Children of God

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Children of God (German: Kinder Gottes) is the original name of a new religious movement that is now called Die Familie ( The Family International ) and which has since been called the Family of Love . It was founded in 1968 by David Berg in California . Since Berg's death in 1994, it has been run by his widow Karen Zerby. The family describes itself as an "association of independent mission communities". The Christian churches in Austria, Germany and Switzerland refer to the association as a sect .

history

The "Children of God" were founded in 1968 by David Berg (alias Moses David, Mo, Dad, later also Grandad). The number of members grew rapidly, and most of the new members were young people from the hippie scene. The group quickly grew and spread to other countries where "colonies" were established. In 1971 Jeremy Spencer , founding member of the British rock-blues band Fleetwood Mac , joined Children of God.

Since 1974 the members have been practicing the so-called “love bombing” and “flirty fishing”, in which new members are gained through sexual acts or material goods are to be procured for the group. There were written instructions for this recruitment tactic. After the practice became known, the association was associated with prostitution in the media . According to the “family”, “fishing” was stopped in 1987, mainly because of the risk of infection with HIV .

David Berg had an authoritarian leadership style and communicated with his followers mainly through circulars called "Mo Letters" until he died in 1994. From then on his wife Karen Zerby (aka Maria) took over the management.

In 1999 the “children of God” officially dissolved, around a third of the members left the association. There was a threat of a lawsuit in the USA. Later the group was called "Family of Love", or "The Family" for short.

In January 2005, former member Ricky Rodriguez committed a murder-suicide: after plotting to murder his mother, he instead murdered his former tutor and then committed suicide. He was the son of Karen Zerby, the unofficial adopted son of David Berg, and was brought up as a toddler under the pseudonym Davidito (Spanish for "little David") to succeed David Berg. The sect also published a pamphlet showing him as the object of pedophile acts by women; At the time of the crime, however, he had already left the sect for several years.

Many former members born in "The Family" report that they were sexually abused as children . The "family" claims that a 1986 circular banned adults from having sexual intercourse with children, but according to former members this was not the case. David Berg had written several "Mo Letters" in the late 1970s approving sex with children "as long as it is done in love". When these controversial letters threatened to bring the "family" into disrepute, the members were induced to burn the "Mo Letters" and a new circular should put an end to it all. Despite denials by the “family”, many young people still claim to have been abused as children.

Basically, the “family” tries to win new members by enticing them away from the “established” religions . For this purpose, the members should aggressively approach the followers of other religions and assume leading positions in their communities in order to be able to disseminate the teachings of the "family" in camouflage. At the end of the 1990s, the “family” is said to have had a total of around 9,000 members, including 6,000 minors.

Rose McGowan grew up with the Children of God. When community life became unbearable, mother and daughter fled in the middle of the night. The family of the brothers River Phoenix (actor, † 1993) and Joaquín Phoenix (musician and actor) belonged to this sect until 1977 and spread their teachings mainly in Central and South America.

Teaching and practice

The official goals of the association are worldwide evangelism , the creation of communities that live “in brotherly love”, the Christian upbringing of children and the proclamation of the “end times” that is coming in 1993. In this doomsday scenario , the followers are convinced that only the members of the "family" will survive.

Members' children generally do not attend public schools, but are educated privately. As a rule, the members of the association are not employed. According to their own statements, they finance their living through donations and through the sale of books and CDs. In addition, when each member joins the "family" they lose all of their property, which becomes group property.

According to the book Not Without My Sisters , David Berg taught that children born in the sect must grow up free from the "system". Children and young people were brought up with the utmost rigor; for the slightest “error” there were severe penalties. Insubordinate children have been forced to do hard labor, humiliated in front of others, isolated and physically abused. Many women offered themselves to "flirty fishing", i. H. they tried to lure men into the sect with sex. Families were separated from one another so that the children did not experience their parents and siblings as families, but should consider the Children of God as their family. Many sect members saw no way out of total control and committed suicide.

literature

  • William Sims Bainbridge: The Endtime Family: Children of God. State University of New York Press, 2002, ISBN 0-7914-5264-6 .
  • Georg Hirsch: The "Children of God". Psycho-spiritual analysis of the origin, teaching and religious practice of a sect (= Spirit and Word , Volume 6). Kovač, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-8300-0593-8 .
  • Peter Hoeft: So I fell into the sect trap ... Under the spell of a seductive organization. Schwengeler, Berneck 1995, ISBN 3-85666-050-6 .
  • Kristina Jones, Celeste Jones, Juliana Buhring : Not without my sisters. Trapped and abused in a sect - our real story. (Original title: Not Without My Sister , translated by Hedda Pänke). Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-404-61647-3 .
  • Elisabeth Sutter: A stranger pulled the strings. From the inner workings of a sect. Ten years with the “children of God” and the long way to get out. Brunnen, Basel / Gießen 2004, ISBN 3-7655-1336-9 .
  • Karin Kvideland: Dynamic and institution in the Children of God. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, Aug 1976 (Vol 9), pp. 82-89.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flirty Fishing , xFamily.org (English)
  2. ↑ Dialika Krahe: The Lord wants sex . Der Spiegel, Issue 45/2008, pp. 92-98. (PDF; 631 kB).
  3. ↑ Sex sect in the Zurich Oberland . Tages-Anzeiger , March 11, 2009.