Children of God

As anyone who knows me knows, I have a little fascination with cults. However, I have a personal tie to one particular cult, called "Jesus People", "Children of God" or "the Family". This cult was centered around a creepy character called David Berg and his consort Karen "Maria" Zerby. It began with communal living, branched into free love, "flirty fishing" (proselytizing by prostitution) and then, tragically, sexual abuse of children. The scary thing is that this cult had a few million members in its heyday and still survives now, although they have formally disavowed the sexual abuse (although are still up to some nefarious activities). I had heard of the CoG, but was reminded about their existence by my little sister's ex-boyfriend, Thor, who was born into it, and spent his childhood traveling all over Europe, busking for the group. (note 1: I feel that it is okay to use his real name since his mother has written a book, Heaven's Harlots, about her experiences and openly referenced him, with his permission. Plus, he's very open to discussion about it. note 2: I seem to keep in contact with her exes perhaps better than she does...) He recently sent us a chapter of an account his Dad is pitching for a book deal as a complement/counter to his mom's perspective, but I haven't had a chance to look at it closely. The biggest splash the cult has made was the Ricky Rodriguez murder/suicide in 2005. From his birth to "Maria" and his adopted father David Berg, he was groomed to take over cult leadership and given the name "Davidito". His childhood (and abuse) was chronicled in a grotesque child-rearing guide called "The Story of Davidito". Unsurprisingly but sadly, he was never able to recover and his abusers were never prosecuted. He finally set out on a quest to kill his mother and then himself, but instead killed one of his former nannies/abusers when he was unable to track down Maria. I read a book about his story called Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge that tells his story. It's pretty heartbreaking.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, ex-members have created a comprehensive wiki with great photo, document and video archives. The images on top are some of the weird posters from the site. Obv, not for the faint of heart.