all publications of the founder. We weren't
allowed to have any other contact with--we could not read books, we
could not watch movies that had not been pre-screened, and that
would be shown to us with running commentary. We were not allowed
to--we didn't even go to the doctor; they had a doctrine that is
"God made you, he can fix you." So I never had--I have no memories
of ever seeing a dentist or a doctor for any purpose whatsoever.
Except for if it facilitated moving us to another foreign country,
we would need the vaccinations to be able to enter the country.
WILLIAMS:
And this is just free-flow movement. You take off from Paris and go
to South America, somebody down there will take you in.
CARYN:
Well--well, the organization purports to do mission work, but what,
in fact, they're doing is they're living off some of these, you
know, Third World countries. Because, rather than actually helping
people, like the organization purports to be doing to the outside
public, they're actually using their children to bring in large
amounts of money, and they get funnelled up through--all the way to
the top leadership.
WILLIAMS:
Let me take a little break. When we come back, we'll meet a young
man who also survived this abuse from their group and also knew the
gentleman that we saw in the tape. We'll talk a little bit about
that when we come back. We'll be back right after this.
(Excerpt
from upcoming segment)
CARYN: The last time I saw my brother that is in
Costa Rica,
he was nine months old. He was covered with bruises all over his
back and legs, and he wasn't ab--old enough to talk.
(End of
excerpt)
(Announcements)
(Excerpt
from videotape)
WILLIAMS:
What could have driven this man to kill his childhood nanny,
himself, and leave this videotaped confession behind?
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: You know, anger does not begin--does not begin to
describe how I feel about these people and what they've done.
WILLIAMS:
His reason: a childhood filled with physical and sexual abuse at the
hands of his mother and members of a cult known as The Family.
(End of
excerpt)
WILLIAMS:
You know, during the break, Caryn, we were just talking about some
of the worst of this for yourself. But--but you got out at 17...
CARYN:
Yes.
WILLIAMS:
...and--and what is amazing--she got out with a seventh--seventh
grade education. You were able to p--no knowledge, at this point in
time, about how to get a driver's license, to do anything. You
couldn't do anything for yourself.
CARYN:
I couldn't drive a car. I--I didn't know how to o--open a banking
account. I didn't have any social skills whatsoever. I had not lived
in the real world except intermittently in--in childhood, when my
parents would return from a foreign country and put us in school
just for a little while so that social services wouldn't be alerted.
WILLIAMS:
And during that period of time, when they would put you in schools
for a little period of time, you excelled in school.
CARYN:
I always did.
WILLIAMS:
Every place you went.
CARYN:
I did. I was always very proud of it. I had a little file folder
that I kept my report cards, ribbons that I had won. But that was
never encouraged. I can remember getting in trouble so many times
with my stepfather, because he would say, you know, based on the
doctrines that the cult had taught him, that `This is--we--this is
worldly education and you need to reject it, and that it's proud to
want to educate yourself and do well in school and it's
self-righteous and it's not--it's not what God wants for you.'
WILLIAMS:
So it's all about ego to do well in school rather than what God
wanted.
CARYN:
Correct. They never promoted individuality.
WILLIAMS:
You said yourself that you really don't know how much of your past
you're blocked out, do you?
CARYN:
No. From the time I was born to the time I was three years old, a
lot of those memories I don't have.
TEXT:
The Family
claims to have apologized to former members for abuse
WILLIAMS:
And during that time, from being born to three years old, there was
sexual abuse of other children.
CARYN:
Oh, it was--it was rampant. I'm at the same age that Ricky was. We
were born around the same time and we are the, pretty much, the
oldest of the second generation, their children. And they found, as
we became teen-agers, that they were bleeding their second
generation because we all wanted to leave. We didn't want this for
ourselves. And so they developed these schools where they would
put--they would send all the teen-agers to, basically--and it was
like--it was like a detention camp. And if you--and they would pick
out certain individuals. That's where a lot of the abuse that I
suffered occurred, because they would pick out--they had a very good
way of--they decided that if they could control the strong
members--the strong and the ones with willpower, of the teen-agers,
that--they called them bellwethers. If they could control them, they
could control the rest of them. So if you showed inde--any kind of
individuality or strength of character, they would pick you out and
you would--they would break you down until they could mold you.
WILLIAMS:
And that breaking down was in any form or fashion--way they could.
CARYN:
They had developed certain methods to--to--to break us down. It
included isolation. I can remember being locked in a closet for
about a week, and I was made to listen continually to cassette tapes
of the reading of their publications over and over again. It also
included food deprivation. They wouldn't let you have a certain
amount of food. They had a method called silence restriction that
was very popular at the time. And I remember that they targeted me
in one school in Mexico, and I was on silence restriction for about
two months. And you're just not allowed to speak.
And then
they had hard labor. And they would come up with things that were
just impossible to do. One of their--the hard labor task at that
school in--in Mexico was you were sent--were sent out to this field,
and it was about--it was about, I would say, 50 percent sand and 50
percent rock, and you were meant to remove all the rock from it,
which could take a lifetime and you could never do it. And they
wouldn't allow you to have gloves. And they would put you out there
early in the morning till late at night.
And they
were also depriving you of food. And the skin on your hands would
just start to, like, peel off. And slowly, over the months and
months of doing this and isolating you and the public humiliation
and then there would be beatings as well, that they would break you
down. And then, at that point, you're--it's like a police
interrogation, you'll do or say whatever they want you to say,
because you want it to stop.
WILLIAMS:
Your mother's seeing what happened. She even complained--well, not
complained, but discussed the abuse you'd been through. Are you
assuming your--your--your siblings are being abused now the same
way?
CARYN:
The last time I saw my brother that is in Costa Rica, he was nine
months old. He was covered with bruises all over his back and legs,
and he wasn't ab--old enough to talk. And they've--the abuse is all
part of the doctrine of the cult that, "Spare the rod, spoil the
child." And that if you misbehave, that you're yielding to the devil
and it needs to be beaten out of you.
WILLIAMS:
I'm going to take a little break. We'll be back after this.
(Excerpt
from upcoming segment)
DAN:
I lived with the knowledge that this phone might ring and it might
be the call that I have to bury my sister because of what they did
to her.
(End of
excerpt)
(Announcements)
(Excerpt
from videotape)
WILLIAMS:
For Ricky Rodriguez, the horrific physical and sexual abuse he
suffered as a child were too much. He felt the only way to be at
peace was to murder his mother and then commit suicide.
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: I just want it--it to end.
WILLIAMS:
A day after making this videotape, Ricky killed his former nanny and
then himself. He was only 29 years old. While Ricky's only escape
was suicide, other children of the cult called The Family are
determined to put the years of torture and abuse behind them once
and for all.
(End of
excerpt)
WILLIAMS:
This organization that I've been talking about for the last hour
still exists. How many numbers of children like yourself do you
think are out there right now?
CARYN:
That...
WILLIAMS:
Who got out, this first generation that got out, that's now feeling
the same way you do?
CARYN:
There's--there's thousands of us.
WILLIAMS:
Please welcome Don to the show. Welcome him. One of the thousands,
but I will say that the two of you are a special two of the
thousands. And I say that only because of this, because there's not
a lot of you talking out and speaking out. I mean, who do we contact
to say, `Stop this mess'?
DON: We have contacted the
FBI.
We have tried to get authorities around the world to take notice and
to take action. The problem in this particular case, Montel, is that
a lot of these crimes, these horrific crimes against children, were
committed outside of the United States, so the federal government,
or even the state governments, don't have jurisdiction. And we also
have another terrible situation, and that's the statute of
limitations. It's very difficult to find justice for myself or Caryn
for things that happened to us when we were young children, because
the statute of limitations have passed.
WILLIAMS:
You were born into the cult also.
DON:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
Born in, so you're on of the first generation of children.
DON:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
Talk for a minute about your life. Just--just tell me about growing
up.
DON:
Well, in my case it wasn't, I don't think at--at the earliest
stages, as egregious or as--as horrific as--as Caryn's situation.
And...
WILLIAMS:
The boys were treated differently, right?
DON:
In--in a sense, yes. And it also depended on the fabric of your
family. For example, up until I was about eight years old, I have
very positive memories of being real cherished by--by my father and
my mother. And then, when I was about eight years old, that's when
they took my sister from me.
WILLIAMS:
Your sister, Merry, right?
DON:
Yes.
WILLIAMS:
Ends up--and I should say, ended up becoming a very prominent member
of the church doctrine also, correct?
DON: Yes. My sister,
Merry Berg, was actually the
biological granddaughter of the founder, and she and Ricky lived
together. And they were examples of the most horrific and egregious
abuse, and terrible crimes were committed against her. Part of the
rage that Ricky felt and part of the hopelessness that he felt was a
direct result of seeing--of having to witness and having to stand by
while these horrific crimes were being committed against my sister,
and being powerless to do anything.
WILLIAMS:
Let's take a look at what Ricky had to say. Because this is Ricky
talking about Merry.
(Excerpt
from videotape)
Mr.
RODRIGUEZ: As kids, we didn't always get along that well with
me, because she was older, she was better at playing the game than
we were. I watched every day new bruises on her, big...(censored by
network)...fat...(censored by network)...bruises. And I've seen how
ugly humans can get. You don't want to...(censored by
network)...people over...(censored by network)...little kids over.
But, you know, none of us--none of us rejoiced when that happened to
her. Nobody--nobody deserved that, especially not a kid that age.
(End of
excerpt)
WILLIAMS:
From what age? What age was your sister when they--they basically
kidnapped her from your family? I'm going to use that as a term.
I'll say "allegedly kidnapped," so we'll be all safe. But how old
was she?
DON:
Right. She was 10 years old. That was the age.
WILLIAMS:
They tied your sister to the bed.
DON:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
They raped her repeatedly.
DON:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
Multiple, different people, but primarily the leader of the sect.
DON:
That's correct.
WILLIAMS:
She became their abuse/sex/example/toy. I can't explain it. They
beat this child for--to be an example to other people. They had sex
with her to be an example to other people.
DON:
Well, what happened was, and Caryn was correct, when the children
became about 13, 14 years of age, they began to rebel. And that's
exactly what my sister did. At that point, they began to administer
this horrific corporal punishment, this--these--these crimes of
assault, these crimes of false imprisonment. And then they...
CARYN:
They claimed she was a witch...
DON:
Yeah.
CARYN:
...and that she was possessed with demons. And they tied her to the
bed at night, and they would wake her in the middle of the night,
and they would have exorcisms that lasted for hours. And then they
would publish what they did to her in documents, and they would send
it out to all their members all over the world.
WILLIAMS:
There's got to me copies of these documents somewhere.
DON:
We have a few.
CARYN:
They did it to scare us to not go that route. Otherwise, that's what
would happen to us.
WILLIAMS: All right, I got to take a little break. Let me just
tell you this. This is a statement from The Family. Spokesperson
Claire Borowik
said, "Family leadership officially addressed questionable past acts
of individuals. It has also banned sexual contact with children."
Just the fact that this organization had to ban sexual contact with
children tells you that it was rampant, OK? All right. And they've
apologized to the victims. And while she's "deeply saddened by the
murder-suicide," she does not believe that Ricky was a victim of
sexual abuse. "There was a liberality--a liberality that existed in
some homes. Journalists should take care not to casually write off
Angela's death and justify the actions of an obviously disturbed
young man." Let me take a break. We'll be back right after this. I
want to know what you think about this statement when we come back.
We'll be back right after this.
(Announcements)
WILLIAMS:
Well, it says here that they've, you know, they've--they've banned
now sexual conduct with children. And they apologized--they
apologized to the two of you, said, `Hey, we're sorry.'
DON:
Nobody apologized to me.
CARYN:
If I could respond to what their spokesperson said.
WILLIAMS:
Please do.
CARYN: On--on previous occasions, she has stated that they
banned sexual contact with minors in
1986
or 1985.
The number--the year keeps getting pushed back and pushed back.
