Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Cult Research--"The Family"

The Children of God sect, referred to nowadays as The Family International, is a high-demand religious group requiring great personal sacrifice on the part of its members. They emphasize Jesus’ teachings against loyalties to one’s original family and stress Jesus’ preaching in favor of poverty and a simple life. The group merges traditional Christian beliefs and practices with the belief in universal salvation, communal living, and free love among those within the group (“Children”).

The roots of The Family can be traced back to the counter-culture movement of the 1960s. During this time, thousands of teens and young adults dropped out of normal society and disappeared into the cults. Many young adults, called flower children or hippies, sought a simpler lifestyle in the form of communal life in southern California. Out of this hippie movement came a loosely connected group of Evangelical Christian organizations collectively known as The Jesus People, which were described as “a diverse collection of pastors, street-preachers, oddballs and intellectuals all trying to communicate the gospel to the counterculture” (“Children”). It was in 1968 that The Children of God sect was born, providing answers and a haven for the socially rebellious youth of the counter-culture to flock to. David Berg, the organization’s founder, began his professional life as an evangelist for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in 1964 (Mather and Nicholas 52-53). Berg also became the leader of a Teen Challenge chapter in Huntington Beach, CA. in 1967—Teen Challenge was a youth ministry of the Assemblies of God denomination—where he ran a coffee house and preached to the hippies, helping them “turn off of drugs and onto Jesus” (Branch). However, Berg received a “revelation” from God in 1969 that a disastrous earthquake was about to hit California, and the faithful must prepare for the end times by leaving family, friends, and all worldly connections behind to become full-time missionaries to win new converts. He thus separated from the Christian and Missionary Alliance and Teen Challenge, claimed to be the end-time prophet spoken of in the Old Testament, and led his group of followers out of Huntington Beach to wander throughout the American southwest for the next eight months. During this time, they adopted the name “Children of God” (“Children”).

Though the earthquake never occurred, many converts remained faithful. The group defined its own social structure and created its own internal regulations: members lived in “colonies” run by “shepherds” and “provisioned” (begged) for food and needs. Medical care was replaced by prayer for healing, and bad health was attributed to lack of faith or punishment from God (“Brief”). It was in this isolated and controlled environment that Berg was able to introduce stranger and more radical doctrines.

Berg endorsed a radical and naïve altruism in his doctrine of the “Law of Love.” Berg twisted passages such as John 1:17, 1 Corinthians 6:12, and Galatians 5:14 among others to produce one of the central heresies of The Family. Berg taught that the law has been abrogated and has been replaced by love and the law of the Spirit which The Family interprets:
"We therefore believe that if a person’s actions are motivated by unselfish, sacrificial love—the love of God for our fellow man—and are not intentionally hurtful to others, such actions are in accordance with Scripture and are thus lawful in the eyes of God. [We] believe that through the Lord’s salvation and His Law of Love, Christians are released from the hundreds of rules...and are no longer required to observe them. They are, however, held to a higher law—Christ’s Law of Love, which should guide all our interactions with others.” (“Fundamental”)


In other words, license was given to fornication, adultery, vulgarity, profanity, even group sex, incest, prostitution, and child sex—nothing was wrong or unlawful as long as it was done in love. According to The Family’s official website, they themselves state, “Upon much pondering of the Scriptures, Father David articulated the theological standpoint that loving God first and foremost, and then our fellow man, is the ultimate fulfillment and completion of biblical law. ... David published...missives that established the Family’s theological standpoint regarding the nature of human sexuality, in which he expressed that sexuality was a God-ordained, pure, and needful wonder of God’s creation. ...He reached the conclusion that sexuality is not inherently evil in God’s eyes, and that loving heterosexual relations...even outside of formal marriage, are permissible;” they also plainly admit, “As would be expected, these viewpoints were very much at odds with the sexually conservative stance of most Christian denominations” (“Origins”).

Polygamy and swinging was one result of this doctrine as adultery and fornication were practically abolished as sin. Using this basic Law of Love principle as a platform, Berg introduced the doctrine of “One Wife,” which is still actively practiced. One Wife teaches that all adult members are married, thus sexual sharing is endorsed (“Brief”). Berg also used the Law of Love principle to launch the campaign he called Flirty Fishing. Flirting and sex were considered ways of showing the love of God to the lost and lonely. Berg ordered female members to become “fishers of men” by sacrificing themselves as “bait” to lure in converts through flirting and sex. Berg also told the men that they were to lay down their lives and their wives for the sake of the gospel (Branch). Thus, female members were taught to be whores or hookers for Jesus in order to win converts and favors, and Flirty Fishing quickly became outright prostitution. Birth control was forbidden, and thousands of children were born as a result of this “ministry,” and were called “Jesus Babies” (“Family”).

The thousands of Jesus Babies, also known as the second generation, born into the group in the 1970s and 80s by mothers who were following Berg’s call to share sexual favors in order to bring men to Christ were brought up under strict conditions in a very isolated, sexually charged environment (“Family”). They were often used for child labor, and drilled in the doctrine and practices of The Family from birth. Possibly the most sickening and upsetting practice of The Family was their exploitation of children and endorsement of child sex. Explicit videos of female members, including children, were created for Berg and circulated throughout the group. Also, photos of children, both male and female, in sexually compromising positions and acts with other children and even with adult members were circulated. In such a sexually charged environment, children were exposed to sexual practices and were sexually abused (“Family”).

