Children of God - the international cult movement that sexually abused children

[DS Star]

I really can't figure it out... how a cult movement started in the 60s, can escape the law enforcement in many countries and still survive up to now though many children had come up to expose their abuses; and, the founder himself already passed away....

There is even a bestselling book revealing their crimes... but why the 'evil' still 'prevail' ?

"Not Without My Sister" is a 2007 bestselling book written by sisters, Juliana Buhring, Celeste Jones, and Kristina Jones. The book details their life, and eventual escape, from the Children of God cult. It was number 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list for 5 weeks, and remained in the top 10 list for 15 consecutive weeks. It has been translated into nine languages including French, German, Greek, Portuguese, Czech, Estonian, Slovenian, Swedish, and Dutch.

Online information on this cult movement;

The Children of God was a cult founded in 1968 and led by David Brandt Berg (February 18, 1919 – October 1994: aka "Moses David", "Mo", "King David", "Father David", "Chairman Mo", "David Fontaine", "Dad", and "Grandpa"). Along with the Moonies and Synanon they were one of the main groups which prompted rising concern over cults in the early 1970s, which continues to this day.

Flirty Fishing - They were particularly infamous for teaching members to use "flirty fishing" to attract converts, or in other words to use sex as a recruiting tool, and free love practices within their communal living arrangements even extending to adult-child sexual contact. Women in the movement were encouraged to engage in prostitution both to attract new members and to obtain money. [1] Their main target for recruiting was within the hippie movement where their tactics included flirty fishing, and "litnessing" (mass distribution of tracts, i.e. littering to the rest of us). The term love bombing, associated with cult recruitment, originated within the Children of God and was used by both the Children of God and the Moonies. "

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Children_of_God

The 'Children Of God' was reorganized as the 'Family of Love' in 1977 after some "abuses of authority" were revealed among the leadership. The original autocratic organization of Dad (David Berg), apostles, elders, and deacons was replaced by a democratic structure. Each commune (called "home") became an autonomous unit. Their organizational name was later shortened to "The Family".

At this time, Berg introduced "sexual sharing", which is free consensual sexual activity among the membership. "The free expression of sexuality, including fornication, adultery, lesbianism (though not male homosexuality), and incest were not just permitted but encouraged."

http://youtu.be/Mf6SwTxuB-w
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[Rihanna]

Most of those who survived the experience of being raised in The Family did not escape unscathed.  Although reliable data is not readily available, there is some evidence to suggest that there is a higher than normal rate of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism and drug addiction among these survivors.  Children raised in The Family who left the organization to build a new life for themselves have often found that they faced extraordinary difficulties and problems in relating to a world and society from which many of them had been isolated for nearly their entire lives.  Some chose suicide as a way out and an end to the pain while others died of drug overdoses and untreated or neglected medical conditions.  Over the years, a number of individuals born and/or raised in The Family have also died of other causes.

All these children deserve to be remembered.  Due to the extraordinary secrecy of the cult and its members, information about such deaths is not easy to find.

[Q]

Oh dear.... how horrible. Looking at the terrible outcome of The Family, I'm pretty sure it's not some messenger of 'God' using a skilful way.

But the strange thing is... how can people be tricked into joining a cult, it just makes me wonder. All of us have some basic humanity and certain sets of morale within us naturally that when we do or instructed to do certain things that is wrong, we would be reluctant...

Looks 'Dad' aka Berg did not go to a good place after he died.

[dondrup]

Juliana Buhring, a survivor of the cult Children of the God, together with her sisters wrote the book, Not Without My Sister that helped bring down the cult. It’s a powerful, inspirational story.  We cannot imagine the lifestyles the children that were born in the communities of this cult had to go through!  The scars of being sexually abused at very young age remains.  Not many can recover from those traumatic and unforgettable experiences.  Juliana’s Safe Passage Foundation aims to help the ex-cult children move on with a new life.  Read the recent article about Juliana at http://tiny.cc/jordvw

But the strange thing is... how can people be tricked into joining a cult, it just makes me wonder. All of us have some basic humanity and certain sets of morale within us naturally that when we do or instructed to do certain things that is wrong, we would be reluctant...

There are many reasons why one could be tricked into joining a cult.  In the case of Children of the God or The Family, sex is used to recruit men to join the cult!  People who are in dire financial problem could become easy target of this cult too.  From the perspective of Dharma, these victims had created the causes in their past lives to experience the effects of being sexually abused as a child living in a cult environment!

[bambi]

This is really scary. To know that abuse like this was happening worldwide and people didnt do anything back then to help. All comes back to sex and lust. I cannot imagine all the children that grew up in such environment. All the pain and abuse that they had to go through at such a young age and the worst part was that they didnt know what was going on but to endure the pain. What Juliana is doing is something courageous and I respect her for not giving up on herself but be stronger. What doesnt kill you make you stronger! I do hope that she can help many of those who were abused and lost.

[rossoneri]

Just do not understand how is prostituting yourself to attract new member is a holy act? It is because these bunch of people using religion as an excuse to feed their own desire? Pity those children who is growing up under this amount of pressure and situation.

While searching for more information regarding the matter, i found the below story:




Rose McGowan Opens Up About Years in Cult

Rose McGowan reveals that she spent the first nine years of her life in a cult in Italy in a shocking new interview.

The Conan the Barbarian star opens up about being a part of the Children of God sect, a group that celebrated free love and prepared for the second coming of Jesus.

The Florence-born star’s parents were members of the sect’s church in the Italian countryside, and while actress remembers the setting as “idyllic” and “pastoral,” she says she knew she didn’t fit in with the group.

“You weren’t allowed to have imperfections,” she explained. “I had a little wart on my thumb, and I remember walking down this hallway – a door opened and some adult grabbed me and just cut it off with a razor blade and stuck me back out in the hallway with it still bleeding.”

The former “Charmed” star also says she wasn’t into the hippie lifestyle, noting to People, “I came out of the womb waving red lipstick,” and also had a big problem with the subservient role of women in the sect.

“I did not want to be like those women,” McGowan states. “There were basically there to serve the men sexually – you were allowed to have more than one wife.”

According to the actress, when the cult began advocating child-adult sexual relations, her father pulled the family out of it, and took them to America.

“My dad was strong enough to realize that this hippie love had gone south,” she explains.

Still, their escape was not easy.

McGowan and her family left the cult in the middle of the night and hid in a stone house. “I remember a man trying to break in with a hammer,” she says.

Years later, McGowan returned to her childhood town with her then-boyfriend Marilyn Manson. “We created quite a stir,” she admits.

Source: http://www.gossipcop.com/