Everything that happened to me was post-1986, because we went to
Mexico in 1986. When I was sexually molested by the director of--of
the school that I was living in, that was in
1991.
And I reported it to the
continental officers that oversaw
the whole country of Mexico and Central America. And they took me
for a walk and they told me that there was nothing wrong with what
happened to me and that--nothing happened to him, of course--but
that I needed not to talk about it. I especially did not need to
tell my parents, as it would stum--stumble their fate--faith,
rather. And I was then sent to live with my mother, because they
wanted to get rid of me.
WILLIAMS:
And that's when you were 17. You got out.
CARYN:
I was 17.
WILLIAMS:
Now, you know, here--here, watch this. Tale of two different
stories, in a sense. Why don't you tell them, Caryn, what you've
done with your life since you got out.
CARYN:
When I first came back, I--I figured that I needed to get the high
school diploma first, but that was kind of difficult to go sit
and--I had to start over eighth grade, where they had taken me out
of school. So I went back and I--I found a nice high school
completion program, and I, like, arranged with them, I negotiated;
if I took all the classes, then they would give me the h--I was,
like, `I don't have anything. So well, if I take all the classes,
will you give me a high school diploma?' And they said yes. And so I
took all the classes. And then...
WILLIAMS:
And how long?
CARYN:
A year and a half.
WILLIAMS:
From the seventh grade to senior.
CARYN:
Right.
WILLIAMS:
Go ahead.
CARYN:
Well, I was just hungry for knowledge. I had been deprived of it.
When I--when they took me out of school in the seventh grade, I
begged my mother to order the eighth grade books for me, the
correspondence courses. And I had--and she said they would only
order for me the English and math, because they didn't believe in
science and history. And I hid them at night and I read them until
my stepfather found them. And I was--that was one of the most severe
beatings that I took. But--so when I got out, I was--I was--it
was--I was like a kid in the candy store; for the first time in my
life, doing--I could go to school and I could take classes and when
I didn't--when I went home at night, I wasn't made to feel bad for
enjoying them. So I--I started college the next year, and after
college I went on to law school. And I've been practicing for about
five years now.
WILLIAMS:
But now, what's happened to your sister?
DON: Well, it's a sad situation. I oftentimes tell people that
it would have been kinder for them to walk into a room and--and put
a gun to her head and pull the trigger. They--they horrifically
abused her over a long period of time, systematically. We're not
talking about random people, we're talking about the top leadership.
The reason why they did this to her was because she could point the
finger directly at them and name them and call them out for the
terrible criminals that they are. And they sent her to
Macao
for a period of three or four years, where she was kept in solitary
confinement. She was beaten, she was made to do very hard labor, the
type of labor that Caryn was describing, but not just for a year,
for five years. And every day, you know, I live with the knowledge
that--that this phone might ring and it might be the call that I
have to bury my sister because of what they did to her.
CARYN:
We've already...
WILLIAMS:
She's been incarcerated, let's just say.
DON:
She--she has acted out in a textbook fashion that you would expect
for a girl that's been abused like that. She's latched onto the
wrong type of men f--and she has abused drugs, and she's been
incarcerated. And I have had to visit her, I've had to--I had to
take her to a mental hospital one time, you know, a terrible,
terrible burden for any brother, any sibling to have to bear. And
I'm hoping that there'll be a turnaround, but I'm also realistic in
terms of knowing how horrific the abuse was at the very top. And
there was two people that were good models of that, and I think we
see from Ricky's situation how terrible and how disturbed the
outcome can be.
WILLIAMS:
Let me take a break. We'll be back right after this.
(Announcements)
WILLIAMS: Please welcome the author of the book "Releasing the
Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves," Mr.
Steve Hassan.
Welcome him to the show. Thanks for being here. You know, in
general, you know what this cult is right here, correct? You've
heard of them.
Mr. STEVE
HASSAN, LMHC, NCC (Author of "Releasing the Bonds: Empowering
People to Think for Themselves"): Oh, I--I absolutely have. I've
been talking and helping people for about 30 years in this
particular group.
WILLIAMS:
Well, how many people in this group who have gotten out have
committed suicide in the last couple of years that you know of?
CARYN:
I've been personally to two funerals. Don's been to two funerals in
the--in this year alone. We have a list of 33 names who are--they
were all under 30, and they have died in the last 10 years--10 to 13
years. All survivors. Some of them died from drug overdoses that
were caused from substance abuse problems they developed as a result
of--of what they suffered.
WILLIAMS:
How do you help people stay out? Get out?
Mr.
HASSAN: Well, first of all, Montel, I was in a cult, too, so
I'm--I'm--I'm the fifth that you mentioned today. I was in the
Moonies for two and a half years in the mid-‘70s;
dropped out of college, quit my job, donated my bank account. And
over the years, I've watched the bodies at Jonestown, I've watched
the bodies at Heaven's Gate. I've watched the planes go into the
World Trade Center, and I know the mindset. I understand it very
well. And basically, in my past, I--I was rescued by my family. And
I've gone on to be trained as a licensed mental health counselor.
And I've been helping people to heal from the trauma, from the
torture, from the brainwashing, from the mind control. And the good
news is, there is hope. The bad news is, I've been doing this for 30
years, the mental health system is still not trained. People come in
freaking out, and they're not asked simple questions like, `Were you
ever involved with a high-demand, controversial group that alienated
you from the outside world?' A simple question like that gives a
whole 'nother treatment, schema that people need. And the mental
health profession is not trained on how to help victims of mind
control cults.
WILLIAMS:
So there are almost 15,000--or--or approximately 15,000 of these
cults operating right now in this country alone.
Mr.
HASSAN: Deception is used to recruit intelligent, educated
people into cults. No one knowingly knows--no one in my
experience--no one says, `Yes, I want to give up my free will, my
bank account, my friends, my family, my education.' It doesn't work
that way. It starts with the--the friendly smile, `How are you? Who
are you? Where you from? Tell me about yourself.'
WILLIAMS:
Or in this case, the invitation for sex in the hotel room.
Mr.
HASSAN: Well, in their case, their parents got sucked in.
WILLIAMS:
Right.
Mr.
HASSAN: But in my experience, no one knowingly joins a group
like this. Because this is basically a terrorist organization.
DON:
Absolutely.
Mr.
HASSAN: A totalitarian, pyramid-structured group that uses
deception and mind control, and basically enslaves really wonderful
people. The good side, the flip side, is the human spirit wants to
be free. The human spirit wants love, truth, compassion. And it's
the people who have these moments where they're hooking up with an
aunt or a grandmother that says, `Come to me,' then they have a door
to get out.
WILLIAMS:
Is that what you got, a family member that came to get you?
Mr.
HASSAN: No. I--I can't tell you how many people have suffered.
And we live in 2005, and this still is an issue of epidemic
proportions.
WILLIAMS:
Take a break. We'll be back after this.
(Announcements)
WILLIAMS:
So, Caryn, how did you get out?
CARYN:
Well, right after that incident where I had been molested by the
director of the school that I was living in, the continental
officers sent me to my parent--to my mother, who was living on the
border of Mexico. She was right there on the border of Mexico, and
so I used that as an opportunity to get out. But before I left, I
sat down and--and--and confronted her, and I was, like, `Why did you
let this happen to us? Why did you let them hurt us? Why did you let
them hurt my brothers and sisters like this?' Because there were
times that I stood between some man and my little brother. And--and
she said to me, she said, `Well, when you were children, you were
just devils.' And--and after that, I knew there just wasn't any
hope.
And we were
out distributing literature that day, and I saw the border to the
United States, and I just started walking across it. I didn't have
anything. I was just, like, `I'm going to get across this bridge,'
and my heart was thumping. And, `I'm going to get across this bridge
and I'm going to call my aunt.' And I called my aunt, and she's,
like, `Do you see a grocery store with, like, a Western Union?' And
she wired me money.
I got on a
bus. I arrived in San Antonio at, like, 3 in the morning. I traveled
all night. I didn't have--I didn't have any clothes, I had no
possessions. My aunt had called a Young Life minister, and he and
his wife came out of a basketball game really late at night, and
picked me up at the bus station, took me to their house, let me
shower. His wife gave me some clothes, and they put me on a plane.
And I went to live with my aunt, and I was still 17, so I had to
kind of hide out until I turned 18, and I never looked back. And my
parents were calling all the time, and I was afraid that they would
come and get me. And so I said `I was just visiting' until I turned
18. And the next call from my mother, `When are you coming back?'
was `Never.'
WILLIAMS:
I got to take a break. But I--I got to ask a question. You've been
out now for how long?
DON:
About seven, eight years.
WILLIAMS:
You've been out now for how long?
CARYN:
Twelve years.
WILLIAMS:
Tonight, you cut the lights off, what's it like? Does it come back?
Every night, still, man?
DON:
Depends. Depends where you're at, you know? When you're vulnerable,
it will come back to you. And when you experience some type of an
emotional loss, whether it's a break-up, whether it's stress,
whether it's something like that, those triggers will be there. Or
if somebody mistreats you or somebody exploits you, it'll bring you
back to that place where you were abused as a child, where you were
helpless, where you didn't have any recourse. But the good news is
that there is happiness to be found. There is healing to be found.
There's wonderful...
WILLIAMS:
It's OK.
DON:
There are--there are very wonderful people in the world, and--and
I'm a lucky man. I have a very--I've lost a lot, some stuff that
I'll never get back, but I have--I have incredible friends, and--and
I respect myself very much. And...
WILLIAMS:
That's what it's all about. Let me take a break. We'll be back
right after this.
(Announcements)
WILLIAMS:
Well, for more information about today's show, I want you to logon
to our Web site,
www.montelshow.com
You know,
Steve, maybe--I sit here, and--and I've just now talked to two
survivors of what I consider as--as heinous as--as any cult that
I've interviewed and talked about on the show.
Mr.
HASSAN: Mm-hmm.
WILLIAMS:
But if there are thousands of them out there; where can I tell them
to go? Should they come to your Web site? What can they do? Because
they're probably tuning in and there's--there's probably 400- or 500
people watching right now who went, `That was me, that was me, that
was me.'
Mr.
HASSAN: Well, first of all, there's a very good Web site put up
by ex-members, it's www.xfamily.org
, I believe.
CARYN: And m--and
www.movingon.org
. That's where I found many of my peers.
Mr.
HASSAN: Moving--movingon.org. Mine is
www.freedomofmind.com .
And--but there's not enough resources to take care of all the people
who need help. And part of my mission has been trying to train
mental health professionals, trying to--I went out to Utah to train
officials in Arizona and Utah regarding the--the polygamy cult
that's out there with 40,000 people in it. And--but--but
authorities, they don't know what to do yet, and there just needs to
be a lot more done.
WILLIAMS:
Well, let me just say this. They may not know what to do yet, but
I'm going to guarantee you, we better demand that they start to do
something.
Mr.
HASSAN: Absolutely.
WILLIAMS:
Because those are the people that are out there preying upon your
children, your loved ones, your family members. And woe be it to you
that you said nothing about it, and now everybody gets together at
the next family reunion wondering where is Uncle Billy or Cousin
Bob, they haven't seen him in three years, and everybody knows that
this is where he's at, but don't know what to do.
I wish the
two of you well. Anything we can do to help you? I should say that
during the break we talked about some other individuals that are
involved that you guys know.
DON:
Absolutely.
WILLIAMS:
Bring them to us. I'll find a rehab center for them. I'll find a
place for them. We need to make this public so more people will
understand what's going on.
DON:
We'll do whatever we can.
CARYN:
Thank you, Montel.
DON:
Thank you.
