“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Yellow, red and black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” So goes one of the earliest songs that I learned in Sunday School. Later on as I got older, I learned that all Christians regardless of age are considered ‘children of God.’ This idea of all Christians being children of God helps us to see fellow Christians as family members all over the world. This idea was popularized in the early 70s by a group calling themselves ‘The Children of God.’ They later changed the name to ‘The Family of God’ and now today, they are simply known as ‘The Family’ [2]. There are a number of other names that this group uses as well now. Why have they changed their name so much?I’ve recently received a tract in my mail box at home titled, ‘More Than Meets the Eye’ [3] subtitled, ‘Family Care Foundation, Activated Ministries, Aurora Productions, The Family, The Children of God.’ Here on the cover of this tract we are given a number of names associated with The Family. This tract makes a number of claims about this group in an effort to make Christians and others aware of the roots and history of this group. After reading this tract and verifying the information given [4], it is understandable why this group would change it’s name as often as it does. The following is from the tract ‘More Than Meets the Eye’:

Have you ever been approached by representatives of Family Care Foundation, a California - based charitable foundation? Or by individuals who are part of Activated Ministries? Or have you purchased religious CDs, videos, posters, or other materials from Aurora Productions AG?

If so, you have probably been interacting with members of The Family, a high demand religious group. And if you have purchased their products and services or facilitated their fund-raising, you have almost certainly helped financially support The Family, an organization with a history of promoting criminal and immoral conduct that includes the sexual abuse of children, religious prostitution, and sexual promiscuity.

The Family

Some Facts
David Brandt Berg (1919 - 1994) founded The Family (formerly known as The Children of God) in 1968. Supposedly a fundamentalist Christian movement, The Family gradually implemented several harmful practices that Berg promoted. These include:

Adult-child sexual relations
In a 1980 internal Family publication, Berg instructed his followers that:

“There’s nothing in the world at all wrong with sex as long as its practiced in love, whatever it is, or whoever it’s with, no matter who, or at what age or what relative or in what manner.”

Berg had sexual relations with his granddaughter and other young girls. For over a decade, adult members sexually abused thousands of children. In a 1995 custody case, Lord Justice Ward of the High Court of England ruled that:

“There was widespread sexual abuse of young children and teenagers by adult members of The Family, and this abuse occurred to a significantly greater extent within The Family than occurred in society outside it.”

While The Family has stopped the abuse, no effort has been made to compensate the victims, nor prosecute the abusers.

Religious prostitution

For over a decade Berg pressured female Family members to prostitute themselves (also known as Flirty Fishing) in order to win converts, gain influence, and increase financial support. The Family raised millions of dollars in this manner. [5]

Sexual promiscuity
Extramarital and premarital sex is an integral part of The Family’s beliefs and lifestyle.

Currently The Family is led by Berg’s former companion, Karen “Queen Maria” Zerby and her partner, Steve “King Peter” Kelly, both of who live in hiding and demand unquestioning loyalty from their followers. They too have promoted the sexual abuse of children. In a 1992 internal Family publication, Zerby wrote:

“I feel we need to somehow explain to our children and Teens that love and loving affection is not wrong. Having actual intercourse with a child wouldn’t be okay, but a little fondling & sweet affection is not wrong in the eyes of God, & if they have experienced the same in the past they weren’t “abused.”

The Family is an unregistered, underground organization that rejects any financial accountability. Family members must give between 11% and 15% of their income to support The Family’s leaders and infrastructure.

Family Connections

Due to the controversial history of The Family, as well as its current beliefs and practices, few members identify themselves as such when soliciting donations and fund-raising. Instead, they claim to be “independent missionaries” or representatives of the following organizations, which Family leaders created.

Family Care Foundation (FCF)
EIN 33- 0734917. (www.familycare.org)
A California public benefit corporation, FCF attempts to attract tax-exempt charitable donations for ventures run by Family members.

Activated Ministries
(www.activated.org) Activated holds seminars and publishes several magazines in order to win converts and supporters for The Family.

Aurora Productions AG
(www.auroraproduction.com) Queen Maria and King Peter control this secretive company. Based in Zug Switzerland, Aurora owns the copyrights to all Family products.

What Can You Do?

Practice responsible, informed charitable giving.
Know where your charitable donations are going and how they will be used. Will any funds be passed on to unnamed secondary groups?

Ask questions and expect clear answers.
Ask representatives of these organizations about their relationship to The Family. If they are Family members, request an explanation about their beliefs and practices and how donations are used. Then decide if you wish to facilitate their fundraising or support them with charitable giving.

