Children of God

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

The Children of God, later known as The Family, became notorious for their practise called “flirty fishing”. They believed in bringing up their children to have no inhibitions around sex, but the ramifications of their approach to this would echo through the generations as trauma, and result in a shocking murder-suicide committed by the very son prophesied as the Prince who would lead them through the End Times.

EPISODE LINKS

• The Origins of a Movement: From "The Children of God" to "The Family International" — website archive from thefamily.org, 29 April 2009
• History — The Family International website, accessed March 2020
• The Children of God: The Inside Story — by Deborah Davis & Bill Davis, Zondervan Publications, 1984
• The Children of God — by Robert McFarland, MD, The Journal of Psychohistory, Volume 24 Issue 4, Spring 1994
• The Family in Transition: The Moral Career of a New Religious Movement — by Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd, research paper presented at CESNUR International Conference 2002
• The "RNR"! Destruction of the Super-Blob & the New Nationalisation — by David Berg, Mo Letter, January 1978
• The Pubs Purges — scanned and archived on exfamily.org, June 1991 & March 1996
• Summit ’93 Mama Jewels! — No.2, portion of newsletter by Karen Zerby written in 1992
• Judgement of Lord Justice Ward, 26 May 1995 — UK High Court judgement, released 19 October 1995
• Life with Grandpa – the Mene Story — by Ricky Rodriguez, originally published on MovingOn, archived by xFamily.org collaborative encyclopedia, 4 June 2002
• Ricky Rodriguez Video — and transcript, 7 January 2005
• Murder and Suicide Reviving Claims of Child Abuse in Cult — by Laurie Goodstein, The New York Times, 15 January 2005
• Statement From Family International: 'International Christian Fellowship' Issues Statement — archived briefing from spokesperson Claire Borowik, 18 January 2005
• The Life and Death of the ‘Children of God’ Messiah — by Peter Wilkinson, Rolling Stone, 30 June 2005
• From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era — by Stephen A. Kent, Syracuse University Press, October 2001
• Generational Revolt by the Adult Children of First-Generation Members of the Children of God/The Family — by Stephen A. Kent, Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3 No. 2, 2004
• A Statement on the Deaths of Angela Smith and Ricky Rodriguez — by The Family International, rickyrodriguez.com, 23 January 2005
• A message from beyond the grave — by Keith Morrison, Dateline NBC, updated 19 August 2005
• The Children of God/The Family: A Discussion of Recent Research — by Susan Raine, Cultic Studies Review, 5(1), 2006
• MovingOn has closed its doors — by Jules, 1 February 2009
• My Story — by Serena Kelly, undated
• Life with Grandpa — links to individual chapters compiled for xFamily.org collaborative encyclopedia
• Life with Grandpa Presents: Beauty and the Beast! Part 2: “Love Loves the Unlovely!” — art by Jeremy and Eman, scripting by Simon P., GPA Vol 14 DFO
• Life with Grandpa Presents: Real Fathers! — art by Jeremy and Eman, scripting by Simon P., GPA Vol 12 DFO
• The Family’s Policy on Lying & Deception — by Ed Priebe, Revised and edited by WC, exFamily.org, 2005
• Coming to Grips with my 30 Years in a Cult — blog by Mary Mahoney with entries dating from 2014
• My life in the cult: How "serving God" unraveled into sex abuse, child neglect and a waking nightmare — by Mary Mahoney, Salon, 26 October 2015
• The Family International’s Child Protection Policy — accessed March 2020
• Our Beliefs — The Family International, accessed March 2020
• Charter of the Family International — accessed March 2020
• Mo Letters — davidberg.org, 38 letters available when accessed in March 2020
• The Children of God Cult, aka The Family — by Sam Ajemian, self-published, 2005
• SamAjemian.com — former member Sam Ajemian’s website, accessed March 2020
• Evil Berg still leads cult from beyond the grave — by David Mcmillan and Gervase Webb, Evening Standard, 24 November 1995
• Secret Cabinet deal killed Family case — by Alex Messina, The Age, 29 April 1994
• Julia McNeil Biography — Safe Passage Foundation website, accessed March 2020
• The Little Girl Seduced in the Name of God — by David Cohen, Evening Standard, 9 March 2005
• Seizure of sect children ruled unlawful — by Grace Nicholas, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April 1999
• "Killing Myself is the Only Way Out of the Cult" — by Lisa Dabscheck, Marie Claire Australia, 19 April 2005
• The Family International's message of anti-Semitism and hate — compiled by researchers for exFamily.org, July 2003
• Timmy, Regarding Ben — letter from Karen Zerby to Tom Farnsworth, 2 May 1992
• ‘Heaven’s Girl’ — The Family, 1983
• The Story of Davidito — The Family, 1982
• Walking With Demons — by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2001
• Sinful Acts — reported by Liz Hayes, produced by Stephen Rice 60 Minutes Australia, 16 October 2005
• The Children of God — reported by Sarah Hall, 60 Minutes New Zealand, 22 August 2005
• Follower describes childhood of abuse — by Dominic Kennedy, London Times, 25 November 1995
• Man's child sex addiction blamed on religious cult upbringing — Tony Keim, Courier Mail, 6 May 2011
• My Story — by Ed Priebe, 2005
• Children of God — reported by Fred Francis, NBC Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric, 9 August 1993
• MY CHILDHOOD SEX! -- Doin' What Comes Naturally — by David Berg, Mo Letters, 28 June 1977 & 11 August 1978
• Karen Zerby — Karen Zerby’s official website, accessed March 2020
• Family Care Foundation Form 990 — charity tax exemption filing from 2013
• Family Care Foundation — official website, accessed March 2020
• Introducing the “Family Care Foundation”! — letter from The Family’s GPU team to members, August 1997
• My Story — by Serena Kelley, accessed on her website March 2020
• Merry's Story — by Merry Berg, No Longer Children Newsletter, November 1992
• An Open Letter to The Family from Some of Your Children — originally published on MovingOn, archived by xFamily.org collaborative encyclopedia, 19 January 2005
• Cult Survivor Doesn't Blame Other Members Who Molested Her as Child: 'We Were All Victims, Really' — by Jeff Truesdell, People Magazine, 3 June 2019
• ‘I would go to bed praying to be shot ...’ Life in an apocalyptic cult — by Ben Brazil, Los Angeles Times, 31 January 2019
• I Grew Up In The Children Of God, A Doomsday Cult. Here’s How I Finally Got Out. — by Flor Edwards, HuffPost, 6 December 2018
• Young man's suicide blamed on mother's cult — by Randi Kaye, CNN, 5 December 2007
• Girls: Leader Christopher Owens on the stunning new LP, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. — by Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork, 14 September 2011
• No Regrets - Why I left The Family — by James Penn, archived by xFamily.org collaborative encyclopedia, February 2000
• Open Letter to President and Mrs. Clinton on "The Family Singers" — by Samuel Ajemian, archived by xFamily.org collaborative encyclopedia, 12 April 2000
• Letter to Karen and Peter (Steve) — from Ricky Rodriguez (aka Davidito, signed “Pete”), archived by xFamily.org collaborative encyclopedia, 16 January 2001