WILLIAMS:
Well, thank you. Join us on the next MONTEL.
http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Montel_Williams:_Sex_Abuse_and_Mind_Control:_Raised_in_a_Cult
YouTube
Montel Williams: Sex Abuse and Mind Control (1 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a92rHy1qhqk
Montel Williams: Sex Abuse and Mind Control (2 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjIMVoFHtWg
Montel Williams: Sex Abuse and Mind Control (3 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__hlqNKBbBY
Montel Williams: Sex Abuse and Mind Control (4 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKpqKMnTBE0
Montel Williams: Sex Abuse and Mind Control (5 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilKxoBoEiPA
Merry Berg et al speak about their experiences in The Family
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO17ID--mmw&NR=1
Steven Kelly talks about the exorcisms of Merry Berg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4VGfqaoq8k&NR=1
Egomania: The Cult Leader (David Berg)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNfGdHUJEO4&NR=1
David Berg replaces his wife with Karen Zerby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og6ZWxPk0j0&NR=1
ABC Nightline: The Tragic Legacy of the Children of God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpq-gcmRwac
ABC: Former Children of God Member Seeks Revenge (1 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsDCk0AuQGY&NR=1
ABC: Former Children of God Member Seeks Revenge (2 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfxqdidHyKA&NR=1
ariakokoschka
(1 month ago)
Umm... So her
defense is that since the boy is "under age," any sexual conduct
that may be viewed as "sexual" among adults would not be applied to
the boy and his predator... Because he is still a kid!!! What? Is
she fucking kidding everyone?
And how is this been going on for so long? Concealment under
umbrella of religion and culthood. All you need is to grab a holy
book and molest children and you are off the hook.
Steven Kelly talks about the exorcisms of Merry Berg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4VGfqaoq8k&NR=1
FOX: Overview of The Family and Ricky Rodriguez (1 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3znwffwIJ8
FOX: Overview of The Family and Ricky Rodriguez (2 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KRCqTiCk0g
CBS: People Raised in Sex Cult Gather for Memorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac-NTTZI14o&NR=1
FBI Launches Investigation Into Sex Cult
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUqeIyltsJs&NR=1
antigone414
(2 months ago)
I can't believe
that these cult members think that banning child sex and apologizing
to victims gives them the right to just go "LALALALALALA DIDN'T
HAPPEN LALALALA"... I hope that the children now fare better than
the children of the 70's and 80's did in their little cult
Phoenixkidd
(5 months ago)
Go Lamattery, I hope this finally
disbands the cult and
helps current members to see the errors of their ways
60 Minutes New Zealand: The Children of God (1 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnTd147zW7w&NR=1
60 Minutes New Zealand: The Children of God (2 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quItqp4r_tk
60 Minutes New Zealand: The Children of God (3 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uwyhR3kR8w&NR=1
Dr. Phil: The Family Cult Escapees (1 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4VIs_o2vWQ
Dr. Phil: The Family Cult Escapees (2 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2X2DLLGb-I
Dr. Phil: The Family Cult Escapees (3 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YVyH0Nz08E
Dr. Phil: The Family Cult Escapees (4 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tma_XuA5lU
ABC 20/20: To Bring Her Children Home (1 of 3) V. Shillander
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVnihiM-mx0
ABC 20/20: To Bring Her Children Home (2 of 3) V. Shillander
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-nKcD-edo
ABC 20/20: To Bring Her Children Home (3 of 3) V. Shillander
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBOBx_w8hbI
antigone414
(2 months ago)
Jlee, why do you
need to "teach them a lesson"? For gosh sakes, they were born into a
cult where child abuse was considered holy. They never knew what the
real world was like. "Normal" children don't understand the world,
how could these poor abused and brainwashed children understand what
was happening? It's so easy to say mean things on the Internet, how
would you like it if it had been you?
antigone414
(2 months ago)
hearing him talk
about child pornography and child abuse as "child education", and
smiling about it, made me want to vomit. Does anyone know what
happened to these children as they grew up? I want very badly to
hear that they are doing well and happy... did anyone help them with
deprogramming?
Recorded 1988
Cult children defend sexually explicit publications
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69S2fI_GAzo&NR=1
Discovery Channel: Brief Update on the Shillanders
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0pCsegjlgs&NR=1
BBC Heaven and Earth: Children of God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgtHnOcVvJE&feature=related
Gloria
discusses the Children of God with the three co-authors of "Not
Without My Sister" - Celeste Jones, Juliana Buhring, and Kristina
Jones - including their upbringing and experiences.
GMTV: Interview with Children of God, Kristina Jones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfnkmr7EsEc&NR=1
Richard and Judy Interview Ex-Cult Member Kristina Jones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FEFbCHWkZ8&NR=1
CNN: Members from The Family in Argentina Taken Into Custody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6hRXJXjuco&feature=related
Mention of Paul Péloquin's abuse history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC5032rWImk&feature=related
CNN 360° - Murder-Suicide Leads to Secretive Cult (1 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLZi6JYqMhE
CNN 360° - Murder-Suicide Leads to Secretive Cult (2 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgTmQBcmiKQ
CNN 360° - Murder-Suicide Leads to Secretive Cult (3 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT_OsJS3C0s
CBS: Cult Member Responds to Abuse Allegations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpvad_OvGC0&feature=related
rocketqueenslash
(1 week ago)
they have never apologized to the victims. their response ina letter
titled "the professionals" that abuse happened and "just get over
it".. with no apologies whatsoever. i grew up in it. i was born in
86 - the year the family supposedly banned child abuse, but it
happened to alot of my friends who i grew up with
randomkid88
(2 months ago)
2:30
That lady doesn't know what she's talking about, or she's lying.
Because that's the biggest BS I've heard. Everyone knows sexual
abuse took place within that cult. I know people who have been
abused. She's been in the cult 33 years and yet she doesn't know
that!
CBS: Religious Sect Has Ties to Two Local Charities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7CcoUuZ284&NR=1
DLI: The Love Prophet and the Children of God (1 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqXhseKJHGw
japaneselibrarian
(2 days ago)
In a way, this
cult also killed River Phoenix. By stripping him of his free will at
a tender age, melting down his self esteem, leading him later to
anger. And self hate. To the kind of recklessness it takes to end up
as he did, on a sidewalk in seizures.
DLI: The Love Prophet and the Children of God (2 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aW32P0DNoc
DLI: The Love Prophet and the Children of God (3 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtAY3WVo8es
DLI: The Love Prophet and the Children of God (4 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFDChltxNb8
DLI: The Love Prophet and the Children of God (5 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00RUcA6J_Xs
DLI: The Love Prophet and the Children of God (6 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT_7pAyTwkA
NBC Dateline: Losing Faith - Julia McNeil (1 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YyiNTEm9gY
NBC Dateline: Losing Faith - Julia McNeil (2 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtb0g1N7kHU
With deep
gratitude to "Susan"
who sent me the previous article and links.
Holger, Gnostic
Liberation Front
The Children of God Cult
Overview 1968 to current day
Reproduced
From:
http://www.exfamily.org/index.html
The Children of God
(COG) was started in 1968 in Huntington Beach, California, USA. Many
early converts were drawn from the hippie era and
Jesus Movement
of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group later changed its name
to the Family of Love, The Family and recently The
Family International. It has also used a significant number
pseudonyms
and front organizations for its acitvities. After a number of image
makeovers, The Family International now refers to itself as a
church, and prefers to be known as a wholesome, family-values
New Religious Movement
(NRM), albeit with alternative views and counter culture. It is
however, still widely referred to as a cult in the media, often as
the free-love sex cult or The Family Cult.
The Children of God created
controversy with its ideas of apocalypticism and revolution against
the outside world that they call "the System," along with its
central tenet that true disciples must drop out and "forsake all."
Forsaking all literally entails abandoning all responsibilities and
cutting ties with any and all—job, school, family, friends, and
selling all that they have, handing over the entire proceeds to the
group. Disciples assume a new biblical name and identity—true legal
names are often kept a secret even from each other. Like deep cover
role play without any possibility of debriefing, some members who
joined as teenagers in the late 60s are still incognito today.
In 1974 the group launched a
new form of so-called evangelism called Flirty Fishing—using sex to
win converts and support. The practice was supposedly discontinued
in 1987 due to fears of the AIDS epidemic.
The group’s liberal
sexuality—its publication and distribution of writings, photographs
and videos advocating and documenting adult-child sexual contact and
the sexualization of children—led to numerous reports of
child sexual abuse.
A major judicial investigation in 1995 found The Family to have had
a highly sexualized environment for children, with abuse at
significantly higher levels than the rest of society at large; their
home schooling policies inadequately supporting the pursuit of
tertiary education, i.e. education past a basic secondary or
grade-school level. Major reforms were forced upon the group, and a
charter of responsibilities and rights was published as a result.
Family leadership, admitting
only that some children were abused from 1978 until 1986, created
policies prohibiting excessive discipline and sexual contact between
adults and minors. Those found to have abused children after
December 1988 are supposedly excommunicated, but their crimes are
also allegedly often left unreported to the police. In a now-exposed
secret directive, current leader Karen Zerby declared in 1993 that
child-adult sex is not inherently wrong. She explained that although
they were forced to show outsiders they were complying with the law,
members should not lose sight of what they truly believe on the
inside. To deny culpability and uphold its image makeover, The
Family requires members to leave the group if they wish to report
child abuse to a law enforcement agency, or pursue legal action
against an alleged abuser within the group—as a result they can
technically say that no members have reported any sexual crimes as
of late.
Founder David Berg, who
initially lived with the first colonies (their early name for
Communities or Homes), moved away to live in secret locations known
only to top ranking leaders of the group. He communicated with his
followers via Mo Letters—directives on a myriad of spiritual and
practical subjects—until his death in late 1994, when his mistress
Karen Zerby took over leadership of the Family.
The January 2005
murder-suicide of heir apparent Ricky Rodriguez led to considerable
renewed media attention on the group and its treatment of children
growing up in their environments.
[show/hide] Table of Contents
History in
Brief
The Children of
God (1968-1978)
Founder David Brandt
Berg (1919-1994), was a former
Christian Missionary Alliance
pastor, who later came to be known as Moses David, Mo, Father David,
King David, Dad and Daddy to adult group members, and Grandpa to the
group's youngest members.
Berg's four children
spearheading a "Teens for Christ" group, first attracted followers
through their Huntington Beach Light Club ministry to the hippies.
As the group's numbers grew, they moved to Texas where they
cooperated for a while with TV evangelist Fred Jordan. They acquired
the use of several properties, including a ranch property they
called the Texas Soul Clinic (TSC), named after Fred Jordan's
ministry. From TSC, the group launched sackcloth demonstrations and
downtown sit-ins, prophesying doom against America and the Church
system, attracting the attention of the media. It was first at TSC
that the media began referring to the group as the Children of God.
New converts who joined the
movement were subjected to the rote memorization of isolated
scripture verses and references, which when recited, gave the
impression a disciple's in-depth bible knowledge. They were taught
that their new lifestyle rejecting mainstream Christianity emulated
the lives of the early Christians. They were taught the urgency of
delivering their message before the end of the world, and would
proselytize in the streets, distributing literature. Members
appeared on Fred Jordan's Church it the Home program for the
purposes of soliciting donations.
After a falling out with
Fred Jordan over control and finances, the group spread out to
different states in the US, and eventually expanded its operations
to other countries. Members of the Children of God founded
communes—first called "colonies," now referred to as "homes" —in
various cities around the world.
Soon after founding and
living with the first communes, Berg moved away and lived in
secrecy, his whereabouts known only to top leaders. He communicated
with his followers through more than 3,000 published Mo Letters,
written over a period of 24 years. Berg proclaimed that he was God's
prophet for the last age, the "endtime," and predicted that his
death would be inseparably intertwined with the last 7 years of the
world—he would die in 1989 and Jesus would return in 1993. (Berg
died in 1994, and The Family has had to re-interpret its doomsday
prophecies because 2001 came and went without fulfilling his
predictions.)
By 1972, the group had
supposedly distributed approximately 42 million tracts about God's
salvation and America's doom. Street distribution of Berg's Letters
which they called "litnessing," became the COG's predominant method
of both outreach and support for the next five years.
Findings of the New York Attorney General Investigation (1974)
The Attorney General of
the State of New York launched an investigation into the movement,
and by September 30, 1974, a
Final Report on the Activities of the Children
of God was submitted by the Charity
Frauds Bureau. Although the Children of God organization was
subpoenaed, it refused to cooperate and did not submit financial
books and records, nor reveal locations of their communes or any
demographic data.
