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David Berg (February 18, 1919 - October 1994) was the founder and leader of the Children of God, now called The Family International. The group believes he continues to lead them today from beyond the grave. Berg founded the new religious movement/cult/missionary organization known as the Children-of-God in 1968. The group was later known as The Family of Love, The Family, and now The Family International.
David Brandt Berg mostly lived in total seclusion and secrecy from his followers. Along with Karen Zerby (whom he took as a common-law second wife in August 1969), Berg is thought to have used a fake Australian passport when traveling. In Family publications, printed photographs of the cult's World Services members were typically censored by means of a rudimentary drawing pasted over the persons face, and in Berg's case it was common for his head to be replaced with that of a lion. The writing's he sent to each cult member were call "Mo letters" as Mo was short for the Biblical Moses, who Berg emulated.
Berg's Children-of-God religious movement started simply enough, with a handful of devoted, mostly hippie-type of followers, with a simple plan to spread the love of Jesus. One man, one wife. Nothing controversial. As Berg aged and his writings strove to push the "revolutionary" theme of his growing cult of followers, Berg pushed the envelope with his most notorious epistle regarding the "Law of Love" by which the cult was now sanctioning "flirty fishing" (women were instructed to be "Hookers for Christ" by luring men into the cult via unprotected sex. If they got pregnant then it was all part of God's plan and the children were called "Jesus Babies.") Berg pushed the envelope farther when he wrote that it was now okay for anyone to have unprotected sexual relations with anyone inside or outside the group, no matter the age of the person. This essentially started an epidemic of child sexual abuse, endorsed by the Children-of-God, now called The Family International. Berg had problems with homophobia, however, and dissuaded men from having sex with other men. Berg had no problems with incestuous sex and soon made it mandatory for parents to schedule daily sex with their children of all ages, even newborns who could not have any say in the matter. Many Children-of-God members left when these new rules were passed down, but many stayed, and the cult drew in numerous child abusers who soon formed the base of their membership. Berg and his flock bloomed all over the world, rarely staying in one place too long, moving from town to town, to avoid the authorities, and from country to country. Many books have been written about the Children of God cult, who by 1987, fearing God's wrath of A.I.D.S., Berg wrote that "Flirty Fishing" was no longer acceptable, except to people one already knew. By Berg's death in 1984, he had tried to backtrack on the writings he endorsed pertaining to adult sex with minor children, due to an English court making a legal inquiry into the group's activities. Despite Berg's denial of approving of sex with minor-children as a holy sacrament, there was too much evidence against Berg, much of it on videotapes that were sent to him with female children dancing nude and masturbating for him on camera as adults and strangers looked on, that the court would find the group guilty of these activities. But due to Berg dying while the trial was ongoing, and the new members of the cult stating that they'd changed their ways and outlawed sexual abuse, the judge allowed the cult to continue, naively believing the new president's promise to lay off the sex with children. Karen Zerby, a long time companion of Berg's and now "queen of the cult", runs the organization-in-hiding and many ex-members state that behind the scenes not much has changed from the time Berg was the leader of the "Children-of-God."