When I had first heard of this group, I thought they were disbanded since the abuses they practiced were exposed to the public through all of the negative press and court cases they went through in the 70s. I wasn’t aware that they were still active until about ten years ago when my family and I were shopping in our local Wal-Mart. There was a clown there with a table set up and he was making animal balloons for the kids in the store for a small donation for ‘missions.’ He also had some videos and cassettes for sale that were made for children and seemed harmless enough. I looked through a binder he had set up on his table and saw photos of a number of young adults giving out food and clothing to children.

He also had a letter in his binder that was written on a Salvation Army letterhead. I asked him then if he was a representative of The Salvation Army. He replied, “Oh yes. Our missions are endorsed by the Salvation Army.” He cleverly avoided my question so I read the letter and found it to be a letter thanking the group for a very large donation of used clothing. The letter didn’t even name the group, only thanking an individual and their group. It was obvious to me that this ‘clown’ was being less than honest with me. I then asked him which group he ‘really’ represented. He tried to avoid the question by waving at some children down the aisle but I pressed him. He finally told me that he was a member of a group called The Family. When I then asked him if David Berg was still the leader, he literally spaced out on me and started humming to himself. Our conversation was over. I informed the manager of the store about this group’s history and practices and the ‘clown’ was dismissed.

I learned that day that this was not some small disbanded group from the hippie era but actually still a very active worldwide group that cleverly disguises itself to try and fit in with mainstream Christianity. They have even recently managed to dupe the editors and publishers of the mainstream evangelical Christian publication Christianity Today. Paul Carden of CFAR in his October Prayer Update tells us more about that:

Dear Friends,

In both spiritual warfare and world affairs the saying is true: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Jude wrote his famous epistle urging Christians to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” because “certain men…have secretly slipped in among you” (vv. 3-4).

Not long ago we received an e-mail from CFAR Russia. The problem: The organizers of next month’s Moscow Christian book fair had questions about a children’s video production company called “Edu-Press.” Acting quickly, we confirmed that “Edu-Press” is a Russian-language outreach of a notorious sex cult known as The Family! Thankfully,we were able to give the event’s organizers sufficient information in time, and they rejected the cult’s participation.

This month I was startled to find Christianity Today magazine directing its readers to another arm of the same cult! The October issue features a focus on suffering Christians in communist North Korea. The sidebar on page 42, “How to Help Korean Refugees,” highlights the Family Care Foundation, a charity group linked to The Family-better known as the Children of God (COG).

Why was I alarmed? Simply because COG/The Family is one of the most vile cult movements produced in the 20th century. Its founder, David Brandt Berg(1919-1994), promoted pedophilia, prostitution, polygamy, spiritism, and a range of other heresies and perversions (some too disgusting to mention here), all in the name of Jesus. (When Jude writes of “godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord,” one could easily present Berg as “Exhibit A.”)

Today, The Family represents itself as a “Fellowship of Independent Missionary Communities,” working in over 100 countries. Its followers operate under a variety of guises: Along with Family Care Foundation (active in at least 50 countries), there are fronts like Aurora Production (specializing in children’s videos) and Activated! (promoting watered-down versions of Berg’s teachings and a range of products).

No Christian should ever support a group of this nature, either directly or indirectly. We immediately contacted Christianity Today, happily, they assured us that they were unaware of the cult connection. What’s in print is in print, but we asked them to omit the reference to Family Care Foundation in the magazine’s online version. We also sent a letter to the editor, warning CT’s readers; we hope it runs next month.

Rejoicing in His mercies,

Paul Carden
Executive Director, CFAR

P.S. look for a more detailed version of this letter, complete with links, on CFAR’s web site at http://www.TheCenters.org next month.
Notes:
——————
1.) The title image is the cover of the book ‘The Children of God: The Inside Story’ by the daughter of the founder Moses David Berg, Deborah (Linda Berg) Davis, published by Zondervon, 1984. This book is unfortunately no longer in print but may be found in used book stores.

2.) http://www.thefamily.org

3.) http://www.angelfire.com/clone/charityalert/

4.) http://www.movingon.org
http:/countercog.excult.org
http://www.geocities.com/magicgreenshirt
http://www.exfamily.org
http://countercog.excult.org/judgment/index.htm
http://www.thefamily.org
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~skent/childrengod.html

5.) The black and white image of David Berg with a group of women is taken from The Children of God book pictured above, page 124. The caption under the photo reads, ” Moses David and a bevy of Flirty Fishers [this is the term used by Berg to discribe his ‘prostitutes for God’] on Tenerife in 1977. The photo, first published in Stern, also appeared in TIME and is probably the last published photo of David Berg. Maria is holding Mo’s [nickname for Berg] left hand.” Maria is now one of the leaders of this group.