The insightful report
documented the "metamorphis [sic] of COG from the religious bible
oriented group to a cult subservient to the whims or desires of
...Berg." Among other things it detailed:
- the Children of God,
Inc. was refused tax-exempt status in 1972, and their
corporation dissolved; the group's subsequent use of front
organizations for tax-exemption and funneling of funds to its
leaders; their extremely guarded secrecy regarding finances
- obstruction of justice;
blatant defiance by the movement towards civil and law
enforcement authorities; how members are taught to lie and use
chicanery to circumvent legal process
- the arrests of 21
members of the group including Berg's sons Jonathan Berg and
Paul Berg for violations of California Penal Code(s), their
jumping of bail and arrest warrants issued; Berg's wife Jane
Berg wanted on assault charges in England
- draft dodging of 101
members through "spurious ordination" and the issue of
ministerial "licenses"; guidance on how to dodge authorities
- the central doctrine of
hatred against parents taught to all converts; the doctrine that
all governments are evil; the belief that education is evil
- the policy of converts
"forsaking all" and handing over proceeds to leaders to further
the group's financial goals, the subsequent doctrine of total
dependency on charity and handouts, and leaders urging the
continued solicitation of funds from parents of converts
absorbed into the group
- the use of fatigue,
uncertainty, fear, manipulation and mind-control mechanisms;
advanced indoctrination methods taught to leaders; physical
coercion and solitary confinement; mental coercion; the buddy
system; the censorship and screening of incoming/outgoing mail
and phone calls
- Berg's secretive
publications re: sex; the focus on sex and beginnings of a sex
cult; Berg's promotion of incest and disregard of the
institution of marriage; rape, molestation and coercion by
leaders, including Berg, of several teenagers
- the facade of
respectability towards the public and the media; faked
friendliness with the Catholic church
- the cloaking of
identity through the use of front organizations
- the deception
perpetrated on new converts
- Berg's anti-Semitism
Flirty Fishing
(1974)
In 1974, David Berg
introduced a new proselytization method called Flirty Fishing (or
FFing), in which members were encouraged to initiate sexual
relations with non-members in order to win converts, supporters, and
influential friends. FFing was first practiced by members of Berg's
inner circle starting in 1973 and later introduced to the general
membership. As many members who found these and other practices
questionable left, the movement was purged—those who remained were
expected to endorse FFing. By 1978, due to Berg's success at using
the RNR (see below) to implement FFing, it was widely practiced by
female e members of the group.
The Family describes the
practice of Flirty Fishing as follows: "In the latter part of
the '70s and early '80s, [David Berg], responding in part to the
sexual liberality of that time period, presented the possibility
of trying out a more personal and intimate form of witnessing
which became known as 'Flirty Fishing' or 'FFing'. In his
Letters at that time, he offered the challenging proposal that
since 'God is Love' (1 John 4:8), and [what some believe to be]
His Son, Jesus, is the physical manifestation and embodiment of
God's Love for humanity, then we as Christian recipients of that
Love are in turn responsible to be living samples to others of
God's great all-encompassing Love. Taking the Apostle Paul's
writings literally, that saved Christians are 'dead to the Law
[of Moses]' (Romans 7:4), through faith in Jesus, [Berg] arrived
at the rather shocking conclusion that Christians were therefore
free through God's grace to go to great lengths to show the Love
of God to others, even as far as meeting their sexual needs."
Many female members
began working for
escort agencies
to meet people and this often led to sex being sold to generate
sizable incomes. According to The Family, from 1974 until 1987,
members had sexual contact with 223,989 people while practicing
Flirty Fishing. Flirty Fishing also resulted in the birth of many
children, including Karen Zerby's son, Davidito (a.k.a. Rick
Rodriguez). Children born as result of Flirty Fishing were referred
to as "Jesus Babies". According to data by The Family, by 1981, over
300 "Jesus Babies" had been born.
In his judgment of a
child custody court case in England in 1994, after extensive
research of Family publications and the testimony of many
witnesses, The Lord Justice Ward said this about FFing: "I am
quite satisfied that most of the women who engaged in this
activity and the subsequent refinement of ESing [sic], (which
was finding men through escort agencies), did so in the belief
that they were spreading God's word. But I am also totally
satisfied that that was not Berg's only purpose. He and his
organization had another and more sordid reason. They were
procuring women to become common prostitutes. They were
knowingly living in part on the earnings of prostitution. That
was criminal activity. Their attempts to deny this must be
dismissed as cant and hypocrisy. To deny that the girls were
acting as prostitutes because "we are not charging but we expect
people to show their thanks and their appreciation and they
ought to give more for love than if we charged them" is an
unacceptable form of special pleading. The "FFers [sic]
handbook" told the girls that fishing could be fun but fun did
not pay the bills. "You've got to catch a few to make the fun
pay for itself. So don't do it for nothing."
The practice of Flirty
Fishing was officially abandoned in 1987 in fear of the AIDS
epidemic. There is at least one known case of a female member of the
group contracting HIV from a blood transfusion and eventually dying
of AIDS. New rules were introduced that banned, under penalty of
excommunication, sexual contact with non-members. However, the new
rules also stated that exceptions to the rule would be allowed in
certain cases: "All sex with outsiders is banned!--Unless they
are already close and well-known friends!"
"Although we no
longer practice FFing, we believe the scriptural principles
behind the ministry remain sound." - official statement from
The Family International
The Family of
Love (1978-1987)
In the wake of the Jonestown
suicides and backlashes against cults, and when Berg and the
Children of God were tried in absentia and ordered by a US court to
pay $1 million in damages to a plaintiff, the group orchestrated a
fake disbanding and changed its name to the Family of Love.
RNR (1978)
The Family of Love era was
characterized by expansion into more countries. Regular
proselytization methods included "door to door", distribution of
tracts and heavy use of Family music.
Berg restructured the
movement's hierarchical system of leadership to that of centralized
command hubs, and removed leaders at the top opposed the practice of
Flirty Fishing and who, according to him, had abused their
authority. This shift was called the "Reorganization Nationalization
Revolution" (RNR).
Although Berg supposedly
dismissed over 300 of the movement's leaders, declaring the general
dissolution of the COG structure, many leaders were later
re-absorbed into the movement. Most members of the Children of God
were absorbed into the new Family of Love, which amounted to little
more than a name change and new local leadership—the group's beliefs
remained essentially the same. Those who remained were expected to
endorse Flirty Fishing.
"There has been much
semantic posturing, much muddying the waters, and much waste of
time over the issue of whether or not the Children of God still
exist. These diversionary tactics were deployed to obfuscate the
real issue which is whether or not the current leadership are
responsible for what happened during the period up to the RNR
... I am totally satisfied that there was a continuous line of
top leadership with David Berg and [Karen Zerby] at the helm
regulating the affairs of the group which despite changes of
name and shape, remained one and the same. The Mo letters
relevant in the early days of the Children of God remained as
relevant after the RNR and they continue to be relevant today.
The name may have changed; various echelons of the leadership
chain may have altered; but the command remained with Berg,
[Karen Zerby], and his inner cabinet. I find that it was a
disingenuous attempt to distance them from their responsibility
both for what is and for what was." -- The Rt. Hon. Lord
Justice Ward
The
Family (1982-1994)
(overlaps with Family of Love era)
In 1982, members moved en
masse to countries in the southern and eastern hemisphere, on Berg's
advice to seek greener pastures where the group was not saturated
with bad publicity; and to escape the impending nuclear war and
destruction of the US, predicted to happen within Berg's life time,
in the 80s.
By 1983, The Family was
reporting 10,000 full-time members living in 1,642 Family homes.
Additionally, The Family's Music With Meaning radio club had by this
time grown to almost 20,000 members. According to The Family, at
this time proselytization efforts were resulting in an average of
200,000 conversions and the distribution of nearly 30 million pages
of literature per month. However, The Family's data should be
considered unreliable, given that they also released overlapping
statistics about the number of people reached with its message,
averaging several times the population of the region and/or world.
Pedophilia and Incest
Berg's writings displayed an
interest in, and lack of concern regarding sexual contact with
children, and contributed to suspicions about the movement's care of
their children. Berg claimed to be challenging modern-day taboos
about adult/child sexuality, ignoring society's laws and boundaries.
At least six women, including both his daughters, his
daughter-in-law and two of his granddaughters, have publicly alleged
that Berg sexually abused them when they were children.
The only way to get free
of (the devil) and his lies and his prohibitions and guilt
complexes about sex is to get rid of his lies and his lying
propaganda, his anti-sex propaganda, and believe the Lord and
his word and his creation and God's love and his freedom! - that
there is nothing in the world at all wrong with sex as long as
it's practised in love, whatever it is or whoever it's with, no
matter who or what age or what relative or what manner -- and
you don't hardly dare even say these words in private. If the
law ever got a hold of this, they would try to string me up!
They would probably lynch me before I got to the jail! When Paul
said "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not
expedient" (1 COR 6: 12), he was as good as saying, "I can
indulge in any kind of sex I want to, but I've got to watch out
for the System because it's against the law!" (Maria/Zerby: At
least not let'em find out if you do it!)... We are free in
privacy, and that's about all, and we mightn't be free if they
discovered what we do in private!... There are no relationship
restrictions or age limitations in his law of love.... If you
hate sex you are one of the devil's crowd! If you think it's
evil, then God and love are evil, for he created it! Come on,
let's love and enjoy it like God does! He loves it.! - From
"The Devil Hates Sex -- But God Loves It!" by founder David Berg
Berg would later describe his
dreams of having sex with pre-pubescent girls (The Little Girl
Dream) as well as his fantasies of having sex with his own mother.
It should be noted that the Family has removed these publications
from circulation in what they claim was an official renouncement of
these teachings.
A childcare manual
published by the group in January of 1982 described the education,
home life and care of the Davidito (Ricky Rodriguez), son of Berg's
mistress Karen Zerby. The 762-page book, which was intended to be an
example of child rearing, also included at least a dozen photographs
depicting the child engaged in sexual play with his governesses,
particularly Sara Kelley (also known as Sara Davidito or Prisca
Kelley). The group later ordered this book, along with all other
publications approving pedophilia and incest, to be heavily
sanitized and eventually, destroyed completely. In the late 1990s,
it was reprinted in sanitized form. Copies of the original
publication still exist, mostly in the hands of ex-members for the
purpose of providing evidence, and some pages from the original
edition have been posted online:
Story Of Davidito.
The group's current policy
(as of 1995) forbids, under penalty of full excommunication, sexual
contact with minors. However, the group has not accepted any
responsibility for abuses that occurred during the more permissive
period created by Berg's writings. It maintains rather, that any
abuses were the work of individual members.
Although the group has
publicly renounced former policies and doctrines that condoned or
encouraged sex between adults and minors, in their internal
publications there has been no such renunciation. Evidence of this
is represented by the following quote from Family leader Karen Zerby:
"This [sexual contact
between adults and minors] is about the only subject where we're
really going along with the System, we're playing along with
them, we're acting like we believe what we did was wrong,
because we have changed, and stopped doing it . . . We need to
somehow explain to our [teenagers] that love and loving
affection is not wrong. As it says in [Berg's writings], if it's
not hurtful, if it's loving, then it's okay. Of course, having
actual intercourse with a child wouldn't be okay as it wouldn't
be loving, but a little fondling and sweet affection is not
wrong in the eyes of God, and if they have experienced the same
in the past they weren't 'abused.' . . . We need to explain to
our [children] that any experience they may have had along these
lines, if it was loving and if it was desired, was not wrong. We
need to show them that even if in some case the experience for
them wasn't so great, that by comparison to what goes on in the
System, it still wasn't 'abuse.'" --[Karen Zerby], Summit
'93, Mama Jewels #2, 1992. p.19. (www.geocities.com/magicgreenshirt/downloads/sj_pg19.gif)
In January 2005, Claire
Borowik, spokesperson for the Family International, issued a
statement saying, "Due to the fact that our current zero-tolerance
policy regarding sexual interaction between adults and underage
minors was not clearly stated in our literature published before
1986, we came to the realization that during a transitional stage of
our movement, from 1978 until 1986, there were cases when some
minors were subject to sexually inappropriate advances... This was
corrected officially in 1986, when any contact between an adult and
minor (any person under 21 years of age) was declared an
excommunicable offense."