Though in 1986 the group renounced the practice of adult/child sex, professor of sociology Steve Kent states that the highly sexual climate at Children of God communes “did real damage to that second generation,” and “there have been suicides in recent years among [adults] who grew up in the Children of God” (qtd. in “Family”). The most notable case of this that received worldwide attention was the suicide on January 8, 2005 in Tucson, Arizona of Ricky Rodriguez, a child born into the group by Berg’s mistress, Karen Zerby, and groomed to be the heir of the sect, and placed on a pedestal throughout his infamous upbringing as the future leader and prophet of The Family (“Family”). Rodriguez left the group as a young adult, yet remained emotionally traumatized by his experiences. The night before his suicide, Rodriguez murdered Angela Smith, an older woman from his youth guilty of sexually abusing him as a child, and recorded a videotape in which he fondles a knive, loads a gun, and shows off other weapons of torment—this video was released to the New York Times by Rodriguez’s wife shortly after his death. In this disturbing video, Rodriguez says he sees himself as a vigilante avenging children like him and his sisters who were subject to rapes, beatings, and sexual abuse: “There’s this need that I have. 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” (qtd. in “Family”). Rodriguez’s murder-suicide has been reviving accusation for the past three years by former members of The Family about the routine physical, emotional, and sexual abuse they experienced as children in the group.

Many of the practices of The Family, especially in its early days, were obviously illegal. So then how did they avoid great trouble with the law? Early on, the group adopted a policy of not disclosing what their true beliefs were, deeming them too “strong meat” for “babes” that would attract unnecessary attention and trouble. Thus, the practice of PR fronting was developed and members became adept at showing outsiders a façade, while leading very different lives and adhering to radically different beliefs on the inside (“Brief”). Also, biblical names were promptly assigned to new converts, and they were not allowed to know each other’s “system name.” This was explained as a precautionary measure to protect themselves from anti-Christ forces—if members did not know each other’s legal names, they could honestly answer accusers in ignorance. This practice was called being “Selah” (“Brief”).

On realizing that angry detractors were looking for the sect’s controversial leader, Berg went into hiding, keeping his whereabouts secret even from his own followers and explaining it a necessary move in order to focus on writing his Mo Letters (“Brief”). Berg taught members that they should live out of “fleabags” with few basic belongings, ready to follow preplanned escape routes and become incognito in a moment’s notice: “Sources indicate that [Family] establishments such as ‘homes’ and ‘ministries’ are still known to disappear overnight” (“Family”). Members tend to uproot quickly and easily in the face of bad publicity, law suits, or criminal investigations. Thus, through PR fronting, “Selah” practices, and allusiveness of whereabouts, The Family has been able to evade authorities and avoid lawsuits because disenchanted ex-members and detractors wanting to take legal action against the sect find themselves with no recourse having no legal names of offenders or knowledge of their whereabouts.

Berg, who referred to himself as Moses (meaning “God’s prophet”), preserved his teachings and doctrines in his Mo Letters, which became the central publication for the sect. However, other official publications include other tapes, books, and internal news magazines (Branch). Though Berg originally began the sect based on his interpretation and twisting of the Bible, as early as 1973 he began to de-emphasize proselytizing from the Bible and insisted that his disciples push his Mo Letters on the public instead (“Brief”). Because Berg is considered the end-time prophet, his prolific writings are considered a “continuing revelation” even today. Also, the organization’s Mama Letters from Berg’s mistress, Karen Zerby, are also considered authoritative (Branch). In 1995, Zerby revealed the “New Wine of Loving Jesus—a doctrine teaching that Jesus wants to literally have sex with members of the Family, both male and female, and Zerby gives techniques for spiritually accomplishing this (“Brief”).

Berg died in 1994, yet his Children of God movement lives on today as The Family. Upon Berg’s failing health in the 1980s, Karen Zerby, known as Mama Maria, began to take control of The Family, and is now considered the present end-time prophet where she reveals and promotes her revelations and new doctrine while in hiding.

Though membership of in The Family has waned, The Family currently claims to have 3,000 adult members and 6,000 children living in communities in over 500 countries (Branch) However, ex-members claim that there are far more members and children than those counted living in the communes. Though the Children of God, which later became known as The Family to appear more family-oriented in the eyes of the public, officially renounced many of its alleged practices such as polygamy and child sex, practices such as sexual sharing and the Law of Love are still present. The Family cannot escape its cultic status and the fact that the organization was founded by an advocate of free love who sanctioned child abuse and incest, and the fact that the organization of firmly built upon this man’s teachings. Despite their official statements to the contrary, the actual beliefs and practices of The Children of God, or The Family International, clearly place this movement well outside the boundaries of orthodox, mainstream Christianity. Thus, “The Family International is accurately defined as a cult of Christianity” (Hudson).


Works Cited
Branch, Craig. “The Children of God/The Family.” The Watchman Expositor. 2000. 20 April
2008 .
“A Brief Historical Outline: The Children of God, a.k.a. The Family, 1968-Current Day.”
ExFamily. 18 February 2002. 20 April 2008 .
“Children of God: a.k.a. The Family, Family of Love.” European-American Evangelistic
Crusades. 2008. 21 April 2008 .
“The Family International: Children of God, Family of Love, The Family, The Family
International Fellowship; Fellowship of Independent Missionary Communities.”
Apologetics Index. 2005. 20 April 2008 .
“The Fundamental Beliefs of The Family.” The Family International. 2004. 19 April 2008
.
Mather, George A. and Larry A. Nicholas. Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult.
Ed. Alvin J. James. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993.
“The Origins of a Movement: From ‘The Children of God’ to ‘The Family International.’” The Family International. 2004. 19 April 2008 .

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