The
Family (1994-2004)
Court
Cases Worldwide
(see
also the 1974
Findings of the New York Attorney General
Investigation)
By the 1990s numerous
allegations of pedophilia and sexual abuse were laid against The
Family in different locations worldwide, including Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Peru, Spain,
Sweden, the United Kingdom(UK), the United States (USA), and
Venezuela (see links below). The Family leadership have maintained
that they did not sanction or condone the sexual abuse of children.
An outline of each court case and excerpts of rulings of the courts
can be found at:
www.cesnur.org/testi/TheFamily/se_thefamily.htm.
According to
Eileen Barker's
book ''An Introduction to New Religious Movements'', the group has
been acquitted of all charges of sexual abuse of children. The Rt.
Hon.
Lord Justice Ward
ruled in a 1995 court case that the group, including its top
leadership had engaged in abusive sexual practices involving minors,
that they had also engaged in severe
corporal punishment
and sequestration of minor children. However, in a last minute turn
around, he said that The Family had abandoned these former practices
and that they were a safe environment for children, with some
reservations: he required that the group cease all corporal
punishment of children in the United Kingdom, improve the education
of members' children, denounce Berg's writings, and "acknowledge
that through his writings Berg was personally responsible for
children in The Family having been subjected to sexually
inappropriate behavior" (see links below).
The Family claims that
government-led investigations and court cases did not convict Family
members nor communities, and that no evidence of abuse was found in
the 750 plus children examined by state authorities. However, at
least one member has been found guilty for contributing to the
delinquency of minors. By 2003, several 2nd generation members, now
adults who had left the group, admitted to having lied and being
instructed to lie to investigators in order to suppress evidence of
their abuse, which they were taught was not abuse.
The Family has not always
been cleared of all charges in courts of law—very few (if any) of
the child abuse cases that were prosecuted against Family adults
resulted in an acquittal or complete exoneration of the defendants.
Most cases of child abuse were dismissed on legal technicalities or
defendants tried in absentia, and several cases were settled out of
court—there was never a full hearing of the evidence by an impartial
jury. In one case, a judge investigating The Family found them to be
overtly responsible for promoting child/adult sex and lying in
court, and forced major reforms on the entire movement in order to
ensure the safety and basic human rights of its adherents and those
born into the group.
In 1979 The Children
of God/The Family was ordered to pay the sum of US$1 million in
damages to a plaintiff. To date, The Children of God/The Family has
not paid up the amount, which would be considerably larger by now
with added interest. David Berg who fled the US, made light of the
judgment on several occasions, saying that he would never be caught.
(see
Krounapple v. Children of God, David Brandt
Berg, et. al. 77CV-11-4706)
The group has been banned
from several countries and its members deported and barred from
return, on the orders of local magistrates responding to charges of
immigration fraud and other undesirable activities.
FCF:
the Charitable Organization and NGO push
The early 1990s also saw the
launch of "Consider the Poor" (CTP) ministries. In the face of bad
publicity, Berg had urged members to create tangible good works to
show the world they were doing some good. Family members took
advantage of the newly opened Eastern Europe, following the fall of
communism (which should not have happened according to Berg's
prophecies), and expanded their evangelistic campaigns eastward. The
production and dissemination of millions of pieces of literature
earned them the colloquial name "the poster people."
In 1996, Family leadership
was exploring ways in which The Family could become a tax-exempt
legal entity in the US This would enable them to solicit large
donations and broaden their base of financial support, as well as
mass-market their publications and videos, spreading the message and
obtaining income. It would also provide legitimacy and credibility
for those Family members who were becoming active in charitable
activities but could not attract tax-exempt donations.
By 1997, the Family Care
Foundation (FCF) and a system of charitable organizations were
registered around the world. Family members joined the FCF by
becoming “project managers” of a squeaky-clean foundation, raising
funds under a tax-exempt umbrella. Using the FCF to lend to the idea
that The Family's numerous charities and front organizations were
affiliated with a large, legitimate, credible organization, the
group expanded their operations, entering countries as NGOs, and
even and re-entering countries they were previously barred from. In
some instances of outreach beyond proselytization, members began
providing material aid to the poor and disadvantaged.
While soliciting donations
for charity work through the FCF, Family members actively promoted
their new charity work image: disaster relief efforts, the provision
and distribution of humanitarian aid, musical benefit programs for
refugees, and visitation to hospitals. While it is clear that some
amount of genuine charity work has taken place, whether each of The
Family's charitable organizations qualify as a bona fide has been
brought under scrutiny. Recently exited ex-members have described
the use of photo ops, very little genuine aid work taking place, and
most of the donations going to their own living expenses.
The FCF has come under
attack for being inextricably linked to The Family, and for being
created primarily to launder funds within the group and abusing its
tax-exempt status. Although the FCF claims to technically stand as a
separate entity from The Family/The Family International, it was
founded by top leaders of The Family to advance their goals and
interests, and almost exclusively promotes Family products and
assists Family members. Members were allowed to send a donation to
the FCF in lieu of tithing to World Services (WS), the
administrative arm of The Family. Substantial tax-exempt funds could
also, with a little creative bookkeeping, be used to finance
ventures that Zerby and Smith controlled through WS.
Legal firewalls between the
foundation and The Family could blunt potential lawsuits and
criminal charges against The Family. Whether or not a legal a
connection can be made between the FCF and The Family's
controversial practices, its current leaders Zerby, Smith, and other
Family leadership continue to operate under the assumption they are
free of any third party scrutiny and accountability.
The
Post-Berg era
After Berg's death in
October of 1994, Karen Zerby, from Tucson, Arizona in the USA, known
in the group as Mama, Maria Fontaine, or Queen Maria, took over
leadership of the group. She then married her longtime lover, Steven
Douglas Kelly, an American also known as Christopher Smith, Peter
Amsterdam, or King Peter. He became her traveling representative due
to Zerby's hermitic separation from her followers.
The Charter
(1995)
In a 1995 court case, the
Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Alan Ward decided that the group, including
some of its top leadership, had engaged in abusive sexual practices
involving minors and that they had also engaged in severe corporal
punishment and sequestration of minors. However, in a last minute
turn around, he concluded that the Family had abandoned these
practices and that they were a safe environment for children.
Nevertheless, he required that the group cease all corporal
punishment of children in the United Kingdom and denounce any of
Berg's writings that were "responsible for children in the Family
having been subjected to sexually inappropriate behavior."
The group introduced a
Charter of Rights and Responsibilities,
also known as the Love Charter, setting forth a new way of living
within the organization, allowing members more freedom to choose and
follow their own pursuits. The rights referred to were what a member
could expect to receive from the group and how members were to be
treated by leadership and fellow members. The responsibilities
referred to were what a member was expected to give to the group if
he or she wished to remain a full-time member in the inner circle.
However, it also provided that any of the rights could be revoked at
any time by Zerby and Kelly, and more responsibilities could be
added.
Full-time members are
required to
tithe up to
fourteen percent of their income (ten percent to World Services;
three percent to a "Family Aid Fund" supposedly set up to support
needy field situations, regional services and projects; and one
percent to regional "common pots" supposedly for local projects,
activities, and fellowships, and typically to regional literature
publishing).
The Family
International (2004-present)
In 2004, the movement
changed its name to the Family International. Internal changes and
upheavals were once again implemented. Internal directives addressed
members' trends towards a less dedicated lifestyle, and once again
implored recommitment to the group's mission of fervent
proselytization. In the second half of 2004, a six-month "renewal
period" was held, to help members refocus their priorities.
Membership was reorganized and new levels of membership were
introduced%#151;members now fall into the following categories:
Family Disciples (FD), Missionary Members (MM), Fellow Members (FM),
Active Members (AM), and General Members (GM).
The Charter governs Family
Disciples, while the Missionary Member Statutes and Fellow Member
Statutes were written for the governance of the Family's Missionary
member and Fellow Member circles, respectively. Family Disciple
homes are reviewed every six months against a set of criteria.
According to Family
statistics, at the beginning of 2005 there were 1,238 Family homes
and 10,202 members worldwide. Of those, 266 Homes and 4884 members
were FD, 255 Homes and 1,769 members were MM, and 717 Homes and
3,549 members were FM. Statistics on AM and GM categories are
currently unavailable.
The Ricky
Rodriguez Murder-Suicide (2005)
In 2005, the murder-suicide
of The Family's heir apparent Ricky Rodriguez shocked the world and
brought considerable renewed media attention on the group,
especially regarding their child-rearing policies and child sexual
abuse.
Ricky, first known to
members as Davidito, was the natural son of Karen Zerby and a
Spanish hotel employee whom she "FFed." Davidito's legal name was
Richard Peter Rodriguez (also Richard Peter Smith and David Moses
Zerby), and he was considered to be the adopted son of David Berg
although no official adoption ever took place.
As Davidito grew up he
developed a deep seated resentment towards Berg and Zerby because of
the sexual abuse he had suffered as a child due to their policies
and because of the unnatural way in which he was raised. He would
later state that he and his sister were never allowed to be "just
children"—that they always had to perform and demonstrate their
supposed natural superiority to other children in the group.
In 2002, Ricky, now an
adult, left the group, married and tried to live a normal life,
working as an electrician. In October 2004, he moved to Tucson,
Arizona. According to accounts by his friends and relatives, he
moved there because he heard his mother had visited and he wanted to
find her.
In January 2005, he arranged
a meeting with Angela Smith (formerly Susan
Joy Kauten), who was a close associate of his mother and one
of his former abusers, and stabbed
her to death in his apartment. He then drove to Blythe, Arizona
where he shot himself in the head.
In a 57 minute suicide
video made for friends, family and former members, he talked of his
intense pain, and the actions he had decided to embark upon. He
explained that saw himself as a vigilante avenging children like him
and his sisters, who had been subject to rapes and beatings.
"There's this need that I have," he said. "It's not a want. It's a
need for revenge. It's a need for justice, because I can't go on
like this."
["Murder
and Suicide Reviving Claims of Child Abuse in Cult,
Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, January 15, 2005. pg. A-1].
Beliefs
Theologians have placed the
Family's basic theology within the historical Christian tradition,
along with some very unorthodox beliefs.
Fundamentalist-Liberal Christianity
As a fundamentalist
Christian group, The Family's doctrines tend to be progressive, with
a few exceptions.
While they view male
homosexuality as sin, they are generally accepting of lesbianism, or
at least female bisexuality. This gained even more acceptance
throughout the 1990s, influenced in part by Karen Zerby's
discussions of her own same-sex encounters.
The Family has also
slowly moved away from traditional Protestant doctrines of salvation
as a requirement before death to one of
Universal Reconciliation.
This has partly come about in order to reconcile their belief in
hell with other strongly held beliefs in god's absolute love for
mankind and forgiveness for human weakness.
The Bible,
the Trinity, Jesus and Salvation
The Family International
states that they believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God
and sacred revelation. They believe in the triune God ; the biblical
account of creation in the book of Genesis; and in the fall of Adam
and Eve and thus all humanity, into sin. Although Berg theorized
that Jesus was conceived through a sexual encounter between the
arch-angel Gabriel and Mary, he nevertheless taught that Jesus
Christ is the only begotten Son of God, who came to Earth, that He
was subsequently crucified, resurrected, and ascended, and that
through His sacrifice people are redeemed. The group holds that a
simple prayer to ask "Jesus into your heart" leads to the forgiving
of their sins and eternal salvation. They believe that the Holy
Spirit is the feminine and maternal element of the Trinity, and in
the biblical gifts and fruits of the Spirit.
Angels, Satan
The Family believes that
angels are powerful immortal spiritual beings, and hold that there
are also many other good spirits, including departed believers. Berg
taught that the archangel Gabriel and Mary had a sexual encounter
which led to the conception of Jesus.
They hold that Satan was one
of God's mightiest angels, who rebelled against God; other angels
followed Satan, and thus became demons; that there is relentless
warfare in the spiritual realm between the good forces of God and
the evil forces as Satan; that they as believers, play an active
role in that warfare, primarily through the agency of prayer.
Prophecy
A special emphasis is placed
on prophecy, with the belief that not only God, but good spirits
acting as God's agents, communicate with believers in this way, thus
making prophecy the Word of God.
The End-time
The Family continues to
stress the imminent Second Coming of Christ, and the rise of a
worldwide government and Antichrist figure preceding that. They
believe that they are now living in the time period known in
Scripture as the "Last Days" or the "Time of the End," which is the
era immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ. They believe
they have an eminent role to play in these events. Doctrines
regarding the "end time" influence virtually all long-term decision
making.
They believe that before the
return of Jesus, the world will be ruled for seven years by a
government headed by a man referred to as the Antichrist; that at
the half-way point in his rule he will be totally possessed by Satan
and will precipitate a time or troubles known as the Great
Tribulation.
The Family teaches that the
tribulation will be a time of intense persecution of believers as
well as a time of stupendous natural and unnatural disasters. At the
end of this period believers will be taken up to heaven in an event
known as the Rapture that is shortly followed by a battle between
Jesus and the Antichrist commonly known as the "Battle of
Armageddon". The Antichrist is defeated and Jesus Christ reigns on
Earth for 1000 years.
Some notable failed
end-time interpretations/prophecies: For years, The Family
taught that David Berg's life was inextricably linked to the last
seven years. However, Berg died in 1994. The Family also taught that
heir apparent Davidito (see Ricky Rodriguez above) and Maria
(current leader Karen Zerby) would be the two end-time witnesses
described in the book of Revelations, and would call down fire from
the sky to consume the enemies of God. However, Davidito died in
2005.
Heaven
The Family believes
heaven is shaped like a pyramid, literally inside the moon and ready
to land on earth for the coming 1000 year reign of Christ. Berg
claimed that the purported dimensions of the pyramidal heavenly city
(1500 x 1500 x 1500 miles) are too large to fit in the moon because
scientists and mathematicians have miscalculated its actual size.
(see
The Family believes heaven is literally
inside the moon)
The Family's art heavily
features depictions of Berg's visions of heaven, with nude women
surrounding Jesus.
Elitism
The Family holds that the
Great Commission of evangelizing the world is the duty of every
Christian and that their lives should be dedicated to the service of
God and others. While they claim not to be exclusivist and to accept
that any believing Christian is a member of the Body of Christ, they
believe that they are among the only Christians truly following in
the "center of God's will" and living according to the principals of
the early Christians. There are several levels of membership, and to
remain in the inner circle, "Family Disciples" are expected to live
communally.
Marriage and Children
Although members appear to
form monogamous marriages, swinging and sexual promiscuity prevails
in the group. Members are taught that they are collectively "one
wife," first married to the body of Christ, that they should be free
of jealousy, and have the liberty of sharing their partner with
others. Many couples in The Family have been required to forsake
each other, many broken apart; and some partnerships are put
together by leadership who determine it is "God's will."
The Family believes adultery
has been abolished by the "law of love" and that they may do
anything in the name of love including partaking of promiscuous
sexual unions; and that "to the pure all things are pure" so there
is no sin involved.
The Family does not believe
in birth control. Although in recent years they are allegedly
loosening their restriction on this, members who choose to use birth
control are said to lack faith in God's planning for their lives.
Abortion is strictly
prohibited.
The Law of Love
The Family holds that The
Law of Love supersedes all other biblical laws. This central tenet
to their theology maintains that if a person's actions are motivated
by unselfish, sacrificial love, any actions in accordance with
Scripture are lawful in the eyes of God, even if they contravene the
laws of society.
Sex
The Family believes that God
is a "sexy God" who created human sexuality; that sex is a natural
emotional and physical need; that heterosexual relations (recently
updated to be defined as only between consenting adults of legal
age) are a pure sinless creation of God and permissible according to
Scripture.
The Family teaches that the
followers of Christ are His bride, called to love and serve Him with
the fervor of a wife. This is literalized into sexual acts during
prayer, and the belief that Jesus wishes to have "spiritual sex"
with all his true followers, male and female.
see "The Loving Jesus Revolution (LJR)"
below
Male-male homosexuality is
not allowed but lesbianism is tolerated. Anal sex is prohibited.
Oral sex is encouraged if the female swallows the semen.
Recent teachings
The Loving Jesus
Revolution (LJR)
Of the teachings Zerby
has propagated, her encouragement to followers to engage in a
spiritual sexual relationship with Jesus stands out as the most
unusual. Male members of the group are encouraged to visualize
themselves as women "in the spirit" during masturbation or
intercourse in order to accommodate this practice. This doctrine is
explained in the Family publications Loving Jesus Part 1 and 2 — see
The Loving Jesus Revelation.
Practiced since 1995 by
members of the Children of God/Family International — both male and
female members as young as 12, but more fully from the age of 14,
are taught that Jesus literally desires to have sex with them.
The "Loving Jesus
revelation" calls on Family members to do three things:
- They are to visualise
their sexual activity as happening with Jesus;
- They are called on to
masturbate to Jesus — men are instructed to visualise themselves
as women so that Jesus can make love to them; and
- They are told to say
"love words," or talk dirty, to Jesus as they are having sex.
Karen Zerby has published a list of sexually explicit
expressions that her followers could use when making love to
Jesus.
Channeling
The Family also believes in
channeling spiritual beings through prophecy. Members are encouraged
to hear from Christ and other spiritual beings multiple times during
each day and to make both large and small decisions in consultation
with the spirit world. They do this individually and in prayer
groups with all members typically expected to contribute at will. It
is not uncommon for members to believe they are channeling
well-known people from history who are communicating from the
afterlife.
Prior to the 1990s
channeling-prophecy was not as common among members and was more
typical among leadership and prominent members. While David Berg,
usually without any attribution, clearly drew from the teachings of
many external secular and religious sources, he also frequently
claimed to channel people from the afterlife. It was after his death
that the process became more democratized. Current leader Karen
Zerby frequently calls on spiritual beings for instructions and
advice.
Criticism
and Issues
The group has regularly been
heavily criticized by the press and the anti-cult movement. In 1971,
an organization called FREECOG was founded by concerned family
members of followers, including deprogrammer Ted Patrick, to "free"
them from their involvement in the group.
Frequently, critics of the
movement cite the writings of David Berg, as well as incidents of
alleged criminal behavior by individuals. Family International
members, meanwhile, argue that the entirety of Berg's writings do
not reflect the organization's fundamental beliefs (contained in the
"Statement of Faith") or policies (contained in the Love Charter,
published in 1995). Likewise, they reject the concept of the entire
group being blamed for the wrongdoing of individuals, even when
involving members at the highest levels of leadership.
The controversy over
the movement has generated strong feelings in both current and
former members. An example of the contrasting interpretations of
Family life can be seen in the accounts of second generation
members: former members at
MovingOn.org
and current members at
MyConclusion.com.
Child
Abduction
Since the late 1970s, there
have been increasing reports of children of former members being
abducted and moved to other countries to prevent their parents, law
enforcement authorities and child welfare agencies from finding
them.
In one case, an
investigation was launched regarding the whereabouts of four missing
children. Their mother, Ruth Frouman, had been expelled from the
group in July 1987, eight months after being diagnosed with breast
cancer, and was not allowed to leave with her children. This
resulted in police raids on 10 Family Homes in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, in September 1993. Two of her children were returned to
their father in May 1993. The other two abducted children were not
reunited with their father nor other relatives until mid-1997.
Although official Family
spokespersons have rarely made any public statements about specific
child abduction cases involving its members, members of the Family
claim that there is some evidence that the Family's policies and
practices regarding child abduction and child custody began to
change in the mid-1990s. In "Permanent Marital Separation
Rules"—Section 60 of the Love Charter created in February 1995—it is
stated that couples with children must come to a mutual written
agreement regarding the separation and the custody of the children,
and that obtaining a legal divorce and child custody order is
optional. However, it should be noted that The Family's supplemental
publications once contained tips on how to use written agreements to
obtain de facto full custody and traveling rights. This was in
practice, used to move children away from a parent no longer in the
group, often to countries with no extradition treaties and well
outside the jurisdiction of local courts.
Also notable, the above
policy states that it was applicable only to marital separations
after February 1995. Offering no retroactive responsibility of
earlier policies and practices, nor recourse for those affected by
them. In a clause designed to deny culpability and keep the group's
name out of the courts, the June 2003 amendments state that if the
parties involved cannot reach a mutual agreement and "opt to use the
court system to settle the matter," they must "relinquish Charter
membership until the matter is settled."
At least one Family member,
Peter Bevan Riddell, is known to have been convicted of crimes
relating to child abduction. In 1984, the Australian government
canceled Riddell's passport and he was deported from Japan to
Australia, where he was convicted of committing forgery and making
false statements to facilitate unlawful abduction. He later returned
to Japan, where he continued working on behalf of David Berg and
Karen Zerby in World Services.
Another Family member, Brian
Edward Pickus, has been wanted for decades on an Interpol warrant
issued by the United States and the state of Hawaii for kidnapping,
burglary and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
A New Zealander was wanted
in Singapore for kidnapping his daughter and abandoning his
Singaporean wife who decided to leave The Family on reading Berg's
"Sex with Grandma" in the early 80s.
More information continues
to be gathered as thousands of ex-members who have left the group
and moved on through the years, find each other through the
Internet.
The Second
Generation
Second-generation adults,
those who did not choose to join but were born into and/or raised in
the Family International, are known in the group as "SGAs."
Of the SGAs remaining in the
group, many have assumed leadership positions in the organization,
including chairmanships of international, regional, and national
boards.
As a rule, departing SGAs
return to the country of their citizenship to seek help and adjust
to life outside the group. Many keep in communication with each
other through sites such as MovingOn.org, established by a former
second-generation member in 2001. A large percentage choose to
pursue secular careers and higher education, and raise their
children in environments radically different from the one in which
they were raised. Anti-Family sentiments prevail, with many pursuing
or preparing to seek legal recourse for alleged physical and sexual
abuse, by abusers allegedly shielded from prosecution by the group's
leadership.
The Family International has
argued that SGAs who alleged they were abused in the group are
mentally unstable, demon-possessed, or highly paid by the anti-cult
movement to lie about The Family. Its spokespersons claim that the
anecdotal evidence suggests most former SGAs are publicly silent
about their experiences in the group because they have cordial
relations with those still in it. Former members assert however,
what many studies support: victims of abuse typically require long
recovery periods in dealing with complex traumatic disorders
associated with long-term abuse, and are thus not adequately
equipped to face the ordeals of pursuing justice until many years
later; at which time, matters of jurisdiction and statutes of
limitation can severely hamper or nullify legal proceedings.
SGAs remaining in the group
have been vocal in their defense of the Family's lifestyle,
countering the MovingOn.org site with their MyConclusion.com,
established in the wake of negative publicity, after the January
2005 murder-suicide of Rick Rodriguez and Angela Smith.
Curbing
Contact with Relatives
Members of the Family
International are supposedly encouraged to maintain friendly
relations with relatives who have left. However, they are also
discouraged from associating with relatives considered enemies of
The Family, and many SGAs fall under this category, and are cut off
from their families once they leave. Those who do currently maintain
friendly contact are hostage to the understanding that they may not
participate in anti-Family activities. Antifamily activists are
defined as those who have reported crimes to law enforcement
agencies, testified against the group in court cases involving its
members, and publicly expressed negative opinions about the group's
members and practices.
The Family describes these
former members as apostates, arguing that their testimony is
unreliable and less credible than that of current members. SGAs
assert that the term apostate cannot be applied to them, for though
they were the children of members, they did not choose to join the
group themselves.
Secrecy
In most situations under
normal circumstances when there is no perceived threat, Family
members generally obey the legal and civil authorities of countries
in which they live. However, a controversial doctrine called
"deceivers yet true" is still taught and practiced by members of the
group, and maintains that it is biblically sanctioned to lie to
unbelievers and outsiders in order to protect "God's work."
A consistent trait
throughout the history of The Family has been their aversion to
government oversight and extreme secrecy surrounding their
leadership and finances. World Services (WS), the central
administrative wing of The Family, continues to operate in
seclusion, with very few members of The Family knowing their
whereabouts.
It is not uncommon for
senior leaders to legally change their names. At least one member
has been charged and imprisoned for forging or fraudulently
obtaining passports and other identity documents. Top leaders have
allegedly used falsified identity documents from Australia, Canada,
the United States and other countries.
The Family's senior
leadership typically attempt to keep their legal names from common
circulation, although this has became more difficult through the
second half of the 1990s, due to legal action in many countries. In
particular, a major court case in England in 1995 brought to light
many formerly guarded names of senior members.
For some 30 years,
up-to-date pictures of the faces of their leaders were kept a secret
even from followers. In the Family's publications, printed
photographs of WS members were typically censored by means of
white-out and a rudimentary pencil drawing over the person's face.
It was not uncommon in Family-produced art, for Berg's head to be
replaced with that of a lion.
Following the death of David
Berg in 1994, members of the Family and the public were finally
allowed to see up-to-date photographs of the organization's late
founder. For many members, this was the first time they had seen a
photograph of his face. This was true even for photographs from a
Newsweek article in the 70s, which were censored, replicated and
republished internally.
In recent years, 2nd in
command leader Steven Kelly began showing pictures of current leader
Karen Zerby to members he visited on his travels. In March 2005,
after photographs of current leader Karen Zerby and Steve Kelly were
leaked and placed online, The Family International had no choice but
to appear open, allowing their faces to be seen by members, as a
continued policy of secrecy would work against them. This marked the
first time that recent photographs of Karen Zerby were made
available to the public in nearly 30 years.
Although members are now
familiar with the faces of Karen Zerby and Steven Kelly, their
current (assumed?) legal identities and location are still a heavily
guarded secret, known only to members working closest to them.
Finances
Family finances are based on
a system of tithing. Ten percent of all members' (pre-tax if
according to Berg's requirements) income is paid to World Services.
A further three percent is donated to regional offices for locally
administered projects and a community lending program, and an
additional one percent is given for regional literature publishing.
Supplementary giving to Family offices and leadership, beyond the
typical 14% of income, is encouraged, and fairly commonplace.
The Family's funds are
collected through an honor system, depending largely on the
transfers of non-senior members managing bank accounts with the
organization's funds in their own names. How much graft has taken
place, if any, cannot be reliably measured, as the organization does
not exist as a legal entity nor keep transparent books.
How much income is actually
generated, and if The Family is entitled to operate as an entity
collecting and managing funds without official tax-exempt status,
accounting and bookkeeping, is a subject of criticism.
The closest the public may
ever see of the The Family's finance operations may be through
scrutinizing the Family Care Foundation (FCF). Although it claims to
be a separate legal entity from The Family, members were allowed to
send donations to the in lieu of tithing. (see
above: "FCF & the Charitable Organization and NGO push")
The group's literature
includes many warnings of an impending global financial collapse,
the downfall of US and the resultant rise of a one-world government,
where cash is useless without the mark of the antichrist. As a
result, average rank and file members tend to avoid investments and
actions that are deemed unstable or pointless in the event of a
financial crash. Rank and file members are advised to keep reserves
if any, in Japanese yen, Swiss francs, or gold; and to avoid
property investments and stocks or bonds because they are contrary
to the group's requirements for discipleship and their end-time
beliefs.
However, the rules appear to
be different for the top leadership:
A member who lived in Berg's
household has alleged to having seen a suitcase belonging to Berg,
with "flee funds" estimated to be at least US$1 million; In 2006,
Thomas Hack, a high-ranking leader in The Family International, was
exposed for having purchased prime real estate for almost $900,000.
Notable members, past and present
Actors
River Phoenix,
Joaquin Phoenix,
Summer Phoenix,
Rain Phoenix
and
Rose McGowan
were born into the group and spent their childhood years in it.
Jeremy Spencer,
founding member of the
Fleetwood Mac,
is currently a member of the group.
Susan Cagle,
a pop-rock singer-songwriter signed to Columbia Records, left the
group as a teen.
Comedian
Tina Dupuy
was born into the group, and now bases her comedy show around her
childhood years.
Fashion designer
Shem Watson,
who owned the label SHEM with actor Heath Ledger, grew up in the
Children of God along with his family.
Mor Lam and Luk Thung Prayuk
singers Christy Gibson and Jonas Anderson, famous primarily in
Thailand, are current members of The Family International.
Statistics
According to the
Children of God, there were 130
communes or
"colonies" in 15 countries in 1972. In 1993, 7,000 of the 10,000
members were under 18 years of age. Recent statistics by The Family
International puts full-time and fellow members at just over 11,200
in over 100 countries (around 4,000 adult full-time members and
4,000 children). Some estimates have placed the total number of
people that have passed through the group at 35,000.
There are however, no
reliable statistics as the group does not open its books and records
to third party verification or public scrutiny. It has also
published exaggerated figures regarding the number of people reached
with their message, using overlapping statistics to show numbers
exceeding the population of local of regions and even the entire
world.
Programs,
projects and productions
The Family International (as
the group calls itself today) or The Family International Fellowship
has various programs through which it operates. The main ones
include Family Care Foundation (FCF), Aurora Productions AG, and
Activated Ministries. However, the group has many other local
foundations and projects in various countries throughout the
world—as a rule these front organizations are never open about their
connection to the group—for example (note: some of the following may
no longer be active):
- Martinelli
- Fellowship of
Independent Christian Churches
- Donate Car for Charity
Spring Valley, California, USA
- Teaching, Education and
More (TEAM) Foundation in Dallas, Texas, United States (USA)
(EIN 75-2790783)
- East European Christian
Correspondence Center in Hungary (previously the "MM Home")
- Asia Vision in Thailand
- Los Angeles Missionary
Base (LAMB)
- Bluebird Family
Foundation in Hungary
- Golden Sunrise
Productions Co., Ltd. in Taiwan
- The Spiritual Retreat
and Missionary Training Program in USA
- Mission Support &
Humanitarian Services Program
- Immediate Disaster
Relief in India
- New Horizons - Student
Interchange in India
- Helping Hands
- Milk for Many/Mexcity
Mission
- KidzVids International,
based in Humble, Texas, USA
-
The Extra Mile
- The Family Singers
(they used to perform at the White House every Christmas)
More information can
be found at
exFamily.org's
comprehensive list of front organizations in
The Family / The Children of God - Index of
Pseudonyms.
Productions
- Activated (see
Activated Ministries on this page)
- The Wine Press
- Treasure Attic
- Kiddie Viddie
- Cherub Wings
- Countdown to Armageddon
- Heaven's Magic
Key Front
Organizations
The Family Care
Foundation (FCF) (EIN 33- 0734917)
Inextricably linked to The
Family, the FCF is registered as a separate legal entity, and
obtained tax-exempt status in 1997. It works almost exclusively to
support a system of charitable organizations set up by members,
registered around the world.
- Grant Cameron
Montgomery: - President of FCF; former Prime Minister of The
Family International : - Canadian/American: - legally changed
his name to Lee Ronald Smith, 21-Dec-1992: - legally changed his
name back to Grant Cameron Montgomery, 29-Oct-1996: - Aliases:
Gary, Hosanna, or Paul Papers
- Lawrence Corley: -
Executive Director of FCF: - American: - Aliases: John
- Ken Kelly: - an FCF
Director; brother of Steven Kelly: - American: - Aliases: Steve
Tall
- Dr. Christine Mlot : -
Treasurer of FCF; wife of Ken Kelly : - American
- Arthur Lindfield and
Becky Lindfield: - FCF India: - Aliases: King Arthur
- Thomas B. Bergstrom: -
FCF Indonesia
- Mike Edwards: - FCF
Mexico; former member of North American leadership team (NACRO):
- American: - Aliases: Dust
Aurora
Production AG
Aurora Production AG,
based in
Zug, is the
copyright holder and owner of all of The Family International's
revenue-producing productions. These include publications, music,
and videos (i.e. ''Countdown to Armageddon'' and ''Treasure
Attic''). Although ultimate control over this company is in Steven
Kelly's hands, on paper the following people are listed as running
this company (www.hrazg.ch):
- Claes Furusjö
Johanneshov, Sweden; former WS finance manager
- Richard M?
- Barbara-Maria Buzzi
- Ernst Steiner (Zug,
Switzerland)
- Michael Andrew Darley
(Houston, Texas)
- Alconsa Finanz AG
(Auditor)
Family Missions
Foundation
Family Missions Foundation,
based in Zug, Switzerland, receives and processes the tithes of
members. The board has many of the same names as for Aurora
Production AG. The two key people are:
- Chris Smith (a.k.a.
Steven Kelly; registered in Lucerne, Switzerland)
- Thomas Mestyanek
(registered in Los Angeles, USA; also Finance Manager of The
Family International)
Activated
Ministries (EIN 33-0857142)
A Family International
operated 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Escondido,
California. All the Directors are Family International members.
Thomas Hack, a high-ranking Family-International officer and former
director of FCF, is the President. Activated Ministries is a
licensed distributor of Aurora products worldwide, including the
magazines ''Activated'' and ''The Wine Press'', both of which
promote Family-International beliefs and practices. It is The Family
International's largest outreach operation. Activated Ministries
openly acknowledges its support of The Family International and
links to The Family International website. Activated Ministries has
also made at least one cash donation to FCF.
Other
Non-profit organizations related to The Family
Other
businesses related to the COG/The Family
Active areas
Areas where The Family
International have remained active for many years and are generally
active today include:
Leadership
Current leaders
The leadership of The Family
International is headed by:
- Karen Elva Zerby: -
spiritual leader of The Family International: - American: -
legally changed her name ''to'' Katherine Rianna Smith,
4-Nov-1997: - Aliases: Maria, Mama, Maria Fontaine, Maria David,
Maria Berg, or Queen Maria. Zerby was known to be suffering from
clinical blindness developed during the 1990s, and may be able
to see now fter a medicl operation.
- Steven Douglas Kelly: -
head-leader of The Family International: - American: - legally
changed his name to Chris Smith: - Aliases: Peter Amsterdam or
King Peter
- Kevin Anthony Brown: -
senior leader under Karen Zerby and Steven Kelly (less
officially Grant Montgomery): - American: - legally changed his
name ''from'' Samuel Charles Perfilio, 29-Sep-1993: - Aliases:
Matthew or John PI
Under them, management is
divided into ''World Services'', ''Creations'', and ''Family Care
Foundation''. The following is a sample of The Family
International's current and former leadership or high-profile
members (note: Many of them have legally changed their names and
have adopted either "Brown" or "Smith" as their surnames):
- Victor Landivar Trigoso:
- former leader and current member in Russia: - Peruvian: -
Aliases: Francis or Peruvian Manuel
- Alfred Strickland
Kelley: - former leader: - American: - Aliases: Alf or Ready
- Sara Kelley: - former
leader and nanny of Davidito: - American: - Aliases: Prisca
Kelley or Sara Davidito
- Arnold Dietrich: - not
a member for many years, former leader and son-in-law of David
Berg: - American: - Aliases: Arny or Big Josh
- Angela Marilyn Smith: -
deceased (Jan-2005); part of Karen Zerby's staff for over 30
years, former FCF director, and former member of the board of
directors of a retirement home (Elderhaven, Inc.) run by Zerby's
parents in Arizona: - American: - legally changed her name
''from'' Susan Joy Kauten, 14-May-1993: - Aliases: Ceder, Joy,
Trust, Hope, or Sue
Management
and Regional Offices
World Services (WS)
World Services (WS; location
a closely guarded secret; they can be contacted through a Post
Office box in Zurich, Switzerland that has been open for over two
decades with the mail handled by the European regional office (EURCRO)
- Thomas Mestyanek: -
Finance Manager of The Family International - Aliases: Shemariah
Books or Elliot
- Sean Michael Mullen: -
senior leader under Kevin Brown: - American - Aliases: Francis
Fisherman
- Gayle Kelly: - member
of North American leadership (NACRO) and Director of the ''TEAM
Foundation''; former wife of Steven Kelly: - American: -
Aliases: Abi, Abigail or Damaris
- David Forsberg: -
member of North American leadership (NACRO): - Aliases: Simon
- Thomas Hack: - member
of North American leadership (NACRO) and President of
''Activated Ministries''; former FCF Director : - American : -
Aliases: Abner
- Barbara Ann Emerson: -
Executive Secretary to Karen Zerby: - American: - Aliases:
Misty, Libertad
- John Francis: -
spokesman for The Family International: - American: - Resigned
and left group in 1996
- Susan Claire Borowik: -
an official representative of The Family International
- Christina Healey : -
Norwegian
- Jacqueline Sue Scott: -
American: - Aliases: Moon
Creations
- Michael Timothy Brown:
- head of Creations: - American: - legally changed his name
''from'' Terry Lee Martin: - Aliases: Gabe, Jeremy Woods, or
John
- Donna Kinnikin: - head
of Creations: - Canadian: - Aliases: Vicky or Amy
- Thomas Leonard: - part
of Creations: - Aliases: Will
- Carol Lloyd: - part of
Creations; former wife of Philip (EURCRO): - American: -
Aliases: Palestina
- Cheryl Anne Brown: -
part of Creations: - American: - legally changed her name
''from'' Kathleen Mary Fowler, 17-Jun-1993: - Aliases: Bonnie
- Keith Wideman: - part
of Creations: - American: - Aliases: Justus of Adar
- Tommy and Valerie
Farnsworth: - Web mastering and IT (Tommy) Secretarial (Valerie)
- Aliases: Enoch Cameron and Salathiel (Sally) Scribe; Tommy:
American, Valerie: Canadian; Tommy is the father of Ben
Farsworth who committed suicide in Hong Kong
Regional Offices
The Family International
divides regional management into zones that have changed very rarely
and typically in very small ways over its history. They are:
- ASCRO (Asian Central
Reporting Office): Southeast Asia and Indian Subcontinent;
administered in Bangkok, Thailand by:
- Silas or Rick
Douthit (American)
- EURCRO (European
Central Reporting Office): Europe, Africa, most of Russia;
administered in the town of Fluelen, Switzerland (located near
Altdorf, Switzerland which is near Zurich) by:
- Gallieo (American)
- Dawn
- Lisa (Norwegian)
- Philip or Zadock
Lloyd (American)
- NACRO (North American
Central Reporting Office): United States, Canada, Mexico,
Caribbean and some countries of Central America; administered in
Dallas, TX by:
- Gayle Kelly
(American)
- Thomas Hack
(American)
- David Forsberg
- PACRO (Pacific Area
Central Reporting Office): Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Far
East Russia and other countries of the Pacific; administered in
Tokyo, Japan and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Also known as FENRO (Far
East National Reporting Office) when it was located in Hong Kong
prior to the 1990s
- SACRO (South American
Central Reporting Office): South America; administered in
Santiago, Chile by:
- Juan Rosas
(Peruvian)
- Pedro (Argentine)
Each region is managed by a
team of Continental Officers (COs), each team typically having five
to seven members. The management structures beneath the CO team are
more variable and their members are changed frequently.
References
Academic
- Bainbridge, William
Sims (2002). "The Endtime Family: Children of God". State
University of New York Press, Albany, NY.
- Bainbridge, William
Sims (1996). "The Sociology of Religious Movements". Routledge.
ISBN 0-4159-1202-4.
- Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin
(1997). "Dear Colleagues: Integrity and Suspicion in NRM
Research" ''University of Haifa'', Haifa, ISRAEL.
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c59.html Abridged version
- Chancellor, James
(2000). "Life in The Family: An Oral History of the Children of
God". University of Syracuse Press, Syracuse, NY.
- Collins, John J.
(1991). "The Cult Experience: An Overview of Cults, Their
Traditions and Why People Join Them". Charles C. Thomas
Publisher, Springfield.
- Kent, Stephen A.
(1994).
"Lustful prophet: A psychosexual
historical study of the children of god's leader, David Berg."
Cultic Studies Journal 11 (2), 135-188.
- Kent, Stephen A.
(1994).
"Misattribution and social control in the
Children of God." Journal of
Religion and Health 33 (1), 29?43.
- Kent, Stephen A.
(2000).
"Brainwashing and re-indoctrination
programs in the Children of God/The Family."
Cultic Studies Journal 17, 56?78.
- Langone, Michael
D (Ed.) (1993).
"Children and Cults"
in Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and
Spiritual Abuse. W. W. Norton & Co.
ISBN 0-3933-1321-2.
- Lewis, James R, and J.
Gordon Melton, eds. (1994). "Sex, Slander and Salvation;
Investigating The Family/Children of God". Center for
Academic Press, Stanford, CA.
- Lynch, Dalva, and
Paul Carden (1990).
"Inside the 'Heavenly Elite': The Children
of God Today." Christian
Research Journal, pp 16.
- McFarland, Robert
(1994).
"The Children of God."
The Journal of Psychohistory 4(21).
- Melton, J. Gordon
(2004). "The Children of God, 'The Family' (Studies in
Contemporary Religion vol. 7)". Signature Books.
ISBN 1-5608-5180-5.
- Melton, J. Gordon and
Robert L. Moore (1982). "The Cult Experience: Responding to the
New Religious Pluralism". The Pilgrim Press, New York,
USA.
- Palmer, Susan J.
(1994).
"Heaven's Children: The Children of God's
Second Generation" in Lewis JR
and Melton JG (eds.) (1994)
Sex, Slander, and Salvation:
Investigating The Family/Children of God
Stanford, California: Center for Academic Publication.
ISBN 0-9639501-2-6.
(Note: This book was funded by The Family International)
- Palmer, Susan J.,
and Charlotte Hardman eds. (1999). Children in New Religions
(3rd ed.). Rutgers University Press.
ISBN 0-8135-2620-5.
- Shepherd, Gary,
and Lawrence Lilliston (1994).
"Field Observations of Young People's
Experience and Role in The Family"
in Sex, Slander, and Salvation, op. cit.
- Wilson, Bryan and Jamie
Cresswell, eds. (1999). "New Religious Movements: Challenge and
Response". Routledge, London, UK.
- Wright, Stuart (1987).
"Leaving Cults: The Dynamics of Defection". Society for the
Scientific Study of Religion. Washington, DC, USA.
- Van Zandt, David
(1991). "Living in the Children of God". Princeton University
Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Journalistic and popular
- Ajemian, Sam
(2005). "The
Children of God Cult, aka The Family".
ISBN 0-9774519-0-9.
-
Category:Press
- An archive of press coverage (hosted by xfamily.org)
- Bainbridge,
William Sims (1996). "The Sociology of Religious Movements".
Routledge.
ISBN 0-4159-1202-4.
- Barrett, David V.
(1989). "New Religious Movements, A Practical Introduction".
Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
ISBN 0-1134-0927-3.
- Barrett, DV
(1996). "Sects, Cults and Alternative Religions". Blandford
A. Cassell.
ISBN 0-7137-2567-2.
- Chancellor, James
D. (2000). "Life in the Family: An Oral History of the Children
of God". Syracuse University Press.
ISBN 0-8156-0645-1.
- Davis, Deborah
(1984).
"The Children of God: The Inside Story".
Zondervan.
ISBN 0-3102-7840-6.
(Davis is one of David Berg's daughters.)
- McManus, Una (1980).
"Not for a Million Dollars". Impact Books. ISBN 0-9148-5054-7.
- Palmer, Susan and
Hardman, Charlotte (edited) (1999). "Children in New Religions".
Rutgers University Press.
ISBN 0-8135-2619-1.
-
Television Coverage
- An archive of television coverage (hosted by xfamily.org)
- "30
Members of Children of God arrested"
(September 2, 1993). Washington Post, pp. A05
-
"The Family" and Final Harvest"
(June 2, 1993). Washington Post, pp. A01
- Williams, Miriam
(1999). "Heaven's Harlots: My Fifteen Years As a Sacred
Prostitute in the Children of God Cult". Quill.
ISBN 0-6881-7012-9.
Primary
sources
Family
Websites
Sites of Individual Current
Members
Opposing Viewpoints & other sites
Court Cases and Investigations
-
Final Report on the Activities of the
Children of God - Submitted to
Hon. Louis J. Lefkowitz, Attorney General of the State of New
York, by Herbert J. Wallenstein, Assistant Attorney General In
Charge, Charity Frauds Bureau, Sept. 30, 1974
-
Judgment of the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Ward
- 1995 custody case in the UK involving The Family.
-
Cult Justice — France
-
The Children of God/The Family Court Cases
in Argentina, 1987-1995: A Documentary History
-
The Children of God/The Family Court Cases
in France, 1991-2000
-
Krounapple v. Children of God, David
Brandt Berg, et. al. 77CV-11-4706
— Court of Common Pleas, Franklin County, Ohio, USA. 21 June,
1979
-
Brian Edward Pickus - Argentina
Extradition Case — Court
records and other information about the legal proceedings for
the extadition of Family member Brian Pickus from Argentina to
the United States for the crimes of kidapping, burglary and
unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
-
Case 81/89 Cavazza, Juan C. and others, on
Inf. Art.125, 139, 140, 142, Par.l, 142 bis, 210, 293 of the
Code of Proceedings and art.3 of Law 23,592. Federal Court of
San Isidro, 1 Sec.2 Office II, Reg. 443. Buenos Aires, Argentina
— Court documents and other
information related to legal proceedings in Argentina against 21
Family members.
-
Tribunal de Menores de Merecdes - Causa
32.202 — Court documents and
other information relating to a complaint filed in Argentina on
behalf of two U.S. citizens seeking the return of their four
abducted children.
-
Antecedentes de la Causa NDD en Argentina-
Causa 32.202- menores Frouman E. y otros s/ Inf. Art. 10- Ley
10.067 by Hugo Gabutti — review
of the Frouman case and related legal action against the
Children of God in Argentina by a former police detective
assigned to investigate the organization and find abducted
children (Spanish)
-
Richard Peyer vs Family of Love et. al.
1CC00-0-063603 — Records of a
civil suit against the Family of Love and other parties by a
mother whose children were abducted in September 1980 and a man
who was assaulted during the abduction. – Circuit Court (O`AHU -
First Judicial Circuit), Honolulu, Hawaii. — 1980-11-26
-
Candy Ann Pickus et. al. vs Phyllis
Gotwalt et. al. - 1CC00-0-072110
— Records of a civil suit against Phyllis Gotwalt, Brian Pickus
and others allegedly responsible for the abduction of the Pickus
children. – Circuit Court (O`AHU - First Judicial Circuit),
Honolulu, Hawaii. — 1980-11-26
-
The Children of God/The Family Court Cases
in Argentina, 1987-1995 — a
documentary history
-
The Children of God/The Family Court Cases
in France, 1991-2000
Other
- Barron, Amy
(2003).
Children of God Bibliography
- Comprehensive list of primary and secondary sources of
information regarding The Children of God/The Family, compiled
by a student in a religion course.
- BBC Radio 4,
Beyond Belief,
August 9, 2004:
"Cults" -
One of the participants is a member of The Family.
-
Video made by Richard Rodriguez
before he murdered Angela Smith and took his own life (in Real
Audio Format)
Source:
http://www.exfamily.org/children-of-god/ |
